Oh look, we didn’t even have to wait till the weekend for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to shoot back with a proper rebuttal to his siblings’ allegations of him abusing his power.
Presumably still away on family holiday, the PM Lee has asked his lawyers to release an extensive statement clarifying his side of the story in the conflict regarding what to do with Lee Kuan Yew’s house at 38 Oxley Road.
“I had hoped that I could defer considering this matter further until after I return from leave. But my siblings have continued to give interviews and make allegations against me. This makes it untenable for me not to respond publicly to the allegations and to explain why I have serious questions about how my father’s Last Will was prepared.”
We don’t know about you, but we’re getting tired of having to sit down and pore through all the Lee’s lawyer-vetted statements that go up to the thousands in word count. So go grab hot cuppa, sit down and read the prime minister’s dismissal of his siblings allegations here.
Here’s our best attempt at TL;DR-ing the wall of text:
The clause where it states that 38 Oxley Road is to be demolished appeared in the first draft of Lee Kuan Yew’s will, but it was taken out in later drafts. The clause found its way back in the final iteration of the will, and PM Lee only came to know about its contents only on Apr 12, 2015 — after his father’s death.
He grew suspicious about the changes made, so he dug through old emails and found out that his sister Dr Lee Wei Li also had her concerns that her younger brother Lee Hsien Yang and his wife “pulled a fast one” regarding the share of Lee Kuan Yew’s estate.
Till today, PM Lee remains concerned about the circumstances of how the Last Will was prepared, especially since there appeared to be a conflict on interest — Hsien Yang was a beneficiary of the will, and his wife was intimately involved in the signing of it.
“In fact, there is no evidence that Mr Lee even knew that the Demolition Clause had been re-inserted into the Last Will.”
There’re more details in the story of course, so feel free read through the original text to get the full picture.
Moments after PM Lee issued the statement, Hsien Yang issued his own rebuttals on Facebook.
Then his sister joined in, straight up calling PM Lee and his wife “mischievous” and “dishonest” to selectively user her quotes on of context. She claimed that both of ‘em were unhappy that she was given the right to live at the Oxley Road house, to the point that they “pushed and persuaded” Lee Kuan Yew about the issue. It resulted in her losing the right to stay at the house, and her share being reduced to only a life interest — and it was Hsien Yang’s wife who helped get her rights and shares reinstated.
And now the country awaits further rebuttals to each other’s rebuttals; we did warn you that you’re gonna need to stock up on popcorn.
