Two-day debate has shown that Govt ‘acted properly and with due process’: PM Lee
A still from a video with PM Lee Hsien Loong speaking in Parliament on July 4, 2017.
SINGAPORE — Parliamentary debates over the last two days have shown that the Government had “acted properly and with due process” in the matter of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s family home at 38 Oxley Road, and have rebutted alleged abuses of power by him, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday (July 4).
Still, he acknowledged that the matter has not been put to bed.
Said the Prime Minister: “It would be unrealistic to hope that the matter is now completely put to rest. I do not know what further statements or allegations my siblings may make.”
But Singaporeans, he added, are now in a better position to judge the facts and see the issue in perspective, with the benefit of the statements and debate.
Agreeing with the Members of Parliament, he said it was time for the Government to go back on focusing on tackling challenges confronting the Republic instead of “being distracted by this controversy”.
Allegations launched by PM Lee’s younger siblings Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang had prompted the special parliamentary sitting.
But over the two-day proceedings, no MP substantiated any of these allegations, nor produced additional charges, PM Lee said, noting that even the opposition MPs did not endorse his siblings’ allegations.
“That is significant. It shows that the Government and I have acted properly with due process,” said he said, adding that he hopes the debate has “cleared the air and will calm things down”.
The motivations for talking about his family’s dispute in Parliament “(have) not been to pursue a family fight”, but to restore public confidence in the Republic’s system.
“That is how the system is supposed to work. When there are questions and doubts about the Government, we bring them out, deal with them openly, and clear the doubts. If anything is wrong, we must put it right. If nothing is wrong, we must say so,” he said.
Still, PM Lee expressed hope for reconciliation with his family.
Tearing as he recounted how Mr Lee Kuan Yew had told him to “take care of (his) mother, and (his) younger sister and brother” should anything happen to the elder Lee amidst the “fierce fight” between Singapore and Malaysia, PM Lee said: “Fortunately, nothing happened to my father. He brought up the family, and I thought we had a happy family. Little did I expect that after my parents died, these tensions would erupt with such grievous consequences. I hope one day, these passions will subside and we can begin to reconcile.”
He added: “At the very least, I hope that my siblings will not visit their resentments and grievances with one generation onto the next … And further, that they do not transmit their enmities and feuds to our children.”
