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Singapore’s 38 Oxley Road: will latest move to gazette site end Lee family feud?

Lee Hsien Yang, the younger son of founding PM Lee Kuan Yew, in a Facebook statement accuses the government of disrespecting his father’s legacy

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The home of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew on 38 Oxley Road. The city state’s government is set to preserve the site as a national monument. Photo: AFP
Jean IauandKolette Lim
A decision on Monday by Singapore’s government to preserve as a national monument the site of the family home of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is an expected outcome nearly a decade in the making, according to observers.
They also say it is still too early to tell if the latest resolution marked the end of a public feud between former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and his younger brother Lee Hsien Yang, centred on whether 38 Oxley Road should be demolished.

Following patriarch Lee’s death in 2015, his younger children, Lee Hsien Yang and the late Lee Wei Ling, made public their conflict with older brother Lee Hsien Loong in 2017, who they accused of trying to block the demolition of the home against their father’s wishes. The brothers have been estranged since.

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Lee Hsien Yang, who claimed he had received asylum protection in the United Kingdom and who still owns the property, late on Monday night posted a statement on Facebook saying the Singapore government had “chosen to trample on Lee Kuan Yew’s unwavering wish to demolish his private house”.

“Lee Kuan Yew was opposed to monuments,” he added in the post, accusing the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) of disrespecting his father’s “legacy and values”.

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Lee earlier on Monday told This Week in Asia he was still considering his response, but argued: “Clearly they are denying the application to demolish the house by invoking the Preservations of Monuments Act. The entire house was a private space.”

The younger Lee brother had in 2024 applied to demolish the house after the death of his sister in October that year. But Singapore’s National Heritage Board (NHB) at the time said this would rule out a “proper and full consideration” of the options set out in a 2018 report by a ministerial committee for 38 Oxley Road.
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