Lee Kuan Yew accepted 38 Oxley Road may be preserved, had obtained URA approval: S’pore Govt

Lee Kuan Yew accepted that 38 Oxley Road need not be demolished, Lee Hsien Yang misled his father: Govt

In 2011, Singapore’s founding father and former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew wrote a letter to the Cabinet, accepting that the property may be preserved, the Government said.

Subsequently, he obtained approval from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to renovate and redevelop the property.

These events were revealed by the Singapore Government in a media release on Friday (25 Oct) in response to Mr Lee Hsien Yang, the younger son of Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

Lee Hsien Yang calls on PM Wong to make a decision on 38 Oxley Road

Earlier that day, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said in a Facebook post addressed to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong that the decision on the property was his responsibility.

Mr Lee claimed that in his will, his father wished for the house to be demolished “immediately after” his daughter Lee Wei Ling ceased to reside there.

As Dr Lee passed away earlier this month, “the time for that decision is now”, Mr Lee said.

Cabinet was against demolition of 38 Oxley Road, Lee Kuan Yew acknowledged

However, the Government said Mr Lee Hsien Yang “knows that what he says is inaccurate”.

It shared a letter from Mr Lee Kuan Yew to the Cabinet, dated 27 Dec 2011, where “he accepted that the property may be preserved”.

In the letter, Mr Lee acknowledged that the Cabinet members were unanimous that 38 Oxley Road “should not be demolished as I wanted”.

After reflecting on this, Mr Lee decided that if the house is to be preserved “it needs to have its foundations reinforced and the whole building refurbished”. He added:

It must then be let out for people to live in. An empty building will soon decline and decay.

Lee Kuan Yew preferred 38 Oxley Road to be demolished but accepted that it need not be

In March 2012, Mr Lee Kuan Yew submitted renovation and redevelopment plans for 38 Oxley Road and obtained URA approval, the Government said.

In doing so, he was “proceeding on the basis that the property will be preserved”, it added.

It was noted that while Mr Lee Kuan Yew had preferred the property to be demolished, he “accepted that it need not be demolished, and he gave his views on how the property ought to be preserved”.

All of this is set out in the Report of the Ministerial Committee on 38 Oxley Road, which was published in April 2018.

Lee Hsien Yang misled his father: Govt

Turning its attention to Mr Lee Hsien Yang, the Government noted that he and his wife Suet Fern “misled his father on the execution of the will, and that both were found to have lied under oath”.

The Court of Three Judges concluded in November 2020 that Mr Lee Kuan Yew had “ended up signing a document which was in fact not that which he had indicated he wished to sign”.

It agreed with a Disciplinary Tribunal’s findings in February 2020 that Mrs Lee “focused primarily on what her husband wanted done” and “worked together” with her husband, “with a singular purpose, of getting Mr Lee to execute the Last Will quickly”.

To do that, the couple presented “an elaborate edifice of lies … both on oath … and through their public and other statements”.

It added: “Several of the lies were quite blatant”.

Mrs Lee was suspended from practice for 15 months for her misconduct, the Government noted, and thus Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s “continued allegations must be seen in this light”.

Lee Hsien Yang ‘trying to create a false urgency’: Govt

On what should be done with 38 Oxley Road, the Government said we should keep all options open and “consider them carefully” instead of closing them now.

It noted that Singaporeans have “a range of views” on what to do with the property, so the Government is “trying to keep options open (including demolition or preservation of all or part of the Property) and give time for current and future generations of Singaporeans to decide”.

However, Mr Lee Hsien Yang is “trying to create a false urgency” by pushing for immediate demolition, the Government said, adding:

Many Singaporeans would in fact prefer to put behind us questions about Mr LKY’s Will, and the Property, and move on.

NHB commencing study to see whether site is worth of preservation

On Thursday (24 Oct), the National Heritage Board (NHB) published a statement saying it will commence a study of the site to assess if the structure is “worthy of preservation”.

It added that demolishing the property — which is Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s intention — would “rule out a proper and full consideration” of the existing options, which include retaining it, retaining the dining room only and demolishing it and allowing redevelopment.

NHB did not mention how long the study is expected to take.

Also read: ‘It has been 9 years. That day is today’: Lee Hsien Yang to apply for demolition of 38 Oxley Road

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Featured image adapted from Singapore Government and Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Facebook.