PM Lee threatened to gazette 38 Oxley Road: Lee Wei Ling
01 Jul 2017 03:27PM (Updated: 01 Jul 2017 08:49PM)
SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had “threatened angrily to gazette” 38 Oxley Road, Lee Wei Ling said in a Facebook post on Saturday (Jul 1).
Dr Lee said PM Lee did this following the reading of Lee Kuan Yew’s will by lawyers after his death. “This greatly disturbed me. He was willing to go against Papa’s wishes as soon as Papa was gone,” she wrote.
She also added that Mr Lee’s wife, Ho Ching, took a sabbatical to “help sort out Lee family affairs”.
“This consisted of spending her days at Oxley Road getting the photographer from Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) to photograph and catalog items which she would pack into plastic boxes to send to storage, and her attempts to recreate the way Oxley looked decades ago."
“She had no business doing this at all,” said Dr Lee.
Dr Lee said Madam Ho “wrongfully took and handed over” items from the Oxley Road house to the National Heritage Board (NHB) – enough to create a “Lee Kuan Yew Museum”.
She added: “Later, the NHB was subsequently told by the Prime Minister’s Office to refuse the exhibition – simply because we (Dr Lee and Lee Hsien Yang) had required that the last paragraph in Papa’s will be simultaneously displayed to remind the public of his desire (for the house) to be demolished.”
Dr Lee also said the Mr Lee and Madam Ho’s actions “angered” her, adding they were “taking advantage of the fact that no one would dare criticise them for acting improperly”.
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Lee Wei Ling: Lee Hsien Loong & Ho Ching angered me very early on
By Belmont Lay | 3 hours
Even as most Singaporeans have barely crawled out of bed on Saturday owing to Friday evening’s revelry, Lee Wei Ling has put up yet another scathing post, this time taking aim at Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his wife, Ho Ching, at the same time.
In the post, Lee Wei Ling explained the reason for Ho Ching’s three-month sabbatical leave announced in April 2015, shortly after Lee Kuan Yew’s passing.
News of Ho Ching’s part-time sabbatical then was widely reported.
Now is as good a time as any to spend some time on a couple of long standing things which I have wanted to do.
However, Lee Wei Ling alleged that Ho Ching personally oversaw the cataloging and removal of items from 38 Oxley Road house during that period of time, for the purpose of recreating the interior of the house for public exhibition.
This occurred shortly after Lee Kuan Yew’s passing.
The sabbatical was subsequently extended to six months.
Lee Wei Ling also alleged that Lee Hsien Loong “threatened angrily” to gazette 38 Oxley Road, following the reading of Lee Kuan Yew’s will, where the desire to have the house demolished was expressed.
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Lee Wei Ling calls Lee Hsien Loong “bad PM” and “dishonourable son” attempting to build a “Lee family cult”
July 1, 2017
In the latest turn of the escalating Oxley Road feud, Dr Lee Wei Ling has taken to Facebook to show Singaporeans “the true face and motives of Lee Hsien Loong and Ho Ching.”
Re-emphasising her allegations that the Prime Minister and his wife have abused the power of the PMO, Dr Lee called her brother a “bad PM” and marked his wife, Ho Ching, as an “even worse Mrs PM, especially as there is no official position as Mrs PM.”
In her post, Dr Lee revealed that following Lee Kuan Yew’s passing, Lee Hsien Loong allegedly threatened to gazette 38 Oxley Road in anger after Lee Kuan Yew’s will was read to the family. Dr Lee wrote, “This greatly disturbed me. He was willing to go against Papa’s wishes as soon as Papa was gone. He is a dishonourable son.”
Dr Lee also alleged that the Prime Minister and his wife are attempting to “build a ‘Lee family cult.’” She said that Ho Ching attempted to recreate the way the house at Oxley Road looked decades ago under the guise of helping to “sort out Lee family affairs.”
She claimed that Ho Ching misappropriated items from the Oxley house that she then handed over to the National Heritage Board (NHB) and that the NHB had so many items handed over by Ho Ching that they could create a “Lee Kuan Yew Museum.”
Dr Lee charged that in spite of this, after the NHB curated items from the house, they were “subsequently told by PMO to refuse the exhibition simply because we had required that the last paragraph in Papa’s will be simultaneously displayed to remind the public of his desire for 38, Oxley Road to be demolished.”
“Hsien Loong and Ho Ching angered me very early on,” Dr Lee wrote, “Both were not straight and were taking advantage of the fact that no one would dare criticise them for acting improperly.”
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I am just trying to honour my father’s final wish: Lee Hsien Yang
Yahoo News Singapore1 July 2017
Amid questions on why he and his sister Lee Wei Ling have made their dispute with their elder brother and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong public, Lee Hsien Yang explained that he simply wanted to honour their late father’s wish to demolish the family home on 38 Oxley Road.
“I am just a son trying to honour my father’s final wish: to demolish my father’s house immediately when my sister, Wei Ling, no longer lives there,” wrote Hsien Yang in a Facebook post on Saturday (1 July). The three are the children of the late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister.
Hsien Yang also addressed insinuations that he seeks to redevelop the land on which the Oxley Road house sits into a condominium for financial profit after buying it at 150 per cent of market price.
“Beyond zero certainty on timing and the ability to demolish, this requires both rezoning by the URA and cooperation with the neighbours. I have no inclination to seek either of these,” said Hsien Yang, referring to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
“Preservation of the house would be trampling on Lee Kuan Yew’s values, and it would be an affront to these same values to develop a luxury ‘LKY’ condominium. The price I paid for the house was simply a price I paid to ensure my father’s wishes are honoured,” he added.
Hsien Yang said he had suggested options such as demolishing the house and planting a memorial garden but his older brother “staunchly refused” this idea. Hsien Yang said that he, his sister and their late father recognised that the government had the power to gazette the house, noting that “no man stands above the law after all”.
“We are simply very sad that is in fact Hsien Loong using powers and instruments of the state to achieve preservation of the house for his personal agenda, whilst pretending to be an honourable son,” he wrote.
The children of the late Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, have been embroiled for weeks in a public spat over the fate of the Oxley Road house. The current prime minister’s younger siblings have accused him of abusing his power in looking to prevent the house from being demolished as per the late Lee’s final will.
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Dr Chee: As I said, character is permanent
Protected July 1st, 2017 | Author: YourSDP
IN 2006, MR Lee Hsien Loong and Mr Lee Kuan Yew sued the SDP for defamation over an article we published in our party’s newspaper, The New Democrat, about the National Kidney Foundation and governance in Singapore.
The PM’s lawyer Davinder Singh said then that the words in the piece, in their ordinary meaning and innuendo, alleged that Mr Lee was dishonest and unfit for office.
Specifically, Mr Lee said that the article had accused him of being “guilty of corruption, nepotism, criminal conduct, dishonesty, and had advanced the interests of [his] family”.
The suit relied on “innuendo” because nowhere in the article had we mentioned him (or anyone else for that matter) by name. Mr Lee read it to be that he was the one referenced and, thereby, had to sue to protect the government’s reputation.
He said: “We have to act because they are alleging corruption. If we do not act, and the lies and defamation are repeated throughout and in election rallies and spread around, I think the government’s reputation goes down.” (emphasis added)
This utterance 11 years ago has now come back to haunt Mr Lee in his current dispute with his siblings. Both Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang have not resorted to innuendo – the accusations they level at their brother are direct and plain. The words employed are, or at least should be by PM Lee’s own assessment, defamatory of him and the present government.
That the PM seems unenthusiastic on the legal front is telling. Dr and Mr Lee’s allegations, if made by anyone else would have been met by a writ of defamation and the legal process well under way by now.
His defenders argue that Mr Lee is in an untenable position; one doesn’t sue one’s siblings. Such a quarrel is disingenuous. His reputation as prime minister and – in his own words – the reputation of the government is at stake. State affairs cannot be subordinate to familial relations.
Seen another way: If this was a criminal matter, the government would have to prefer charges against the wrong-doers and prosecute them in a court of law regardless of whether the perpetrators are the PM’s siblings or not.
After all, Mr Lee did, upon his swearing in as PM, take the Oath of Office to discharge his duties “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will”.
To this end, the gold standard of defamation for the government was sealed by former PM Goh Chok Tong in 1999: “…if a minister is defamed and he does not sue, he must leave cabinet…if he does not dare go before the court to be interrogated by the counsel for the other side, there must be some truth in it. If there is no evidence, well, why are you not suing?”
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Chee Hong Tat: Lee Kuan Yew would not wish for a family dispute to be turned into a public quarrel
Jul 02, 2017 11:22 am
Mr Lee Kuan Yew would not have wished for a family dispute to be turned into a public quarrel that hurt Singapore’s international standing.
Neither would he have wished for baseless allegations to be made against Government leaders and institutions, undermining confidence in the systems he created, Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat said last night, in a Facebook post on the ongoing feud involving Mr Lee’s children.
Mr Chee, who was the late Mr Lee’s Principal Private Secretary from 2008 to 2011, said he was greatly saddened to see what had been happening over the past two weeks, “especially when I think of the pain it would bring to Mr and Mrs Lee”.
“The wild allegations have damaged Singapore’s reputation, something Mr Lee spent his entire life building up,” he wrote.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Dr Lee Wei Ling are embroiled in a running dispute with their elder brother Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong over their father’s wishes for his home at 38, Oxley Road.
The younger Lee siblings want to demolish the house, saying it would be in accordance with his wishes, and have alleged that PM Lee wants to preserve the house for political gain, although PM Lee has made clear that as a son, he supports his father’s wish for demolition.
The latest statement comes ahead of a Parliament debate starting Monday, during which PM Lee will address allegations of abuse of power in relation to 38, Oxley Road.
In his post, Mr Chee said in his three years working with the late Mr Lee, who died in March 2015, aged 91, he had got to know Dr Lee and they became friends.
“Wei Ling is someone I admire and respect. She has strong views and can be very blunt at times, but she has a good heart and genuinely cares for the people around her,” he wrote.
“I do not believe Wei Ling will intentionally cause harm to her country. So I have asked myself over and over again, why is she doing this? Has she been misled and misunderstood what happened?”
Mr Chee noted that Mr Lee would always put the country’s interests above personal ones, and believed in the rule of law, and that no one was above the law.
“Knowing Mr Lee, he would be the first to insist that the law must apply equally to his will and the house at 38, Oxley Road just as it does to all other Singaporeans… I have no doubt Mr Lee would want his successors in the Government to continue to uphold these systems and values. He would not have wanted his family to be given special treatment,” he said.
Mr Chee also noted Mr Lee Hsien Yang had said he is “a man working to honour his father’s wishes”.
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Ministerial committee on 38 Oxley Road an ’extra-judicial secret attack’: Lee Hsien Yang
02 Jul 2017 12:14PM (Updated: 02 Jul 2017 01:11PM)
SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s brother Lee Hsien Yang has accused PM Lee of an “extra-judicial secret attack” by seeking to bypass the court system, in his latest Facebook post on Sunday (Jul 2) over a dispute regarding their late father’s house at 38 Oxley Road.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang said PM Lee “took his grievance on a ‘private family matter’ to a committee of his subordinates” which he said was “aimed at undermining their father’s last will and his unwavering wish”.
“Whether or not LHL supposedly recused himself from decision-making, his own subordinates cannot be the judge of a matter in which he has a direct personal interest,” Mr Lee Hsien Yang added.
In his post, Mr Lee Hsien Yang reiterated that the ministerial committee did not “list the options” that were being considered for the estate despite his queries.
“The mysterious ministerial committee refused to list the options it was considering for 38 Oxley Road, even after repeated requests from Lee Kuan Yew’s Estate,” he said, adding that the “closest hint it gave to any discussion on options was this vague paragraph, from Minister Lawrence Wong, on 24 August 2016.”
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Lee family feud: the key questions as Singapore’s PM faces grilling
This Week in Asia’s guide to the row dominating public life in the Lion City
By Bhavan Jaipragas
3 Jul 2017
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong takes centre stage on Monday as he defends himself in parliament over the explosive allegations by his younger siblings that he was abusing his powers and exploiting the legacy of their late father Lee Kuan Yew.
The embattled premier has vowed that his address to lawmakers will show that Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling’s accusations have no factual basis.
He has given MPs in his ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) free rein to grill him in the session. The party has for decades held a legislative supermajority, and currently holds 83 out of 89 elected seats.
The estranged siblings last week, however, dismissed this exercise as a means by the premier to “cover up and whitewash himself” before a house stacked with loyalists fearful of expressing dissent against their leader. Their grievances, made public in a Facebook post on June 14, centres around the fate of the family bungalow at 38 Oxley Road. In his final will, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s independence leader, asked for the property to be demolished upon his death, or after his spinster daughter Lee Wei Ling vacated it. The two siblings – executors and trustees of the will – say the premier used his powers to pressure them into dropping plans to carry out the demolition.
The Lee family bungalow at 38 Oxley Road. Photo: EPA
Their claim is that the prime minister wants the house preserved as a national monument so that he can continue to benefit from his father’s immense political clout.
Lee Hsien Loong says these charges are baseless, and that he had long recused himself from official deliberations about the future of the house. In a pre-recorded statement beamed on national television on June 19, he said he had done all he could to resolve the spat privately, and did not know why his siblings had decided to go public.
He apologised to Singaporeans for the saga, and said his siblings’ actions hurt the Lion City’s international reputation. While some have cast the matter as a family dispute that should be resolved behind the privacy of closed doors, others are intrigued and are asking questions about the import of it all on the body politic.
Lee family feud: Singapore PM’s lieutenants speak outp
This Week in Asia takes you through five key issues that have surfaced over the last three weeks, as the two sides traded near-daily barbs and released emails and other documents supporting their claims.
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Singapore’s PM: I am fulfilling my father’s dying wishes for 38 Oxley Road
Accusations from his siblings that he abused his power are baseless, Lee Hsien Loong tells Parliament, but adds that he will not take his family to court
By Bhavan Jaipragas
3 Jul 2017
The late Lee Kuan Yew endorsed plans to refurbish his century-old house in preparation for its possible preservation as a national monument, his eldest son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in Parliament on Monday in a revelation that sharply contradicted accusations made by his younger siblings in their ongoing public feud over the patriarch’s legacy.
Premier Lee said his father, Singapore’s revered independence leader, told the family in 2011 it was “best to redevelop” the bungalow at 38 Oxley Road “right away” after his death – following a proposal by him and his wife Ho Ching. Lee Kuan Yew died at age 91 in 2015 after a six-decade political career including 31 years as Singapore’s first Prime Minister.
Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, accused the leader of abuse of power. Photo: AFP
In the highly anticipated speech to lawmakers, Lee also said he will not sue his younger siblings Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling for the abuse of power accusations they made against him over the last three weeks. Lee had lifted the parliamentary whip for his ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in the special debate on the feud, to allow its lawmakers to grill him without fear of overstepping party lines. The party has been in power since 1959 and controls 83 out of 89 elected seats.
Lee, who took over from his father’s successor Goh Chok Tong as premier in 2004, said suing his younger siblings would “further besmirch my parents’ names”.
“At the end of the day, we are brother and sister, and we are all our parents’ children,” said the premier.
Lee family feud: Singapore’s prime minister falls silent, as his lieutenants speak outp
Hauling his siblings to court would cause more distraction and distress to Singaporeans, he said. “Therefore, fighting this out in court cannot be my preferred choice.” The family feud centres around the family home at 38 Oxley Road, on the fringes of the popular Orchard Road shopping district.
The premier added: “When the dust has settled on this unhappy episode, people must know that the Government operates transparently, impartially, and properly. That in Singapore, even Mr Lee’s house and his wishes are subject to the rule of law.”
House has no ‘magic properties’
The younger siblings – trustees and executors of their father’s estate – said the premier convened a special ministerial committee to block them from carrying out their father’s wish for the property to be demolished once he died, or after Lee Wei Ling, who lived with him for decades, vacated it. The patriarch included this wish in his final will signed on December 17, 2013,
Lee Kuan Yew died at age 91 in 2015 after a six-decade political career including 31 years as Singapore’s first Prime Minister. Photo: AFP
Their claim was that the prime minister wanted the family home – where Lee Kuan Yew convened early meetings of independence leaders – preserved as a national monument to shore up his own political clout.
In his speech, Lee Hsien Loong dismissed this accusation as baseless.
“Regarding the house, and how its continued existence enhances my aura as PM, if I needed such magic properties to bolster my authority even after being your PM for 13 years, I must be in a pretty sad state,” Lee said.
Lee family feud: the key questions as Singapore’s PM faces grillingp
In their campaign against the premier – launched on social media on June 14 – the two siblings charged that the prime minister’s actions were in direct contradiction with Lee Kuan Yew’s “unwavering” wish for 38 Oxley Road to be demolished.
But Premier Lee said the fact that the patriarch approved the refurbishment plans showed he was not averse to other options.
He said the plan proposed by his wife and him involved renovating the house and changing its interior completely. The basement dining room, where the historical meeting of independence leaders were held in the early 1950s, would be preserved. Lee Kuan Yew signed authorisation papers in March 2012 that granted permission for the Premier’s plan.
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The full speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Parliament, July 3, 2017
Published: 4:37 PM, July 3, 2017
Updated: 4:47 PM, July 3, 2017
SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered the Ministerial Statement on “Alleged Abuse of Power on 38 Oxley Road” at the Parliamentary Sitting on Monday (July 3). Here is his speech in full:
Madam Speaker, I am making this statement today because my siblings, Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang, have made serious allegations of abuse of power against me and my Government.
The allegations seem to concern primarily three matters. One, the setting up of the Ministerial Committee on 38 Oxley Road. Two, the Deed of Gift for some artefacts from the house that were to be displayed in an exhibition by the National Heritage Board (NHB). And three, accusations of nepotism over my wife and son, and accusations that I want my father’s house kept standing to bolster my power.
Their allegations are entirely baseless. But they have already damaged Singapore’s reputation. Unrebutted, they can affect Singaporeans’ confidence in the Government. I therefore have no choice but to address them promptly and publicly. I also have to do so in Parliament. Under the Constitution, the Prime Minister is the person who commands the confidence of the majority of the Members of Parliament. As the PM, I have a duty to explain myself to MPs, and to rebut in Parliament the allegations against me and my Government.
I know many Singaporeans are upset by this issue. They are tired of the subject, and wish it would end. I too am upset that things have reached this state. As your Prime Minister, I deeply regret that this has happened and apologise to Singaporeans for this. As a son, I am pained at the anguish that this strife would have caused my parents to feel if they were still alive.
I intend to clear the air today, to explain the matter fully and to answer all questions on the matter. I am not here to make a case against my siblings. Parliament is not the place for that. But what is private, I will try to resolve privately. But what is public, I have to explain and render account.
I stand by what I will say in this Chamber. I shall be separately issuing whatever I say in this debate as a statement by me outside the House which will not be covered by Parliamentary privilege.
To respond to these allegations of abuse of power, I will have to go into some background about 38 Oxley Road and the family discussions on the house so that Members can make sense of the allegations.
My account will inevitably be from my perspective. So I will try my best to be objective and factual.
I will cover the discussions on 38 Oxley Road when Mr Lee Kuan Yew was alive, what happened after Mr Lee passed away, and then, where the matter stands today.
Mdm Speaker, may I now ask the Clerk to distribute Handout 1 to Members.
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