Lee Hsien Yang joins Progress Singapore Party

Singapore

LEE Hsien Yang, the younger brother of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, was officially unveiled as a member of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) on Wednesday, after months of speculation that he could join the ranks of the new opposition party led by former People's Action Party (PAP) politician Tan Cheng Bock.

Making the announcement at the party's breakfast meeting at Tiong Bahru Market, the 80-year-old PSP chief said: "This morning, I have great pleasure in giving this, our Progress (Singapore) Party membership card, to Lee Hsien Yang who has joined us quite some time ago, but because of Covid-19, we couldn't communicate (this)."

He added: "But now we are able to come together and this morning, we use this occasion to hand him this very, very precious card."

In a brief message conveyed via Facebook on Wednesday evening, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said: "The coming election will be a watershed. There will be no LKY bonus or SG50 to help the ruling party."

Some observers had said that the PAP's win in 2015 was fuelled by the feel-good factor from Singapore's Golden Jubilee celebrations. Founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's death in March that year was said to also have impacted the vote.

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Mr Lee Hsien Yang cited the Central Provident Fund scheme, Housing and Development Board leases and Singapore's approach to presidential elections among the "live issues which are of broad concern".

He also repeated his previous comments that the ruling party has "lost its way" and is "distinctly different" from when his father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, was still in the Cabinet.

Calling on Singaporeans to support the PSP, he said: "It's possible to be loyal Singaporeans, to be proud of what has been accomplished in the past, to recite with pride: 'We the citizens of Singapore', to love Singapore, and yet, to not vote PAP."

PSP's announcement came a day after the government announced that Singapore would go to the polls on July 10.

The market where the news was shared is part of the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC), where Mr Lee Kuan Yew served as a Member of Parliament for nearly 60 years. The GRC went uncontested for over two decades until the 2015 elections.

PSP had earlier shared in a virtual press conference that Tanjong Pagar is one of eight constituencies it plans to contest in.

But neither the party nor Mr Lee Hsien Yang disclosed whether the latter would be fielded as a candidate in the upcoming polls.

Many have associated the younger Mr Lee with PSP since the party's early days. In a Facebook post in January last year, the 62-year-old business executive had called Dr Tan "the leader Singapore deserves".

"I have known Cheng Bock for many years and he has consistently put the interests of the people first," Mr Lee Hsien Yang wrote in the post. "We are fortunate that he has stepped forward to serve Singapore."

In a separate post in July, he also wrote: "I wholeheartedly support the principles and values of the Progress Singapore Party."

Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling had a public rift with Mr Lee Hsien Loong over the fate of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew's family home at 38 Oxley Road.

More recently, Mr Lee Hsien Yang also appeared in PSP member and prospective candidate Brad Bowyer's Facebook post dated June 18.

Mr Bowyer wrote: "It is from one of our meetings and meals where we explored deeply what we think is wrong with Singapore and where it has gone wrong."

He added: "My wife and I are looking forward to catching up again with Hsien Yang and his lovely wife after the 'circuit breaker' ends tonight so we can continue those enlightening and critical discussions."

For more of our Singapore GE2020 coverage, go to bt.sg/ge2020

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