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

LONDON (AP) — Singapore has become far more repressive and corruption in the Asian 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 asylum from what he described as a campaign of persecution to silence him.

Lee Hsien Yang, who has been granted the status of political refugee in Britain told The Associated Press that Singaporean authorities have “weaponized” the country’s laws against critics and that he is just the most prominent example of a growing number of Singaporeans fleeing abroad to seek protection from their own government .

Lee cited a tightening of security and right-of-assembly laws and a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers from the city-state over the past decade under the rule of his estranged brother, Lee Hsien Loong, who was prime minister until he resigned early this year.

“Singapore has this veneer that pretends to be some kind of prosperous, democratic, free country. The veneer is quite thin,” he said in an interview in London on Monday. “In addition, there is a repressive character in that regime and there are people who flee from it.”

The Singapore government responded strongly on Thursday, accusing Lee of turning a “personal vendetta into an international smear campaign against his father, his family and his country.”

It said Lee had alleged in his asylum application that he and his family were being persecuted by the Singapore government to prevent his son, Li Shengwu, from becoming prime minister.

“That he would go 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,” the report said.

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

Human Rights Watch says Singapore silenced dissenting voices in its recent elections and raised concerns about its aggressive enforcement of a sweeping “online falsehood” law that it says allows officials to censor online content.

Allegations of state persecution

The Lee brothers have been at odds ever since got into an argument about the will of their deceased father.

Lee Kuan Yewwho died in 2015, was both feared for his authoritarian tactics and admired worldwide for turning the city-state into one of the richest countries in the world. He left power in 1990, but remained influential behind the scenes for many years afterwards.

A court has found that Lee Hsien Yang and his wife lied under oath and misled his father during the drafting of his will, which they helped write. Lee said his son was persecuted 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 whom he alleged were corrupt because of their leasing of state properties. He said last month that he paid the amount so that the family home registered in his name will not be seized.

Lee called the actions against him “fake, insulting and baseless” and said the persecution campaign escalated after he joined Singapore’s opposition party in 2020. Lee said he and his wife left in a hurry in June 2022 and decided to seek political asylum in Singapore. Britain because they believed they needed protection.

“Many people claim this is a family feud. Well, the actions taken against me were taken by the organs of state,” he said.

“In a tightly controlled country like Singapore, where my brother was Prime Minister and holds power, these things cannot possibly happen without his knowledge, his consent and his consent,” he added.

Financial scandals with international connections

Lee further alleged that Singapore’s banks and companies have been linked to a growing number of international money laundering and corruption scandals in recent years.

Last year, Singaporean authorities seized US$1.75 billion worth of assets, including gold bars, bottles of alcohol, luxury cars and property, and arrested nine Chinese nationals in a huge money laundering case involving money raised illegally abroad.

Lee cited other examples, including the involvement of Singaporean banks in the The corruption scandal of the Malaysian state development fund 1MDBand two Singapore government-affiliated companies operating in Brazil’s oil and gas industry that were allegedly involved in the oil and gas industry Brazil’s sweeping ‘Operation Car Wash’ anti-corruption research.

Lee said the cases and increasing repression showed his city has fallen into decline – though he also acknowledged the lack of political freedoms was a remnant of his father’s decades-long leadership, which turned the poor former British colony into a financially prosperous center with little crime. and virtually no corruption.

“Singapore has retained laws and punishments that are from another time,” he said. “My father was a product of that time, but I think if he had been alive today, some of those things could very well have changed.”

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

The Singapore government said all examples of alleged corruption cited by Lee have been thoroughly addressed, either through the courts or in parliament. It said Singapore has not wavered in its anti-corruption stance, noting the country’s high ranking in the international perception of corruption and the recent indictment of a former minister for corruption and robust controls to detect, deter and prevent financial crimes prosecute.

It called Lee “a major beneficiary of the Singapore system” and noted that he had freely participated in politics by joining an opposition party during the 2020 election.

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

Lee declined to comment on whether he saw a role for himself as opposition leader. But he said he intended to “speak out” on Singaporean politics, despite concerns about further attempts to silence him.

“I have no doubt that every time I do that, I run the risk of further attacks from the Singapore authorities,” he said. “I think there will come a day when things will change. I hope it will happen in my lifetime and that one day I can return to my home.”

___

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