LEE Hsien Yang, the brother of Singapore prime minister, said he felt compelled to leave the republic out of fears Lee Hsien Loong was using the system against him. 

The explosive allegations lift the veil on the sibling fight that erupted after the death of Lee Kuan Yew.

The accusations also raises questions about Singapore’s much-talked about meritocratic system and the government’s penchant for doing things by the book.

Dr Lee Wei Ling and Hsien Yang released a six-page statement yesterday, accusing their brother of misusing “his position and influence over the Singapore government to drive his personal agenda”, the Straits Times reports today.

They also accuse Hsien Loong of trying to capitalise on Kuan Yew’s legacy by failing to adhere to his wishes to demolish his Oxley Road house.

Wei Ling and Hsien Yang claim they felt closely monitored and fear the use of organs of state against them and Hsien Yang’s wife, Suet Fern.

“This is the country that my father, Lee Kuan Yew, loved and built. It has been home for my entire life. Singapore is and remains my country. I have no desire to leave. Hsien Loong is the only reason for my departure,” Hsien Yang said in the statement.

At the centre of the feud between the Lee siblings is Kuan Yew’s home at 38 Oxley Road in Singapore.

Wei Ling and Hsien Yang are joint executors and trustees of their late father’s estate.

Both of them restated their father’s wish that the house be demolished upon his death and after Wei Ling had ceased to live in it, but claim their brother and his wife, Ho Ching, had opposed this wish as “the preservation of the house would enhance his political capital”.

However, there was an apparent Singaporean government move to declare the house a heritage site after Kuan Yew’s death in 2015.

Hsien Loong had said that he had recused himself from all government decisions involving the house and, in his personal capacity, would also like to see his father’s wish honoured.

It is understood that Hsien Yang’s wife Lee Suet Fern, a top corporate lawyer, does not get along with Ho Ching.– June 14, 2017.