- Title: File footage of Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
- Date: 2nd July 2020
- Summary: Friends and family offer their condolences to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at his father, the founding father of modern Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew's private wake. SINGAPORE (FILE - MARCH 24, 2015) (REUTERS) LATE PRIME MINISTER LEE KUAN YEW'S PORTRAIT
- Embargoed: 16th July 2020 12:56
- Keywords: Lee Hsien Loong Lee Kuan Yew Singapore Singapore's prime minister general election prime minister
- Location: SINGAPORE / PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA / INTERNET
- City: SINGAPORE / PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA / INTERNET
- Country: Singapore
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA00HCLA9R9J
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Lee Hsien Loong, the son of modern Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, will contest the upcoming general election on July 10.
He has been the prime minister since 2004 and his People's Action Party (PAP) is expected to hold on to the majority of parliamentary seats in this election, according to observers.
Lee rose through the ranks in the military before following his father into politics in 1984, first as a member of parliament, then as the minister for trade and industry, finance minister and deputy prime minister.
He led Singapore from 2004 and was seen as a softer version of his father, who oversaw Singapore's rise from a British colonial backwater to a global trade and financial centre.
Lee is credited with cementing the PAP's uninterrupted rule, having won three previous elections as the leader of the party.
While not as fierce as Lee Kuan Yew, he still fought virulently against criticism from the media and continued to enforce the Internal Security Act, a heavily criticised colonial-era law that allows authorities to detain people without trial.
The Lee family believed that no-nonsense law enforcement ensured the security necessary for Singapore to become one of the richest countries in the world in per capita terms.
Educated at Cambridge and Harvard, Lee pushed hard to turn Singapore into a "Smartnation" embracing technology. He once showcased his tech skills by posting a source code for a Sudoku solver on his Facebook, which he used frequently to engage with younger, social media-savvy voters.
Most recently, he welcomed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump for their historic summit in the city state in 2018. Lee had also had to deal with the large number of coronavirus cases that hit the migrant workers community in Singapore, who mostly live in cramped dormitories.
Lee survived cancer twice, had his prostate gland removed in February 2015 and was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1992, but the cancer went into remission after successful chemotherapy.
Lee had three sons, a daughter and wife Ho Ching, the CEO of sovereign wealth fund Temasek, whom he married in 1985, three years after his first wife, Malaysian-born doctor Wong Ming Yang, died at the age of 24 of a heart attack.
(Production: Joseph Campbell, Travis Teo) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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