OPINION: "Will I change my mind about believing LHY and LWL?" By Goh Meng Seng, 20 June 2017

Question of the Day by Goh Meng Seng (Facebook post, 20/6/2017)

Will I change my mind about believing LHY and LWL?

All beliefs and conclusions are made based on the best possible information available at the current moment. Nobody can profess to say she/he has FULL information at any point of time.

Goh Meng Seng in NSP days (c. 2011)

Just as a good judge would do, I look at all the information and information submitted by the respective parties and weigh between them. Do they contradict each other or themselves? Is the reasoning behind each statement, proposition or even mere speculation valid or sound? Is there any circumstantial evidence or justifications available for each proposition or argument?

For this FamiLee saga, I can only say one thing:

For anyone, even for a multi-million Ministerial Committee, to try and prove that Mr Lee had changed his mind or was "fickle minded" in his view about his stance on demolishing the Oxley house, is almost impossible to convince anyone, any layman, that LKY would agree to preserve the house as monument for himself.

The reason is very simple. Even if you could have all the ministers coming out to say LKY had told them he has changed his mind and would not want to demolish the house and would like to preserve the house as monument for himself, it would not be convincing at all because there is a glaring conflict of interests here.

And the point is simple. LKY had NEVER ONCE went public, be it written in his book, giving interview or even putting up passing remarks that he had changed his mind! All his public statements made while he was alive were very consistent that he wanted and wished to have his house demolished and no monument to be built for him.

He might have changed his will a couple of times, with the 6th Will leaving out the Demolition Clause but leaving that out doesn't mean he would agree to have a monument built from his own house. There might be other reasons why he left this demolition clause out but that is not important at all.

Most importantly, the Last Will has reinstated his wish that the house must be demolished, in no uncertain terms.

Thus, you can beat around the bushes and try to give all sorts of excuses to preserve the house, but no, you cannot convince anyone that LKY has changed his mind and would agree to these PAP people creating an altar out of his house and make him God sitting there to be worshipped by others. This is NEVER his wish at all.

Unless, of course, you can prove that the Last Will is invalid, for whatever reasons and does not represent his wish at all. And this could only be PROVEN IN COURT of Law, not in the Parliament circus.

There is nothing legally wrong for the current PAP government under his son PM Lee HL to use administrative force to gazette and acquire the house to build a monument for LKY, even if it is against his (LKY's) wish.

Lee Hsien Yang (sibling)

But you just cannot have the cake and eat it too. By doing so you are doing it AGAINST LKY's wish.

This will not be the last nor the first time PAP government has gone against a dead man's wish but the difference is it is against their own founder's wish.

As far as I am concerned, LKY was pretty consistent over this and his two children, LWL and LHY, have been pretty consistent over this as well.

I only believe in something consistent.

Unless, if and only if, LHL could prove it in court that the Last Will does not represent LKY's wish, then I shall reconsider my position.

[This post is shared here with the kind written permission of Mr Goh Meng Seng. Goh Meng Seng is Secretary-General of the People's Power Party (PPP) and former Secretary-General of the National Solidarity Party (NSP).]