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Singapore
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Political heavyweights retire from active politics ahead of Singapore election

  • Former prime minister Goh Chok Tong and opposition stalwart Low Thia Khiang will not run when the country goes to the polls on July 10
  • Goh, from the People’s Action Party, led the country from 1990 to 2004, while Low turned the Workers’ Party into a potent force

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Singapore’s former prime minister Goh Chok Tong. Photo: Zakaria Zainal
Dewey SimandBhavan Jaipragas
Goh Chok Tong and Low Thia Khiang, two of the biggest names in Singaporean politics who formerly led their parties and over decades crossed swords in parliament, have retired from active politics – marking the end of an era in the republic’s electoral history.
Goh, who served as prime minister from 1990-2004 after succeeding independence leader Lee Kuan Yew, on Thursday told Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong he would not stand as an MP in the country’s July 10 general election.

“Having served as a member of parliament for Marine Parade for over four decades, I make this decision after much thought and a heavy heart,” Goh, 79, wrote in a letter to Lee that was released to the media. “Many have urged me to stand another term. But I should not. I would not have the same energy when I cross into my 80s.”

After handing power to Prime Minister Lee – Lee Kuan Yew’s son – in 2004, Goh served as a senior minister in the cabinet. He relinquished that position in 2011 but continued as an MP for the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), holding the title “emeritus senior minister”.

Prime Minister Lee in a Facebook post said he was “forever indebted” to the senior politician, who first roped him into politics.

“Ours was a fruitful comradeship that spanned the entirety of my years in politics and most of his – a close friendship between two prime ministers that would be the envy of many countries,” Lee wrote.

On the other side of the country’s narrow political spectrum, the opposition Workers’ Party said Low, its 63-year-old former leader, would not stand in the polls as part of an internal renewal process. The party won six seats in the last general election in 2015 and is the only opposition group with elected lawmakers.

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