It is "an insult to a great man" to suggest that the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew did not understand or know what was in his last will, his younger son Mr Lee Hsien Yang has said in response to fresh questions about the document at the heart of a public dispute over the house on 38 Oxley Road.

On Saturday (June 24) night, Senior Minister of State (Finance and Law) Indranee Rajah reiterated a poser first raised by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong: The identity of the lawyer who prepared Mr Lee Kuan Yew's Last Will, and the questions that would arise if it was Mrs Lee Suet Fern, given that the final will increased the share of the estate for her husband Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

Writing on Facebook, Ms Indranee questioned who Mr Lee Hsien Yang was referring to when he previously mentioned "we took what we understood to be the final version of the 2011 will, without realising that a gift over clause had been in the executed version of the 2011 will". A gift over clause in a will provides for the gift of property to a second recipient if a certain event occurs.

"If the lawyer referred to in 'we' is Mrs Lee Suet Fern, then certain questions will arise. Under our law, the lawyer drafting a will is required to be independent. If the lawyer has an interest in the will, the lawyer must make sure the person making the will gets independent advice," said Ms Idranee.

The minister, who was weighing in on the matter for the second time in consecutive days, also raised several questions surrounding the late Mr Lee's seventh and final will. They include: Did Mr Lee Kuan Yew have enough time to read through and absorb the contents of the Last Will, could he have done so in just five minutes as per PM Lee's account, and was he aware that the demolition clause had been reinserted? 

Mr Lee Hsien Yang responded with his own Facebook post just over an hour later, though he did not address the questions Ms Indranee raised about his wife's role. Instead, he took umbrage at the suggestion that his late father might not know what he was doing when he signed his last will.

"Lee Hsien Loong is now getting his ministers to repeat his insinuations that Lee Kuan Yew did not understand his own will. They argue that Lee Kuan Yew, a Cambridge-educated lawyer and sitting MP, signed his own will without knowing what was in it. They claim that he initialed beneath the demolition clause, without understanding what it meant in plain English," wrote Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

"This is an insult to a great man."

He reiterated an assertion that his father's last will in 2013 was a reversion, on the founding Prime Minister's instructions, to his first first will of 2011. "Probate has been granted on Lee Kuan Yew's will, so it is final and legally binding. The proper place for Lee Hsien Loong to challenge his father's will was in court," added Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

Ms Indranee addressed several issues about the late Mr Lee's will in her first Facebook post on Friday, pointing out that he had in his final will acknowledged the possibility that his house on 38 Oxley Road may not be demolished. 

Returning to the issue on Saturday, she noted that Mr Lee Kuan Yew had made seven wills. In the first will, there was a demolition clause and each of his three children got an equal share of the estate. The demolition clause remained in the second to fourth wills, but it was removed in the fifth and sixth wills.

In the sixth will, Dr Lee Wei Ling was also given an extra share of the estate relative to her brothers. 

Ms Indranee wrote: "In the seventh Will, Dr Lee Wei Ling's extra share was reduced and the three children were given equal shares i.e. Mr Lee Hsien Yang's share increased. As Mrs Lee Suet Fern is his wife, if she prepared the seventh Will then the question which will arise is what independent advice (had Mr Lee Kuan Yew) received? If 'we' does not refer to any lawyer, then it remains a mystery."

The minister pointed out that so far, no lawyer has owned to drafting the Last Will.

On June 16, Mr Lee Hsien Yang disputed PM Lee's assertion in his statutory declaration to the Cabinet committee - which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and tasked to look into the options for 38 Oxley Road -  that Mrs Lee Suet Fern's law firm, which was known as Stamford Law then, had handled the preparation of the Last Will. "Stamford Law did not draft any will for LKY. The will was drafted by Kwa Kim Li of Lee and Lee," Mr Lee Hsien Yang had said.

However, on the same night, Ms Kwa told the media that she did not draft the Last Will. 

Ms Indranee, a Member of Parliament in the Tanjong Pagar Group Representative Constituency, had said she was "particularly saddened" by the dispute as she had looked after the late Mr Lee's constituents in his final years.

On Saturday, she reiterated that Mr Lee Kuan Yew "did not simply insist his house be demolished once he was gone". 

"First, he said his daughter Dr Lee Wei Ling should be allowed to live in the house for as long as she wished. This means that the question of demolition may not arise for many more years. Second, the late Mr Lee provided for the possibility of the government deciding to preserve the house, in which case he asked that the house not be opened to others except his descendants," she said. 

She reiterated that the issues surrounding the Last Will was relevant from the government's perspective.

"As DPM Teo has explained, the Ministerial Committee wants to understand what Mr Lee Kuan Yew's thinking on the House was. This includes considering what Mr Lee said about the House in his will," she said.

"The Demolition Clause was in the 1st (to) 4th Wills. It was removed in the 5th and 6th Will. So Mr Lee had changed his mind once. The question is whether he changed it a second time? Or whether the Demolition Clause was inserted without his awareness? The interest of the Ministerial Committee in the Will is confined to trying to understand his thinking on the House." 

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by TODAY ONLINE

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