Singapore’s affluent veneer hides repression and corruption, says the son of its modern-day founder

LONDON (AP) — Singapore has become much more repressive and corruption in Asia’s financial center has worsened in the decade since the death of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, according to his youngest son, who fled to Britain to seek refuge from what he describes as a campaign of harassment to silence him.

Li Xian Yang who was received the status of a political refugee in Britain, told the Associated Press that Singaporean authorities have used the country’s laws as a “weapon” against critics and that he is just the latest example of a growing number of Singaporeans fleeing abroad to seek protection from their own government.

Lee cited tighter security laws and assembly rights, as well as a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers from the city-state over the past decade under his brother Lee Hsien Loong, who was prime minister before he lived . resigned earlier this year.

“Singapore looks like a prosperous, democratic, free country. The veneer is quite thin,” he said in an interview in London on Monday. “Underneath that is the repressive nature of this regime, and there are people fleeing it.”

Singapore’s government reacted strongly on Thursday, accusing Lee of turning a “personal vendetta into an international campaign to discredit his father, his family and his country”.

In his asylum application, Lee claimed that the Singapore government is persecuting him and his family to prevent his son Lee Shenwu from becoming prime minister.

“That he has gone so far as to claim this – even though his son has repeatedly said he has no such ambition – shows that his campaign against Singapore is not based on principle,” it said.

Lee announced last week that he had been forced to seek asylum after what he called unfounded criminal proceedings, defamation and surveillance of him and his wife by Singaporean authorities led by his brother.

Human Rights Watch says Singapore silenced dissent during recent elections and has expressed concern over aggressive enforcement of an “online lies” law that it says allows officials to censor online content.

Charges of state persecution

The Lee brothers have been feuding ever since quarreled over their late father’s will.

Lee Kuan Yewwho died in 2015, was both feared for his authoritarian tactics and admired around the world for turning the city-state into one of the world’s richest nations. He stepped down from power in 1990, but remained influential behind the scenes for many years afterward.

The court found that Lee Hsien Yang and his wife lied under oath and misled his father during the preparation of his will, which they helped write. Lee said his son was prosecuted for criticizing the judiciary in a Facebook post. Lee himself lost a defamation suit last year and was ordered to pay damages to two government ministers who he said were corrupt by renting state property. Last month, he said he paid the amount to prevent the family home in his name from being seized.

Lee called the actions against him “false, offensive and unjustified” and said the campaign of harassment had intensified since he joined Singapore’s opposition party in 2020. Lee said he and his wife hastily left Singapore in June 2022 and decided to apply for political asylum in Singapore. Great Britain because they believed they needed protection.

“A lot of people say it’s a family feud. Well, the actions against me were carried out by state bodies,” he said.

“In a tightly controlled country like Singapore, where my brother was prime minister and holds the levers of power, it is impossible for these things to happen without his knowledge, his approval and consent,” he added.

Financial scandals with international connections

Lee also claimed that Singaporean banks and companies have been linked to an increasing number of international money laundering and corruption scandals in recent years.

Last year, Singaporean authorities seized assets worth $1.75 billion, including gold bars, bottles of alcohol, luxury cars and real estate, and arrested nine Chinese nationals. a large-scale money laundering case attraction of funds collected illegally abroad.

Lee cited other examples, including the involvement of Singaporean banks in The corruption scandal of the Malaysian State Development Fund 1MDBas well as two Singaporean government-linked companies operating in Brazil’s oil and gas industry that were allegedly involved in Large-scale operation “Car wash” in Brazil anti-corruption investigation.

Lee said the incidents and increased repression showed his city had deteriorated, although he also acknowledged the lack of political freedoms was a holdover from his father’s decade-long rule, which saw the resource-poor former British colony transform into a thriving financial center with low crime. and almost zero corruption.

“Singapore has retained laws and punishments that came from another time and era,” he said. “My father was a product of that day and age, but I think if he were alive today, some of these things might very well change.”

Human Rights Watch said last year that Singapore had carried out the largest number of executions for drug-related crimes in a decade.

The Singapore government said all examples of alleged corruption cited by Lee had been thoroughly investigated either through the courts or in parliament. Singapore has not wavered in its anti-corruption stance, it said, citing the country’s high international corruption profile and the recent indictment of a former Cabinet minister on bribery charges and tough controls to detect, deter and prosecute financial crimes.

He called Lee “the main beneficiary of the Singapore system” and noted that he had freely participated in politics, joining an opposition party during the 2020 election.

Lee “is not a victim of persecution. He and his wife remain citizens. They have and have always had the right to return to Singapore,” the government said.

Lee declined to comment on whether he envisions the role of opposition leader for himself. But he said he intended to continue to “speak his mind” on Singapore politics, despite his concerns about further attempts to silence him.

“I have no doubt that every time I do that, I risk further attacks from the Singaporean authorities,” he said. “I think the day will come when everything will change. I hope that it will come in my life and that one day I will be able to go home.”

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Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.