Singapore PM’s brother joins Opposition before vote

Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, leaves the Supreme court on April 10, 2017. Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling, the younger siblings of Singapores current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, have taken the government to court for control over oral history tapes recorded by their father. / AFP PHOTO / ROSLAN RAHMAN (Photo credit should read ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images)

I joined the party because I think Dr Tan is committed to doing the right thing for Singapore, says Hsien Yang

SINGAPORE • Lee Hsien Yang, the estranged brother of Singapore Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong, has joined the Opposition Progress Singapore Party (PSP) a day after the city-state called for general elections to be held in July.

“I joined the party because I think Dr Tan is committed to doing the right thing for Singa- pore,” he told reporters yesterday following a breakfast meeting with party founder Dr Tan Cheng Bock. “There are issues of income inequality, there are issues of poverty, there are issues of governance and transparency, there are issues around housing, there are many issues that are alive.”

Hsien Yang declined to say if he would be contesting in the July 10 election, but said he would be contributing to the party “in many ways”.

Dr Tan, once an MP from the ruling People’s Action Party who narrowly lost a bid of his own to be Singapore’s president in 2011, said yesterday Hsien Yang’s “very presence with people is a strong indication of support for PSP already”.

“He is not just an ordinary person. His father is the founder of Singapore, so that’s very important,” Dr Tan said, referring to Lee Kuan Yew, who died in 2015.

Hsien Yang, who’s engaged in a bitter public clash with his older brother over the fate of their father’s house, last year publicly endorsed Dr Tan as the head of the newly founded party, saying at the time the would-be rival to his brother is the leader the country “deserves”.

The argument around the family home at 38, Oxley Road near Singapore’s famous shopping belt on Orchard Road broke out on Facebook in 2017, marking a public display of acrimony from a family that’s been at the forefront of the city’s establishment since its independence in 1965.

On Tuesday, PM Lee said during a national address that an election now “when things are relatively stable — will clear the decks, and give the new government a fresh five-year mandate” at a time when the global Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the financial hub’s economy. — Bloomberg