Singapore’s Lee Hsien Yang to apply to demolish Oxley Road home to ‘honour parents’ wishes’
Lee Hsien Yang and sister Lee Wei Ling had accused older brother, then-PM Lee Hsien Loong, of attempting to keep home for political capital
The estranged brother of Singapore’s former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has revealed he will apply to demolish their family home to “honour my parents’ last wishes”, potentially reigniting a long-running feud between the Lee siblings a week after the death of sister Lee Wei Ling.
Lee Hsien Yang on Tuesday morning said on Facebook he intended to build a small private dwelling in place of the family bungalow at 38 Oxley Road, which will be “held within the family in perpetuity”.
“I am the sole legal owner of 38 Oxley Road. After my sister’s passing, I am the only living executor of my father Lee Kuan Yew’s estate. In his will, he wished for the house to be demolished ‘immediately after’ Wei Ling moved out of the house. It is my duty to carry out his wishes to the fullest extent of the law.”
His sister Lee Wei Ling died at the age of 69 last week in the family home, four years after being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare and degenerative brain disease.
In 2017, she and Lee Hsien Yang, 67, made public their row with eldest sibling and then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong over the fate of the property. The younger Lees accused their older brother of attempting to keep the home for political capital, in light of the reverence with which most Singaporeans still viewed Lee Kuan Yew.
Lee Hsien Loong had advocated that the government determine the property’s future, while his siblings maintained that the house should be demolished, in accordance with what they said was their parents’ wishes.
