Minister Lim Hwee Hua (second from left) is the latest to announce her decision to quit politics. (Yahoo! photo/Liyana …
Singapore's first woman Cabinet minister Lim Hwee Hua says she was caught by surprise at the "deep level of resentment" felt towards the ruling People's Action Party.
At a press conference to announce her decision to quit politics on Wednesday, she said, "It is a surprise for us that the resentment is so deep and the unhappiness is so deep."
She said it was only during the General Election campaign, that "we began to fully appreciate the extent of the unhappiness and resentment towards the Government."
The Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, 52, who plans to take a break and is not ruling out the possibility of returning to the finance sector, said this led to her Aljunied GRC team leader George Yeo to pledge for transformation within the PAP midway through the campaign.
According to the Today newspaper, she said this transformation is something that the ruling party "really needs to sit up to and to seriously look at".
"I think people still feel that they are not being listened to, and that they are not being listened to sufficiently; that the party continues to make policies using its own intellect and reasoning ... and occasionally seems to be arrogant and not wanting to listen even when views are offered. So it's a varying degree of unhappiness," said Mrs Lim.
As for her next steps, Minister Lim, who is also the second Minister for Finance and Transport, said she will continue contributing to women's issues and is optimistic that there will be another full female Cabinet minister soon, reported The Straits Times.She described her 15 years in politics as a "reasonable stretch" and said she will leave it for someone younger to contest in the next GE as she will be 57 then.
Minister Lim was part of the losing People's Action Party (PAP) Aljunied GRC team that lost their seats in Parliament in this year's polls. The team garnered only about 45 per cent of the votes against the Workers' Party.Before she was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister, Mrs Lim was Temasek Holdings' managing director of strategic relations.
Her announcement comes a day after Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo declared that he will be leaving politics.
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