Will 2025 be a year of caution or celebration for Singapore?
In an election year, the country’s political leadership will have to decide what tone to strike in their campaign
ANOTHER new year, another time for taking stock and looking ahead, whether in anticipation or apprehension.
Given how tumultuous the decade has been so far – beginning with a global pandemic and marked by wars with an unthinkable disregard for international norms – apprehension might be the more realistic sentiment.
Going into 2025, there are already various reasons for caution. A major potential turning point comes early in the year: the inauguration of incoming US president Donald Trump on Jan 20.
Trump has said that he plans to issue a slew of executive orders on his first day in office, with more in the ensuing weeks.
Among these might be import restrictions on electric vehicles and related components; rolling back of climate regulations; and tariffs on imports from major trading partners, not least China.
Granted, Trump has scaled down his planned trade curbs compared to his campaign-era promises. Yet even these reduced tariffs will deal a blow to trade.
If Trump does follow through, this will dampen not just Chinese New Year celebrations for manufacturers in China, but trade and business sentiment on a global scale.
Beyond the one-off impact, such a move could prompt retaliatory tariffs and lead to a protracted trade war.
Even more worryingly, the US-China relationship has the potential to be fraught not just on the economic front, but in geopolitical and military aspects.
Elsewhere in the world, conflicts continue in Ukraine and Gaza, and divisions in some societies are deepening with greater sociopolitical polarisation.
Campaigns and celebrations
Against a backdrop of global uncertainty, however, Singapore is gearing up for a year of festivities.
The calendar is filling up with SG60 events as the Republic marks its 60th year of independence.
The country’s political leadership, meanwhile, will be pressing on with its Forward Singapore policy agenda – and aiming to garner support for that vision of the future, with the General Election (GE) due in 2025.
GE 2025 will be Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s first election as head of the government, and is likely to be seen as a referendum not just on his leadership, but the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) fourth-generation team – even if many older colleagues remain in Cabinet.
Historically, political watchers have expected crisis and uncertainty to spark a “flight to safety”, with voters flocking to support the PAP. Yet this assumption may have been overturned by the previous election in 2020, held amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw a swing away from the ruling party. Fear may no longer be a vote-winner.
In his first National Day Rally as prime minister, PM Wong struck a note of hope rather than fear. In his first GE at the helm, he might do the same, despite the clouded global outlook.
His New Year Message gives a preview of this forward-looking stance. In it, he noted external tensions and societal divides elsewhere, adding: “Singapore is not immune from these global mood shifts and pressures.”
Yet this was immediately followed by reassurance: “But amidst the turmoil and uncertainties, we have been able to distinguish ourselves. We remain a beacon of safety, security and stability in a troubled world.”
Unity has seen the country through crises, and this spirit must be carried into 2025 and beyond – which is why the government embarked on the Forward Singapore exercise, said PM Wong.
As Singapore celebrates another milestone year, the country’s stance in the face of challenges may not be one of hunkering down, but rather moving forward.
