Panel wants next govt to decide on LKY’s home

SINGAPORE: A ministerial committee set up to examine the future of a house that is at the centre of a family feud between Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his two siblings said it had decided a future government of the island state should make the final call.

In a 21-page report, it said there were three options for the former home of modern Singapore’s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, whose children are battling over the property. Kuan Yew died in 2015.

The government could keep the entire property as a national monument for conservation, it could retain only the room with most historical significance (the dining room) and demolish the rest, or it could knock down the property and redevelop the site.

By releasing the report, the committee said it hoped at least one aspect of the matter had been set- tled. “With this, we hope to close the chapter on this topic, and focus on other pressing national issues ahead of us,” said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who chaired the panel.

Hsien Loong may not be running the government that makes the final decision.

He said in October he intends to step down and hand over to a successor in a couple of years time.

His younger brother Hsien Yang, who owns the property, and sister Wei Ling, who still lives there, had wanted the house to be eventually demolished in accordance with what they say were their father’s wishes as stated in his will.

Last summer, they accused their brother, the prime minister, of seeking to turn the home into a shrine to a political dynasty.

They also said they feared their brother was going to use the organs of the state against them. — Reuters