SINGAPORE: Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest son of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, has announced that he is applying to demolish the house at 38 Oxley Road, nearly a week after the passing of his sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling.
“To honour my parents’ last wishes, I am applying to demolish the house at 38 Oxley Road and thereafter to build a small private dwelling, to be held within the family in perpetuity,” Hsien Yang stated in a Facebook post on Tuesday, noting that he is the sole legal owner of the house.
Wei Ling resided in the house until her passing on Oct 9.
The home of the late prime minister from the 1940s until his death in 2015 is at the centre of a public feud between his eldest son, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and his two siblings over its use and demolition.
Hsien Yang, 67, mentioned that he is the only living executor of his father’s estate following Wei Ling’s passing.
“In his will, he wished for the house to be demolished ‘immediately after’ Wei Ling moved out. It is my duty to carry out his wishes to the fullest extent of the law.
“Lee Hsien Loong stated 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 said.
Historically significant, it was in the basement dining room of the property that the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) was formed in 1954. It also served as the party’s de facto office until the PAP secured its own headquarters.
A ministerial committee report on 38 Oxley Road in 2018 outlined a range of options for the property.
The various options -- either to retain the property as a National Monument, to preserve the dining room while demolishing the rest, or to allow the property to be fully demolished and redeveloped -- are intended to assist a future government in making an informed and considered decision when the need arises.
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