Information

in Hawthorn Singapore

My teacher: Eldon Lim

Director: Amy Rashap

Singapore:

1st President of Singapore

Yusof bin Ishak

The following list gives the names of some of the government ministries that help in the day-to-day administration of Singapore:

Ministry of Defense
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Health
Ministry of Law
Ministry of Trade and Industry
Ministry of Home Affairs
Ministry of Transport

Lee Hsien Loong (simplified Chinese: 李显龙; traditional Chinese: 李顯龍; pinyin: Lǐ Xiǎnlóng; POJ: Li Hian-liong; born February 10, 1952) is the third and current Prime Minister of Singapore. Lee Hsien Loong is married to Ho Ching, who is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the government-owned Temasek Holdings. He is the eldest son of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

Early life

The eldest child of former-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo, Lee was born in Singapore on February 10, 1952. His grandmother Chua Jim Neo was a Hokkien Nyonya, and his mother Kwa Geok Choo has ancestry from Min Nan Tong'an.[1][2][3] In Lee Kuan Yew's biography, the young Lee had learned Jawi script since he was five, and has always been interested in the affairs of Singapore, often following his father to the rally grounds since 1963.

Lee studied at Nanyang Primary School, received his secondary education at Catholic High School and subsequently studied at National Junior College, where he learned the clarinet under the tutelage of Adjunct Associate Professor Ho Hwee Long. He studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1974 with First Class Honours in Mathematics and the Diploma in Computer Science (with distinction). He subsequently obtained a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in 1980.

Lee joined the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in 1971 and rose quickly through the ranks becoming the youngest Brigadier General in Singapore's history. In 1978, he attended the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. He retired from the military in 1984 to enter politics and was elected as a Member of Parliament that year. Lee's first wife, Malaysian-born doctor Wong Ming Yang, died on 28 October 1982 of a heart attack[4] three weeks after giving birth to Lee's first son Lee Yi Peng, a mildly autistic albino. There were rumours that Wong died of suicide.[5] In 1985, Lee married Ho Ching, a fast-rising civil servant. They have one daughter and three sons (the oldest son of Ho Ching, Li Hongyi was the winner of the Lee Kuan Yew Award for Math & Science in 2006, the same year he was commissioned as an officer in the Singapore Armed forces at the SAFTI Military Institute) , including one daughter and son from Lee's first wife.

In 1992, Lee was diagnosed with lymphoma. He underwent a three-month period of chemotherapy and has since recovered.

Early political career

Lee entered politics at the age of 32 in 1984. He was appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Defence in December 1984 by his father, Lee Kuan Yew, and was subsequently promoted to Acting Minister for Trade and Industry in 1986, and the Second Minister for Defence.

In February 1987, issues on ethnic relationships in Singapore surfaced when Malaysian leaders asked the Members of Parliament why there were so few Malays holding key positions in the SAF. Lee Hsien Loong, then Second Minister for Defence, stated that the SAF did not want its soldiers to be in a position where the loyalty of the soldiers might clash with racial and religious factors.

Deputy Prime Minister
When Goh Chok Tong became the Prime Minister of Singapore on November 28, 1990, Lee became the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore. He focused on economic and civil service matters and concurrently served as Minister for Trade and Industry until 1992.

Lee was appointed Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore in 1998, and Minister for Finance in 2001. During Lee's thirteen and a half years as Deputy Prime Minister, he exerted significant influence on Singapore's governance, especially in economic and social affairs.

To ease the growing budget deficit due to falling tax revenues from cuts in corporate and personal income taxes and other factors such as the Iraq War and Sars outbreak, Lee proposed on August 29, 2003 to raise the GST from three percent to five percent, a change that took place in January 2004.

Lee also initiated several relaxations of the requirements for Singapore citizenship, especially in for foreign husbands of Singaporean women and foreign-born children of Singaporeans. The changes were made after repeated pleas from MPs and the Remaking Singapore Committee.