Son of Singapore’s founder forced to flee to UK after family home rift

Lee Hsien Yang granted asylum after city-state’s government launch “bogus” investigation against him and bring legal action against his wife

The youngest son of Singapore’s founder Lee Kuan Yew has been granted asylum in the UK after suffering years of alleged persecution by a regime then headed by his older brother.
Lee Hsien Yang said he was forced to flee the country after the government went after him amid a long-running family rift over the fate of his late father’s home.
Under his brother’s 20-year rule, which ended in May, Lee, 67, said that authorities prosecuted his son, brought legal action against his wife and launched a “bogus” investigation against him.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, he added that fleeing to the UK two years ago was his “last resort”.
He revealed he was given asylum in August after Britain determined he faces “a well-founded risk of persecution, and cannot safely return to Singapore”.
It is the latest twist in the high-profile feud among the city-state’s most influential family that follows Lee’s endorsement of the opposition party during the 2020 elections and announcement he might run for president last year.
“Despite the very advanced economic prosperity that Singapore has, there’s a dark side to it, that the government is repressive,” Lee told The Guardian. “What people think, that this is some kind of paradise – it isn’t.”
His brother Lee Hsien Loong remains in the cabinet in the post of senior minister, a role also held by his father, who in 1959 secured the former British colony’s independence.
Over the next three decades, Lee Kuan Yew – described as the “democratic world’s favourite dictator” – oversaw the state’s rapid rise from an economic backwater to a global trade and financial centre.
His rule also included the imprisonment of hundreds of opposition figures and crackdowns on social and press freedoms.
Lee and his sister Lee Wei Ling, who passed away on Oct 9, have had an estranged relationship with their brother since 2015 after the siblings disagreed over how to handle their father’s home following his death.
Lee Kuan Yew said he wanted his home to be demolished to avoid it becoming a monument to him and Lee Hsien Yang and his sister agreed with their father’s proposal.
But upon his father’s death, Lee Hsien Loong claimed their father was open to the Singaporean government determining how to deal with his house, including retaining it as a heritage landmark.
The family rift snowballed into legal actions against the younger Lee’s family. In 2017, his son was fined 15,000 Singaporean dollars over his Facebook comments claiming Singapore had a “pliant court system”.
The following year, Lee’s wife was accused of acting inappropriately with regard to Lee Kuan Yew’s will.
In May, Lee was ordered to pay damages to two cabinet ministers over online posts over ministers’ renting state properties. Lee said the allegations were politically motivated and likely led by his older brother.
In response to his allegations, Singapore’s government said the persecution claim was baseless and unfounded, Channel NewsAsia reported.