Ever notice that PM Lee basically always sits in the same seat in parliament?

He sits at the front row at the speaker's right-hand side, in the middle near the Table of the House.

Did PM Lee just one day decide to take his "favourite seat", and all the other parliamentarians decided to go along with it? 

That's likely not the case, and to better understand what's happening, we set out to find out more.

The parliament chamber

First, you have to know that the Government of Singapore is modelled after the United Kingdom’s Westminster system, with three separate branches.

1. The Legislature, comprising the President and the Parliament, are in charge of making the laws of the land.
2. The Executive, comprising cabinet ministers and office-holders led by the PM, administers the law.
3. The Judiciary interprets the law through the Courts.

In parliament, this is played out in a seating arrangement with opposing benches, which Singapore adopted from the UK when it became independent in 1965.

Here’s a photo of the parliament chamber in Singapore:

Here’s an image of how the seating arrangement looks like in Singapore:

The left-hand side of the chamber (right-hand side of the speaker) is the government’s side and is where members of the governing party should sit.

In the latest parliamentary seating plan, the front row is usually where the cabinet ministers sit, including PM Lee, DPMs Lawrence Wong and Heng Swee Keat, as well as Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean and other ministers.

PM Lee sits in the middle of the row.

While seating plans could change for each session of parliament, and as drastic of a change such as during the Covid-19 pandemic period where the parliamentarians had to observe safety distancing, PM Lee's seat did not change.

Middle of the row, ninth seat from the speaker.

It did not change even when the parliamentarians were split into two teams after Covid-19 restrictions were eased.

According to publicly available records, his seat only changed once, at least since the commencement of the second session of the 11th Parliament in 2009.

It changed after the Cabinet reshuffle in April 2019.

Before the reshuffle, PM Lee sat in his usual seat. After the reshuffle, he shifted to the 10th seat from the speaker — although it was still a centre seat, as there were 18 seats in the row.

So what's the significance of 'PM Lee's seat'

When asked about the political significance of where PM Lee sits, Associate Professor of Law at the Singapore Management University (SMU) and former Nominated Member of Parliament, Eugene Tan Kheng Boon, also noted that PM Lee’s seat has "hardly changed" since 1999.

“He was the DPM since 1990 and so would be seated to the immediate right of then PM Goh Chok Tong,” he explained.

“It was like his permanent seat — a seat of constancy while those seated next to him on both sides and behind him would change with expected regularity.”

“It is there where the eyes of MPs and those in the public gallery would be trained to observe his reactions to proceedings at critical junctures,” Tan noted, likening it to the “seat of power” which commands the attention of everyone when the PM speaks in Parliament. 

This is also why Pritam Singh, Secretary-General of the Workers' Party (WP) and Leader of the Opposition, sits directly across from PM Lee, mirroring the UK’s seating arrangement for their Parliament.

Singh sits where the "shadow cabinet" would sit in the UK, occupying the front bench on the right-hand side of the chamber (left-hand side of the speaker).

In the UK, the shadow cabinet is where the opposition party sits to form an alternative cabinet to the governing body, where the members would shadow or mirror the positions of each individual member of the Cabinet.

Though there were some discussions in Singapore when Singh was formally recognised as Leader of the Opposition in 2020, Singh said it was not feasible for the WP to set up a Shadow Cabinet in the tradition of Westminster parliaments as there are then only 10 WP MPs.

There are 16 ministries in Singapore with 37 political office holders. Of these 37, 20 are full ministers.

The seating arrangement

Singapore has designated seats for each MP. This differs from the UK, where there’s no seating plan.

In fact, there are more MPs than available seats in the House of Commons Chamber, which would make designated seating hard to follow through.

Then-UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill deliberately requested for the house not to be big enough to hold all the MPs after the old Chamber of the House of Commons was destroyed by German bombs in World War II.

To him, “If the House is big enough to contain all its Members, nine-tenths of its Debates will be conducted in the depressing atmosphere of an almost empty or half-empty Chamber.”

“It’s easier for the Speaker and MPs alike to identify an MP from the seating plan,” Tan also explained, comparing it to teachers with assigned classroom seating. 

“As a former NMP, I became familiar and comfortable with the view from where I was seated, which rostrum to go to when it was my turn to speak, and got to know the MPs who were seated around me better,” Tan said.

“It was like your little space in Parliament,” Tan recalled.

So where will PM Lee sit when he becomes SM?

Tan said, “Usually, the PM will be flanked by his DPM(s). If Lawrence Wong’s new Cabinet from mid-May onwards has only one DPM, then Lee Hsien Loong — as Senior Minister — would probably be third in the order of precedence (after PM and DPM) and so could be seated to the new PM’s left.”

“I won’t be surprised if Lawrence Wong is assigned the same seat after he becomes PM,” Tan added. “And if there is only one DPM, then Wong and Lee may be assigned the same seats as of now."

So, where will PM Lee and DPM Wong sit after May 15, 2024?

We will find out soon, in the next parliamentary sitting. 

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