Lee Hsien Yang’s actions will not distract government from focusing on Singaporeans’ core issues: PM Wong

SINGAPORE: The actions of Mr Lee Hsien Yang will not distract the government from focusing on core issues that are important to Singaporeans, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Friday (Nov 8).
“Where Mr Lee Hsien Yang is concerned, he has made allegations which the government has responded fully to. I cannot control what he says or does,” said Mr Wong, in a press conference with local media at the National Press Centre.
He noted that there are no legal restrictions on Mr Lee, nor his wife and son, to return to Singapore.
Mr Lee and his wife Lee Suet Fern have been out of Singapore since 2022 after deciding not to attend a scheduled police interview over potential offences of giving false evidence in judicial proceedings regarding the will of his father Lee Kuan Yew, who is Singapore’s founding prime minister.
Mr Lee, who said he sought asylum protection in the United Kingdom in 2022, has also given interviews to overseas media outlets claiming “a campaign of persecution” against him as well as other claims about political repression in Singapore.
These claims have been refuted by the Singapore government.
On Friday, Mr Wong added: “Whatever (Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s) actions, they will not distract me and my team from focusing on the core issues that are important to Singaporeans, which means taking care of Singaporeans’ livelihoods, advancing our standards of living and making sure that we continue to build a better future for ourselves.”
In separate interviews last month with The Associated Press and The Guardian, given in the span of slightly over a week, Mr Lee made a range of claims against Singapore, including saying that the country has become much more repressive and that it retains repressive measures that originated when his father was prime minister.
Mr Lee had on Oct 22 announced on social media that he is now a political refugee in the UK. Citing the Singapore government’s “attacks” against him, he said he sought asylum protection “as a last resort”.
The Singapore government said on Oct 31 that Mr Lee is turning a “personal vendetta” into an international smear campaign “against his father, his family and his country”.
In response to a question on whether the saga with Mr Lee has dented relations between Singapore and the UK, Mr Wong said that decisions on political asylum are for the UK government to make, and that he cannot speak for them.
“But I met (UK Prime Minister) Keir Starmer at CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting), and we had a good conversation. We didn’t talk about this particular matter,” he said.
Mr Wong had visited Samoa last month for the Commonwealth summit, his first in his capacity as prime minister.
“We have a strategic partnership with the UK. We have many areas of cooperation to work on, and we think that there will be opportunities for us to strengthen the relationship further, especially as we mark 60 years of diplomatic ties next year,” said Mr Wong.