SINGAPORE: The Singapore prime minister’s brother, Lee Hsien Yang, said on Wednesday that he had joined an opposition party competing against his sibling in a July 10 general election but that he was undecided on whether he would run as a candidate.
Lee Hsien Yang, the son of Singapore’s modern-day founder, Lee Kuan Yew, has been embroiled in a bitter dispute with his brother over his late father’s house. He said he had joined the new Progress Singapore Party (PSP).
Lee has criticised his brother Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party (PAP), which their father founded and which has governed the city-state since its independence in 1965.
“The PAP has lost its way,” Lee Hsien Yang said in a video posted on PSP’s Facebook page, adding that the current government is “distinctly different” from when his father was prime minister.
“It is possible to be loyal Singaporeans … to love Singapore and yet not vote PAP,” he said.
The PSP is led by Tan Cheng Bock, a former PAP lawmaker who shot to prominence by nearly defeating a candidate backed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the 2011 presidential race.
“We will see,” Lee Hsien Yang said when asked whether he would stand as a candidate.
The PSP said on Twitter it welcomed Lee Hsien Yang as a member.
“It’s time for change,” it added.
The move comes amid a long-standing and bitter dispute between the siblings centred around what to do with their late father’s house – demolish it, or let the government decide whether to make it a heritage landmark.
On one side of the dispute stands the eldest son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, who believes the government must decide what should be done.
On the other are his siblings – Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling.
They say their father’s will stated the house should eventually be demolished after his death and they have accused Prime Minister Lee of wanting to preserve the house to build his own political capital.
“His popularity is inextricably linked to Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy,” they said in a 2017 statement.
Prime Minister Lee has said his father was prepared to consider alternatives for the property if the government decided to gazette the site and that he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.
Lee Kuan Yew, popularly known as LKY, moved into the five-bedroom house at 38 Oxley Road in 1945. He led the country for three decades and it was from his home that his People’s Action Party, which has governed since independence and never seen its vote share drop below 60%, was conceived.
A government panel set up to consider the future of the house said in a 2018 report that a future government should make the final decision. It laid out three options: preserving the house as a national monument, preserving part of it, or demolishing it.
The historic property was valued by estate agents at about S$24 mil (RM73.77 mil) in 2017.
The family insists the feud is not about the money.
The house is owned by the younger brother, Hsien Yang, and his unmarried sister, Wei Ling, lives there. Nothing can happen to the house until she chooses to move out.
Prime Minister Lee says his father bequeathed the property to him, and he later sold it to Hsien Yang at a fair market valuation. The proceeds were donated to charity.
LKY, who died in 2015, stated publicly that he wanted the house to be demolished as he did not like the idea of tourists visiting it and that it would cost a lot to preserve.
He also said so in his will, but added that if that could not happen, then he wanted it closed to everyone, except family and descendants. – June 24, 2020, Reuters
