The bungalow was built by a Dutch trader during colonial times, but has become part of Singapore's modern history. This is where Lee Kuan Yew lived for decades, where he started his political party and where he started building Singapore into one of the richest countries in the world.
Mr. Lee had said he wanted the house to be demolished after his death rather than preserved as a museum, where the public would “tread” on his private property.
But the drafting of his will left the estate's fate in limbo and caused a rift between his three children – reflecting the growing debate over Singapore's disorganized political system.
Now, an unusual voice has joined those who complain that the prosperity of the city and the country has come at the expense of an unaccountable government: one of Mr. Lee.
“The idea that one good man at the center can control this, and you just rely on his kindness to make sure everything is fine, doesn't work,” Lee Hsien Yang, a minor, who wants to honor his father's wishes in the house, said in a recent interview with the New York Times. of London.
After Lee Kuan Yew's death in 2015, the eldest child, who was Singapore's prime minister at the time, argued that his father's instructions for the bungalow were unclear. His siblings wanted it demolished, although one continued to live in the house, and as long as he stayed, its fate was not resolved.
Then, after his death in October, the controversy resurfaced — and became more intense. Lee Hsien Yang, referred to as Yang by his parents and siblings, has announced that he has received political asylum in Britain because he is afraid of being wrongly arrested in Singapore because of his differences.
Yang said his brother – Lee Hsien Loong, who resigned in May as prime minister – had abused his power in a domestic dispute.
Yang, 67, described what he called a course of persecution by the Singaporean government in recent years. In 2020, his son was charged with contempt of court for criticizing Singapore's courts on a private Facebook. That year, his wife, a lawyer who had arranged for the witnesses to sign the father's will, was banned from being a lawyer for 15 months. The couple then faced a police investigation for lying under oath. In 2022, they travel to Singapore.
In October, Yang announced that Britain had accepted his asylum request, ruling that he and his wife had “a well-founded fear of persecution and will not return to your country.”
The Singapore government dismissed the allegations, saying the couple were free to return home. It said it should be accountable to voters and independent judges. Yang, he added, had engaged in “exaggerated personal dealings” with his brother, Loong.
Loong, 72, who now holds the position of chief minister, refused to comment because he has resigned himself to the issue of the house.
For Yang, this perennial conflict is proof that “there are fundamental problems in the way Singapore is governed and managed.”
Yang admitted that his father had arrested politicians and opposition union leaders, but said he had “the interests of the country at heart.”
The People's Action Party has ruled Singapore with a firm grip for nearly 70 years. And years after the founding father's death, it continues to honor his legacy.
This, some analysts say, has left Singapore at a crossroads.
“Can we continue?” said Ja Ian Chong, who teaches political science at the National University of Singapore. “Or are we stuck with this kind of selfless, big-man politics?”
Lee Kuan Yew transformed a colonial outpost into an economic powerhouse for a generation. He made no bones about intervening in the lives of Singaporeans and put the community ahead of the individual – a view some observers say points to the paradox of the family feud.
“He understood that the government would have to preserve the house if it decided it was in the public interest,” Loong wrote in a 2016 letter to Lawrence Wong, who was part of a government committee set up to consider building options, and is now prime minister.
That panel concluded that the bungalow had historical significance, and that Lee Kuan Yew was ready to preserve it. But polls show a majority of Singaporeans want it demolished. In October, the government said it is again studying whether to keep the house in 1898.
'The Best Combination'
For decades, Lee Kuan Yew's family has seemed as orderly as the province he ruled. His wife, Kwa Geok Choo, owned a house at 38 Oxley Road, one of Singapore's most expensive areas.
In the 1950s, Mr. Lee and a group of friends formed his political party, the PAP, in the basement dining room. Most of the the house was spartan. The furniture was old and mismatched; The family bathed by fetching water from clay pots. Even after the sons married and moved, they met every Sunday for family lunch.
Visitors were quick to notice that there were only one child's photos: Loong's.
“You found the best combination of our two DNAs,” Mr. Lee was telling local reporters. “Others also have a combination of both, but not as beneficial as him. It's lucky to be cheated.”
“He was the apple of my mother's eye, and she had ambitions for him,” Yang said of Loong. “I didn't argue with him, and I wasn't jealous or envious of him.”
In 2004, Loung became prime minister. At the time, Yang was the chief executive of Singapore's state-owned telecommunications company and said he had no political ambitions. That was about to change.
Demolition Debate
After the death of Mr. Lee, continued to live in the house with his daughter, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, neurologist. Mr. Lee died in March 2015, and his children gathered at the lodge the following month for a reading of his will.
The house was left to Loong, but Ling could continue to live there. When he was out, the house would be demolished. And if for some reason, the house wasn't demolished, he didn't want it open to the public.
Loong is blindfolded and will later come out publicly that he does not know about this last will. When the will was discussed, he became “aggressive” and “intimidating,” his sister wrote in an undisclosed email to a friend in May 2015. She added that Loong told his siblings that if they pursued the demolition clause, the government. he can intervene and declare this house as a national monument.
It was the last time Loong spoke to Ling and Yang, according to Yang.
The next day, Loong raised the issue in Parliament. He said he wanted to see his father's wishes come true, but “it will be up to the government of the time to consider this issue.”
A few months later, it seemed that the brothers had reached a decision. Yang bought a house from Loung for an undisclosed price.
But soon, the government established a committee to examine the methods of building this house. That marked the beginning of Yang's problems with the government.
The New Opposition
Loong told the panel he was “deeply concerned” that the demolition clause in the will was “re-inserted under questionable circumstances.” He asked if there was a conflict of interest with Lee Suet Fern, Yang's wife, who arranged the signing of the will.
For the younger siblings, it appears that the committee was “investigating the will,” Yang said, pointing out that the court declared it binding.
In a joint statement in 2017, Yang and Ling said they did not trust their brother as a leader. They said Loong and his wife were “milking Lee Kuan Yew's legacy for their own political purposes,” and had high ambitions for their son.
Loong responded in Parliament and said that he did not give instructions to the committee and said that the way he cooperated with the committee was his written answers to their requests.
He denied that he was the one who prepared the position for his son.
The government then accused Yang's wife of misconduct over the will. The disciplinary court ruled against her, saying that she and her husband had created a “complex structure of lies” during the trial.
A panel of three judges then ruled that he and Yang both lied under oath and sentenced him to 15 months in prison for misconduct. But it also issued a decision that he was not involved as Mr.'s lawyer. Lee, and that he was satisfied with his will.
For Yang, the People's Action Party had lost its way. He joined the Progress Singapore Party, a new opposition party, and considered running for president, a ceremonial position.
In 2022, the police asked to interview him and his wife, saying they were lying about bad behavior. The couple later agreed to be questioned, but soon left Singapore. It was not until 2023 that the minister revealed in Parliament that they were being investigated by the authorities.
In October, Yang arranged Ling's funeral from afar. Loong was not invited.
The walls of 38 Oxley Road are now cracked, and rust has eroded part of the gate. When a reporter knocked on the door on a recent Sunday, the housekeeper answered and said he was not at home.
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