Lee Hsien Yang asks: ‘Who watches the watchers?’

Brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Mr Lee Hsien Yang questioned in a Facebook post on Wednesday: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”

The question he posed in Latin translates to ‘Who watches the watchers?’

The younger Mr Lee also shared an article by The Online Citizen (TOC) suggesting that Singapore’s Attorney-General Lucien Wong had a questionable past.

The piece highlights a newspaper report from 25 Oct 1986 that was published in the Straits Times, and titled, ‘Report made against lawyer for alleged removal of legal files’.

A “Senior partner of one of Singapore’s leading law firms has been reported to the police for alleged wrongful removal of company files”, the report read. It added that the said partner was “found with the files in a nearby carpark in the company of another lawyer who was, until a week or two ago, a partner of another firm”.

“The male partner topped the Law Faculty at the then University of Singapore during his time”, the Straits Times article read.

TOC noted in their report that “Mr Wong was the top graduate of his cohort in 1978 which fits the description of the male lawyer in the ST report”.

The Straits Times article did not mention the names of the two lawyers.

Mr Lee Hsien Yang shares the TOC piece at a time when Attorney-General Lucien Wong recused himself “for personal reasons” from the review of the case of former domestic worker Parti Liyani, who was acquitted of stealing from Changi Airport Group chairman Liew Mun Leong and his family.

In a statement on Wednesday (Sept 9), the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) made the announcement that Deputy Attorney-General (DAG) Hri Kumar Nair will lead the review.

The AGC noted that several years prior to his appointment as Attorney-General, Mr Wong sat on the board of directors of CapitaLand while Mr Liew was president and chief executive officer of the company.

Mr Wong stepped down from the board in January 2006. /TISG