Singapore's founder Lee Kuan Yew said he wanted his family home demolished after his death instead of having it turned into a national shrine. "I've told the cabinet, when I'm dead, demolish it," the 87-year-old Lee said in an interview published Saturday by the Straits Times newspaper.
"I've seen other houses, Nehru's, Shakespeare's. They become shambles after a while. People trudge through," said the famously unsentimental Lee. Lee's house was built more than 100 years ago on what is now prime real estate. "Because of my house the neighbouring houses cannot build high," he said. "Now demolish my house, and change the planning rule, go up, the land value will go up."
Lee ruled the city-state for three decades, led it to independence from Malaysia 1965 and transformed it from a British colonial outpost to a First World economy. He currently serves as minister mentor in the cabinet of his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. On Friday, Lee said Singapore was still "a nation in the making." "Will we make it? Am I certain we'll get there? No, I cannot say that," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "Something can go wrong somewhere and we'll fall apart.