A decision on Monday by Singapore’s government to preserve as a national monument the site of the family home of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is an expected outcome nearly a decade in the making, according to observers.
They also say it is still too early to tell if the latest resolution marked the end of a public feud between former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and his younger brother Lee Hsien Yang, centred on whether 38 Oxley Road should be demolished.
Following patriarch Lee’s death in 2015, his younger children, Lee Hsien Yang and the late Lee Wei Ling, made public their conflict with older brother Lee Hsien Loong in 2017, who they accused of trying to block the demolition of the home against their father’s wishes. The brothers have been estranged since.
Lee Hsien Yang, who said he had received asylum protection in the United Kingdom and who still owns the property, told This Week in Asia on Monday that he was considering his response, but argued: “Clearly they are denying the application to demolish the house by invoking the Preservations of Monuments Act. The entire house was a private space.”
The younger Lee brother had in 2024 applied to demolish the house after the death of his sister in October that year. But Singapore’s National Heritage Board (NHB) at the time said this would rule out a “proper and full consideration” of the options set out in a 2018 report by a ministerial committee for 38 Oxley Road.
Mustafa Izzuddin, senior international affairs analyst with Solaris Strategies Singapore, said the latest decision to gazette the site was one that many had envisioned.
