Several Singaporeans responding to the latest development in the contempt of court case against Li Shengwu have asked Shengwu’s father, Lee Hsien Yang, to “rescue” his son by contesting the next General Election (GE) as an opposition candidate and defeating the ruling party.
Li Shengwu is the eldest son of Lee Hsien Yang, who is the youngest child of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) initiated legal action against Shengwu over a private “friends only” Facebook post.
Shengwu’s Facebook post was made around the time his father and aunt, Lee Wei Ling, publicly accused their elder brother, Singapore’s current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, of going against their father’s willed desire of having their family home demolished after his death.
Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling also accused PM Lee of using the state organ against them and of grooming his son, Li Hongyi, to enter politics. PM Lee absolved himself of these accusations in Parliament but said that he will not sue his siblings for defamation.
After the three siblings reached a ceasefire, the AGC initiated contempt of court proceedings against Shengwu. More recently, the AGC filed a 500-page long complaint against Lee Hsien Yang’s wife and Shengwu’s mother, Lee Suet Fern.
Sharing an update on his own legal case yesterday, Li wrote: “The Singapore AG’s attempts to retroactively apply new rules were not successful before the court. However, the court has nonetheless ruled that service of process on me was effective. The case will now move on to substantive arguments.
“I am of course disappointed with the judgement. However, the AG will still need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that my private facebook post somehow scandalised Singapore’s judiciary.”
He added: “It is now one year and 8 months since this surreal mess started. One wonders how much state resources have been spent going after myself and my mother? As far as I can tell, my uncle, Lee Hsien Loong, seems quite happy with the situation, even though it reminds everyone of his shameful conduct over 38 Oxley road.”
Several Singaporeans responding to this update have asked Lee Hsien Yang to go against his elder brother in the next GE, to save his son:
Singaporeans responding to Shengwu’s update elsewhere on social media urged him to be strong. Many others expressed concern over the public resources that are being used to settle what they consider to be a “family matter”:
