They’re at it again: Lee Kuan Yew home must be razed, younger children insist
Pair asserts that tearing down the bungalow is the only option that respects the former prime minister’s dying wishes, despite a range of options outlined by a Singaporean government panel
Singaporean officials tasked with studying future options for the property at 38 Oxley Road this week listed tearing it down as one of three ways forward, but his two younger children Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang say anything short of demolition would be an affront to their father’s final wishes.
Is this the end of Singapore’s Lee family row?
Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling said in a statement that the report released on Monday by a ministerial committee studying future options of the house did not “accurately represent Lee Kuan Yew’s wishes”, which they claimed was an unflinching desire for the house to be torn down after he died. Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding prime minister, died at age 91 in March 2015.
Lee Wei Ling, the middle child, slammed Premier Lee and his government for “an unbelievable lack of intelligence” in a separate Facebook post.
“It would require unbelievable lack of intelligence or determined denial to not understand what Pa and Ma so unambiguously wanted,” the 63-year-old neurologist wrote.
“It seems my big brother and his committee have achieved that distinction with amazing ease.”
The ministerial committee said that outright demolition, a complete preservation of the home as a national monument, and a partial preservation of the basement dining room were the three options a future government could consider when the time came to decide the fate of the property.