Lee family feud rekindled in Singapore
http://www.atimes.com/article/lee-family-feud-rekindled-in-singapore
The prime minister’s relationship with his siblings, meanwhile, became a major focus of public attention in Singapore following a bitter public quarrel over the fate of their parents’ bungalow last year. The younger Lee and his sister, Lee Wei Ling, publicly accused their elder brother of abusing his power to preserve their family home against the willed desire of their father, Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, to demolish the residence.
The siblings posted a searing six-page statement to their Facebook accounts last June alleging their elder brother “misused his power as prime minister” and “hijacked the organs of state to pursue his personal goals.”
They also accused Lee of harboring political ambitions for his son, Li Hongyi, and seeking to preserve the house to boost his political standing.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong with his son Li Hongyi. Photo: AFP Forum
Lee strongly denied the allegations made against him during a parliamentary debate last July, where he provided an account of events that led up to the dispute erupting into public view and expressed regret that the incident “affected Singapore’s reputation and Singaporeans’ confidence in the government.”
The premier said he did not intend to sue his siblings over the matter because doing so would “further besmirch” their parents’ names and create “distraction and distress,” adding that he would certainly sue for defamation in “any other imaginable circumstance.”
Public quarreling between the Lee family over the still-unresolved matter had since ceased. It is, however, common for Singapore’s leaders to file crippling legal actions they almost always win for alleged defamation.
Litigation against opposition politicians has forced prominent figures into bankruptcy and disqualified them from political candidacy. Defamation suits have also been filed against foreign media outlets and more recently been lodged against the editors of local online news platforms and independent bloggers.
The article now in legal question, originally published on November 5, alleged that Lee was a target of Malaysia’s criminal investigation into graft at the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state fund over alleged “secret deals” with then premier Najib Razak to launder pilfered funds through Singapore’s banking system.
“The predominant purpose of the claim is the use of the legal process to chill freedom of expression in Singapore generally and in particular to restrict reporting on any role the government may have had in the 1MDB scandal” said Leong’s lawyer, Lim Tean, an opposition politician and leader of the newly registered People’s Voice party.
Li Shengwu delivers a eulogy to his late grandfather Lee Kuan Yew on March 29, 2015 in Singapore in a screen grab photo from a Prime Minister’s Office video.
Leong isn’t the only person facing legal action over social media postings. Contempt of court proceedings against Lee Hsien Yang’s son, Li Shengwu, were brought by the Attorney General’s Chambers last August over a Facebook post where he accused Singapore’s government of being “very litigious” and having a “pliant court system.”
Li, a 33-year-old assistant professor at Harvard University, claimed in a Facebook post that he was “ambushed” with “court papers in public” while delivering a lecture in the United States last year and is expected to appeal a court order that permitted the serving of papers on grounds of challenging its jurisdiction to do so outside of Singapore.
While it remains to be seen whether the family feud that captivated many and distressed some Singaporeans will again break into the open, Lee Hsien Yang’s support for Leong’s legal fund amidst ongoing legal troubles faced by his son is indicative of the still-fraught relationship between the Lee siblings.
