Singapore PM’s nephew says will not return home
JAKARTA: A military official in the Indonesian province of Jambi said on Saturday he has ordered that anyone who deliberately sets fire to forest areas be shot, as authorities struggle to contain fires that cause choking smoke in the region.
Five Indonesian provinces have declared emergencies because of forest fires, according to Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB), with the number of hotspots steadily increasing in many areas over the past week.
The BNPB is working with many government branches, including the military, to contain the fires.
Indonesian media have reported that authorities in the neighbouring province of South Sumatra, also on the SINGAPORE: The nephew of Singapore’s prime minister, who faces contempt of court proceedings for comments he made suggesting the city-state’s courts were not independent, said he would not be returning to Singapore.
The office of Singapore’s attorney general said it would begin contempt of court proceedings against Li Shengwu, a US-based academic, over Facebook posts he made on July 15.
The legal move is the latest twist in a family feud over the fate of the house left by the late Singapore founding father Lee Kwan Yew that gripped the nation last month.
It comes days ahead of Singapore’s National Day celebrations next week, when the prime minister delivers an annual address to the 5.6 million residents of one the world’s five richest nations based on per capital GDP.
In his post, Li, nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a son of Lee’s brother, Lee Hsien Yang, described the Singapore government as “litigious” and its courts as “pliant”. island of Sumatra, had issued the same order.
“This is to stress a point to the people, who have been warned many, many times,” said Colonel Refrizal, commander of the forest fire task force in Jambi.” (This is) to show our
Li, 32, is currently a junior fellow at Harvard University and said on Saturday from the United States he expected to start an assistant professor position with the university in the fall of 2018.
“I have no intention of going back to Singapore. I have a happy life and a fulfilling job in the US,” he said in an interview, adding he would defend himself through legal representation in Singapore.
The public spat between the Lee siblings, children of Lee Kuan Yew, flared in June over the future of the family home, in which the founding prime minister, who died at the age of 91 in 2015, lived for most of his life.
Lee Hsien Yang and sister Lee Wei Ling accused their elder brother of abusing power to try to save the house as a historic monument in defiance of his father’s wishes.
That prompted the prime minister to call a special sitting of parliament in July to “clear the air” over an issue that some people say has tarnished Singapore’s image. firmness and seriousness.”
The order would be carried out “responsibly”, said Refrizal.
BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Twitter the Jambi task force was working to extinguish a fire covering an area of 10 hectares.
Nugroho also said authorities had found one area in Jambi that had been “intentionally” burned by its owner.
The number of hotspots had increased to 239 by July 30, from 173 hotspots three days earlier, according to the BNPB.
The hotspots were seen mostly on Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo island, with some also on Sumatra and Java island.
The agency had previously warned that the threat of forest fires would escalate, with the dry season expected to peak in September.
Indonesia is regularly hit by forest fires, which can result in choking smoke blowing across to neighbouring countries like Singapore and Malaysia.