Community partnership, economic know-how: Public service experience shaped DPM Heng's career
SINGAPORE – The importance of community partnership, a principled foreign policy and economic know-how amid crises were key learning points from Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat's public service career.
All these came together during his political career from 2011 to 2025, when he helmed the Education and Finance ministries and saw the country through the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent economic restructuring.
The 64-year-old, once slated to be Singapore's fourth prime minister, announced his retirement on April 23.
He sat down with The Straits Times on May 15 at the Treasury for a farewell interview to recap his career.
After university, DPM Heng joined the public service as a police officer, rising to become commander of the Jurong Police Division.
One highlight of that stint was when he implemented a new community policing system, built on learnings from the Japanese.
Their focus was on building trust and confidence in the police and a meaningful relationship with the vast majority of people who do not commit crimes and share the same objectives of maintaining law and order.
'It was for me a major lesson in how we align our common purpose, how we mobilise the public to do their part, and how we as a society can come together to achieve common objectives,' he said.
Later in the administrative service, he was principal private secretary to then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew between 1997 and 2000.
'That is the highlight of my career, to be able to serve our founding prime minister and to learn so much from him directly, in particular in how we manage international relations,' said DPM Heng.
He cited an example where Singapore was working on the Suzhou Industrial Park project, and there was a misalignment of interests between what had been agreed on with the central government, and what local officials were doing.
The local officials had decided to promote their own official park, resulting in two rival parks in the same area.
Mr Lee made the incident public even though some officials had cautioned him against it for fear of tarnishing his reputation, said DPM Heng.
'He said, 'I don't care about my reputation, I care whether this project works',' DPM Heng added.
Mr Heng was later also permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
From 2005 to 2011, he was managing director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
It was a heavy responsibility that was tested during the global financial crisis in 2008, he said. Together with the team, he ensured that Singapore not only managed the crisis well but also came out stronger – such as by creating contingency plans that included getting approval to use the reserves to guarantee bank deposits.
Confidence in Singapore went up after the crisis and its private banking and asset management industry took off. The financial services sector today accounts for about 15 per cent of Singapore's gross domestic product, said DPM Heng.
These experiences in the public service laid the foundations for his career as a minister.
DPM Heng entered politics in 2011 as a member of the Tampines GRC team. He was made a full minister in the first Cabinet reshuffle after the general election, taking on the education portfolio.
His time at the ministry is perhaps most well-known for the tagline 'Every school is a good school'.
DPM Heng said he spent a lot of time visiting schools. 'In those days, we used the term neighbourhood school, it's almost a very derogatory term – that, you know, it's not a good school, it's just an ordinary neighbourhood school,' he said.
But he found that teachers in these schools were working very hard to teach students holistically, covering socio-emotional skills and values beyond academics.
'So we then decided to use a term to describe what we are doing, which is a student-centric, values-driven education,' said DPM Heng.
In practice, this included devoting more resources to co-curricular activities and citizenship education.
'I grew up at the time of racial riots. I'm very glad to see that today, we have achieved far greater social harmony, far greater understanding, and I hope that we can build on this to make our multiracial, multicultural society and our diversity a source of strength,' said DPM Heng.
In 2015, he became finance minister. In 2018, he was picked by his peers as leader of the fourth-generation (4G) team, which made him the presumptive next prime minister.
Of his time as finance minister, DPM Heng said: 'The first two years were fairly easy years. I got to learn the job, you know. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit – wow, that was a really tough one.'
He presented five budgets in 2020 and had to ask then President Halimah Yacob for the use of past reserves.
'It was a healthcare crisis, it was an economic crisis, and it could have gone on to become a financial crisis, but I'm glad that didn't happen, and I'm glad that the cooperation that we had with other countries allowed us to get over this crisis,' said DPM Heng.
'And the trust and confidence of Singaporeans in what the Government was doing and in doing their part... allowed us to really get through the crisis relatively unscathed, and our economy rebounded very quickly because the support package meant that companies didn't have to retrench workers,' he said.
His most difficult decision in government came during his stint as finance minister.
This was the unpopular decision to raise the goods and services tax (GST) by 2 percentage points to fund growing healthcare expenditure, said DPM Heng.
He announced in Budget 2018 that the Government planned to raise the GST from 7 per cent to 9 per cent, sometime between 2021 and 2025. The GST was eventually raised in two stages – to 8 per cent on Jan 1, 2023, and then to 9 per cent on Jan 1, 2024.
'My MOF officials and I went through all possible options of raising the necessary funds for the future,' he said, referring to the Ministry of Finance.
'After studying all these different options, I concluded that (raising) the GST is, in a way, the best, in that it is also fair.'
Many Singaporeans do not realise that a substantial part of GST revenue is collected from tourists, foreigners living in Singapore and the higher-income groups, he said.
Some of the money collected flows back to the vast majority of Singaporeans, including lower-income groups, through various schemes, he added.
'We must always, always think about the long-term future of Singapore, not just what will happen in the next few years, not just what will happen in the next election,' he said.
On whether he would have done anything differently during his term, DPM Heng said no. 'I think it's important for us to look back and see what are the things that we have learnt from each episode.
'And I will say that I'm reasonably satisfied that we have been able to make good decisions, even in the face of uncertainty about the long term.'
Looking ahead, there are several challenges that the 4G leaders will have to deal with, said DPM Heng.
The first is a more fragmented global system. Countries and businesses will have to consider geopolitical risks and unexpected events like the Covid-19 crisis, he said.
The global supply chain will change significantly. With Singapore as a major logistics centre, DPM Heng said he hopes the nation can play a part in the chain, which will make both Singapore and the world more resilient.
The second challenge is progress in science, technology and innovation.
'We must learn to embrace these changes and make the best use of the changes so that we can enhance our own ability. In particular, I think the use of AI in so many sectors of the economy, in so many aspects of our life, will change the way we work and play,' he said.
Singapore should learn to make the fullest use of artificial intelligence to augment human capabilities and rethink future jobs and skills, he added.
The third challenge is climate change. Tackling this will involve making plans on the green transition and green technology, and growing Singapore's talent and companies to look at sustainability, he said.
Singapore should also continue to restructure its education system to have a stronger focus on the green economy, digital economy and use of AI, added DPM Heng.
Aside from these external challenges, the 4G leaders will have to address the domestic challenge of a rapidly ageing population.
'We used to sort of worry about the silver tsunami, but I think we should take it more positively and look at how we can also develop the silver economy,' said DPM Heng.
With other countries also facing the same issue, cooperation is needed to tackle this common challenge, he said.
Singapore can make a useful contribution in this area as it has high-quality research and its people have trust and confidence in the Government, he added.
The country will need a leadership that will not only build on the work of past generations but also hold a steady course while overcoming these challenges, said DPM Heng.
This is among the reasons for him stepping down as leader of the 4G in 2021, making way for a successor who would have a longer runway.
He added that in Singapore's history, each prime minister has served several terms, and adopted long-term and strategic thinking.
'There will, of course, be more challenges in the age of social media, in the age of short attention span. It's much harder for people to say, no, no, let's think long-term,' he said.
'But I do hope that Singapore can stay exceptional in that regard, that we do not just look at what is hip and trendy, but rather what is enduring and what are fundamental strengths that will allow us to stay on course.'
Goh Yan Han is political correspondent at The Straits Times. She writes Unpacked, a weekly newsletter on Singapore politics and policy.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction
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