SM Teo says he was ‘quite saddened’ by change in Lee Hsien Yang

SINGAPORE - When a dispute arose between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his siblings over

their family home at 38 Oxley Road

, PM Lee handled the matter in a principled manner, by distinguishing between his personal affairs and the country’s interests, said Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean.

“I’ve known him for a very long time. And he was able to separate the personal from what is right for the country. And so he recused himself. He asked me to oversee the matter,” said SM Teo in a recent interview with the media.

He added that, throughout the years, PM Lee had remained steadfast in the way he behaves and deals with issues.

“PM was very clear. He’s not going to be involved in the decision; he recused himself. So he was very able to separate the personal from what is in the interest of the country and the responsibilities. So we dealt with it as objectively as possible.”

However, SM Teo said he was “quite saddened” by the change in PM Lee’s brother, Mr Lee Hsien Yang, whom he had worked closely with in the military and had known for a long time.

“We worked in the armed forces in the joint staff. When he left the (Singapore) Armed Forces, I encouraged him to stay to contribute to Singapore. He’s a very able man. But what I can say is... I was quite saddened to see the change in Hsien Yang,” he added, without further elaboration.

The family dispute erupted into the public sphere in June 2017, when PM Lee’s two younger siblings

published a statement on Facebook

alleging that their older brother had misused his power in relation to the house of their late father, founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee Wei Ling accused PM Lee of abusing his power and using a ministerial committee to harass them over the house, so that he could preserve it for political gain.

SM Teo had

headed a ministerial committee

to look into what to do with 38 Oxley Road.

PM Lee denied their allegations, and subsequently addressed the matter in Parliament. He said his siblings’ baseless allegations had touched on the conduct of his office and the Government’s integrity, which made it necessary for the issue to have a full public airing. 

PM Lee had also raised concerns about the preparation of his father’s last will, which had involved Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern. The will later became the subject of a disciplinary tribunal in 2019, which

found Mrs Lee Suet Fern guilty of misconduct

unbefitting of an advocate and a solicitor and suspended her for 15 months.

SM Teo said: “I was also quite saddened to eventually discover, because I didn’t know at the time, some of these facts. I was quite saddened to see the findings of the court and their subsequent conclusions and judgments.” He added that the Government had dealt with the issue objectively in the interest of the country.