‘Leaders must be able to take criticism, acknowledge mistakes’: PM Lee

[skyleon]

I have grave concerns about the events surrounding making of the last will: PM Lee in Statutory Declaration
Published: 9:27 PM, June 15, 2017

Updated: 10:43 PM, June 15, 2017



SINGAPORE — Saying his siblings' allegations made it untenable for him not to respond publicly, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong released an edited summary of what he told the Ministerial Committee that was set up to weigh the various options for the home of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew at 38, Oxley Road in his statutory declarations.


Mr Lee Kuan Yew (“Mr Lee”) made six wills before his last will of 17 December 2013 (the “Last Will”). All the wills, save for the Last Will, were prepared by Ms Kwa Kim Li (“KKL”).

I learnt about the contents of the Last Will only on 12 April 2015, when the Last Will was read to the family. I saw copies of the six wills preceding the Last Will only in June 2015, when KKL provided the family with the same. Only then was I able to review and compare the terms and changes between those wills and the Last Will.

The Demolition Clause first appeared in Mr Lee’s first will made on 20 August 2011 (the “First Will”).

Mr Lee gave instructions to remove the Demolition Clause, and it was removed, from the penultimate two wills (the “Fifth Will” and “Sixth Will”). However, it somehow found its way back into the Last Will.

The Demolition Clause in the Last Will is now being used by Dr Lee Wei Ling (“LWL”) and Mr Lee Hsien Yang (“LHY”) to claim that Mr Lee was firm in his wish that the house at 38 Oxley Road (the “House”) be demolished, and that he was not prepared to accept its preservation or contemplate options short of demolition. There is no basis for these claims, not least because of the deeply troubling circumstances concerning the making of the Last Will.

In setting out these circumstances, I will refer only to objective facts and contemporaneous documents, some of which I learnt of only later.

Under the First Will, Mr Lee gave each child an equal share of his estate (the “Estate”). However, under the Sixth Will made on 2 November 2012, Mr Lee gave LWL an extra share (relative to LHY and me), and he told LWL about this.

As I only later learnt, this issue became the subject of discussion between LHY and Mr Lee in late 2013 and on 16 December 2013 at 7.08 pm, LHY’s wife, Mrs Lee Suet Fern (“LSF”) sent an email to Mr Lee, copied to LHY and KKL (“LSF’s Email”), stating:

“Dear Pa Pa

This was the original agreed Will which ensures that all 3 children receive equal shares, taking into account the relative valuations (as at the date of demise) of the properties each receives.


continue reading here : http://www.todayonline.com/singapore...-lee-statutory

[skyleon]

PM Lee raises 'serious questions' about LKY's last will; Hsien Yang, Dr Lee hit back

Published: 9:44 PM, June 15, 2017

Updated: 12:38 PM, June 16, 2017



SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has raised “grave concerns” about events surrounding the making of his father’s Last Will, saying on Thursday (June 15) it was untenable for him not to respond to his siblings’ allegations before he returned from leave overseas.

Giving his version of how Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s Last Will of December 2013 came to be made — contents of which he said he only learnt about in April 2015, after his father’s death the previous month — PM Lee questioned the role of his sister-in-law, Mrs Lee Suet Fern, in the will and whether there was conflict of interest on her part. Among other questions, he also asked whether the provisions of the will were explained to Mr Lee Kuan Yew and if his father gave specific instructions to re-insert the demolition clause.


I have grave concerns about the events surrounding making of the last will: PM Lee in Statutory Declaration

Without “proper and complete answers” to these and other questions, “there are serious doubts about whether Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) was properly and independently advised on the content of the Last Will before he signed it”, he said.

And not least because of the “deeply troubling circumstances” concerning the making of the Last Will, PM Lee said there was no basis for the claims of his siblings — Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee Wei Ling — that the demolition clause in the will showed that Mr Lee was firm in his wish that the house be demolished, and that he was not prepared to accept its preservation or contemplate other options.

The Prime Minister said he believed it necessary to “go beyond the Last Will in order to establish what Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s thinking and wishes were in relation to the house”.

Releasing an edited summary of the statutory declarations he made to a ministerial committee looking into options for 38 Oxley Road, PM Lee said preparations were carried out for the Last Will (the seventh) after a discussion between Mr Lee Hsien Yang and their father in late 2013. The Last Will was to revert to the three children receiving equal shares of his estate, instead of Dr Lee receiving a larger share than her brothers.

“Yet, the Last Will that (Mrs Lee Suet Fern) and her law firm prepared and got Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) to sign went beyond that. Significantly, they re-inserted the demolition clause, even though that clause does not appear to have been discussed at the time of the making of the Last Will and had been in fact removed by Mr Lee from (the fifth and sixth wills),” said PM Lee, calling the circumstances “deeply troubling”.

He said there appears to be a conflict of interest that Mrs Lee Suet Fern was involved in the Last Will while her husband was a beneficiary and stood to gain from the removal of Dr Lee’s extra share. PM Lee noted that at one point, Dr Lee “began to harbour grave suspicions about the change in the shares in the Last Will”. Dr Lee also told PM Lee’s wife Ho Ching she did not trust Mrs Lee Suet Fern, who has “great influence” on Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

In a span of 41 minutes on Dec 16, 2013, Mrs Lee Suet Fern had seen to the preparation of the new will and got a lawyer from her law firm to be on standby to get it executed by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, he said. In that duration, their cousin Kwa Kim Li, who had prepared the first six wills of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, was removed from the email loop by Mr Lee Hsien Yang, he claimed.

After the Last Will was read to the three siblings and Mrs Lee Suet Fern and Ms Ho on April 12, 2015, Mr Lee Hsien Yang “repeatedly insisted on the immediate demolition of the house”, PM Lee claimed. “I said that such a move so soon after Mr Lee (Kuan Yew’s) passing, when the public’s emotions were still raw, might force the Government to promptly react by deciding to gazette the house, and that would not be in the interests of Mr Lee’s legacy or Singapore.”


continue reading here : http://www.todayonline.com/singapore...ien-yangs-suet

[skyleon]

PM raises ‘serious questions’ over making of Mr Lee’s Last Will


Published: 4:00 AM, June 16, 2017

Updated: 7:47 AM, June 16, 2017



SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has raised “grave concerns” about events surrounding the making of his father’s Last Will, saying on Thursday it was untenable for him not to respond to his siblings’ allegations before he returned from leave overseas.

Giving his version of how Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s Last Will of December 2013 came to be made — contents of which he said he only learnt about in April 2015, after his father’s death the previous month — PM Lee questioned the role of his sister-in-law, Mrs Lee Suet Fern, in the will and whether there was conflict of interest on her part. Among other questions, he also asked whether the provisions of the will were explained to Mr Lee Kuan Yew and if his father gave specific instructions to re-insert the demolition clause.

Without “proper and complete answers” to these and other questions, “there are serious doubts about whether Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) was properly and independently advised on the content of the Last Will before he signed it”, he said.

And not least because of the “deeply troubling circumstances” concerning the making of the Last Will, PM Lee said there was no basis for the claims of his siblings — Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee Wei Ling — that the demolition clause in the will showed that Mr Lee was firm in his wish that the house be demolished, and that he was not prepared to accept its preservation or contemplate other options.

The Prime Minister said he believed it necessary to “go beyond the Last Will in order to establish what Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s thinking and wishes were in relation to the house”.

Releasing an edited summary of the statutory declarations he made to a ministerial committee looking into options for 38 Oxley Road, PM Lee said preparations were carried out for the Last Will (the seventh) after a discussion between Mr Lee Hsien Yang and their father in late 2013. The Last Will was to revert to the three children receiving equal shares of his estate, instead of Dr Lee receiving a larger share than her brothers.

“Yet, the Last Will that (Mrs Lee Suet Fern) and her law firm prepared and got Mr Lee (Kuan Yew) to sign went beyond that. Significantly, they re-inserted the demolition clause, even though that clause does not appear to have been discussed at the time of the making of the Last Will and had been in fact removed by Mr Lee from (the fifth and sixth wills),” said PM Lee, calling the circumstances “deeply troubling”.

He said there appears to be a conflict of interest that Mrs Lee Suet Fern was involved in the Last Will while her husband was a beneficiary and stood to gain from the removal of Dr Lee’s extra share. PM Lee noted that at one point, Dr Lee “began to harbour grave suspicions about the change in the shares in the Last Will”. Dr Lee also told PM Lee’s wife Ho Ching she did not trust Mrs Lee Suet Fern, who has “great influence” on Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

In a span of 41 minutes on Dec 16, 2013, Mrs Lee Suet Fern had seen to the preparation of the new will and got a lawyer from her law firm to be on standby to get it executed by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, he said. In that duration, their cousin Kwa Kim Li, who had prepared the first six wills of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, was removed from the email loop by Mr Lee Hsien Yang, he claimed.


continue reading here : http://www.todayonline.com/singapore...lees-last-will

[skyleon]

Dispute between brothers surfaced at reading of Mr Lee’s Last Will


By Yong Siew Fern

Published: 6:35 AM, June 16, 2017

Updated: 12:39 PM, June 16, 2017



SINGAPORE — The dispute between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 65, and his brother Lee Hsien Yang, 60, arose during the reading of their father’s Last Will, and a “series of events” then led PM Lee to be “very troubled by the circumstances” surrounding the crafting of the document.

Mr Lee detailed his concerns in an edited summary of his statutory declarations to the ministerial committee, set up by the Cabinet to mull over the options regarding their family home at 38 Oxley Road.


The dispute between PM Lee and his brother surfaced at the reading of their father’s Last Will on April 12, 2015.

Their father, founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, had died little under a month earlier.

Apart from PM Lee and his wife Ho Ching, also present were his sister Lee Wei Ling, his brother and wife Lee Suet Fern, and two lawyers from Mrs Lee Suet Fern’s law firm: Mr Ng Joo Khin and Mr Bernard Lui, who was a witness to the signing of the Last Will.

At that reading, Mrs Lee voluntarily told the room that the late Mr Lee had asked her to prepare the Last Will, but she had not wanted to get personally involved, so she got Mr Ng from her law firm to handle the task. Mr Lui then confirmed that he was one of the witnesses.

Observing this, PM Lee said in his statutory declaration: “I could not help but form the impression that this was all rehearsed, and wondered why these statements were made even when no questions had been raised about the validity of the Last Will.”

He added: “I was so struck by the sequence of volunteered statements that ... 11 days later (on April 23), I recounted to DPM Teo Chee Hean in my office what had happened ... including what Mrs Lee Suet Fern had said.”

The Prime Minister also recounted that, at the reading, Mr Lee Hsien Yang had “repeatedly insisted” on the “immediate demolition” of their parents’ house.

“I said (to him) that such a move so soon after Mr Lee’s passing, when the public’s emotions were still raw, might force the Government to promptly react by deciding to gazette the house, and that would not be in the interests of Mr Lee’s legacy, or Singapore.”

He said the discussion that followed ended only when Ms Ho intervened to ask Dr Lee if she wanted to continue living at Oxley Road. When Dr Lee replied that she would, Mr Lee Hsien Yang stopped insisting on the demolition.

The events of that day, PM Lee said, led him to look up “old family emails”. That was when he discovered an email sent by Ms Wong Lin Hoe, private secretary to the late Mr Lee, in January 2014. It was addressed to Mrs Lee Suet Fern. Other members of the family, as well as Ms Kwa Kim Li, who prepared the late Mr Lee’s six wills before his seventh — and last — will, were copied on the email.

The content of that email dealt with “the bequest of some carpets” and attached was a codicil — a supplement to a will that contains changes or explanations.

Buried in the email thread were earlier emails sent by Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his wife on Dec 16 and 17, 2013.

PM Lee said that, at the time, he did not think it necessary to read the entire email chain and did not do so.

He was also “not anxious to acquaint myself with my father’s wills”, he added.

In May 2015, when he asked his brother about the codicil to the Last Will, he was reminded that he was copied in that 2014 email. When he could not find it, he asked his brother for a copy.


continue reading here : http://www.todayonline.com/singapore...lees-last-will

[newyorker88]

What problem this kid have with the bike?

[skyleon]

This brings back to this popular phrase " Si Ginna " .

[simp2]

Ask for help

[DevilTan4480]

Really is idiotic moron to capture a video doing the act. Next time might as well take a video while fucking a girl. LOL

[Verysadstory]

Originally Posted by DevilTan4480

Really is idiotic moron to capture a video doing the act. Next time might as well take a video while fucking a girl. LOL

No not enough have to fuck an underage girl and send to the police station himself!

[xqueen]

saw it in whatsapp group also, he will be problematic kid to the family and man to the society in the future .

[strikeback4]

Throw at least wear a glove to remove the fingerprint la...

So stupid no wonder got caught less than 24hrs

[ItsTheEnd]

Originally Posted by Verysadstory

Stupid and rash kid might hit someone and it is also destroying private property!

Damn dangerous act

[ah rat]

Originally Posted by strikeback4

Throw at least wear a glove to remove the fingerprint la...

So stupid no wonder got caught less than 24hrs

Bro, you know Useless/brainless guy do this

[skyleon]

Govt has powers to do ‘what is in national interests when it comes to property rights’


By Kenneth Cheng

Published: 5:20 PM, June 16, 2017

Updated: 6:21 PM, June 16, 2017



SINGAPORE — The dispute between the Lee siblings over their Oxley Road family home has highlighted an issue that has arisen from time to time - the Government's rights over property owners.

Recently, the case of the Merpati Road houses being acquired to make way for the future Mattar MRT station also made the headlines. As in the case of acquisition of land, homes or buildings for public amenities or other uses, the Government can also take over ownership of a property by gazetting it as a national monument, property law experts contacted by TODAY said.

Over the last few years, as the building of infrastructure has accelerated, such land acquisitions have become more common. Earlier this year, for example, the Singapore Land Authority put the Raffles Country Club on notice that it would have to vacate its 143-ha premises, which include a golf course, to make way by Jul 31 next year, for the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High Speed Rail.

The experts reiterated that in general, the Government has the legislative powers to do what is in the national interest. This includes overriding an individual's wishes in a will regarding a property.

Dr Kevin Tan, a legal academic and president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites Singapore, said the State can legislate and "do anything that (it) thinks is in the interest of Singapore". For instance, if a property is under consideration to be gazetted as a monument under the Preservation of Monuments Act, it would be a decision for the Preservation of Sites and Monuments division, which is under the National Heritage Board, and the National Development Minister.

"By operation of law, of course, you can override an individual will," he said, pointing to cases where wills were overridden on the grounds that they went against public policy. For instance, in the "rule against perpetuities", one cannot hold a property forever.

"You can't say, 'I want to give it to my great-grandson's grandson's grandson; that's against public policy," Dr Tan explained.


continue reading here : http://www.todayonline.com/singapore...roperty-rights

[skyleon]

Stamford Law, Lee Suet Fern had no role in drafting any of Mr Lee’s Last Will: Lee Hsien Yang

Published: 2:50 PM, June 16, 2017

Updated: 3:54 PM, June 16, 2017



SINGAPORE – In a span of several hours, Mr Lee Hsien Yang came out twice on Friday (June 16) to rebut Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s concerns over the role his wife Mrs Lee Suet Fern and her law firm, Stamford Law, played in the drafting of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s wills.

In his first post on Facebook, early on Friday morning, he stated that Stamford Law did not draft his father’s Last Will. He said his brother’s “claimed recollection to that effect is clearly erroneous”, adding, “LHL’s (Lee Hsien Loong’s) secret committee ignored it”.

Before ending the post with a question – “besides, we thought this was a ‘private family matter?’, a reference to the PM’s earlier statement that the airing of the feud had saddened him – Mr Lee Hsien Yang also said both he and his sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling, had already responded to a ministerial committee’s questions on how the Last Will was prepared, and the role played by Mrs Lee Suet Fern and Stamford Law in it.

Calling the PM’s assertion “a lie”, he said they had responded on Feb 28.

In a post several hours later, at 1.05pm, he went further, saying: “Stamford Law did not draft any will for LKY. The will was drafted by Kwa Kim Li of Lee & Lee.”

Rebutting “grave concerns” raised by PM Lee on Thursday over the role played by his sister-in-law, Mrs Lee, and the potential conflict of interest on her part, the younger Mr Lee added: “Paragraph 7 of the Will was drafted at LKY's (Lee Kuan Yew’s) direction, and put into language by Lee Suet Fern his daughter in law and when he was satisfied he asked Kim Li to insert it into his will.”

The Stamford lawyers were called in to witness the signing of the will on express written instructions from his father, and it was Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s estate that had instructed the law firm to extract probate.

On the role of another lawyer mentioned by PM Lee in the edited summary of his statutory declarations – Ng Joo Khin – Mr Lee Hsien Yang said his role was to read the will to the beneficiaries.


continue reading here : http://www.todayonline.com/singapore...lee-hsian-yang