PM had a say on Deed of Gift as he was beneficiary of estate: Lawrence Wong

SINGAPORE — Touching on the controversy over the Deed of Gift for items belonging to Mr Lee Kuan Yew, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was entitled to the deed because he was a beneficiary of his father’s estate.

He added that it is part of the procedure for the National Heritage Board (NHB) to find out if all beneficiaries are agreeable to artefacts being donated to it. Mr Wong was then the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, and in charge of celebrations for Singapore’s 50th year of independence (SG50) in 2015 by the NHB.

“(In general, when) items are being donated to NHB from an estate, and it becomes aware that one of the beneficiaries objects to the terms of the donation, it would be necessary for NHB to take steps to verify that there is agreement from all beneficiaries. Otherwise, it could face a potential claim from a beneficiary whose consent was not given,” he said.

Under the Deed of Gift signed in June 2015, Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee Wei Ling — as executors and trustees of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s estate — agreed to donate some furniture and personal items belonging to their father from his 38 Oxley Road home to the NHB for a memorial exhibition during SG50.

Dr Lee and Mr Lee Hsien Yang had claimed that PM Lee had improperly obtained the deed by leveraging his capacity as the Prime Minister.

However, Mr Wong said: “If Mr Lee Hsien Loong had asked for the Deed of Gift in his private capacity, NHB would have been entitled to give it to him, given his position as eldest son and beneficiary of the estate.”

Mr Wong also revealed that Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, Mrs Lee Suet Fern, was involved in the discussions on the deed, as a director on the board of NHB. She had supported the conditions stipulated by Dr Lee and Mr Lee Hsien Yang, in donating the furniture and personal items from the house to the NHB. Her law firm Morgan Lewis Stamford LLC had also helped in the process of finalising the deed.

The Government had apprehensions about the conditions in the deed, such as the right to buy back the items at S$1 so long as the house was not demolished. The other condition was that the NHB had to display prominently the first part of the demolition clause in Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s will that the house must be demolished, but not the second part which sets out his wish should the Oxley Road house not be demolished.

Mr Wong said that the NHB was “caught in a difficult position”: It had signed the deed and accepted the gifts by then, and “there were now questions raised about the validity of the agreement, and whether the executors were properly empowered to enter into the deed without consulting all beneficiaries”.

At that time, the exhibition was just two months away. Mr Wong said he consulted then-NHB chief executive officer Rosa Daniel and they decided to exhibit the items later, but this postponement was deemed “unacceptable” and in breach of a legally binding deed by Mr Lee Hsien Yang.

Even then, the NHB still had a duty to check whether the Deed of Gift was in order, “in light of the different views of the beneficiaries”, Mr Wong said.

That was why the NHB wrote to the lawyers of the executors to clarify whether there were any other beneficiaries entitled to the assets of the estate and if so, whether they agreed to the donation of the items.

Before responding to the NHB’s queries, Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee then put out a media release publicising their donation of items to it. The agency issued a statement that same night to highlight that there remained some questions on the Deed of Gift and it was clarifying them with the executors.

Mr Wong said that throughout this period, he had been discussing the matter with Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean as PM Lee had said that he would “leave it to (Mr Teo) to handle the specific dealings between NHB and the executors on the Deed of Gift”. PM Lee later informed Mr Wong that he had written to Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee, in his capacity as beneficiary, “indicating to them that notwithstanding his position on the Deed of Gift, he would not object to the exhibition, as he did not want to put the NHB in a difficult position”, Mr Wong said. TAN WEIZHEN