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URLhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/world/asia/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html
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Meta TitleWhy Singapore’s First Family Is Locked in a Bitter Feud Over a House - The New York Times
Meta DescriptionA son of the country’s founding father says he has been persecuted by the government because of a feud with his older brother, who until May was prime minister.
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Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT A son of the country’s founding father says he has been persecuted by the government because of a feud with his older brother, who until May was prime minister. Lee Hsien Yang says he sought asylum in Britain because of a dispute with his brother, a former prime minister of Singapore. He now lives in London, where he was photographed in November. Credit... Andrew Testa for The New York Times Sui-Lee Wee Sui-Lee Wee interviewed members of the Lee family as well as relatives and close family friends, and reviewed more than 1,000 pages of emails between the siblings and their statements to ministers. Jan. 11, 2025 The bungalow was built for a Dutch trader in colonial times, but it has become part of modern Singaporean lore. It was where Lee Kuan Yew lived for decades, where he started his political party and where he began building Singapore into one of the richest countries in the world. Mr. Lee had said that he wanted the house to be demolished after he died rather than preserved as a museum, with the public “trampling” through his private quarters. But the wording of his will left the property’s fate in limbo and caused a rift between his three children — one that reflects an intensifying debate over Singapore’s semi-authoritarian political system. Now, an extraordinary voice has joined those who complain that the city-state’s prosperity has come at the cost of a government that lacks accountability: one of Mr. Lee’s own children. “The idea that one good man at the center can control this, and you just rely on his benevolence to ensure that everything is right, doesn’t work,” Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child, who wants to honor his father’s wishes for the house, said in a recent interview with The New York Times from London. After Lee Kuan Yew’s death in 2015, the eldest child, by then Singapore’s prime minister, argued that his father’s instructions for the bungalow were ambiguous. His siblings wanted it demolished, though one continued to live in the house, and as long as she did, its fate remained unresolved. Then, after her death in October, the dispute resurfaced — and escalated sharply. Lee Hsien Yang, called Yang by his parents and siblings, announced that he had obtained political asylum in Britain because he feared being unfairly imprisoned in Singapore over the disagreement. Image The Lees lived in the house at 38 Oxley Road for years before buying it. Their association with the bungalow has given it historical significance. Credit... Edgar Su/Reuters Yang said his brother — Lee Hsien Loong , who stepped down in May as prime minister — had abused his power in the conflict over the house. Yang, 67, described what he called a pattern of persecution by the Singapore government in recent years. In 2020, his son was charged with contempt of court for criticizing Singapore’s courts in a private Facebook post. That year, his wife, a lawyer who had arranged for the witnesses at the signing of the patriarch’s will, was barred from practicing law for 15 months. Then the couple faced a police inquiry about lying under oath. In 2022, they left Singapore. In October, Yang announced that Britain had granted his asylum request, ruling that he and his wife “have a well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to your country.” Singapore’s government rejected the claims, saying that the couple was free to return home. It said it was accountable to voters and an independent judiciary. Yang, it added, was engaged in “an extravagant personal vendetta” against his brother, Loong. Loong, 72, who now holds the title of senior minister, declined to comment because he has recused himself from the matter of the house. For Yang, the yearslong dispute is proof that there are “fundamental problems in the way Singapore is governed and run.” Image Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child of Lee Kuan Yew, has criticized the system of government his father installed in the city-state. Credit... Andrew Testa for The New York Times Yang acknowledged that his father had detained opposition politicians and union leaders, but said that he “had the best interests of the country at heart.” The People’s Action Party has governed Singapore with a tight grip for nearly 70 years. And years after the founding father’s death, it continues to praise his legacy. This, some analysts say, has left Singapore at a crossroads. “Are we able to move on?” said Ja Ian Chong, who teaches political science at the National University of Singapore. “Or are we still stuck with this relatively brittle, big-man kind of approach to politics?” Lee Kuan Yew transformed a colonial outpost into an economic powerhouse in a generation. He made no bones about intervening in the lives of Singaporeans and prioritized the community over the individual — a notion that some observers say points to the irony of the family feud. He “understood that the government would have to preserve the house if it decided that was in the public interest,” Loong wrote in a 2016 letter to Lawrence Wong, who was part of a government committee created to consider options for the property, and is now prime minister. That panel concluded that the bungalow had historical significance, and that Lee Kuan Yew had been amenable to its preservation. But polls indicate that most Singaporeans want it torn down. In October, the government said it was again studying whether to preserve the circa 1898 house. ‘The Best Combination’ For decades, Lee Kuan Yew’s family appeared to be as orderly as the state he ran. His wife, Kwa Geok Choo, was in charge of the household at 38 Oxley Road, in one of Singapore’s most expensive areas. In the 1950s, Mr. Lee and a group of friends set up his political party, the P.A.P., in the basement dining room. Most of the house was spartan. The furniture was old and mismatched; the family bathed by scooping water from earthenware vessels . Even after the sons had married and moved out, they gathered every Sunday for family lunch. Visitors were quick to notice that only one child’s photographs were displayed: Loong’s. “He got the best combination of our two DNAs,” Mr. Lee would tell local journalists. “The others have also combinations of both, but not in as advantageous a way as he has. It’s the luck of the draw.” Image Lee Hsien Loong, second row third from left, was blindsided by his father’s final will, which caused a dispute among Lee Kuan Yew’s children. Here they are arriving for his state funeral in 2015: the sons Yang and Loong, with their wives, Lee Suet Fern and Ho Ching, and the daughter, Lee Wei Ling, right. Credit... Joseph Nair/Associated Press “He was the apple of my mother’s eye, and she had ambitions for him,” Yang said of Loong. “I was never antagonistic with him, neither did I have any jealousy or envy of him.” In 2004, Loong became prime minister. Yang at the time was the chief executive of Singapore’s state-owned phone company and said that he harbored no political ambitions. That would change. Demolition Debate After Mr. Lee’s wife died, he continued to live in the house with his daughter, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, a neurologist. Mr. Lee died in March 2015, and his children gathered at the bungalow the following month for the reading of his will. The house was left to Loong, but Ling could continue to live there. Once she moved out, the house was to be torn down. And if for some reason, the house was not demolished, he did not want it to be open to the public. Loong was blindsided and would later say publicly that he did not know about this final will. When the will was being discussed, he became “aggressive” and “threatening,” his sister wrote in a previously undisclosed email to a friend in May 2015. She added that Loong told his younger siblings that if they pursued the demolition clause, the government would intervene and declare the house a national monument. It was the last time Loong spoke with Ling and Yang, according to Yang. The next day, Loong raised the matter in Parliament. He said that he wanted to see his father’s wishes carried out, but that “it will be up to the government of the day to consider the matter.” Image Lee Hsien Loong, pictured in 2016, is the eldest child of Lee Kuan Yew and followed in his father’s footsteps to become prime minister of Singapore. His younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang, accuses him of abusing his power in a dispute over their father’s house. Credit... Wong Maye-E/Associated Press A few months later, it appeared that the siblings had reached a resolution. Yang bought the house from Loong for an undisclosed price. But soon, the government formed a committee to explore options for the house. That marked the start of Yang’s troubles with the state. New Opposition Party Loong told the panel that he was “very concerned” that the demolition clause in the will was “reinserted under dubious circumstances.” He asked whether there was a conflict of interest for Lee Suet Fern, Yang’s wife, who had organized the signing of the will. To the younger siblings, it appeared that the committee was “conducting an inquisition into the will,” Yang said, pointing out that a court had declared it as binding. In a joint statement in 2017, Yang and Ling said that they did not trust their brother as a leader. They said that Loong and his wife were milking “Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy for their own political purposes,” and harbored dynastic ambitions for their son. Loong responded in Parliament, saying that he did not give instructions to the committee and that his only dealings with the panel were his responses to their requests in writing. He has denied grooming his son for office. Then the government accused Yang’s wife of professional misconduct over the will. A disciplinary tribunal ruled against her, saying she and her husband had built an “elaborate edifice of lies” during the proceedings. A three-judge panel then ruled that Yang’s wife, Ms. Lee, gave “a contrived and ultimately untrue account of her role” in the will, and suspended her for 15 months for misconduct. But it also ruled that she had not been acting as Mr. Lee’s lawyer, and that he had been content with his will. Image Lee Hsien Yang briefly joined a party that put him in opposition to his brother, Loong, Singapore’s prime minister at the time. Here, Yang was campaigning in 2020 ahead of the general elections in Singapore that year. Credit... Wallace Woon/EPA, via Shutterstock For Yang, the People’s Action Party had lost its way. He joined the Progress Singapore Party, a new opposition group, and considered running for president, a ceremonial post. In 2022, the police asked to interview him and his wife, saying they had lied in the misconduct proceedings. The couple agreed to be questioned at a later date, but soon left Singapore. It was not until 2023 that a minister revealed in Parliament that they were being investigated by the authorities. In October, Yang organized Ling’s funeral from afar. Loong was not invited. The walls of 38 Oxley Road are now cracked, and rust has eroded part of the gate. When a reporter rang the doorbell on a recent Sunday, a housekeeper answered and said nobody was home. A correction was made on Jan. 11, 2025 :  An earlier version of this article misstated the outcome of an investigation into possible misconduct in the handling of Lee Kuan Yew’s will. A panel of judges ruled that Lee Suet Fern, Mr. Lee’s daughter-in-law, had given “a contrived and ultimately untrue account of her role” in the will; it did not rule that she and her husband, Lee Hsien Yang, had lied under oath. Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times, overseeing coverage of 11 countries in the region. A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 12, 2025 , Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Singapore’s First Family Is Stuck in a Bitter Feud Over a House . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe Related Content More in Asia Pacific Alex Wong/Getty Images Fisheries Agency Of Japan, via Reuters Image by Pool photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon Editors’ Picks Jake Michaels for The New York Times Nicolas Ortega Trending in The Times Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Jon Elswick/Associated Press Victor J. Blue for The New York Times Cassidy Araiza for The New York Times Brian Blomerth Philip Gay for The New York Times Tom Brenner/Associated Press Grade Solomon The New York Times William B. Plowman/NBC Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
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[Skip to content](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/world/asia/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html#site-content)[Skip to site index](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/world/asia/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html#site-index) Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation Search [Asia Pacific](https://www.nytimes.com/section/world/asia) [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fsubscription%2Fonboarding-offer%3FcampaignId%3D7JFJX%26EXIT_URI%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2025%252F01%252F11%252Fworld%252Fasia%252Fsingapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html&asset=masthead) Saturday, February 14, 2026 [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) [Asia Pacific](https://www.nytimes.com/section/world/asia)\|Why Singapore’s First Family Is Locked in a Bitter Feud Over a House https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/world/asia/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html - Share full article Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/world/asia/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html#after-top) Supported by [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/world/asia/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html#after-sponsor) # Why Singapore’s First Family Is Locked in a Bitter Feud Over a House A son of the country’s founding father says he has been persecuted by the government because of a feud with his older brother, who until May was prime minister. - Share full article ![A white-haired man in a dark jacket stands next to a tree in what appears to be a park.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-01-gkjz/00singapore-house-01-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Yang says he sought asylum in Britain because of a dispute with his brother, a former prime minister of Singapore. He now lives in London, where he was photographed in November.Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times [![Sui-Lee Wee](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/07/13/multimedia/author-sui-lee-wee/author-sui-lee-wee-thumbLarge-v5.png)](https://www.nytimes.com/by/sui-lee-wee) By [Sui-Lee Wee](https://www.nytimes.com/by/sui-lee-wee) Sui-Lee Wee interviewed members of the Lee family as well as relatives and close family friends, and reviewed more than 1,000 pages of emails between the siblings and their statements to ministers. Jan. 11, 2025 The bungalow was built for a Dutch trader in colonial times, but it has become part of modern Singaporean lore. It was where [Lee Kuan Yew](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/world/asia/lee-kuan-yew-founding-father-and-first-premier-of-singapore-dies-at-91.html) lived for decades, where he started his political party and where he began building Singapore into one of the richest countries in the world. Mr. Lee had said that he wanted the house to be demolished after he died rather than preserved as a museum, with the public “trampling” through his private quarters. But the [wording of his will](https://www.pmo.gov.sg/-/media/PMO/Newsroom/Attachments/20170703-PM-Lee-Ministerial-Statement-on-38-Oxley-Road/Demolition20Clause.ashx) left the property’s fate in limbo and caused a rift between his three children — one that reflects an [intensifying debate](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/world/asia/singapore-lee-prime-minister-retire.html) over Singapore’s semi-authoritarian political system. Now, an extraordinary voice has joined those who complain that the city-state’s prosperity has come at the cost of a government that lacks accountability: one of Mr. Lee’s own children. “The idea that one good man at the center can control this, and you just rely on his benevolence to ensure that everything is right, doesn’t work,” Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child, who wants to honor his father’s wishes for the house, said in a recent interview with The New York Times from London. After Lee Kuan Yew’s death in 2015, the eldest child, by then Singapore’s prime minister, argued that his father’s instructions for the bungalow were ambiguous. His siblings wanted it demolished, though one continued to live in the house, and as long as she did, its fate remained unresolved. Then, after her death in October, the dispute resurfaced — and escalated sharply. Lee Hsien Yang, called Yang by his parents and siblings, announced that he had [obtained political asylum](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/world/asia/singapore-lee-hsien-yang-political-asylum-uk.html) in Britain because he feared being unfairly imprisoned in Singapore over the disagreement. Image ![An overhead view of a street with a few large houses. One of them has a roof of red shingles and appears to be shielded from view of neighbors and passerby by trees.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-02-gkjz/00singapore-house-02-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) The Lees lived in the house at 38 Oxley Road for years before buying it. Their association with the bungalow has given it historical significance. Credit...Edgar Su/Reuters Yang said his brother — [Lee Hsien Loong](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/world/asia/singapore-lee-prime-minister-retire.html), who stepped down in May as prime minister — had abused his power in the conflict over the house. Yang, 67, described what he called a pattern of persecution by the Singapore government in recent years. In 2020, [his son was charged with contempt of court](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/world/asia/singapore-family-feud-facebook.html) for criticizing Singapore’s courts in a private Facebook post. That year, his wife, a lawyer who had arranged for the witnesses at the signing of the patriarch’s will, was barred from practicing law for 15 months. Then the couple faced a police inquiry about lying under oath. In 2022, they left Singapore. In October, Yang announced that Britain had granted his asylum request, ruling that he and his wife “have a well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to your country.” Singapore’s government rejected the claims, saying that the couple was free to return home. It said it was accountable to voters and an independent judiciary. Yang, it added, was engaged in “an extravagant personal vendetta” against his brother, Loong. Loong, 72, who now holds the title of senior minister, declined to comment because he has recused himself from the matter of the house. ## Editors’ Picks [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/15/nyregion/15MET-AFFORDING-NYC-FERNANDEZ-promo/14MET-AFFORDING-NYC-FERNANDEZ--01-bphq-thumbLarge.jpg)How a Family of 4 Lives on \$168,000 in East Elmhurst, Queens](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/02/14/nyregion/nyc-budgeting-affordability-fernandez.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/10/multimedia/10LOTW-JACOBS-04-kqct/10LOTW-JACOBS-04-kqct-thumbLarge.jpg)Vibrant Curls and Clothes With Volume](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/style/street-style-look-voluminous-curly-hair-baggy-clothes.html) [![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2026/02/14/arts/14sketchpad-winter-surf-web-04/14sketchpad-winter-surf-web-04-thumbLarge.jpg)A Surfer Finds the Waves Keep Calling, Even in Winter](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/arts/winter-surfing-rockaway-beach-sketchpad.html) Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/world/asia/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html#after-pp_edpick) For Yang, the [yearslong dispute](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/world/asia/singapore-lee-hsien-loong-siblings.html) is proof that there are “fundamental problems in the way Singapore is governed and run.” Image ![A white-haired man in a dark suit jacket sitting on a blue daybed. The wall behind him is adorned with large tapestries.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-03-gkjz/00singapore-house-03-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child of Lee Kuan Yew, has criticized the system of government his father installed in the city-state. Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times Yang acknowledged that his father had detained opposition politicians and union leaders, but said that he “had the best interests of the country at heart.” The People’s Action Party has governed Singapore with a tight grip for nearly 70 years. And years after the founding father’s death, it continues to praise his legacy. This, some analysts say, has left Singapore at a crossroads. “Are we able to move on?” said Ja Ian Chong, who teaches political science at the National University of Singapore. “Or are we still stuck with this relatively brittle, big-man kind of approach to politics?” Lee Kuan Yew transformed a colonial outpost into an economic powerhouse in a generation. He made no bones about intervening in the lives of Singaporeans and prioritized the community over the individual — a notion that some observers say points to the irony of the family feud. He “understood that the government would have to preserve the house if it decided that was in the public interest,” Loong wrote in a 2016 letter to Lawrence Wong, who was part of a government committee created to consider options for the property, and is now prime minister. That panel concluded that the bungalow had historical significance, and that Lee Kuan Yew had been amenable to its preservation. But polls indicate that most Singaporeans want it torn down. In October, the government said it was [again studying](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/38-oxley-road-new-preservation-study-edwin-tong-nhb-4741321) whether to preserve the circa 1898 house. ## ‘The Best Combination’ For decades, Lee Kuan Yew’s family appeared to be as orderly as the state he ran. His wife, Kwa Geok Choo, was in charge of the household at 38 Oxley Road, in one of Singapore’s most expensive areas. In the 1950s, Mr. Lee and a group of friends set up his political party, the P.A.P., in the basement dining room. Most of the house was spartan. The furniture was old and mismatched; the family bathed by [scooping water from earthenware vessels](https://anydirectionwechoose.com/2015/09/28/life-in-rural-northern-thailand-how-to-take-a-bucket-shower-with-a-little-pink-bowl/). Even after the sons had married and moved out, they gathered every Sunday for family lunch. Visitors were quick to notice that only one child’s photographs were displayed: Loong’s. “He got the best combination of our two DNAs,” Mr. Lee would tell local journalists. “The others have also combinations of both, but not in as advantageous a way as he has. It’s the luck of the draw.” Image ![A group of people solemnly following two young men who are carrying a portrait of Lee Kuan Yew.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-04-gkjz/00singapore-house-04-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Loong, second row third from left, was blindsided by his father’s final will, which caused a dispute among Lee Kuan Yew’s children. Here they are arriving for his state funeral in 2015: the sons Yang and Loong, with their wives, Lee Suet Fern and Ho Ching, and the daughter, Lee Wei Ling, right.Credit...Joseph Nair/Associated Press “He was the apple of my mother’s eye, and she had ambitions for him,” Yang said of Loong. “I was never antagonistic with him, neither did I have any jealousy or envy of him.” In 2004, Loong became prime minister. Yang at the time was the chief executive of Singapore’s state-owned phone company and said that he harbored no political ambitions. That would change. ## Demolition Debate After Mr. Lee’s wife died, he continued to live in the house with his daughter, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, a neurologist. Mr. Lee died in March 2015, and his children gathered at the bungalow the following month for the reading of his will. The house was left to Loong, but Ling could continue to live there. Once she moved out, the house was to be torn down. And if for some reason, the house was not demolished, he did not want it to be open to the public. Loong was blindsided and would later say publicly that he did not know about this final will. When the will was being discussed, he became “aggressive” and “threatening,” his sister wrote in a previously undisclosed email to a friend in May 2015. She added that Loong told his younger siblings that if they pursued the demolition clause, the government would intervene and declare the house a national monument. It was the last time Loong spoke with Ling and Yang, according to Yang. The next day, Loong raised the matter in Parliament. He said that he wanted to see his father’s wishes carried out, but that “it will be up to the government of the day to consider the matter.” Image ![A man in purplish-blue shirt and tie standing next to a display of photographs.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-05-gkjz/00singapore-house-05-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Loong, pictured in 2016, is the eldest child of Lee Kuan Yew and followed in his father’s footsteps to become prime minister of Singapore. His younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang, accuses him of abusing his power in a dispute over their father’s house.Credit...Wong Maye-E/Associated Press A few months later, it appeared that the siblings had reached a resolution. Yang bought the house from Loongfor an undisclosed price. But soon, the government formed a committee to explore options for the house. That marked the start of Yang’s troubles with the state. ## New Opposition Party Loong told the panel that he was “very concerned” that the demolition clause in the will was “reinserted under dubious circumstances.” He asked whether there was a conflict of interest for Lee Suet Fern, Yang’s wife, who had organized the signing of the will. To the younger siblings, it appeared that the committee was “conducting an inquisition into the will,” Yang said, pointing out that a court had declared it as binding. In a joint statement in 2017, Yang and Ling said that they did not trust their brother as a leader. They said that Loong and his wife were milking “Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy for their own political purposes,” and harbored dynastic ambitions for their son. Loong responded in Parliament, saying that he did not give instructions to the committee and that his only dealings with the panel were his responses to their requests in writing. He has denied grooming his son for office. Then the government accused Yang’s wife of professional misconduct over the will. A disciplinary tribunal ruled against her, saying she and her husband had built an “elaborate edifice of lies” during the proceedings. A three-judge panel then ruled that Yang’s wife, Ms. Lee, gave “a contrived and ultimately untrue account of her role” in the will, and suspended her for 15 months for misconduct. But it also ruled that she had not been acting as Mr. Lee’s lawyer, and that he had been content with his will. Image ![A group of men in red-and-white polo shirts, black pants and face masks walking on a street.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-bpfg/00singapore-house-bpfg-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Yang briefly joined a party that put him in opposition to his brother, Loong, Singapore’s prime minister at the time. Here, Yang was campaigning in 2020 ahead of the general elections in Singapore that year.Credit...Wallace Woon/EPA, via Shutterstock For Yang, the People’s Action Party had lost its way. He joined the Progress Singapore Party, a new opposition group, and considered running for president, a ceremonial post. In 2022, the police asked to interview him and his wife, saying they had lied in the misconduct proceedings. The couple agreed to be questioned at a later date, but soon left Singapore. It was not until 2023 that a minister revealed in Parliament that they were being investigated by the authorities. In October, Yang organized Ling’s funeral from afar. Loong was not invited. The walls of 38 Oxley Road are now cracked, and rust has eroded part of the gate. When a reporter rang the doorbell on a recent Sunday, a housekeeper answered and said nobody was home. The Lee Family Feud [![]()Son of Singapore’s First Prime Minister Says He Was Granted Asylum in Britain Oct. 22, 2024](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/world/asia/singapore-lee-hsien-yang-political-asylum-uk.html) [![]()In Singapore, Prime Minister’s Siblings Are Taking Private Feud Public June 14, 2017](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/world/asia/singapore-lee-hsien-loong-siblings.html) [![]()Dispute Over Singapore Founder’s House Becomes a National Crisis July 4, 2017](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/world/asia/lee-kuan-yew-house-singapore.html) **A correction was made on** Jan. 11, 2025 : An earlier version of this article misstated the outcome of an investigation into possible misconduct in the handling of Lee Kuan Yew’s will. A panel of judges ruled that Lee Suet Fern, Mr. Lee’s daughter-in-law, had given “a contrived and ultimately untrue account of her role” in the will; it did not rule that she and her husband, Lee Hsien Yang, had lied under oath. *** When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at [corrections@nytimes.com](mailto:corrections@nytimes.com).[Learn more](https://www.nytimes.com/explain/2022/new-york-times-journalism) [Sui-Lee Wee](https://www.nytimes.com/by/sui-lee-wee) is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times, overseeing coverage of 11 countries in the region. A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 12, 2025, Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Singapore’s First Family Is Stuck in a Bitter Feud Over a House. [Order Reprints](https://nytimes.wrightsmedia.com/) \| [Today’s Paper](https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper) \| [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY) See more on: [Lee Hsien Loong](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/lee-hsien-loong), [Lee Kuan Yew](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/lee-kuan-yew) - Share full article *** ## Around the World With The Times ### Our reporters across the globe take you into the field. *** - **Eating Kosher in Syria:** In the post-Assad era, more Jews are visiting a country that some fled decades ago. One hotel restaurant [offers a corner where religious dietary requirements](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/world/middleeast/syria-kosher-damascus.html) are melded with the local cuisine. - **A Shift in Chinese Taste:** Malaysian durian farmers [saw immense profits over the last decade as China](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/world/asia/durian-malaysia-china-demand.html) snapped up the fruit. 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Advertisement [SKIP ADVERTISEMENT](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/world/asia/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-house.html#after-top) A son of the country’s founding father says he has been persecuted by the government because of a feud with his older brother, who until May was prime minister. ![A white-haired man in a dark jacket stands next to a tree in what appears to be a park.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-01-gkjz/00singapore-house-01-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Yang says he sought asylum in Britain because of a dispute with his brother, a former prime minister of Singapore. He now lives in London, where he was photographed in November.Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times [Sui-Lee Wee](https://www.nytimes.com/by/sui-lee-wee) Sui-Lee Wee interviewed members of the Lee family as well as relatives and close family friends, and reviewed more than 1,000 pages of emails between the siblings and their statements to ministers. Jan. 11, 2025 The bungalow was built for a Dutch trader in colonial times, but it has become part of modern Singaporean lore. It was where [Lee Kuan Yew](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/world/asia/lee-kuan-yew-founding-father-and-first-premier-of-singapore-dies-at-91.html) lived for decades, where he started his political party and where he began building Singapore into one of the richest countries in the world. Mr. Lee had said that he wanted the house to be demolished after he died rather than preserved as a museum, with the public “trampling” through his private quarters. But the [wording of his will](https://www.pmo.gov.sg/-/media/PMO/Newsroom/Attachments/20170703-PM-Lee-Ministerial-Statement-on-38-Oxley-Road/Demolition20Clause.ashx) left the property’s fate in limbo and caused a rift between his three children — one that reflects an [intensifying debate](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/world/asia/singapore-lee-prime-minister-retire.html) over Singapore’s semi-authoritarian political system. Now, an extraordinary voice has joined those who complain that the city-state’s prosperity has come at the cost of a government that lacks accountability: one of Mr. Lee’s own children. “The idea that one good man at the center can control this, and you just rely on his benevolence to ensure that everything is right, doesn’t work,” Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child, who wants to honor his father’s wishes for the house, said in a recent interview with The New York Times from London. After Lee Kuan Yew’s death in 2015, the eldest child, by then Singapore’s prime minister, argued that his father’s instructions for the bungalow were ambiguous. His siblings wanted it demolished, though one continued to live in the house, and as long as she did, its fate remained unresolved. Then, after her death in October, the dispute resurfaced — and escalated sharply. Lee Hsien Yang, called Yang by his parents and siblings, announced that he had [obtained political asylum](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/world/asia/singapore-lee-hsien-yang-political-asylum-uk.html) in Britain because he feared being unfairly imprisoned in Singapore over the disagreement. Image ![An overhead view of a street with a few large houses. One of them has a roof of red shingles and appears to be shielded from view of neighbors and passerby by trees.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-02-gkjz/00singapore-house-02-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) The Lees lived in the house at 38 Oxley Road for years before buying it. Their association with the bungalow has given it historical significance. Credit...Edgar Su/Reuters Yang said his brother — [Lee Hsien Loong](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/world/asia/singapore-lee-prime-minister-retire.html), who stepped down in May as prime minister — had abused his power in the conflict over the house. Yang, 67, described what he called a pattern of persecution by the Singapore government in recent years. In 2020, [his son was charged with contempt of court](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/world/asia/singapore-family-feud-facebook.html) for criticizing Singapore’s courts in a private Facebook post. That year, his wife, a lawyer who had arranged for the witnesses at the signing of the patriarch’s will, was barred from practicing law for 15 months. Then the couple faced a police inquiry about lying under oath. In 2022, they left Singapore. In October, Yang announced that Britain had granted his asylum request, ruling that he and his wife “have a well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to your country.” Singapore’s government rejected the claims, saying that the couple was free to return home. It said it was accountable to voters and an independent judiciary. Yang, it added, was engaged in “an extravagant personal vendetta” against his brother, Loong. Loong, 72, who now holds the title of senior minister, declined to comment because he has recused himself from the matter of the house. For Yang, the [yearslong dispute](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/world/asia/singapore-lee-hsien-loong-siblings.html) is proof that there are “fundamental problems in the way Singapore is governed and run.” Image ![A white-haired man in a dark suit jacket sitting on a blue daybed. The wall behind him is adorned with large tapestries.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-03-gkjz/00singapore-house-03-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child of Lee Kuan Yew, has criticized the system of government his father installed in the city-state. Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times Yang acknowledged that his father had detained opposition politicians and union leaders, but said that he “had the best interests of the country at heart.” The People’s Action Party has governed Singapore with a tight grip for nearly 70 years. And years after the founding father’s death, it continues to praise his legacy. This, some analysts say, has left Singapore at a crossroads. “Are we able to move on?” said Ja Ian Chong, who teaches political science at the National University of Singapore. “Or are we still stuck with this relatively brittle, big-man kind of approach to politics?” Lee Kuan Yew transformed a colonial outpost into an economic powerhouse in a generation. He made no bones about intervening in the lives of Singaporeans and prioritized the community over the individual — a notion that some observers say points to the irony of the family feud. He “understood that the government would have to preserve the house if it decided that was in the public interest,” Loong wrote in a 2016 letter to Lawrence Wong, who was part of a government committee created to consider options for the property, and is now prime minister. That panel concluded that the bungalow had historical significance, and that Lee Kuan Yew had been amenable to its preservation. But polls indicate that most Singaporeans want it torn down. In October, the government said it was [again studying](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/38-oxley-road-new-preservation-study-edwin-tong-nhb-4741321) whether to preserve the circa 1898 house. ## ‘The Best Combination’ For decades, Lee Kuan Yew’s family appeared to be as orderly as the state he ran. His wife, Kwa Geok Choo, was in charge of the household at 38 Oxley Road, in one of Singapore’s most expensive areas. In the 1950s, Mr. Lee and a group of friends set up his political party, the P.A.P., in the basement dining room. Most of the house was spartan. The furniture was old and mismatched; the family bathed by [scooping water from earthenware vessels](https://anydirectionwechoose.com/2015/09/28/life-in-rural-northern-thailand-how-to-take-a-bucket-shower-with-a-little-pink-bowl/). Even after the sons had married and moved out, they gathered every Sunday for family lunch. Visitors were quick to notice that only one child’s photographs were displayed: Loong’s. “He got the best combination of our two DNAs,” Mr. Lee would tell local journalists. “The others have also combinations of both, but not in as advantageous a way as he has. It’s the luck of the draw.” Image ![A group of people solemnly following two young men who are carrying a portrait of Lee Kuan Yew.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-04-gkjz/00singapore-house-04-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Loong, second row third from left, was blindsided by his father’s final will, which caused a dispute among Lee Kuan Yew’s children. Here they are arriving for his state funeral in 2015: the sons Yang and Loong, with their wives, Lee Suet Fern and Ho Ching, and the daughter, Lee Wei Ling, right.Credit...Joseph Nair/Associated Press “He was the apple of my mother’s eye, and she had ambitions for him,” Yang said of Loong. “I was never antagonistic with him, neither did I have any jealousy or envy of him.” In 2004, Loong became prime minister. Yang at the time was the chief executive of Singapore’s state-owned phone company and said that he harbored no political ambitions. That would change. ## Demolition Debate After Mr. Lee’s wife died, he continued to live in the house with his daughter, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, a neurologist. Mr. Lee died in March 2015, and his children gathered at the bungalow the following month for the reading of his will. The house was left to Loong, but Ling could continue to live there. Once she moved out, the house was to be torn down. And if for some reason, the house was not demolished, he did not want it to be open to the public. Loong was blindsided and would later say publicly that he did not know about this final will. When the will was being discussed, he became “aggressive” and “threatening,” his sister wrote in a previously undisclosed email to a friend in May 2015. She added that Loong told his younger siblings that if they pursued the demolition clause, the government would intervene and declare the house a national monument. It was the last time Loong spoke with Ling and Yang, according to Yang. The next day, Loong raised the matter in Parliament. He said that he wanted to see his father’s wishes carried out, but that “it will be up to the government of the day to consider the matter.” Image ![A man in purplish-blue shirt and tie standing next to a display of photographs.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-05-gkjz/00singapore-house-05-gkjz-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Loong, pictured in 2016, is the eldest child of Lee Kuan Yew and followed in his father’s footsteps to become prime minister of Singapore. His younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang, accuses him of abusing his power in a dispute over their father’s house.Credit...Wong Maye-E/Associated Press A few months later, it appeared that the siblings had reached a resolution. Yang bought the house from Loongfor an undisclosed price. But soon, the government formed a committee to explore options for the house. That marked the start of Yang’s troubles with the state. ## New Opposition Party Loong told the panel that he was “very concerned” that the demolition clause in the will was “reinserted under dubious circumstances.” He asked whether there was a conflict of interest for Lee Suet Fern, Yang’s wife, who had organized the signing of the will. To the younger siblings, it appeared that the committee was “conducting an inquisition into the will,” Yang said, pointing out that a court had declared it as binding. In a joint statement in 2017, Yang and Ling said that they did not trust their brother as a leader. They said that Loong and his wife were milking “Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy for their own political purposes,” and harbored dynastic ambitions for their son. Loong responded in Parliament, saying that he did not give instructions to the committee and that his only dealings with the panel were his responses to their requests in writing. He has denied grooming his son for office. Then the government accused Yang’s wife of professional misconduct over the will. A disciplinary tribunal ruled against her, saying she and her husband had built an “elaborate edifice of lies” during the proceedings. A three-judge panel then ruled that Yang’s wife, Ms. Lee, gave “a contrived and ultimately untrue account of her role” in the will, and suspended her for 15 months for misconduct. But it also ruled that she had not been acting as Mr. Lee’s lawyer, and that he had been content with his will. Image ![A group of men in red-and-white polo shirts, black pants and face masks walking on a street.](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/01/07/multimedia/00singapore-house-bpfg/00singapore-house-bpfg-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale) Lee Hsien Yang briefly joined a party that put him in opposition to his brother, Loong, Singapore’s prime minister at the time. Here, Yang was campaigning in 2020 ahead of the general elections in Singapore that year.Credit...Wallace Woon/EPA, via Shutterstock For Yang, the People’s Action Party had lost its way. He joined the Progress Singapore Party, a new opposition group, and considered running for president, a ceremonial post. In 2022, the police asked to interview him and his wife, saying they had lied in the misconduct proceedings. The couple agreed to be questioned at a later date, but soon left Singapore. It was not until 2023 that a minister revealed in Parliament that they were being investigated by the authorities. In October, Yang organized Ling’s funeral from afar. Loong was not invited. The walls of 38 Oxley Road are now cracked, and rust has eroded part of the gate. When a reporter rang the doorbell on a recent Sunday, a housekeeper answered and said nobody was home. **A correction was made on** Jan. 11, 2025 : An earlier version of this article misstated the outcome of an investigation into possible misconduct in the handling of Lee Kuan Yew’s will. A panel of judges ruled that Lee Suet Fern, Mr. Lee’s daughter-in-law, had given “a contrived and ultimately untrue account of her role” in the will; it did not rule that she and her husband, Lee Hsien Yang, had lied under oath. [Sui-Lee Wee](https://www.nytimes.com/by/sui-lee-wee) is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times, overseeing coverage of 11 countries in the region. A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 12, 2025, Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Singapore’s First Family Is Stuck in a Bitter Feud Over a House. 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