'We have lost confidence in our brother PM Lee Hsien Loong'

SINGAPORE: Dr Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang on Wednesday issued a six-page public statement saying they had lost confidence in their brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

In the statement, which they publicised on their Facebook pages around 2am Wednesday, the two siblings said they felt closely monitored and fear the use of organs of state against them and Hsien Yang's wife, Suet Fern.

They also said the situation is such that Hsien Yang felt compelled to leave Singapore "for the foreseeable future".

The two siblings allege, among others, that since their father Lee Kuan Yew's death on March 23, 2015, there have been changes in Singapore that do not reflect what the late Lee stood for.

At the centre of their statement, titled 'What has happened to Lee Kuan Yew's values?', is the long-running dispute over the demolition of their father's house at 38 Oxley Road.

The two siblings are joint executors and trustees of the estate of the late Lee.

In their statement, they reiterated their father's wish that the house be demolished upon his passing, and said their brother and his wife Ho Ching had opposed this wish as "the preservation of the house would enhance his political capital".

The two siblings also alleged that preserving the house would allow their brother "and his family to inherit a tangible monument to Lee Kuan Yew's authority".

The statement comes one-and-a-half years after Wei Ling, Hsien Yang, and Hsien Loong issued a joint statement in December 2015 saying the brothers had each agreed to donate half the value of 38 Oxley Road to charities named in their father's obituary notice.

Wei Ling and Hsien Yang had said they would like to honour their father's wish for the house to be demolished after Wei Ling ceases to live in it.

Hsien Loong had said he had recused himself from all government decisions involving the house and, in his personal capacity, would also like to see this wish honoured. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network.

 

Full statement by Dr Lee and Hsien Yang: WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO LEE KUAN YEW’S VALUES?

PM Lee Hsien Loong 'saddened' by statement from siblings