October 16, 2024
SINGAPORE – Mr Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, said he will be applying to demolish his family’s house at 38 Oxley Road to build a small private dwelling.
In a Facebook post on Oct 15, Mr Lee Hsien Yang, who is the younger brother of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said he intends for the dwelling to then “be held within the family in perpetuity”.
The authorities have not received any application in respect to the house, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said in a joint statement on the same day, in response to queries.
Separately, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said it has taken note of Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s post.
“(The) Government will carefully consider issues related to the property in due course, taking into account Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s wishes and the public interest, including considering any applications with regard to the property,” said an MND spokesman.
To demolish the house at 38 Oxley Road, Mr Lee Hsien Yang requires approval for building works from the BCA, as well as planning permission from the URA.
His announcement follows the death of his sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling, on Oct 9.
A dispute between the siblings over the house was made public in 2017 by Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee, who were the joint administrators and executors of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s will – a section of which dealt with the fate of 38 Oxley Road.
The two younger siblings alleged that SM Lee, then the prime minister, wanted the pre-war one-storey bungalow preserved for his political gain, against their father’s wishes.
But SM Lee refuted their accusations in a ministerial statement in Parliament, after having raised “grave concerns” over the “troubling circumstances” around the preparation of their late father’s final will.
The house now belongs solely to Mr Lee Hsien Yang after SM Lee sold it to him in 2015 at market value on the condition that they both donated half of the value to charity. SM Lee donated 100 per cent of his proceeds, saying later that it was important that the family be seen to not be benefiting financially from the house.
The house had originally been left to SM Lee by their father.
In 2018, a ministerial committee led by SM Teo Chee Hean recommended three options for the house, leaving the decision up to a “future government”.
They were: to preserve the property and gazette it for conservation or as a national monument; to retain the basement dining room, which has the most historical significance, and tear down the rest of the property; or to allow the property to be demolished fully for redevelopment.
In its report, the committee noted that the house was “where meetings took place that led to the formation of the first independent government for Singapore, and altered the destiny of the country”.
The basement dining room is of particular significance, as it was where the ruling People’s Action Party was formed in 1954.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew started renting the house in the mid-1940s and purchased it later in 1965. He lived there until his death in 2015.
SM Lee, who recused himself from the committee, said subsequently that he accepted its conclusions, but that there was no need to make an immediate decision as long as his sister continued to live there. Dr Lee’s death on Oct 9 means the house has become unoccupied.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang reasserted his claim on the property on Oct 15.
“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,” he wrote in his post.
“Lee Hsien Loong said in Parliament in 2015 that when Wei Ling passed, it would be up to ‘the Government of the day’ to decide whether to allow demolition. It has been nine years. That day is today,” he added.