Netizen asks: “I wonder what LKY would have said if he is told his son joins the opposition party?”

Socio-political activist Gilbert Goh posed the above question to netizens and his followers on Facebook after Mr Lee Hsien Yang, youngest son of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, announced his membership with the Progress Singapore Party (PSP).

There was high drama on Wednesday (June 24), a day after elections were called, when Progress Singapore Party leader Dr Tan Cheng Bock announced that Mr Lee Hsien Yang, brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, had joined the party.

Mr Lee was handed the PSP membership card by Dr Tan. He said: “I joined the party because I think that Dr Tan is committed to doing the right thing for Singapore and Singaporeans. He loves the country and he has brought together a group of people who share his vision, which I believe will build a better Singapore. PSP has an approach which will emphasise compassion.”

Mr Lee Hsien Loong has been part of the People’s Action Party (PAP) since 1986, having started out as the chairman of the PAP Youth Committee, the predecessor to the Young PAP.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday (Jun 25), Mr Goh asked netizens: “I wonder what LKY would have said if he is told his son joins the opposition party?”

Netizens were mostly in support of Mr Lee Hsien Yang with their views, but one answer that stood out was by the founder of Makansutra Mr K.F. Seetoh.

Mr Seetoh said: “Lky oso opposition last time leh”.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew entered into Singaporean politics through the Communist Party of Malaya. He formed the socialist PAP in an expedient alliance with the pro-communist trade unionists.

This alliance was described by Lee as a marriage of convenience since his English-speaking group needed the Chinese-speaking majority’s mass support base. Their common aim was to struggle for self-government and put an end to British colonial rule.

Mr Lee won the Tanjong Pagar seat in the 1955 elections. He became the opposition leader against the David Saul Marshall’s Labour Front-led coalition government.

/TISG