Lee Wei Ling, Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter, dies aged 69

SINGAPORE - Dr Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, has died aged 69, four years after being diagnosed with a rare, degenerative brain disorder.

Her death was disclosed by her younger brother Lee Hsien Yang in a Facebook post at 5.50 am on Oct 9.

Dr Lee, the second of three children, is also the sister of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

A neurologist who headed the National Neuroscience Institute as director from 2004 to 2014, Dr Lee was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy in 2020.

The condition affects physical movements, walking, balance and eye movements and eventually swallowing, and can lead to serious complications such as pneumonia and choking.

Announcing her diagnosis in a Facebook post on Aug 8, 2020, Dr Lee described it as a “rather nasty brain disease” that will result in death “for the fortunate”. 

Yet she appeared to have dealt with it with the stoicism she displayed in her writings, and had said in her post: “My immediate reaction to the news was “忍”(ren),  or endure in Chinese, of which the traditional character has a knife above a heart.  I have been practicing “忍” since I was in Chinese school, recognising that life has many unpleasant, unavoidable situations.

“It would be nice if this entire episode turns out to be a nightmare and that I will wake up. But it is getting increasingly real and inescapable every day.”  

Born in 1955 into one of Singapore’s most well-known families, Dr Lee was the only daughter and middle child of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Madam Kwa Geok Choo.

Her father became Singapore’s founding prime minister the year she turned four.

Dr Lee’s achievements were chronicled in newspaper articles over the years, such as when she became one of the youngest Singaporeans to attain a black belt in karate in 1970, and when she graduated top of her class year after year and became a President’s Scholar in 1973.

In an interview with the Today newspaper in 2003, she spoke of being a role model for national policies when she was young.

“I had to be very effective at being bilingual because I had to prove that the bilingual policy was going to be a successful policy. I had to take a third language in addition. I had to try and do well academically. I had to be a cadet because that time was the days of the rugged society, remember? I had to be a model to other students,” she had said.

In his Facebook post on Oct 9, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said Dr Lee died at home, and that details of the funeral arrangements will be announced soon.

“At our father’s funeral in 2015, Ling closed her eulogy thus ‘I can’t break down (and cry), I am a Hakka woman.’ Ling, I am less stoic than you,” he wrote.

He also included a quote from The Lord of the Rings.

Mr Lee requested no flowers to be sent, adding that donations to charities such as Canossa Mission Singapore, Parkinson Society Singapore and Total Well-Being SG would be meaningful to Dr Lee.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.