Lee Hsien Loong (Hanzi: 李显龙/李顯龍; pinyin: Lǐ Xiǎnlóng; born February 10 1952) is the third Prime Minister of Singapore. He also serves as the Minister for Finance. Lee Hsien Loong is the eldest son of Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and is married to Ho Ching who is the Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the government-owned Temasek Holdings.
Biography
He went through his secondary education at Catholic High School and studied at National Junior College subsequently. He studied mathematics at Trinity College in the University of Cambridge. He attended the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University to gain a Master's degree in public administration.
Lee joined the Singapore Armed Forces in 1971, retiring as brigadier general in 1984 when he was elected as a Member of Parliament. Two years later he was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the People's Action Party, and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister on November 26 1990. He was appointed Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore in January 1998, and Minister for Finance in November 2001. On August 12, 2004, Lee succeeded Goh Chok Tong as Prime Minister.
Lee Hsien Loong was widowed in 1982, and remarried Ho Ching in 1985. They have one daughter and three sons.
Controversy
As the eldest son of Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, Lee's career has been shadowed by allegations of nepotism. At the age of 32 he became the youngest brigadier-general in Singapore's history, and from a young age was widely tipped to become Lee Kuan Yew's successor as Prime Minister. Perhaps understandably, the appointment of Lee's wife Ho Ching as the director of state investment agency Temasek has also raised some eyebrows. However, the Lees have reacted harshly to such allegations, winning large out-of-court settlements for defamation from, among others, the International Herald Tribune (1994), Bloomberg (2002) and The Economist (2004).
Lee's career has also been dogged by a perceived reputation for being arrogant and autocratic. According to one particularly persistent rumor, at a pre-Cabinet meeting in 1990 an enraged Lee first insulted Minister for Finance Richard Hu and then physically slapped Minister for National Development S. Dhanabalan when he sided with Hu and demanded an apology. [1]. While those directly involved have never publicly mentioned to the alleged incident, in 2003 Goh Chok Tong referred to it anecdotally in order to deny it when discussing his successor.
On July 10, 2004, he created a diplomatic uproar with the People's Republic of China by visiting Taiwan. On August 28, 2004 in his maiden National Day Rally speech he criticized the Taiwanese leadership and populace of overestimating the support they would receive if they declared Taiwan independence. In response, the Republic of China Foreign Minister, Mark Chen , called Singapore a "Pi-Sai Country", translated literally from Minnan, it means a "Country no bigger than a snot". The Taiwanese Foreign Minister subsequently made a formal apology .
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Last updated: 05-07-2005 09:56:13
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04