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Exclusive | Singapore PM misled Lee Kuan Yew over family house, says brother
Lee Hsien Loong’s address to parliament is challenged by his sibling, who says Lion City’s founding leader was led to believe preservation of 38 Oxley Road, while against his wishes, was inevitable
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The estranged younger brother of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has accused the premier of misleading their father Lee Kuan Yew into thinking the government had gazetted their family house for preservation as a heritage site.
It was only because he believed this to be a fait accompli that the patriarch wavered in his wish to demolish the property upon his death, Lee Hsien Yang said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post.
The youngest of the three Lee children was countering his prime minister brother’s contention in parliament hours earlier that their father’s preference for demolition was not “black and white”.
Premier Lee spoke to lawmakers in a special legislative debate on Monday, revealing that their father had even approved architectural plans for interior renovation, showing he was open to less extreme options than demolition.
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Lee Kuan Yew died in 2015 aged 91. The family feud over the fate of the Lees’ home of seven decades erupted into a national debate last month after Lee Hsien Yang and sister Lee Wei Ling went public with stunning accusations that the prime minister had abused his official position to get his way over the house.
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