- Italy's Di Giannantonio to miss final two MotoGP for surgery
- Hard talk on migration expected at EU summit
- South Korea's Hwang Ui-jo faces four years in jail for sex video
- Israel pounds Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- India slams 'cavalier' Trudeau in Sikh separatist murder row
- 'Love match' apps rival traditional matchmaking in Pakistan
- Asian markets rally but China's latest stimulus leaves traders wanting
- UN report says 1.1 billion people in acute poverty
- Vietnam death row tycoon awaits verdict in new trial
- 'Our time has come': the female Indian director hoping to make Oscars history
- Bondi beach 'closed' as Sydney shores hit by 'tar balls'
- Dodgers smash Mets to seize lead in MLB playoff series
- China to almost double support for unfinished housing projects
- King Charles heads to Australia, a nation shrugs
- China to boost credit for property market, renovate 1 mn homes
- New York fight back to take 2-1 lead over Lynx in WNBA Finals
- Family feud reignites over Singapore ex-PM's historic home
- ECB set to cut rates again as inflation cools
- Malinin, Sakamoto headline pre-Winter Olympics figure skating season
- Prospective Paris FC takeover could transform French football landscape
- Asian markets rally, with eyes on China housing briefing
- China's underground lab seeks answer to deep scientific riddle
- China toughens Taiwan stance over president's sovereignty defence
- BTS member J-hope discharged from South Korean military
- How Indigenous guards saved a Colombian lake from overtourism
- Despite threats, Florida abortion advocate fights on
- Garcia Luna: Mexico's 'supercop' turned cartel abettor
- North Korea says constitution now defines South as 'hostile' state
- Vietnam death row tycoon faces verdict in new trial
- Menendez brothers' family call for release as US prosecutors review evidence
- Fiery Harris vows break from Biden in testy Fox interview
- Fiery Harris claims break from Biden in testy Fox interview
- Raytheon to pay $950 mn over fraud, bribery schemes: US
- Fiery Harris uses testy Fox interview to claim break from Biden
- Water crisis threatening world food production: report
- Mexico's ex-security chief sentenced to over 38 years in US prison
- One Direction's Liam Payne falls to death at Argentina hotel
- Climate change worsened deadly Nepal floods, scientists say
- Alcaraz will face 'difficult' clash with 'idol' Nadal
- US says India has removed alleged agent in assassination plot
- Barca hit nine in Women's Champions League, Bayern overcome Juve
- Harris courts Trump-skeptic Republicans with Fox interview
- Global stock markets diverge as investors focus on earnings
- Worms and snails handle the pressure 2,500m below the Pacific surface
- Serena Williams has grapefruit-sized cyst removed from neck
- Lavreysen wins record-equalling 14th world cycling track title
- School's out! Argentina students study in the street to protest budget cuts
- Lower rates, surging stock market fail to ignite US IPO market
- Pogba 'willing to give up money' to stay at Juve
- Few countries have drawn up nature protection plans: UN
Family feud reignites over Singapore ex-PM's historic home
A bungalow where Singapore's early leaders spent long hours laying the country's foundations is under the spotlight as a bitter feud rages between former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's children.
The row centres on whether to demolish or preserve 38 Oxley Road, the single-story house that hosted the formation of the People's Action Party (PAP), which has governed Singapore since 1959.
The Lees are the closest thing Singapore has to royalty, with late patriarch Lee Kuan Yew, the country's first prime minister, revered as its founding father.
His children's disagreement over the house blew into the open in 2017, dividing the public as their feud generated headlines in international news.
The thorny decision about the property's future now falls on new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's government -- six months after Lee Kuan Yew's eldest son Lee Hsien Loong stepped down -- as the country moves toward a general election next year.
Lee Hsien Loong, who was prime minister for two decades, favours preserving the property, which property agents say has an indicative price of around Sg$30 million (US$23 million).
But his two siblings -- corporate executive Lee Hsien Yang and the late neurologist Lee Wei Ling -- have pointed to language in their father's will calling for its demolition.
The younger siblings accused their brother in 2017 of trying to exploit Lee Kuan Yew's legacy for political gain, though the issue simmered down as Lee Wei Ling was still living on the property.
But her death on October 9 has left the house empty, reigniting calls from Lee Hsien Yang -- who bought the property from his older brother in 2015 -- for the will to be implemented.
"I am the sole legal owner of 38 Oxley Road. After my sister's passing, I am the only living executor of my father Lee Kuan Yew's estate," the youngest sibling wrote on Facebook Tuesday.
"In his will, he wished for the house to be demolished 'immediately after' Wei Ling moved out of the house. It is my duty to carry out his wishes to the fullest extent of the law."
Lee Hsien Yang, who has been living in self-exile since 2022, added he would apply to authorities to have the bungalow demolished and build a smaller residence.
Lee Wei Ling also left a note before her death saying: "Please honour my father by honouring his wish for his home to be demolished."
- 'Historical significance' -
Built in what used to be a plantation district, the five-bedroom bungalow is now on prime real estate in land-scarce Singapore, where most of the population live in government-built highrise apartments.
The property was the home of founding premier Lee from the mid-1940s until his death. He is credited with transforming the former British colony into a wealthy city-state in just a little over 30 years.
Following the Lees' public row in 2017, a ministerial committee -- which included now-Prime Minister Wong -- was tasked with looking at options for the bungalow.
It said in a 2018 report that the property had "architectural, heritage and historical significance".
"The property was where meetings took place that led to the formation of the first independent government for Singapore, and altered the destiny of the country," the committee said.
The house's basement dining room was also where the PAP -- still in power after more than 60 years -- was formed in 1954.
The committee presented three options for the government on what to do with the property: preserve it as a national monument, retain the historic dining room and tear down the rest, and demolish the house for redevelopment.
- 'Delicate matter' -
"All eyes will be on how the government handles this delicate matter," political analyst Eugene Tan told AFP.
Given that Wong was selected as Lee Hsien Loong's heir-apparent in 2022, the new prime minister will have to demonstrate any decision about the land "was made without fear or favour".
With a general poll to be held before November 2025, "it is an issue that the ruling party would rather not distract voters from their election manifesto", said Tan, an associate professor of law at the Singapore Management University.
"(Wong) will seek to prevail in the court of public opinion by demonstrating how the decision was made, the considerations that applied, and how the decision is best for the country."
Tan added that it was unlikely any decision would be made "in the foreseeable future".
But Lee Hsien Yang said: "It has been nine years" since Lee Kuan Yew's passing.
"That day (to demolish the house) is today," he said.
O.M.Souza--AMWN