"The trust of Singaporeans is important to the People's Action Party (PAP) and it must be earned, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong in his Facebook post this evening (Nov. 6).

In his post, Wong repeated his call to "work doubly hard to win every seat", a remark he first made in his speech earlier this morning at the PAP biennial party conference.

This was what Wong said in his maiden party conference speech this year:

"Because every election from now on will be about which party forms the government. While we will put up good candidates, and fight to win every seat, we have to be prepared that we will not win all of them And nor can we assume that we will form the next Government. But I assure you: we will work doubly hard, triply hard, to regain the seats we have lost; (applause) and we will work, day in, day out to secure a strong mandate to govern (applause)."

Singapore's evolving political landscape with more contestation

Wong said in his post that the political landscape in Singapore has evolved and matured.

He noted that "political contest has intensified and will continue to do so".

In his post, Wong reminded Singaporeans that "since day one after being designated the leader of the 4G team, I have said that I do not assume the PAP will win the next general election".

Wong also told public service leaders that the PAP government does not "assume the right to leadership", in a speech made earlier this week (Nov. 1) at the 2022 Public Service Leadership Ceremony.

In his speech to public service leaders, Wong said that "political contestation in Singapore is here to stay and will likely become more intense over time".

Hence, Wong said that the PAP government "will have to work hard, even harder, to win the confidence and trust of citizens – to secure the mandate to govern, and to prove that we can govern well".

PAP CEC election

Wong was one of the keynote speakers at the PAP biennial party conference, where the party elected the 12 members of its Central Executive Committee (CEC), its highest decision-making body today.

Wong was elected as one of the 12 members of the 37th PAP CEC.

Wong said that he was "honoured to be elected", adding that he was a "beneficiary of the Singapore story".

Here are the members of the 37th PAP CEC (not according to their number of votes):

1. Lee Hsien Loong

2. Lawrence Wong

3. Heng Swee Keat

4. Chan Chun Sing

5. Masagos Zulkifli

6. K Shanmugam

7. Grace Fu

8. Desmond Lee

9. Indranee Rajah

10. Ong Ye Kung

11. Tan Chuan-Jin

12. Vivian Balakrishnan

13. Josephine Teo (co-opted)

14. Edwin Tong (co-opted)

More than 3,000 party members attended the biennial party conference at Resorts World Convention Centre.

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Top image via the People's Action Party.