Lee Hsien Yang objects to Govt’s plan to gazette 38 Oxley Road as a national monument

SINGAPORE – Mr Lee Hsien Yang, the sole owner of 38 Oxley Road, has submitted written objections to the National Heritage Board (NHB) on the Government’s plan to gazette

the site as a national monument

.

This comes after NHB and the Singapore Land Authority announced their intention to do so on Nov 3. The agencies said then that the site of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s family home is of

historic significance and national importance

as the venue for political conversations, activities and decisions of Singapore’s founding leaders.

On Nov 17, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong that as the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s son and trustee, he objects to the proposed gazetting of the property as a national monument. He had posted the letter on Facebook at 7.47am.

An NHB spokesperson confirmed that night that the agency had received the same objections Mr Lee had published on his Facebook page.

“In line with due process, NHB will consider the objections received before making its recommendations to Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo on whether to proceed with the preservation of 38 Oxley Road,” said the spokesperson.

Nov 17 was the deadline for objections to be made against the proposed gazetting of 38 Oxley Road as a national monument. If gazetted and later acquired by the Government, the site will be

converted into a public space such as a heritage park

, the authorities had said.

The law obliges Mr Neo to consider Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s objection, but

a preservation order to gazette the site can still be made

thereafter.

It does not dictate how long the minister can take to decide on whether he will make a preservation order after the notice of intention is issued.

In the letter, Mr Lee said 38 Oxley Road “will be a monument to the PAP’s dishonour of Lee Kuan Yew”, citing his father’s wish for the home to be demolished.

“Throughout his life Lee Kuan Yew was clear and unambiguous that he wanted his home at 38 Oxley Road demolished. He was against any monuments and this was part of the values he stood for,” wrote Mr Lee.

“Numerous false, convoluted and self-contradictory arguments have been advanced to attempt to justify this gazetting,” he added.

“The narrative that Lee Kuan Yew changed his mind and would be ‘all right’ with some form of preservation of his house is also a fiction.”

Mr Lee said that from 2010, the late Mr Lee was led to believe that the Cabinet had made the decision to gazette 38 Oxley Road.

Referencing a line from Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s last will, dated Dec 17, 2013, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said his father had never agreed to preserve and make public his dining room.

In the will, Mr Lee Kuan Yew had written: “If our children are unable to demolish the House as a result of any changes in the law, rules or regulations binding them, it is my wish that the House never be opened to others except my children, their families and descendants.”

The basement dining room

is widely regarded as the most historically significant part of the house, and was where key players in 1950s politics – including the late Mr Lee – discussed their ideas for Singapore’s future.

Mr Lee Hsien Yang, who had in 2024 made an application to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to demolish his family home, noted that

opinion polls published since 2015

have shown support for the late Mr Lee’s wish that the home be demolished.

“Today PM Wong, this decision sits with you, not some junior minister or committee,” said Mr Lee in his letter.

A URA spokesperson on Nov 17 said the demolition application will be considered after a decision has been made on whether the site will be gazetted as a national monument.

PM Wong, in his capacity then as national development minister, had been part of a ministerial committee that the Cabinet had tasked in 2016 to prepare drawer plans of various options for 38 Oxley Road.

The committee, chaired by then Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, released its findings in April 2018. It set out three possibilities for 38 Oxley Road – retaining the entire building, retaining only the basement dining room, or demolishing the building fully for redevelopment, either for residential use or for other uses such as a park or heritage centre.

It considered Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s last will, a 2011 letter he wrote to the Cabinet, as well as renovation and redevelopment plans for the property that he had submitted to the Government in 2012.

The committee said that while the late Mr Lee’s preference was for the property to be demolished, he was aware that the Cabinet and others were opposed to demolition, given the property’s historical and heritage value.

The committee said he had further reflected on the matter and was prepared to accept options other than demolition, provided that the property was refurbished and kept in a habitable state and that his family’s privacy was protected.

Concluding his letter, Mr Lee Hsien Yang wrote: “The PAP government can honour Lee Kuan Yew on a matter of deep importance to him, or trample on his wishes and create a monument to that dishonour.”