In a Facebook post on Monday, former Nominated Member of Parliament, Calvin Cheng commented that Singapore does not belong to the Lee family and people should show the outside world that a fight between the Lees has absolutely no impact on the stability of Singapore.
Cheng wrote,
Ignore. Get on with life. Get on with work.
Show the outside world that a fight between the Lees has absolutely no impact on the stability of Singapore.
Because contrary to the international myth, the Singapore doesn’t belong to the Lees.
It belongs to all of us.
In response to Cheng’s comments, Nic Lim replied by writing,
What belongs to all of us?
– We don’t own our cars; we merely pay to drive them for 10 years.
– We don’t own our HDB flats; they revert back to the government after 99 years without even a guarantee of getting full returns on the market values of what we paid for them.
– We don’t own our own CPF; the government decides on what is to be disbursed to us as and when they please.
– We don’t get a say in who we want as our President in the next election; it has been hijacked in the name of “tokenism” at best, or the rules have been changed for the sake of shutting Dr Tan Cheng Bock out at worst.
– We don’t even get a say in where we live; GRC boundaries are redrawn willy-nilly every election cycle, and minority households have to mind a quota that determines how many of them can live in a certain area, as well as who to resell to.
So what is this “Singapore” that “belongs to all of us” that you talk about?
Perhaps Cheng found Lim’s question to be interesting enough, he replied,
“1) after 10 years you can pay higher taxes to keep it on road. Anyway cars are an expenditure not an asset. 2) all leasehold properties operate in the same way. Not just HDB 3) CPF mine belongs to me. I can use it to buy property invest in low risk instruments. Pay my children’s education and when I retire choose to amortise it. So I don’t know why yours is not yours. 4) president. R u racist ? U don’t want a Malay president ? Tsk 5) again minorities – I think u must be racist. I am v happy that we don’t have racial enclaves
So. That’s my answer. Don’t need to reply. U r clearly deluded and disgruntled.”
Not being impressed with Cheng’s reply, Lim replied, “*shrug* I guess we both live in our own glass bowls.”
On 14 June,Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s two siblings, Dr Lee Weiling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang issued a public statement to express their non confidence in him and wrote that they are worried about Singapore’s future in his hands. They raised several issues in their six-page statement such as the handling of the 38 Oxley Road but most importantly, the two alleged that the PM had abused his official position for personal agenda.
After the issuing of the statement and the subsequent rebuttal of PM himself of the accusations made against him, the two had been posting further evidence of their allegations to prove their point and refute the counterclaims made by PM Lee and other ministers on the matter.
Local media, mainstream media and alternative news have been covering the happenings of the saga along with international news in the loop, with juicy interview bits from Lee Hsien Yang about how he feels threatened by his brother and the government to consider leaving the country for his family’s safety.
On 19 June, PM Lee made a public statement to apologise for the dispute between him and his siblings. Apart from apologising for the matter, he said that he will make a ministerial statement to refute the allegations made against him and will subject himself for questioning by the Members of Parliament on 3 July with party whip lifted for his party.