Singaporean protesters call for inquiry over claims PM Lee abused his power
Relatively large anti-government rally held at Speakers’ Corner seen as a reflection of public anger at embattled leader
In a rare show of public anger, hundreds of protesters gathered at Singapore’s Speakers’ Corner on Saturday to call for an independent inquiry into whether Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong abused his power in a battle with his siblings over what to do with their late father’s house.
The heirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s long-serving first prime minister who died in 2015, are bitterly divided over whether to demolish the family home at 38 Oxley Road, or allow the government to decide whether it should become a heritage site.
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 accusations that the prime minister had abused his official position to get his way over the house.
The public row in a family that stands at the heart of Singapore’s establishment raised uncomfortable questions in a city state that prides itself on being a rock of stability in Southeast Asia.