Singapore ministers slam Lee Hsien Yang’s ‘rich’ claim linking Lee Kuan Yew to suit

Ministers Vivian Balakrishnan and K. Shanmugam took issue with Lee Hsien Yang’s Facebook post about their defamation suit against him

Reading Time:2 minutes

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan (left) and Law Minister K. Shanmugam are seen in this composite picture. Photo: dpa, SCMP

Published: 2:28pm, 1 Oct 2024Updated: 4:12pm, 1 Oct 2024

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Law Minister K. Shanmugam have sharply refuted assertions by Lee Hsien Yang, the son of founding father Lee Kuan Yew, linking a defamation case to the legacy of his late father and the city state’s first prime minister.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Lee, the estranged younger brother of former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, revealed he paid S$619,335.53 (US$481,644) in damages to the two ministers in what he claimed was to honour his father’s wishes regarding 38 Oxley Road, where his sister Wei Ling was residing.

“This was to allow Wei Ling, who is ill, to continue to stay at the house,” he wrote.

Lee also said the amount was “equivalent to 13.6 months” worth of rent for two other houses on Ridout Road that were at the centre of the defamation suit filed by the two ministers against him last year.

On Tuesday, the ministers published social media posts arguing that “the defamation cases had nothing to do” with Lee Kuan Yew or his family home, the subject of a long-standing dispute between the Lee siblings.

Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of Singapore’s former PM Lee Hsien Loong, leaves the Supreme Court at a hearing in 2017. Photo: AFP

That row centred on Lee Hsien Loong – when he was still prime minister – advocating that the government determine the property’s future, while his siblings Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling have maintained that the house should be demolished, in accordance with what they said was their father’s wish.