Heng Swee Keat

Heng Swee Keat PPA PJG (Chinese: 王瑞杰; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hêng Sūi-kia̍t; pinyin: Wáng Ruìjié; born 15 April 1961)[2] is a Singaporean politician and former police officer who has been serving as the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore since 2019.

He made his political debut in the 2011 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting in Tampines GRC and won with 57.22% of the vote.

[5] He returned to the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and served in various roles,[6] including a five-year stint in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), before leaving in 1997 with the rank of Assistant Commissioner.

[2] Heng joined the Singapore Administrative Service in 1997 and worked at the Ministry of Education (MOE) before being appointed Principal Private Secretary to Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew that same year.

[8] From 1 June 2005 to 2 April 2011, he served as Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS),[9] and was named Asia-Pacific Central Bank Governor of the Year by The Banker in February 2011.

[13] During the 2015 general election, Heng led the five-member PAP team contesting in Tampines GRC and won 72.06% of the vote against the National Solidarity Party.

[17][18] On 1 May 2019, Heng was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, taking over the office which had previously been shared between Teo Chee Hean and Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

[19] The unique circumstance of Heng becoming the sole holder of the office, together with his earlier appointment as the party's first assistant secretary-general, was seen by political observers as paving him the way to becoming the next prime minister.

[23] In the campaigning period, a police report was lodged against Heng after comments he had made during a student forum at Nanyang Technological University in 2019 resurfaced.

[25] The police released a statement on 7 July 2020, stating that they had consulted the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) and deemed that Heng's remarks had no intent to wound anyone's racial feelings or promote enmity between different races.

Measures include a cash grant of S$9,000 for eligible self-employed persons as well as S$3,000 for lower-income recipients under the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme as emergency relief against the pandemic.

[30] However, he withdrew himself from the nomination on 8 April 2021, citing age and health concerns, although political analysts also attributed his withdrawal to the PAP's lower-than-expected result in East Coast GRC at the 2020 general election.