The Oxley Road dispute between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his siblings remains unresolved and they have not communicated recently.

Speaking to CNBC ahead of his visit to the United States from Sunday (Oct 22), PM Lee described the spat with his siblings over their 38 Oxley Road family home as being in “abeyance”.

“I’m not sure if it’s solved,” he told the business news outlet in an interview on Thursday (Oct 19).

PM Lee said he was still saddened by the episode, but expressed hopes that relations with his siblings — Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee Wei Ling — will improve in future, when “emotions have subsided”.

Saying that “these things take time”, he added: “Perhaps one day, when emotions have subsided, some movement will be possible”.

The dispute over their family home went public in the early hours of June 14 when Mr Lee and Dr Lee posted a six-page statement to their Facebook accounts, stating that they felt “threatened” in trying to honour the wish of their late father, the Republic’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, to demolish the Oxley Road house.

PM Lee has denied the allegations. Several government leaders weighed in during the public dispute, which also prompted a two-day parliamentary debate in July where PM Lee delivered a Ministerial Statement debunking the allegations levelled against him by his siblings.

Among other things, he took Members of Parliament through the events that led up to the dispute erupting in public, before rejecting the “entirely baseless” allegations that he had abused his power and harboured political ambitions for his son.

He had also apologised for the state of affairs, saying that he was aware many Singaporeans had been upset and tired of the matter.

He had also refuted allegations of abuse of power, saying that he had recused himself from all decisions relating to the family home and left Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean in charge of the Ministerial Committee mulling over options for the home.

It “would have been a real abuse of power” if he had decided, as PM, to demolish the house without allowing the Government to go through the due process, he had told the House.

Days after the two-day parliamentary debate wrapped up, Mr Lee and Dr Lee welcomed PM Lee’s offer to manage their disagreement privately. They added that they would stop presenting “further evidence on social media” for the time being, provided that they and the late Mr Lee’s wishes are “not attacked or misrepresented”.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by KENNETH CHENG

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