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You can love Singapore and yet not vote PAP: Lee Hsien Yang

Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, addresses the nation in a Facebook Live video for Progress Singapore Party. SCREENSHOT: PSP Facebook page
Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, addresses the nation in a Facebook Live video for Progress Singapore Party. SCREENSHOT: PSP Facebook page

SINGAPORE — The long-running Lee saga took on a whole new dimension, as Lee Hsien Yang addressed the nation in a Facebook Live video for the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) on Wednesday night (24 June).

On the day that he officially confirmed his membership in the PSP, but declined to reveal if he would be running for office, Hsien Yang said, "It’s possible to be loyal Singaporeans, to be proud of what has been accomplished in the past, to recite with pride, ‘We, the citizens of Singapore’. To love Singapore. And yet, to not vote PAP"

In the two-minute video, the younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had scathing words for the ruling People’s Action Party. “The PAP has lost its way. My sister Wei Ling shares this view too,” said Hsien Yang, adding that she had said so publicly in a Facebook post before their public falling out with PM Lee in June 2017.

“The current government is distinctly different from when LKY was PM and subsequently MM.”

The youngest child of Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew also alluded to “live issues” that would be of broad concern in the coming General Election, which will be held on 10 July. These include the Central Provident Fund scheme, Housing Development Board leases and “a presidential election widely perceived to lack legitimacy”.

“There will be no LKY Bonus or SG50 to help the ruling party,” added the 62-year-old.

He also appealed to Singaporeans to give their financial and moral support to the PSP in the “myriad of tasks” that it must carry out to contest the election. “We can help to spread the word, persuade our friends and family, that the PSP is a serious party that deserves their support.”

Hsien Yang first publicly stated his full support for PSP in a Facebook post on 28 July last year, days after ex-PAP MP Dr Tan Cheng Bock launched his party.

Last year, he helped fund prominent civil activists involved in court cases. These include activist Jolovan Wham’s appeal against a contempt of court conviction and blogger Leong Sze Hian, who filed a counterclaim against PM Lee in the latter’s defamation suit.

Since 2017, he and his older sister Wei Ling have been embroiled in a long-running public spat with their older brother over the fate of their old family home at 38 Oxley Road and the last wishes of their late father.

His wife Suet Fern and son Shengwu have also become embroiled in court cases respectively over alleged professional misconduct in the handling of Lee Kuan Yew’s final will and alleged contempt of court.

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