In being granted asylum in the UK, Lee Hsien Yang, the younger son of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, joins the ranks of other political dissidents from the city state who took up such a status abroad out of fear of persecution.
Lee Hsien Yang, 67, is the estranged brother of former Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, 72. The younger Lee brother and his late sister Lee Wei Ling in 2017 made public their feud with their oldest sibling over the fate of 38 Oxley Road, their family property.
The younger Lee alleged that then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong was misusing his power to scuttle their efforts to demolish the family home, in line with their father’s wishes.
Lee Hsien Yang joined the opposition Progress Singapore Party in 2020 and has been vocal in his criticism of the government, landing him in court over suits filed by cabinet ministers and falling foul of the country’s fake news law.
He and his wife lawyer Lee Suet Fern left Singapore in 2022 after deciding not to attend a scheduled police interview over potential offences of giving false evidence in judicial proceedings regarding Lee Kuan Yew’s will.
According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN’s Refugee Agency, the number of asylum seekers from Singapore has grown in recent years. Between January and June this year, there were 322 asylum seekers, up from 299 last year, 117 in 2022 and 100 in 2021.