Lee Kuan Yew’s will – When white can be black

The will of Lee Kuan Yew is now the hot topic of dispute between his two children and his party, the PAP, and between the eldest son and his younger children. What is so puzzling and disputable about the will of this top legal trained politician? Here is the part that is in contention.
 
‘I further declare that it is my wish and the wish of my late Wife, KWA GEOK CHOO, that our house at 38 Oxley Road, Singapore 238629 (“the House”) be demolished immediately after my death, or if my daughter Wei Ling, would prefer to continue living in the original house, immediately after she moves out of the House. I would ask each of my children to ensure our wishes with respect to the demolition of the House be carried out.’
 
To me or any layperson, the will is so simple and clear. But we are just laypersons and cannot see anything wrong with the will. Only the legally trained experts, called lawyers or legal counsels, could tell you it is not so simple, and the whole will can be torn apart for so many grey or contentious areas. To these legal experts, the simple will is full of holes.
 
The Singapore public and the whole world have been given a lesson in how the legal experts and politicians are able to cast doubts and spin stories on a simple will by one the greatest lawyers Singapore has produced, and an eminent politician known not for shoddy and wishy washy unclear stuff. This was a man that was precise to a comma or a full stop in their proper place. In this case the legal experts and politicians are having a field day displaying their prowess, applying all their strategies, tricks and tools of the trade to prove that this will is not what it was or meant to be.
 
The first thing is to cast doubts on the authenticity of the will. If this does not work, cast doubts on the people that were involved in writing the will. If this does not work, question the intent of the beneficiaries, or the intent of the drafters of the will, or even the intent of the owner of the will.
 
Some have called these types of questions or doubt casting as clever, professionally expected, and legal ways to win a case or an argument. Some have called these brutal, devious, cunning, sly and whatever negative expressions you can find in the dictionary.
The will of Lee Kuan Yew to those that want to question his will is not only suspect for many reasons. In their attempt to cast doubt, the man himself has been dragged out into the open as an old fool, careless, unthinking and with a ‘tiada apa’ attitude when he signed the will. He did not known nor understood what he was signing, or he was conned, deceived or wrongly advised or tricked into signing a will against his wish or intent. He needed legal assistance and advice! And he did not know about it even after he is dead and buried. And now his will is becoming a joke, and he is also becoming a joke. Where is the respect for this man?
 
Is this how Singaporeans want to remember this man they cried for during his funeral and lined the streets under pouring rain to send him off in his last journey? While the politicians and lawyers are attacking his will directly or indirectly, while targeting his children, it is sad that this man, once revered by many and with many that pledged loyalty to him and even publicly expressed respect to him like a father or a demi god, becomes the victim of the dispute.
 
Lee Kuan Yew, his name and reputation are now dragged through the mud for all to see. Lee Kuan Yew and his Singapore have become an international joke by the people trying to prove their cleverness on his will.
 
Is this the kind of ending Singaporeans want for their renowned founding father? Before more damage is done to this man, let’s have some discretion and stop doing more harm to Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore by showing a little respect to the man for what he was. I am starting to feel sorry for this man for the way people turned against him, betrayed him, shown disrespect to him. Did he deserve this treatment?
 
I rest my case. Please do not throw this man into the toilet bowl in whatever you are doing. If the govt chooses to gazette his house into a national monument, just do it and spare the disgraceful gripes. Why is Lee Kuan Yew’s will an issue when the govt has all the power to gazette it?