SINGAPORE - Mr Lee Hsien Yang said Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan are wrong to accuse him of making false allegations.
In his first public comments since the two ministers sent him a lawyer’s letter, Mr Lee – the younger son of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – said in a Facebook post on Saturday that he was simply stating the facts.
Mr Shanmugam and Dr Balakrishnan on Thursday said they will sue Mr Lee Hsien Yang for defamation if he does not apologise for making false allegations.
On July 23, in a Facebook post saying that recent political affairs had shattered trust in the People’s Action Party, Mr Lee said the two ministers had leased state-owned mansions from an agency that one of them controlled, felled trees and received state-sponsored renovations.
He was referring to the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), which is a statutory board that comes under the Ministry of Law, which Mr Shanmugam oversees.
On Saturday, Mr Lee said: “My post did not assert that Shanmugam and V. Balakrishnan acted corruptly or for personal gain by having SLA give them preferential treatment by illegally felling trees without approval and also having SLA pay for renovations for them.
“My post simply stated facts that were already widely published in the Singapore and international media.”
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