SINGAPORE: Veteran architect Tay Kheng Soon has opined that founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s home at 38 Oxley Road should be preserved, amid the latest turn of the Lee family feud. He has also suggested that the late Mr Lee’s wishes to have his house demolished stemmed from his “disdain for ordinary people in his house.”
Mr Tay is the architect behind iconic structures in Singapore like KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Golden Mile Complex and the People’s Park Complex. He said on Facebook, last Sunday (5 Mar): “We the citizen’s of Singapore should demand that the house be preserved as a National Monument, it being the founding place in which the Nation’s Political leaders gathered to plot Singapore’s independent future.
“It should therefore be a public monument for young and old, rich and poor Singaporeans to visit it and learn something of the spirit of daring and vision that made Singapore.”
Asserting that the property must be preserved whether it goes against the late Mr Lee’s last wishes or not, Mr Tay said: “Its preservation goes beyond the family’s concern. It is a public matter of greatest importance. Lets be clear about this. It is even beyond Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s preference!”
38 Oxley Road is at the crux of a longstanding dispute between Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s sons, current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his younger brother Lee Hsien Yang. The younger Lee insists that the family home be demolished as per their father’s last wishes, as outlined in his final will, while the Government toyed with the idea of preserving the house.
In an interview in 2011, Mr Lee said: “I’ve told the Cabinet, when I’m dead, demolish it. I have seen other houses – Nehru’s, Shakespeare’s – and it’s a shambles after a while, people trot through and so on. And because of my house, the neighboring houses cannot build high. And I said, demolish my house and change the planning rules, my land value will go up.”
The journalists who were interviewing Mr Lee insisted that the house should be preserved as it is a historical landmark. When told that Singaporeans will bemoan the loss of the home, Mr Lee said: “I don’t think my daughter or my wife or I, who lived in it, or my sons who grew up in it, will bemoan its loss. They have old photos to remind them of the past.”
In a second post published less than two hours after he made the call for Oxley to be preserved, Mr Tay suggested that the main reason the late Mr Lee wanted his house demolished is because he dislike the idea of ordinary people entering his home.
Part of the demolition clause in Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s will states: “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.”
Citing this section, the architect suggested: “This is because he does not want ordinary people including Singaporeans tramping around in his house. This reflects his disdain for ordinary people in his house.”
He took to Facebook again the next morning (6 Mar) and added that “preserving the house is more than honouring its owner.”
Mr Tay also cited portions of the book ‘Men in White: the untold story of Singapore’s ruling political party’ that show how integral the house was in Singapore’s early history, to support his call for preservation of the property.
https://theindependent.sg/lee-kuan-yews-claim-that-his-sons-will-not-bemoan-the-loss-of-38-oxley-recirculates-as-family-feud-rages-on/