He once considered leaving the public service, but came to see it as his calling.
SINGAPORE – In deciding to step up as Singapore’s fourth prime minister, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong considered the much larger scale of his future responsibilities and if he was prepared to shoulder them.
“Yes, you are first amongst equals,” he said. “But I had seen also the scale of responsibilities, what it entails, and how much and what was involved in this job.” “I figured... I can do exactly the same kind of economics work in the private sector too, and they are paying better,” he said. “The thought did cross my mind: ‘Maybe I should just leave and join the private sector, maybe a bank.’”
“Each time, as I stayed on in the public service, each responsibility I got became progressively larger and larger; the work never shrinks, the work just gets bigger and bigger.”“And that is why I have been in politics since then,” he said, looking back on his career. “I do not regret that at all.”When asked what he found most challenging during the Covid-19 pandemic, two situations came to his mind.
There was a very real risk that hospitals would be overwhelmed and death rates would consequently shoot up, as they did in other countries, he said.
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