S'pore rocked by open feud in Lee family
Tightly-ruled Singapore was rocked by an unprecedented political drama yesterday when a feud between the children of the late founding leader Lee Kuan Yew over his legacy burst into the open.
The founder's oldest child, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, came under attack online before dawn from his younger brother Lee Hsien Yang, and younger sister Lee Wei Ling. They accused him of exploiting their father's legacy for his own political agenda, a charge the premier quickly denied.
The pair also claimed that their brother had abused his powers to harass them -- and Hsien Yang said he had decided to leave the country as a result.
The feud had simmered following the death in March 2015 of the elder Lee, who ruled Singapore with an iron hand but transformed the city-state from a relatively poor British colony into one of the world's wealthiest and most stable societies.
But the quarrel intensified in the small hours of yesterday with the issuance of the extraordinary statement, which immediately went viral in a country where tough laws against protests and curbs on press freedom have stifled political dissent.
"The timing is important as Singapore has been facing more uncertainty both in terms of the current and future leadership as well as the economy and regional situation," said Southeast Asia watcher Bridget Welsh, a visiting professor at John Cabot University in Rome.
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