Lee Hsien Yang Claims Family Is Persecuted For Defending Father’s Wish, Likely Won’t Return To S’pore

Lee Hsien Yang Likely Won’t Return To Singapore After Family Is Reportedly Persecuted

Lee Hsien Yang, son of Lee Kuan Yew and brother of Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong, has been in the spotlight recently, albeit for not-so-flattering reasons.

Last Thursday (2 Mar), Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean revealed that Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife Lee Suet Fern are under investigation for allegedly providing false evidence in judicial proceedings relating to Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s will.

While the couple initially agreed to police interviews, they left Singapore instead and have remained overseas ever since. Bloomberg reports that they are now based in Europe.

Then, on Tuesday (7 Mar), Mr Lee Hsien Yang penned a lengthy Facebook post responding to the latest “attack”.

He also gave a rare update on his sister Dr Lee Wei Ling, whom he said is “now extremely unwell”.

Lee Hsien Yang says he’s been made a ‘fugitive’ by his own country

In his post, Mr Lee Hsien Yang lamented about how he has “been made a fugitive by [his] own country” simply “for standing up for a promise to [his] father”.

He was, of course, referring to the whole Oxley Road house saga.

In a highly simplified nutshell, he and Dr Lee Wei Ling want to honour Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s wishes to demolish the house, while PM Lee — in Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s words — “[seeks] ever to undermine [their] father’s last will on the issue” by preserving it.

The latest “attack”, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said, relitigates “the same issues” that PM Lee had raised after the probate of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s will.

“I have now been condemned in Parliament and in the press without due process,” he wrote. “In these circumstances, how can there be fair and proper investigations or a fair trial, in what is clearly a politically-motivated prosecution?”

Mr Lee Hsien Yang said his brother had “opposed” their father’s instructions to demolish the Oxley Road house.

This is despite the fact that Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s last will, which contained a clause relating to the demolition of the house, had been proven in court.

“Wei Ling and I originally believed, in 2017, that Singapore had checks and balances and rule of law,” said Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

While they thought that “there were still men and women of integrity” in the People’s Action Party (PAP), they “rapidly learned otherwise”.

“The party’s reaction was to convene a special session of Parliament to attack us. Yet again, Hsien Loong misused state resources to pursue his private agenda.”

Singapore cannot thrive under leaders who put their selfish interests ahead of the needs of the country.

Says sister is ‘extremely unwell’

Within Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s statement was also an update on his sister.

In August 2020, Dr Lee Wei Ling announced that she had been diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disorder that causes severe body movement problems and behavioural changes.

Her last Facebook post was in September 2020.

According to Mr Lee Hsien Yang, Dr Lee Wei Ling was actually diagnosed in 2019.

Right before Covid-19 hit, the siblings had the opportunity to travel to Machu Picchu together. Mr Lee Hsien Yang said he is glad they did as it’s somewhere his sister had always wanted to visit.

Sadly, Dr Lee Wei Ling is “now extremely unwell”, although her brother did not go into further detail.

“It pains me beyond words that I am unlikely ever to be able to see my sister face to face again,” he sighed, hinting at the possibility that he will not return to Singapore in the foreseeable future.

Mr Lee Hsien Yang & family lost their lives in Singapore

Mr Lee Hsien Yang went on to share that with the “persecution” he endured for standing up for his father came the realisation that he had been living in a “cocoon”.

I lived in a sheltered ignorance of the real Singapore, the lives and struggles of the man in the street or in that one-room HDB rental flat, the wrongful persecutions of persons who were only trying to do good.

If he and his sister had remained silent and let PM Lee “rewrite history”, he mused, they could have gone on to “lead peaceful and comfortable lives”.

Instead, he, his wife, and their children have become victims of “a concerted and vindictive pattern of persecution orchestrated under a system” led by his own brother.

“My family and I have been subjected to a campaign of harassment and surveillance, as well as smear campaigns,” he claimed.

“These attacks intensified with the bringing of abusive and meritless legal proceedings. After what I have been through, I have no confidence whatsoever in the system.”

We have lost our lives in Singapore, our home, our friends, our wider families and our society.

Thanks family & supporters for their concern

Still, Mr Lee Hsien Yang is able to see a silver lining amidst all this.

He declared that he is “a different man” today, one who is “older, wiser, stronger, and also much more aware of the lives and challenges of [his] fellow Singaporeans”.

Besides expressing his gratitude to his wife and sons who stood by him despite being “forced to suffer and pay for [his] principles”, Mr Lee Hsien Yang also thanked those who supported him, showed concern, and continued to wish him well.

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Featured image adapted from Rolls-Royce plc on Flickr & Wiki.sg.