September 28, 12:52 PM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 With Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's announcement of his new term major cabinet reshuffle close at hand, we considered the possible candidates who might be promoted to full ministerial positions, as well as the ones who will helm the various ministries, especially transport, which is currently vacated.
One of our predictions, which we are sharing with you quite confidently this bright, hazy Monday morning, is that Grace Fu will be promoted to become Singapore's first female full minister to helm her very own portfolio (ministry, except we didn't want to use the same word twice).
Now, provided this happens, Fu won't really be making cabinet history.
Singapore's first female full minister is fallen PAP Aljunied GRC candidate Lim Hwee Hua, who went down to the Workers' Party's A-team in the 2011 General Election and then retired from politics. She served in PM Lee's cabinet as Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Finance as well as Transport between 2009 and 2011, when she and her team were ousted.
Photo: National Archives of Singapore / Ministry of Information and the Arts
If promoted, Fu also won't be the first female to helm her own ministry (darn, we did it) because the first woman to do that is Seet Ai Mee, who was in parliament from 1988 to 1991. She was made Acting Minister for Community Development (Youth and Sports were only added during Vivian Balakrishnan's time) that year, shortly before losing her Bukit Gombak single seat ward in the 1991 election.
And we mean shortly — she held the position for just two months. This, unfortunately, also made her the first member of Singapore's cabinet to lose in the nation's history of parliamentary elections — and as we know, this eventually paved the way for others.
Why? We have three reasons:
1. She performed well in her role at the National Population and Talent Division.
Source: Grace Fu's Facebook page
Well hey, betcha didn't realise that she actually succeeded in raising Singapore's birth rate during her time at the Prime Minister's Office — and here's another well, hey: betcha didn't realise there was actually work to do in the PMO!
So she was appointed to the PMO in 2012, when Singapore's fertility rate was 1.29. Bear in mind that this was buoyed by the Dragon year, which always sees a boost in babies born because Chinese parents see it as auspicious. The fertility rate, therefore, fell in 2013 to 1.19, but she successfully raised it in 2014 to 1.25.
Plus, it appears that people do kinda like what she did for the SG50 baby hamper — anecdotal evidence informs us that she hand-delivered quite a few of these to parents too!
#SG50baby#JubileeBabyHeybaby'>
Posted by Grace Fu on Wednesday, 5 August 2015
2. She performed well in the elections she has stood for.
Photo from Grace Fu's Facebook page
Fu was first elected into parliament on the PAP's Jurong GRC slate in 2006. Lest she be accused of riding on the lengthy coattails of Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Lim Boon Heng and Halimah Yacob, she went on to gain a decisive victory of 66.86 per cent of the vote in the next election, where she stood on her own in the newly-carved out Yuhua SMC.
Despite being one of the top performers in 2011, Fu went on to make strong gains at this month's polls, garnering a very respectable 73.54 per cent of the votes over the Singapore Democratic Party, which also challenged her four years ago.
3. She's the best hope of the PAP's 2006 batch of candidates to step up to her own ministry — what with PM's continuous concern with leadership renewal and all.
Outgoing transport minister Lui Tuck Yew is the only guy from the PAP's entire bumper slate of 24 new candidates introduced in 2006 to helm his own ministry. Jialat lah, this batch.
Yes, Masagos Zulkifli is now Second Minister for Home and Foreign Affairs, but he hasn't gone further than that, and we're not sure he'll be assigned to head his own portfolio just yet.
Another potential full minister-in-the-wings is Josephine Teo, also from the '06 batch, who currently holds Senior Minister of State portfolios in Finance and Transport, but since Fu is already a full minister, we reckon she's ahead of Teo in queue.
We shall now make three educated guesses for the ministry she might be assigned to — because hey, what's the point of saying she'll be promoted without saying where to?
a) Ministry of Community, Culture and Youth
Source: MCCY
Why here? Because of how well she did at NPTD, of course. Fu's performance with encouraging young couples to have more babies surely resonates with her likely strength with youth.
To add on, the arts portfolio is always best helmed by a bilingual minister, who will be able to look after the needs of English and Mandarin-speaking artists. Currently, MCCY minister Lawrence Wong has Sim "Chut Pattern" Ann to assist with that, so if Fu took over this role, Sim won't be needed anymore (whoops!). Wong will then be freed up to serve elsewhere.
Another significant reason for our choice: Singapore's first female to helm a ministry, Seet Ai Mee, was assigned to be Acting Minister of the then-named Ministry for Community Development — it sounds like a fairly "safe" ministry to begin with... as opposed to those of transport, finance and national development, for instance.
b) Ministry of Environment and Water Resources
We think Fu's spent enough time there to have what it takes to take over from Vivian Balakrishnan — she's served there since the 2011 post-GE cabinet reshuffle, and we also remember her for her action over the frightening rat situation last year.
Remember this?
It affected people so greatly that it even made us wonder if it would become the key narrative for GE2015. Fortunately or unfortunately, it wasn't.
Or perhaps, it might be:
c) Ministry of National Development
Photo: Grace Fu's Facebook page
After all, we previously predicted that current minister Khaw Boon Wan, who carried out his duties with housing most effectively, may be sent over to the embattled Ministry of Transport.
This would pave the way for Fu to step up to the plate, and it looks clear that she's done lots of preparation for the job!
Photo: Grace Fu's Facebook page
After all, she served as Minister of State for MND from two months after she was first elected in 2006 until she was promoted to Senior Minister of State in April 2008, where she stayed for three years until the post GE2011 cabinet reshuffle.
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Posted by Grace Fu on Wednesday, 1 October 2014