“Demolish it after I die”, said Lee Kuan Yew. Not once, but twice on live broadcast. And of course, expressed again in his Last Will that he wrote deliberately keeping it from his eldest son.
Yet, Lee Hsien Loong is disputing that his father did not want 38 Oxley Road demolished. The Singapore’s most powerful man who controls the corruption bureau, election department and monetary reserves does not want the house demolished, and resorted to the legalised corruption method of appointing a “Ministerial Committee” keep the house, and even lied in his Statutory Declaration. The dishonourable son has no regard for his father’s wish, and with the aid of his legal fork-tongued gangster Shan and his obedient Attorney General Lucien Wong, the government is making legal provisions to stop the demolition. A revised Land Acquisition Act is all he needs.
The outgoing Prime Minister who said that he is retiring soon, turned criminal. So why?
Like Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Qin Shi Huang and all dictators in human history, Lee Hsien Loong wants a legacy and be deified. Lee Kuan Yew is known as the founding father of modern Singapore, and he wants a similar reputation. Lee Hsien Loong saw how Singaporeans cried their hearts out at his father’s funeral and he thought to himself:
“I want Singaporeans to cry at my funeral like they did for Pa.”
Photo of Singaporeans crying at Lee Kuan Yew funeral from New York Daily
Lee Hsien Loong has no love for the cranky century-old house, unlike his father, he never once lived there since he become Prime Minister. There is no emotion as ascertained by Lee Kuan Yew’s interview.
In fact, Lee Hsien Loong has no love for Lee Kuan Yew too. Throughout 2012 and 2013 when Lee Kuan Yew was alive, the frail 90-year-old elderly was repeatedly pestered and pressured by his Prime Minister son and had to re-write his will 6 times. Lee Hsien Loong does not care if his father is unwell, and like the spoilt brat he always been, he wanted his father to listen to him.
Then of course, Lee Kuan Yew gave Lee Hsien Loong the middle finger by hiding his Last Will from Lee Hsien Loong. The Prime Minister in his statutory declaration said that he had a shock to learn there was a 7th will.
38 Oxley Road is not only the abode of the Lee family, it also served as the regular meeting boardroom where PAP was first founded. Discussions for major policies and events like Independence were all held at 38 Oxley Road – making it the perfect temple to carry Lee Hsien Loong’s name.
Lee Hsien Loong has every tangible thing a despot wanted – money and power. However there is one thing he pursued all his life and never get: respect. Privately, his father never once acknowledged his work as Prime Minister, and his siblings have nothing good to say about him. Domestically, Singaporeans lament about the country deteriorating to an unrecognisable state and, regardless of political preference, whinged about returning to the “good old times” under his father. Internationally, major allies like US and China gave him a cold shoulder, and no country is willing to take Lee Hsien Loong seriously. At a price of S$2.2 million a year, Lee Hsien Loong might be the most expensive Prime Minister in the world but he couldn’t buy respect. He lives in the shadow of his father, often quoting Lee Kuan Yew to reinforce his argument.