SINGAPORE (Aug 22): Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong returned from a one-hour break forced by illness to finish a nationally-televised speech on Sunday evening, apologising for giving the crowd a “scare” and using the incident to stress the importance of succession planning.

Lee, 64, had been speaking on and off for more than two hours in multiple languages when he physically stumbled and abruptly stopped. The live broadcast of his main annual National Day rally address was halted while the prime minister was attended to by a medical team.

After coming back to the podium, Lee appeared relaxed and even joked about the situation. He spoke for a further 15 minutes before bringing the speech to an end, announcing the return of Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat to work months after the minister had a stroke.

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