Singapore PM’s Brother Pitted Against Brother in Attack
Family controversy over house blows up into wider questions over governing philosophy
Lee Hsien Yang, the brother of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has written an angry denunciation of his brother, saying he has been made a fugitive in his own country for standing up for a promise to their father Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore, to destroy his colonial-era home to keep it from becoming a shrine, and called into question the integrity of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) for its indifference to injustice.
As Asia Sentinel reported on March 3, the squabble in the family has become so acrimonious that Hsien Yang, a 65-year-old prominent former businessman, has fled Singapore with his wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern, for Europe in fear of the couple’s arrest.
“I have now been condemned in Parliament and in the press without due process,” Hsien Yang wrote on his Facebook page. “In these circumstances, how can there be fair and proper investigations or a fair trial, in what is clearly a politically-motivated prosecution?”
The controversy came into the open in 2017 when it was reported that the prime minister wanted to preserve the eight-bedroom, two-story bungalow, the birthplace of the PAP, which has ruled Singapore since its inception. Lee Hsien Yang and their sister, Lee Wei Ling, insisted that the elder Lee’s wishes be followed and that the house be destroyed…