Four women now in senior positions

Four women now in senior positions

SINGAPORE - Singapore will have the highest number of women politicians in senior positions in its legislative history, following Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's decision to promote four of them on Wednesday.

Moving into the senior ranks are Mrs Josephine Teo, 45, (left in photo) and Dr Amy Khor, 55, (right in photo) who will be Senior Ministers of State from Sept 1. Both are now Ministers of State.

They will continue to hold their current portfolios of Finance and Transport, and Health and Manpower respectively.

Their promotions will also double the number of senior women office-holders from the current two: Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu, 49, and Senior Minister of State for Education and Law Indranee Rajah, 50.

Wednesday also saw Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Communications and Information Sim Ann, 38, moving up to be Minister of State, with the same portfolios.

In addition, backbencher Low Yen Ling, 39, will join the Government on Oct 1 as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

With the four new promotions, six out of the 32 office-holders will be women. This is an increase from five, which resulted from Madam Halimah Yacob leaving the front bench to be Speaker of Parliament in January this year.

The greater female representation was cheered by Dr Khor.

She told The Straits Times: "I am very happy. It bodes well for women in politics. It is an affirmation of the meritocratic principles that Singapore has been built on."

She added: "I hope that more women who are interested to serve and join politics will be encouraged to step forward."

The changes also pleased observers like former Nominated MP Paulin Straughan, who saw them as part of a "very carefully calibrated" move to groom more women for senior levels of decision-making by the next election.

"It is hard to envision you can jump from very little experience to the very pinnacle of the (government) hierarchy," she added.

But many also noted there was a way to go. One milestone has yet to be reached: a full woman minister with her own ministry.

Singapore's first full woman minister, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, was Second Minister for Finance and Transport when she lost the 2011 General Election in Aljunied GRC. She left politics after the defeat.

In 1991, Dr Seet Ai Mee had barely taken charge as Acting Minister for Community Development when she lost her Bukit Gombak seat in the general election.

The promotions are "definitely good news", said former Nominated MP Kanwaljit Soin, "but somehow or other, we seem to have women only at the lower levels of ministerial ranks, and not many seem to make it all the way up".

"I would also like to see the women more spread out in the Government, and not just in what are perceived to be 'soft' areas," she added. "Why can't we have a woman in Defence?"

Ms Corinna Lim, executive director of the Association of Women for Action and Research, noted that with so many talented women, "we should actually see more appointments as full ministers."

rchang@sph.com.sg

andreao@sph.com.sg


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