Singapore 2025 Election Webinar

Details

Date: Wednesday 4 June 2025
Time: 2pm (Sydney) | 12pm Singapore
Venue: online via zoom webinar.

Singapore’s 2025 General Election delivered a mixed verdict—one that has sparked debate among political observers. Was it a "flight to safety" in uncertain times, as political commentator Cherian George suggests? Or was it a solid reaffirmation of the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) dominance and an endorsement of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's fourth generation team of PAP leaders , as reflected in its improved vote share? At the same time, the opposition Workers' Party saw a modest increase in support even if it won no new seats, while most other opposition parties faltered, with several losing their deposits.

Moderator

Hoe-Yeong Loke is a political analyst and author of The First Wave, a history of the opposition in Singapore. He has been cited as a commentator in The Economist, BBC News, New York Times, Reuters, CNBC, South China Morning Post, Straits Times, Business Times, and has been interviewed on TV on BBC World News and MediaCorp Channel 8. Having worked on political risk analysis for advisory firms and think tanks in Singapore and the UK, he currently runs the research programme at a professional association in the City of London. 

Panelists

Michael Barr has been researching Singapore politics and history since he did his PhD thesis on Lee Kuan Yew at the University of Queensland in the 1990s. Since then he has written or edited eight books related to Singapore, along with another 40 journal articles and book chapters. His commentary on has appeared in publications such as Australian Financial Review, Financial Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, BBC TV, CNN, and ABC TV. The paperback edition of his latest book, Singapore: A Modern History, is scheduled for publication in December 2020. Michael is enjoying an active retirement as a self-funded scholar. He is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Flinders University, Associate Editor of Asian Studies Review and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Terence Lee is Professor in New Media, Communication and Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China; and an Adjunct Professor with Murdoch University, Australia, where he was based for 25 years. He is the author/editor of several books on Singapore media and politics, including The Media, Cultural Control and Government in Singapore (Routledge, 2010); Singapore: Negotiating State and Society, 1965-2015 (with Jason Lim, Routledge, 2016); and Global Internet Governance: Influences from Malaysia and Singapore (with Susan Leong, Palgrave, 2021). With Professor Kevin YL Tan, he co-edited a best-selling trilogy analysing Singapore’s General Elections over a full decade: in 2011, 2015 and 2020 (all published by Ethos Books, Singapore).

Ja-Ian Chong is associate professor of political science at the National University of SIngapore. His work examines international politics and security in Asia, with a focus on coercive diplomacy, foreign intervention, institutions, democratization, and contentious politics.

Rebecca Grace Tan is a lecturer at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests centre on migration politics, nationalism and multiculturalism in Singapore. Most recently, these interests formed the basis for a book published in 2024 with Palgrave Macmillan entitled Grassroots Integration in Multicultural Singapore: (Re)Constructing One United People. She is passionate about teaching about Singaporean politics and equipping undergraduates to pursue research on the Singaporean political scene.

This event is presented by the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at the University of Sydney and the Malaysia and Singapore Socity of Australia.