Committee report on LKY’s home misleading, claims son
SINGAPORE: A report by the ministerial committee on 38, Oxley Road does not accurately represent the wishes of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, his son Lee Hsien Yang said.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Hsien Yang noted that the committee pointed to certain statements made by his late father as proof that he was prepared to accept options other than demolition of his house. “That claim is misleading.
“In context, it is clear that our father was not endorsing alternatives to demolition, but was forced to consider them because of Loong’s and Ho Ching’s insistence that the government would not respect our father’s dying wish,” Hsien Yang added, referring to his older brother Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and sisterinlaw Ho Ching.
“Our father had never ‘accepted’ these options. He merely set out what he wanted if the government prevented his house from being demolished.”
His response came a day after the ministerial committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean released its report on 38, Oxley Road.
The committee had set out three broad options for the house – to preserve it entirely by gazetting it for conservation or as a national monument, retaining only the basement dining room and demolishing the rest of the property, or demol ishing the property entirely.
The decision on which option to take would be left to a future government, it said.
In coming to its conclusion on the late Kuan Yew’s wishes, the committee said it had relied on objective evidence – the founding prime minister’s letter to the Cabinet in December 2011, plans for the property which he submitted to the Urban Redevelopment Authority in March 2012 and the demolition clause in his last will in December 2013.
In his post, Hsien Yang said his late father wanted demolition “unwaveringly” because he did not want his home made into a shrine.
“His legacy is Singapore itself and not his old house,” he said.
He added that Kuan Yew was forced to consider options other than demolition, as “(Kuan Yew) insisted that the gazetting of 38, Oxley Road was ‘inevitable’ ”.
He cited an email that Kuan Yew sent to his children on Oct 3, 2011, which said: “Loong as Prime Minister has indicated that he will declare it a heritage site.”
Kuan Yew’s daughter Lee Wei Ling also weighed in on the ministerial committee report on Facebook.
“Papa was as direct as me. He made absolutely clear what he wanted done with the house,” she wrote on Tuesday.
“He and Mama had long decided they wanted it demolished after they were gone. It would require unbelievable lack of intelligence or determined denial to not understand what Pa and Ma so unambiguously wanted.
“It seems to me that my big brother and his committee have achieved that distinction with amazing ease.” — The Straits Times/Asia News Network