Lee Hsien Yang says Ho Ching ‘helped herself’ to Lee Kuan Yew’s papers; records show she was abroad
22 Jun 2017 06:41PM (Updated: 23 Jun 2017 01:57AM)
SINGAPORE: Mr Lee Hsien Yang on Thursday (Jun 22) accused Mdm Ho Ching, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, of accessing some of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s documents on Feb 6, 2015 while the elder Mr Lee was “gravely ill” in hospital, even though records show she was abroad at the time.
Mdm Ho Ching had been accompanying Prime Minister Lee on a week-long official visit to Germany and Spain and was in Madrid on the date Mr Lee Hsien Yang mentioned. She returned to Singapore on Feb 7, 2015.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang had alleged in his Facebook post on Thursday: “LKY was admitted gravely ill into the ICU on Feb 5, 2015. The next day, Ho Ching helped herself to a number of LKY’s papers. These she handed to the NHB (ostensibly on loan) under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office,” Mr Lee wrote.
“She had no business doing this when LKY was in ICU and it is deeply troubling that someone can represent the PMO despite holding no official position.”
Mr Lee later amended his post to acknowledge that Mdm Ho Ching was overseas, as pointed out by Channel NewsAsia.
The papers mentioned in the post included a letter and a telegram dating back to the 1950s. There was also a memo from the director of posts dated Feb 11, 1952, which told postal workers that the British government had no objection to Mr Lee Kuan Yew representing them in their dispute.
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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...-yew-s-8969176
Really how fast the official propaganda machine responded .
Lee Hsien Yang sparks fresh dispute on items taken for Lee Kuan Yew memorial exhibition
23 Jun 2017 12:27AM (Updated: 23 Jun 2017 09:22AM)
SINGAPORE: A dispute between the children of late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew over his old home at Oxley Road has now widened to include items in his estate that were loaned to a memorial exhibition.
On Thursday (Jun 22), the late Mr Lee’s youngest son Lee Hsien Yang claimed in a Facebook post that his brother Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s wife Ho Ching had “helped herself to a number of Lee Kuan Yew’s papers” on Feb 6, 2015. This was while the elder Mr Lee lay “gravely ill” in the intensive care unit, after being admitted to hospital the day before, he alleged.
He also claimed that Mdm Ho Ching did so “under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office”, calling it “deeply troubling”.
A screenshot uploaded to Facebook by Mr Lee Hsien Yang showed that the items listed were received by NHB on Feb 6, 2015.
Records show that Mdm Ho was overseas on that date, as she was accompanying PM Lee on an official visit to Spain. She returned to Singapore on Feb 7, 2015.
The National Heritage Board (NHB) late Thursday clarified that items loaned by the Prime Minister’s Office for display at the In Memoriam: Lee Kuan Yew exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore were handed over to NHB on Apr 6, 2015, well after the late Mr Lee died.
NHB said the items listed in the screenshot were received by NHB on Apr 6, 2015 instead of Feb 6, 2015. “This was a clerical error. NHB has a receipt for the items on loan from PMO dated Apr 6, 2015,” a spokesperson said.
In response, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said NHB’s clarification was “even more troubling”. “By LKY’s will, the estate’s residual items, such as personal documents, fall under the absolute discretion of the executors Wei Ling and myself,” he said, referring to his sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling.
“Unapproved removal of these items, even by a beneficiary, constitutes both theft and intermeddling,” he said. “Ho Ching is not an executor or a beneficiary to our father’s estate. We also still do not understand how she is a proper contact representative for the PMO.”
The bitter spat between the Lee siblings spilled into the public domain in the wee hours of Jun 14, when Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Dr Lee issued a joint statement accusing PM Lee of opposing their father’s wishes to demolish the house and abusing his power to do so.
Prime Minister Lee has apologised to Singaporeans over the dispute, saying he “deeply regrets that the dispute has affected the country’s reputation and Singaporeans’ confidence in the Government”. He has announced that he will speak on the matter in Parliament on Jul 3, and urged all MPs to question him vigorously.
On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam also elaborated on the decision to form a ministerial committee to deliberate the options for Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s Oxley Road home, following accusations from Mr Lee Hsien Yang that it was “secret” and “shadowy”. “It’s how we ensure that we are not a Government that operates in silos, that the national interest prevails even when there are valid sectoral or private interests, and that the long view prevails over the short view wherever possible,” he stated.
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Lee Hsien Yang & Lee Wei Ling should see their MPs before July 3 Parliament
June 23, 2017
Their respective MPs can then represent their interests in parliament.
Henedick Chng
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday, June 19, he would make a Ministerial Statement in Parliament on July 3 to refute the charges made by his siblings in the ongoing Lee family feud.
We have pointed out before that PM Lee’s choice of Parliament as the platform to air the issues concerning the fate of the late Lee Kuan Yew’s house at 38 Oxley Road is a masterstroke in keeping his siblings out of the debate.
As private citizens, both Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling will not be allowed to personally participate in Parliament.
So, what is their best recourse now, apart from posting their side of the feud via Facebook?
Well, to share their grievances and concerns with their respective Members of Parliament (MPs) in hopes of the MPs raising the same concerns in the July 3 sitting, of course.
So, who is Wei Ling’s MP?
Wei Ling is the sole Lee sibling living in the house at 38 Oxley Road. This means that she is living in Tanjong Pagar GRC.
Tanjong Pagar GRC. Source: Wikipedia
These are her GRC’s MPs: Chan Chun Sing, Indranee Rajah, Chia Shi-Lu, Melvin Yong, and Joan Pereira.
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Lee Hsien Yang says unapproved removal of LKY’s documents by Ho Ching constitutes theft and intermeddling
Posted on June 23, 2017 by Terry Xu
Mr Lee Hsien Yang (LHY), younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that the unapproved removal of their father, late Lee Kuan Yew (LKY)’s documents by PM Lee’s wife, Ms Ho Ching constitutes theft and intermeddling.
LHY earlier wrote on his Facebook page that Ms Ho helped herself to a number of LKY’s papers after Mr Lee was admitted gravely ill into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on 5 February 2015.
“These she handed to the NHB (ostensibly on loan) under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office. She had no business doing this when LKY was in ICU and it is deeply troubling that someone can represent the PMO despite holding no official position.” wrote LHY.
The photo shared by LHY shows a list of personal effects of late LKY and the source of items to National Heritage Board (NHB) is listed to be Ms Ho, who represents the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The items are listed to have been donated to NHB on 6 Feb 2015, a day after LKY was hospitalised and on 27 March 2015, a few days after the death of LKY on 23 March 2015.
However, in response to Channel News Asia’s queries on LHY’s Facebook post, the NHB clarified that the items 2 to 5 were received on 6 April instead of 6 Feb.
“For items numbered 2 to 5, the items were received on Apr 6, 2015 instead of Feb 6, 2015 as indicated. This was a clerical error. NHB has a receipt for the items on loan from PMO dated Apr 6, 2015,” an NHB spokesperson said to CNA. “All the items were loaned to NHB after the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away, to be displayed at the In Memoriam: Lee Kuan Yew exhibition held at the National Museum of Singapore.”
In response to NHB’s clarification, LHY retort by saying that this revelation makes it even more troubling. “By LKY’s will, the estate’s residual items, such as personal documents, fall under the absolute discretion of the executors Wei Ling and myself. Unapproved removal of these items, even by a beneficiary, constitutes both theft and intermeddling. Ho Ching is not an executor or a beneficiary to our father’s estate. We also still do not understand how she is a proper contact representative for the PMO.” wrote LHY.
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Accusations of abuse of position and blurred lines between family and state, are matters of public interest, not 38 Oxley Road
Posted on June 22, 2017 by Ghui
I am heartened that some semblance of an open discussion is finally happening in relation to the 38 Oxley Road disagreement. DPM Teo Chee Hean yesterday issued a reply to a Straits Times article questioning the need for a Ministerial Committee with regards to the former home of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
In his statement, DPM Teo said that the Government of the day had to take responsibility for 38 Oxley Road because it was a matter of “public interest”.
Personally, I don’t agree that this is of public interest at all – not at its outset at least.
This was the private home of a former leader. It has no official status. I can understand if the property in question was the Istana which is an official residence funded by public money. While Mr Lee Kuan Yew was a public figure, his private life and home has no bearing on state matters whatsoever. By this analogy, should the private home of former PM Goh Chok Tong also become a matter for the Government of the day after he passes?
Whatever motivated the Lee siblings to bring this matter into the public domain, they have raised certain concerns that have now made this a matter of public interest. Most notably, their allegations of misuse of power must be investigated now that it has been brought to the attention of Singaporeans.
However, before such allegations were made, the Oxley Road property was 100% a family issue. As such, DPM Teo’s explanation does not really answer the question of why this issue concerned the ministers in its outset.
What is causing discomfort to the general public is not that there is a dispute between the Lees. What is raising eyebrows are the accusations of abuse of position and the blurred lines between family and state that the spat has unveiled.
Chiefly, why are the ministers involved in what to do with a private residence in the first place? Is it to capitalise on party power and the LKY name? Is it a question of party interests or public interests? These are two issues that should not be fudged but is so easy to confuse given our particular political structure.
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Cabinet committee on Oxley Road house kept mum until ‘forced into daylight’: Lee Wei Ling
Published: 2:44 PM, June 23, 2017
SINGAPORE — Refuting Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean’s public assurances on the ministerial committee weighing options for the house on 38 Oxley Road, Dr Lee Wei Ling on Friday (June 23) charged that information about the group was divulged only after it was “forced into the daylight”.
Dr Lee and Mr Lee Hsien Yang have repeatedly criticised the committee in the past week, as part of a public dispute with their elder brother Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong over the fate of their family home on Oxley Road.
They have slammed the ministerial committee as a “shadowy” group set up to allow PM Lee to “have his way” with the house. DPM Teo, who set up and chairs the committee, has said that there is nothing secretive about the committee, adding that it is “like numerous other committees that Cabinet may set up from time to time to consider specific issues”.
“The people of Singapore are not so easily fooled,” Dr Lee wrote in her Facebook post on Friday, adding that the committee’s membership, terms of reference, options under consideration, and “final deliverable” were not told to her and the younger Mr Lee despite their requests.
She charged that the committee refused to identify its membership “for almost a year”, and that Mr Teo “never disclosed to LKY’s estate what options the committee was considering”. Dr Lee and Mr Lee Hsien Yang are the executors and trustees of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s will.
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Oxley Road dispute: Demolition not the only option that Lee Kuan Yew considered, says Indranee
Published: 6:04 PM, June 23, 2017
Updated: 6:44 PM, June 23, 2017
SINGAPORE — The late Mr Lee Kuan Yew had, in his seventh and final will, acknowledged the possibility that his house on 38 Oxley Road may not be demolished, Senior Minister of State Indranee Rajah wrote on Friday (June 23) in challenging what she said was an assumption that the founding Prime Minister had only contemplated one outcome.
In a Facebook post, she highlighted two relevant paragraphs in Mr Lee’s final will, the first of which expressed his and his late wife’s wish that the family house be demolished upon his death, or when their daughter Dr Lee Wei Ling moves out. Mr Lee also asked that each of his children ensure the wish with respect to the demolition of the house be met.
The following paragraph said: “If our children are unable to demolish the House as a result of any changes in the laws, rules or regulations binding them, it is my wish that the House never be opened to others except my children, their families and descendants.”
“Demolition was not the only option contemplated by Mr Lee Kuan Yew,” Ms Indranee pointed out.
She added: “Much of the recent public discussion on this issue has been premised on the assumption that the 7th Will only contemplates one outcome - demolition. But this is not the case.
“The will specifically accepts and acknowledges that demolition may not take place.”
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Deed of gift for LKY items given to PM Lee in his official capacity: Lawrence Wong
Published: 6:39 PM, June 23, 2017
Updated: 6:46 PM, June 23, 2017
SINGAPORE — National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said on Friday (Jun 23) that the deed of gift for items belonging to founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew — which were donated to the National Heritage Board (NHB) — was given to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his official capacity.
And if PM Lee had asked for the information in his private capacity, “he would have been entitled to know about the exhibition and the items from the estate, given his position as the eldest son of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and beneficiary of the estate”, Mr Wong said.
Given that the items were displayed in “a major public exhibition by the NHB concerning Singapore’s founding leaders” including Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Wong said that the event was “a matter for deliberation by the Government”.
“It would therefore be normal and in order, that the Prime Minister be kept informed about the contents and presentation of the exhibition,” he said, adding that he will give “fuller explanation on the matter” when Parliament sits on July 3.
Seeking to clear the air on issues surrounding the deed, Mr Wong noted the “several misperceptions” being circulated, although he did not specify what these were. Earlier, PM Lee’s siblings – Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang – had said that they executed the deed in 2015, following Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s death, for the donation and public exhibition of “significant items” from the Lee family home at 38 Oxley Road, “with a stipulation that Lee Kuan Yew’s wish for the demolition of 38 Oxley Road be displayed prominently at the exhibition”.
But after the gift’s acceptance, they “soon received letters with spurious objections from Hsien Loong’s then personal lawyer, Lucien Wong“. Among other things, Mr Lucien Wong cited PM Lee’s objections to clauses “restricting how NHB may display” the items, and these unduly hamper the agency’s work.
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Ho Ching clarifies circumstances under which Lee Kuan Yew’s belongings were loaned to NHB
23 Jun 2017 07:37PM (Updated: 23 Jun 2017 08:09PM)
SINGAPORE: Mdm Ho Ching on Friday (Jun 23) clarified the circumstances under which the belongings of Mr Lee Kuan Yew were loaned to the National Heritage Board (NHB) for a memorial exhibition on the founding Prime Minister.
The late Mr Lee’s youngest son, Mr Lee Hsien Yang claimed on Thursday that Mdm Ho had “helped herself to a number of Lee Kuan Yew’s papers” on Feb 6, 2015, while the elder Mr Lee had been “gravely ill” in hospital.
In a comment posted on Mr Lee’s Facebook page, Mdm Ho confirmed that she had been overseas at the time, accompanying her husband, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, on official visits to Germany and Spain.
“In any case, there would not be any reason for me to rummage or tidy up papa’s things when he was in the hospital – that is not me nor my values,” Mdm Ho wrote.
She went on to explain that it was “in the middle of those two first weeks of April”, when she was tidying up the house after Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s death that she came across “small interesting items which (she) thought were significant in papa’s life”.
She added that she kept both Mr Lee and his sister Dr Lee Wei Ling posted on what she had done, including the loan of the items to NHB.
Mdm Ho’s post is reproduced below:
Dear Yang,
I was away from 31 January night till 7 Feb evening, when I went with Loong to Germany and Spain for his official and working visits. I was not in Singapore on 6 Feb.
In any case, there would not be any reason for me to rummage or tidy up papa’s things when he was in the hospital – that is not me nor my values.
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Worse than the Kardashians’: Lee Kuan Yew family feud turns ugly as siblings target Singapore prime minister’s wife
Plot thickens as Lion City premier’s wife is put front and centre of a fresh skirmish over the donation of Lee Kuan Yew’s personal items to the National Heritage Board
By Bhavan Jaipragas
23 Jun 2017
Why the Lee Kuan Yew family feud is a metaphor for Singapore
THE LATEST: The Prime Minister’s wife Ho Ching late on Friday (June 23, 2017) released a statement on Facebook confirming she lent the personal artefacts of Lee Kuan Yew to the National Heritage Board, at the request of her husband. She said the executors of the patriarch’s estate – Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling – were kept informed of this development. She took issue with Lee Hsien Yang’s initial accusation that she had “helped herself” to the items while the senior Lee lay on his death bed. She wrote: “There would not be any reason to rummage [through] or tidy up papa’s [Lee Kuan Yew’s] things when he was in hospital – that is not me nor my values.”
The bitter public quarrel among the family of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has taken a turn for the worse, as the two feuding sides engaged in a fresh social media skirmish centred on the leader’s wife.
It was not the first time Ho Ching had found herself caught in the crossfire of the battle over the estate of her father-in-law Lee Kuan Yew, the late founding leader of the city state. On Thursday, she was put front and centre of the feud as the premier’s brother Lee Hsien Yang launched new accusations on Facebook claiming his sister-in-law “helped herself” to personal items belonging to the family patriarch as he lay on his death bed in February 2015.
He posted documentary evidence that he claimed showed Ho Ching removing the items from the elder Lee’s house, and donating them to the National Heritage Board a day after he was admitted to hospital for the last time on February 5, 2015. Lee Kuan Yew died at age 91 seven weeks later, on March 23, 2015.
But the latest allegation was left standing on shaky ground on Friday after the heritage board said the dates on the documents were inaccurate due to a “clerical error” – with the actual date of its receipt of the items being April 6, 2015. Official accounts meanwhile put the leader’s wife overseas when her father-in-law was sent to hospital. Lee Hsien Yang, one of the two younger Lee siblings entrusted with executing Lee Kuan Yew’s final will, remained defiant after the contradictions were revealed.
‘EVEN MORE TROUBLING’
“This is even more troubling. By [Lee Kuan Yew’s] will, the estate’s residual items, such as personal documents, fall under the absolute discretion of the executors [Lee] Wei Ling and myself,” the 60-year-old said. “Unapproved removal of these items, even by a beneficiary, constitutes both theft and intermeddling,” the prominent corporate figure wrote in a late night riposte. “Ho Ching is not an executor or a beneficiary to our father’s estate.”
Ho Ching, 64, is the chief executive of Temasek Holdings, one of two Singaporean sovereign wealth funds. She does not hold an official position in the government. The document initially posted by Lee Hsien Yang was an inventory the heritage board had issued when it received the late Lee Kuan Yew’s personal artefacts.
It listed “Ho Ching” as the point of contact, while the “lender/source” was referenced as the Prime Minister’s Office. Four of the five items – consisting of letters and memos dating back to 1949 – were received by the heritage authority on February 6, a day after Lee was admitted to hospital for the last time. The fifth item, a British-style red ministerial box, was received by the authority on March 27, four days after the elder Lee’s death.
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