SINGAPORE: Lee Hsien Yang has confirmed that he will not be returning to Singapore to attend his elder sister Dr Lee Wei Ling’s funeral. Dr Lee, the only daughter of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, passed away on Wednesday (Oct 9), at the age of 69 – about four years after she was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder called progressive supranuclear palsy.
Mr Lee told CNA that he will help organise the funeral remotely, with the help of his son Li Huanwu, in accordance with his late sister’s wishes. Dr Lee will be cremated at the Mandai Crematorium at 2:45pm on Saturday.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife, Lee Suet Fern, are presently living overseas amid the latest inquiry into them by the Singapore authorities. In the past, Mr Lee has expressed deep distress over not being able to be with his sister. He and his wife were also unable to be with his father-in-law, Lim Chong Yah, in his last moments before he passed in 2023.
The immediate family of Mr Lee Hsien Yang were Dr Lee’s closest relatives in her final years, after a feud over their father’s will divided her and her younger brother from their elder brother, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The rift, which became public in 2017, only grew wider in the intervening years.
In a tribute to his sister, posted on Facebook shortly after news of her passing broke, Mr Lee Hsien Loong described sadness over the dispute between him and his siblings. He said: “Years ago, when I was about 13, my father felt his life to be in danger, and told me that if anything happened to him, I was to take care of my mother and younger sister and brother.
“Sadly, after he passed away in 2015, a shadow fell between my siblings and me, and I was unable to fulfil his wish. But I held nothing against Ling, and continued to do whatever I could to ensure her welfare.”
Dr Lee is survived by her two brothers and their families. She never married and chose to remain single.
In 2009, Dr Lee explained why she chose not to get married in an article published by the national broadsheet. She wrote: “If my parents have such a loving relationship, why then did I decide to remain single? Firstly, my mother set the bar too high for me. I could not envisage being the kind of wife and mother she had been. Secondly, I am temperamentally similar to my father. Indeed, he once said to me: ‘You have all my traits – but to such an exaggerated degree that they become a disadvantage in you.’”
She asserted: “I knew I could not live my life around a husband, nor would I want a husband to live his life around me. Of course, there are any number of variations in marital relationships between those extremes. But there is always a need for spouses to change their behaviour or habits to suit each other. I have always been set in my ways and did not fancy changing my behaviour or lifestyle.”
Declaring that she does not regret her choice not to get married and that she is happily single, Dr Lee revealed: “More than 10 years ago, when there was still a slim chance I might have got married, my father told me: ‘Your mother and I could be selfish and feel happy that you remain single and can look after us in our old age. But you will be lonely.’”
She said, “I was not convinced. Better one person feeling lonely than two people miserable because they cannot adapt to each other, I figured. I do not regret my choice. But I want to end with a warning to young men and women: What works for me may not work for others.”