Singapore leading family feud resurfaces over founder’s will

SINGAPORE: A feud between Singapore’s prime minister and his siblings resurfaced yesterday when the public prosecutor said there were questions over the involvement of a family member in the preparation of their father’s will.

The case, which comes ahead of a general election expected as soon as this year, stems from a dispute over the old house of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first premier and the father of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The siblings have publicly bickered since June 2017 over the future of the family home in which the late leader, who died in 2015, had lived for most of his life.

Prime Minister Lee’s younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang, and sister, Lee Wei Ling, want the house to be eventually demolished in accordance, they have said, with their father’s wishes as stated in his will.

But the prime minister has questioned whether his father really wanted the home, near Singapore’s bustling Orchard Road shopping district, to be knocked down. He has said he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.

Yesterday, the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) said it had referred to the Law Society a case of ‘ possible professional misconduct’ over the involvement of the wife of the prime minister’s brother in the will.

The wife, Lee Suet Fern, who is a lawyer, appears to have prepared the elder Lee’s last will despite the fact that her husband was one of the beneficiaries of the will, the AGC said in a statement.

Lee Suet Fern declined to comment. She has never commented on whether she had prepared the late founder’s will.

In a Facebook post late on Sunday, Lee Wei Ling said:

“Lee Kuan Yew, a highly regarded lawyer, never complained about his will ... Why therefore this new attack on our father’s will? Why is this being initiated now, and by the AGC, after all this time?”