SINGAPORE – The ministerial committee tasked with considering options for the 38 Oxley Road house did not disclose its considerations to the siblings of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang, PM Lee’s younger brother, said this in a Facebook post on Wednesday (June 28) morning. He was responding to a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean put out on Tuesday night.
In that statement, DPM Teo said both he and Mr Lee Hsien Yang had spoken of “a range of viable intermediate options” for the house, with a memorial park being built on the site being on of them.
But in his post on Wednesday, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said all discussions with DPM Teo “about options for the house occurred long before the formation of the committee and only with him in his personal capacity”.
“The committee did not disclose the options they were considering in our prior exchanges, unlike what DPM Teo implies now. Their letters largely focused on parroting LHL’s attacks on our father’s will,” wrote Mr Lee Hsien Yang.
Both he and his sister Dr Lee Wei Ling are executors of their father Lee Kuan Yew’s will.
In his statement on Tuesday, DPM Teo said that the ministerial committee was not bent on preventing the demolition of the house, as Mr Lee Hsien Yang may believe.
Mr Teo also said he had verbally told Mr Lee Hsien Yang his personal views on some of the options, like demolishing the house but keeping the basement dining room with a heritage centre attached.
“My objective was to let him know that the Government was not bent on retaining the house as he seems to believe, but that we are calmly and objectively examining a range of options,” he said.