PUBLISHED ONOctober 25, 2024 3:04 AMByClaudia TanKhoo Yi-HangLee Hsien Yang is creating "false urgency" for the demolition of 38 Oxley Road amid claims that he knows are inaccurate, the Singapore government said on Friday (Oct 25).
This comes after Lee appealed to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to demolish 38 Oxley Road in a Facebook post on Friday (Oct 25) morning saying: "The decision on 38 Oxley Road is your responsibility."
The National Heritage Board (NHB) had earlier this week announced that they would conduct a study on the house to determine if it should be preserved.
In response, the Singapore government stated that the late Lee Kuan Yew had previously accepted that the property at 38 Oxley Road may be preserved.
"Cabinet members were unanimous that 38 Oxley Road should not be demolished," the late Lee wrote in his letter dated December 2011. "I have reflected on this and decided that if 38 Oxley Road is to be preserved, it needs to have its foundations reinforced and the whole building refurbished."
In a press statement on Friday night, a Singapore government spokesperson from the Ministry of Digital Development and Information said that Lee Kuan Yew's views are quite clear, and that his preference was for the property to be demolished.
"But he accepted that it need not be demolished, and he gave his views on how the property ought to be preserved. All of this is set out in the Report of the Ministerial Committee on 38 Oxley Road ("Report"), published in April 2018," the spokesperson added.
And having accepted that the property may be preserved, Lee Kuan Yew also submitted renovation and redevelopment plans for the property, and obtained approval from URA, said the spokesperson.
Lee Hsien Yang "knows that what he says is inaccurate", the spokesperson added, saying that he is "trying to create a false urgency by pushing for the immediate demolition of the property".
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The Singapore government also stated that Lee and his wife, Lee Suet Fern, had misled the late Lee on the execution of his will and that the duo had lied under oath.
In findings made by the Court of Three Judges in November 2020 and a Disciplinary Tribunal in February 2020, it was determined that Lee and his wife had presented an "elaborate edifice of lies … both on oath … and through their public and other statements".
Additionally, the court and Tribunal also stated that Lee and his wife had contrived the affidavits to "present a false picture" and that "several of the lies were quite blatant".
The tribunal also found that Lee and his wife wanted to get the late Lee to execute his last will quickly, and the latter "ended up signing a document which was in fact not that which he had indicated he wished to sign".
Acknowledging that there is a "range of views among Singaporeans on what to do with the property", the government also expressed their intention to keep options open with the property at present, giving time for the current and future generations of Singaporeans to decide.
"Instead of closing all options now, we should keep the options open and consider them carefully, in the fullness of time, taking into account Mr LKY’s wishes, the historical value of the site and what it can mean for current and future generations of Singaporeans," the spokesperson said.
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