Rilek1Corner

Tag: political ambitions

  • PM Lee Hsien Loong ‘Saddened’ By Statement From Siblings Lee Wei Ling And Lee Hsien Yang

    PM Lee Hsien Loong ‘Saddened’ By Statement From Siblings Lee Wei Ling And Lee Hsien Yang

    Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has expressed his disappointment and sadness over a statement issued by his siblings “publicising private family matters”.

    “I am deeply saddened by the unfortunate allegations that they have made. Ho Ching and I deny these allegations, especially the absurd claim that I have political ambitions for my son,” said Mr Lee, in response to a six-page public statement issued by his siblings on Wednesday (June 14).

    Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang had said in their statement that they had lost confidence in their brother, PM Lee.

    In response, PM Lee said: “While siblings may have differences, I believe that any such differences should stay in the family. Since my father’s passing in March 2015, as the eldest son I have tried my best to resolve the issues among us within the family, out of respect for our parents. My siblings’ statement has hurt our father’s legacy. ”

    In their statement, which they publicised on their Facebook pages around 2am, the two siblings said they felt closely monitored and fear the use of organs of state against them and Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, Suet Fern.

    They also said the situation is such that Mr Lee Hsien Yang felt compelled to leave Singapore “for the foreseeable future”.

    The two siblings allege, among others, that since their father Lee Kuan Yew’s death on March 23, 2015, there have been changes in Singapore that do not reflect what the late Mr Lee stood for.

    At the centre of their statement, titled ‘What has happened to Lee Kuan Yew’s values?’, is the long-running dispute over the demolition of their father’s house at 38 Oxley Road.

    The two siblings are joint executors and trustees of the estate of the late Mr Lee.

    In their statement, they reiterated their father’s wish that the house be demolished upon his passing, and said their brother and his wife Ho Ching had opposed this wish as “the preservation of the house would enhance his political capital”.

    The two siblings also alleged that preserving the house would allow their brother “and his family to inherit a tangible monument to Lee Kuan Yew’s authority”.

    Prime Minister Lee responded to this by saying: “I will do my utmost to continue to do right by my parents. At the same time, I will continue serving Singaporeans honestly and to the best of my ability. In particular that means upholding meritocracy, which is a fundamental value of our society.”

    The statement from the siblings came 1 1/2 years after Dr Lee, Mr Lee Hsien Yang, and PM Lee issued a joint statement in Dec 2015 saying the brothers had each agreed to donate half the value of 38 Oxley Road to charities named in their father’s obituary notice.

    Dr Lee and Mr Lee Hsien Yang had said they would like to honour their father’s wish for the house to be demolished after Dr Lee ceases to live in it.

    PM Lee had said he had recused himself from all government decisions involving the house and, in his personal capacity, would also like to see this wish honoured.

    This morning, he ended his response by saying: “As my siblings know, I am presently overseas on leave with my family. I will consider this matter further after I return this weekend.”

     

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/

  • Lee Hsien Loong On His Children And Their Political Inclinations

    Lee Hsien Loong On His Children And Their Political Inclinations

    Although grownup, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says his four children are, “at the moment”, not interested to enter politics.

    PM Lee shared this in a televised Mandarin interview with Chinese television host Yang Lan ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing in the first week of November. When asked if he would specially encourage or lead them in that direction, he said his children “have to find their own path in life”.

    “They have to choose [their lives], because a child’s personality and aptitude have to be taken into consideration,” he said, in a transcript translated by national newspaper The Straits Times. “Every child is different, parents would of course wish that their children can fly high, but they all have different natures, some may be more inclined towards the arts, some may be more interested in computers or science, this will have to be developed according to their interests.”

    Not much is known about PM Lee’s children, the first two of whom — 34-year-old Li Xiuqi and 32-year-old Li Yipeng — were born to his first wife Wong Ming Yang, who passed away after a heart attack, three weeks after she gave birth to Yipeng, an albino. His two sons with his current wife Ho Ching, whom he married three years later, are 27-year-old Li Hongyi and Lee Haoyi, now 25 years old.

    Lee’s third child Hongyi made the news in 2007, while he was serving his National Service, when he sidestepped the usual chain of command to file a lengthy complaint in an email sent to senior military officers and then-Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean. Li, a Public Service Commission scholarship holder, studied economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then spent two years working as a product manager at internet giant Google, as part of a programme allowing scholars to spend a stint in the private sector before starting work in the Public Service. He later returned to Singapore, where he now works at the Infocomm Development Authority as a consultant. According to his LinkedIn profile, he started work there a year ago.

    Lee’s father, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, revealed in a dialogue in 2008 that Hongyi had written to his younger brother, Haoyi, to advise him not to take up a scholarship — this after Haoyi had scored 43 out of a possible 45 in his International Baccalaureate exams. Lee’s sister, Lee Wei Ling, wrote in a 2011 column that Haoyi had later joined his brother at MIT. According to his Facebook page, Haoyi interned at Facebook and also spent time at Dropbox.

     

    Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com