Singapore in 2020: The “Crisis of a Generation” - Challenges, change, and consequences

• Main Author: EUGENE, Tan K. B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Elections; Singapore; pandemic; Covid-19; politics and government; Asian Studies; Law and Society; Political Science; Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration; Public Health
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3629; https://search.library.smu.edu.sg/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_openaire_primary_doi_dc6e09b2c8bc66e52c95443e85e4ceb1&context=PC&vid=65SMU_INST:SMU_NUI&lang=en&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Primo%20Central&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Singapore%20in%202020:%20The%20%E2%80%9CCrisis%20of%20a%20Generation%E2%80%9D%20-%20Challenges,%20change,%20and%20consequences&offset=0
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The year 2020 was a trying one, with the full ramifications of the crisis indeterminate for the country’s politics, economy and society. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described the COVID-19 global pandemic as the “crisis of a generation” for Singapore and Singaporeans. The imperative to keep Singaporeans safe and to mitigate the severe economic downturn preoccupied the government for much of the year in review. It saw the government roll out within a span of a hundred days four budgets worth S$93 billion specifically as fiscal countermeasures to the pandemic. Singaporeans also went to the polls in July 2020. Despite the economic crisis unleashed by the pandemic, they voted for more political diversity and competition. Although the ruling People’s Action Party won a clear mandate, it also lost a second multi-member constituency and three office-holders in the process. To compound matters, the uncertainty as to who will become the fourth premier resurfaced again in 2020 turning the well-planned leadership renewal and succession on its head. Foreign relations remained on an even keel even as the pressing priorities globally were on domestic concerns. Singapore sought to keep supply lines open and ensure food security as the world became drenched with fear, panic and trepidation. The pandemic underlined the city-state’s continuing vulnerabilities. With the public health situation under control by the end of the third quarter of 2020, the focus shifted towards “emerging stronger” in the post-pandemic world. The pandemic may well be the catalyst for wide-ranging changes to Singapore’s political economy, society and politics.