Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong teared up while speaking towards the end of today’s parliamentary seesion.
He was recounting what his late father Lee Kuan Yew had told him as a child – to take care of the family in case anything happened to him.
Prior to this, PM Lee had addressed allegations that he had fooled LKY into thinking that the government intended to gazette the 38 Oxley Road house.
Lee Hsien Yang said that if not for this trickery, Lee Kuan Yew would not have agreed to add another condition to the demolition clause in his will – that the house should never be open to the public in the event that the government decides that it should not be torn down (screenshots attached below).
To this, PM Lee said that he didn’t deceive his father.
“After meeting Cabinet on the 21st of July 2011, Mr Lee asked me for my view of what the government would do with the house after he died. I gave him my honest assessment. I told him ‘You’ve met the cabinet, you’ve heard the ministers’ views. If I chair the cabinet meeting, given that these are the vies of the ministers and the public, I think it would be very hard for me to override them and knock the house down. I would have to agree that the house has to be gazetted, to be kept. And if I’m not the PM or I don’t chair the meeting, all the more likely that the house will be gazetted.’ He understood.”
Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Dr Lee Wei Ling have accused PM Lee of obstructing the demolition of 38 Oxley Road to milk the legacy of LKY so as to boost his own popularity.
They have called him a “dishonourable son” who is out to build a “family cult”, and alleged that he had been preparing for his son, Lee Hongyi, to enter politics.
PM Lee has denied those allegations.
