Leaving Singapore: a look at Lee Hsien Yang and 6 others who chose asylum

Among the asylum seekers were blogger Amos Yee, the late former prosecutor Francis Seow and pro-Palestinian activist Ang Swee Chai

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Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of then Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, leaving the supreme court in Singapore in 2017. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:24pm, 24 Oct 2024Updated: 9:50am, 25 Oct 2024

In being granted asylum in the UK, Lee Hsien Yang, the younger son of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, joins the ranks of other political dissidents from the city state who took up such a status abroad out of fear of persecution.

Lee Hsien Yang, 67, is the estranged brother of former Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, 72. The younger Lee brother and his late sister Lee Wei Ling in 2017 made public their feud with their oldest sibling over the fate of 38 Oxley Road, their family property.

The younger Lee alleged that then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong was misusing his power to scuttle their efforts to demolish the family home, in line with their father’s wishes.

Lee Hsien Yang joined the opposition Progress Singapore Party in 2020 and has been vocal in his criticism of the government, landing him in court over suits filed by cabinet ministers and falling foul of the country’s fake news law.

He and his wife lawyer Lee Suet Fern left Singapore in 2022 after deciding not to attend a scheduled police interview over potential offences of giving false evidence in judicial proceedings regarding Lee Kuan Yew’s will.

On Thursday, Singapore’s heritage board said it would conduct a study on 38 Oxley Road to assess if the site has “national historical, heritage, and architectural significance as to be worthy of preservation”.

In response, Lee Hsien Yang urged current Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to make a decision on the house and demolish it according to his father’s wishes.