Fighting over Lee Kuan Yew’s house

This bungalow was built for a Dutch merchant in colonial times, but has become part of modern Singaporean tradition. It was where Lee Kuan Yew He lived for decades, founding his own political party and beginning to build Singapore into one of the richest countries in the world.

Mr Lee had said he wanted the house demolished after his death rather than keeping it as a museum, with the public “trampling” its private premises.

but The form of his will He left the fate of the property in limbo and caused a rift between his three children – which he reflects Intensify the discussion On the semi-authoritarian political system in Singapore.

Now, an unusual voice has joined those who complain that the city-state’s prosperity has come at the expense of an unaccountable government: one of Mr. Lee’s sons.

“The idea that one good man at the center can control this, and just rely on his benevolence to make sure everything is fine, doesn’t work,” Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child, who wants to respect his father’s wishes at home, said in an interview. Speaking to the New York Times from London.

After Lee Kuan Yew’s death in 2015, the eldest son, who was then Prime Minister of Singapore, said his father’s instructions for the small house were ambiguous. His brothers wanted to demolish it, though one of them continued to live in the house, and as long as she did so, his fate remained unresolved.

Then, after her death in October, the dispute resurfaced and escalated sharply. Lee Hsien Yang, called Yang by his parents and siblings, announced that he had done so He obtained political asylum In Britain because he fears he will be unjustly imprisoned in Singapore because of the dispute.

Yang said to his brother – Lee Hsien Loongwho resigned in May as prime minister – abused his power in the fight for the house.

Yang, 67, described what he described as a pattern of persecution practiced by the Singapore government in recent years. In 2020, His son was accused of contempt of court For criticizing Singapore’s courts in a private Facebook post. That year, his wife, a lawyer who arranged for witnesses when the patriarch’s will was signed, was banned from practicing law for 15 months. The couple then faced a police investigation for lying under oath. In 2022, they left Singapore.

In October, Yang announced that Britain had approved his asylum application, ruling that he and his wife “have a well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to their country.”

The Singapore government rejected the allegations, saying the couple were free to return to their homeland. She said she is accountable to voters and an independent judiciary. She added that Yang was involved in an “exorbitant personal vendetta” against his brother Long.

Long, 72, who now holds the title of senior minister, declined to comment because he has distanced himself from House affairs.

For Yang, A conflict that lasted for years This is evidence of “fundamental problems in the way Singapore is governed and managed”.

Yang admitted that his father arrested opposition politicians and union leaders, but said he “had the country’s interest at heart.”

The People’s Action Party has ruled Singapore with a tight fist for nearly 70 years. Years after the founding father’s death, his legacy continues to be praised.

Some analysts say this has left Singapore at a crossroads.

“Are we able to move forward?” “Or are we still stuck in this relatively weak-willed, big-man approach to politics?” said Ja Ian Chung, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore.

Lee Kuan Yew transformed a colonial outpost into an economic power within a generation. He did not hesitate to intervene in the lives of Singaporeans, prioritizing the community over the individual – an idea that some observers say points to the paradox of family discord.

“He understood that the government would have to preserve the house if it decided it was in the public interest,” Long wrote in a 2016 letter to Lawrence Wong, who was part of a government committee created to consider options for the property. Now the Prime Minister.

That committee concluded that the single-storey house was of historical importance, and that Lee Kuan Yew was prepared to preserve it. But opinion polls indicate that most Singaporeans want it demolished. In October, the government announced this Study again Whether the circa 1898 house will be preserved remains to be seen.

“best combination”

For decades, Lee Kuan Yew’s family seemed as organized as the country he ran. His wife, Kwa Geok Chu, was in charge of the house at 38 Oxley Road, in one of the most expensive areas in Singapore.

In the 1950s, Mr. Lee and a group of friends established his political party, the People’s Action Party, in the basement dining room. most The house was spartan. The furniture was old and mismatched; The family is taking a shower Scooping water from clay pots. Even after the children got married and moved out, they would meet every Sunday for family lunch.

Visitors were quick to notice that only one child’s photo was displayed: Long’s.

“He’s got the best mix of our DNA,” Mr. Lee told local reporters. “Others also have a combination of both, but not in such a beneficial way. It’s the luck of the draw.”

“He was the apple of my mother’s eye, and she had ambitions for him,” Yang said of Long. “I was never hostile to him, nor did I have any jealousy or envy of him.”

In 2004, Leung became Prime Minister. Yang was at the time CEO of Singapore’s state-owned telephone company, and said he had no political ambitions. This would change.

Discussion of demolition

After Mr. Lee’s wife died, he continued to live at home with his daughter, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, a neurologist. Mr Lee died in March 2015, and his children gathered at the small house the following month to read his will.

The house was left to Loong, but Ling could continue to live there. Once she was out, the house was scheduled to be demolished. If for some reason the house is not demolished, he does not want it to be open to the public.

Long was shocked and later said publicly that he was not aware of this final will. When the will was discussed, he became “aggressive” and “threatening,” his sister wrote in a previously undisclosed email to a friend in May 2015. She added that Long told his younger siblings that if they followed through on the demolition clause, the government would step in and declare the house National monument.

This was the last time Long spoke to Ling and Yang, according to Yang.

The next day, Long raised the matter in Parliament. He said he wanted to see his father’s wishes carried out, but “it is up to the current government to look into the matter.”

After a few months, the siblings seemed to have reached a solution. Yang bought the house from Long For an undisclosed price.

But the government soon formed a committee to explore options for the house. This marked the beginning of Yang’s problems with the state.

New opposition party

Long told the committee he was “deeply concerned” that the demolition clause in the will had been “re-inserted under suspicious circumstances”. He asked whether there was a conflict of interest for Li Suet Fern, Yang’s wife, who organized the signing of the will.

As for the younger siblings, the committee appeared to be “conducting an investigation into the will,” Yang said, noting that the court declared it binding.

In a joint statement in 2017, Yang and Ling said they did not trust their brother as a leader. They said Leung and his wife were draining Lee Kuan Yew’s “legacy for their own political purposes” and harbored dynastic ambitions for their son.

Long responded in Parliament by saying that he had not given instructions to the committee and that his only dealings with the committee were his responses to their requests in writing.

He denied preparing his son for the position.

The government then charged Yang’s wife with professional misconduct regarding the will. A disciplinary tribunal ruled against her, saying she and her husband had built an “elaborate edifice of lies” during the proceedings.

A three-judge panel then ruled that she and Yang had lied under oath and suspended her for 15 months for misconduct. But she also ruled that she was not acting as Mr Lee’s lawyer and that he was satisfied with his will.

For Yang, the PAP has lost its way. He joined the Singapore Progress Party, a new opposition group, and considered running for president, a ceremonial position.

In 2022, police requested an interview with him and his wife, saying they had lied in misconduct proceedings. The couple agreed to be questioned later, but they soon left Singapore. It was not until 2023 when a minister in Parliament revealed that they were being investigated by the authorities.

In October, Yang organized Ling’s funeral from afar. Long was not invited.

The walls of 38 Oxley Road are now cracked, and rust has corroded part of the gate. When a reporter rang the doorbell on a recent Sunday, the housekeeper answered and said no one was home.