Chief of Government Communications of Ministry of Communications and Information, was revealed to have written in an email in 2011 condemning those who deny Lee Kuan Yew’s will to demolish 38 Oxley Road. According to leaked content from Lee Kuan Yew’s email archive, chief propagandist Janadas Devan wrote on 28 July 2011:
“Saw MM (Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew) today. First meeting on Oxley book, together with team. He was in good form. He said house will be torn down. It is obvious that is what he wants. It will be a small minded people that denies him his personal wish. I think he’s wrong wishing it, but I’d feel awful denying him what he obviously wants.”
Contrary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s lie in his statutory declaration, the above email testified that Lee Kuan Yew, when alive, has never been wavering about demolishing his 38 Oxley Road house:
“(Lee Kuan Yew) came to accept Cabinet’s position.”
However, the chief propagandist changed his tune today in his response and criticised Lee Wei Ling for posting a “tabloid-style misleading information”:
“Dear Wei Ling:Your latest post blares, tabloid-style, misleading information. Having edited you for many years, I know this is not your style.
The email you quote was written when I was Associate Editor of Straits Times, not Chief of Government Communications. And as you know well, I had met Mr Lee Kuan Yew with a few other journalists to discuss a book that he had proposed on 38 Oxley Rd.
When he met us in July 2011, he made plain that he wanted the house to be demolished. But as the months and years passed, the nature of the project changed as it became less definitive whether the house would be demolished – and if so, when.
For example, we were told that you will be staying in the house for as long as you live. Then I learnt plans to build a model of the interior of 38 Oxley Rd was dropped – because, I gathered, Mr Lee was considering plans to gut the interior of the house altogether to remove traces of the private space.
There was no doubt then or now that Mr Lee’s preference was to demolish the house. But as the shifting instructions we heard from the family in 2011-12 – including from you – indicated, the fate of the house had by no means been decided at that point.
I ceased to be involved in the Oxley Rd book project in July 2012, when I left ST. My personal view remains that Mr Lee’s wish to demolish 38 Oxley Rd should be granted the moment you are no longer living in it, which may be 20, 30 or more years in the future.”
Representing Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister of State Indranee Rajah has in recent week taken over the baton attacking the PM’s brother Lee Hsien Yang. Minister Indranee Rajah tried to distract the focus claiming that the government is not asking for Lee Wei Ling to move out and intentionally mislead the public saying that “there is no need to make a decision now”. However, this contradicts the will’s clause that ensures a demolition is a confirmation after Lee Wei Ling no longer lives in the house, and that the demolition is not subjected to government’s decision.
Lee Hsien Yang pointed out that Lee Hsien Loong made public his decision to defy the will when the latter said “the government of the day will decide”:
“On 13 April 2015, PM Lee stated that since Wei Ling intended to continue living in the house, it was for the “government of the day” to decide. Beyond the committee’s opening letters, the committee was focussed primarily on parroting LHL’s attacks on our father’s will, and in particular, clause 7. (Just as SMS Indranee does now.) This was clearly an abuse of power by LHL. SMS Indranee is pretending that the secret committee had an open discussion with Lee Kuan Yew’s Estate about options for the house. Nothing could be further from the truth. The committee refused to state either the options it was considering or its final deliverable.”
PM Lee Hsien Loong has since called for his PAP-dominated Parliament to assess whether if the PM is guilty for conflict of interest, next Monday (3rd July). The Parliament is expected to clear the dictator PM from corruption and criminalise the PM’s siblings over their criticisms on the PM.