Singapore to preserve 38 Oxley Road for history, not as Lee Kuan Yew memorial

The Singapore government is not seeking to memorialise founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and family by preserving his former home and instead is enabling future generations of citizens to understand their country’s struggle for independence, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo has said.\nDetailing the reasons behind the government’s intention to preserve 38 Oxley Road as a national monument, Neo told parliament on Thursday that the space and its importance could not be replicated elsewhere, including the coming S$335 million (US$256 million) Founders’ Memorial.\nThe National Heritage Board (NHB) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) on Monday said that the home was of historic significance and national importance, and worthy of preservation as a national monument “with one possible outcome being a heritage park”.\nNeo said in parliament: “The focus of this education therefore is on the pivotal historical events that happened there, one that brought us from colonial to self-rule, to independence, rather than the lives of those people who lived there.”\nFollowing patriarch Lee’s death in 2015, his younger children, Lee Hsien Yang and the late Lee Wei Ling, made public in 2017 their conflict with older brother and then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, whom they accused of trying to block the demolition of the home against their father’s wishes. The brothers have been estranged since.\n\nLee Hsien Yang, who claimed he had received asylum protection in the United Kingdom and who still owns the property, on Monday night posted a statement on social media saying the Singapore government had “chosen to trample on Lee Kuan Yew’s unwavering wish to demolish his private house”.\n“Lee Kuan Yew was opposed to monuments,” he added in the post, accusing the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) of disrespecting his father’s “legacy and values”. The senior Lee was Singapore’s first prime minister from 1959 to 1990. He died on March 23, 2015.\nThe basement dining room is where the founding members of the PAP held secret meetings and discussed setting up the party in the early 1950s before it was formally launched in 1954.\nShould the government designate 38 Oxley Road as a national monument, it would mean that the site cannot be redeveloped for residential, commercial or other private uses.\nHowever, this does not obligate the government to preserve all the buildings and structures in their current state, with the agencies saying that the relevant authorities had not assessed the state of the structures on the site.\nNHB and SLA said that the government would consider all options, including those proposed by a ministerial committee in 2018, and would make a decision “well within this term of government”, which can last until 2030.\n\nOn Thursday, Neo noted that other countries too had preserved sites associated with their independence for public education and appreciation.\nHe cited the Gandhi Ashram in India where Mahatma Gandhi lived from 1917 to 1930; and the Independence National Historical Park in the United States, which includes sites of historic milestones like the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.\nIf the government were to proceed with the preservation of the site, it would respect Lee Kuan Yew and his wife Kwa Geok Choo’s wishes to remove traces of their private living spaces from the interior of the house.\n“Under no circumstance will the interior of the house as Mr Lee and Madam Kwa knew, be displayed or recorded or remodelled or duplicated elsewhere,” said Neo.\nMembers of parliament including Liang Eng Hwa, Jamus Lim, Christopher de Souza and non-constituency MP Eileen Chong asked why the Founders’ Memorial, which is set to open in 2028 and is dedicated to honouring independent Singapore’s pioneers, could not serve the heritage purposes of 38 Oxley Road.\n\nNeo stressed the uniqueness of 38 Oxley Road and how “very, very precious few sites” like it remained where there was a confluence of people, events and place that resulted in Singapore’s independence and it would serve to “augment” the Founders’ Memorial.\n“[The] Founders’ Memorial is recreated on reclaimed land. It is not the same space where the events took place. It is not the same space where the people came together. It is not the same space where the struggles took place. There will not be that same sense of authenticity,” said Neo.\nUnder the Preservation of Monuments Act 2009, an owner of a site under consideration will be given a “reasonable period to submit any objections” and the minister will consider every objection before making a final decision on protecting the site.\nIf the minister decides to preserve the site, the government will compensate the owner under the Land Acquisition Act. The government will take into account the market value of the site to determine the compensation amount, and is expected to appoint a private valuer for the assessment.\nIn 2018, the ministerial committee on 38 Oxley Road helmed by former senior minister Teo Chee Hean provided three options: retaining the property by gazetting it as a national monument, retaining just the historic basement dining room, or demolishing it fully.\n