Singapore leaders pay tribute to Lee Wei Ling
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sent his condolences to the Lee family, and described Dr Lee, who died aged 69, as "unswerving in her focus on patient welfare and medical ethics".
by Emil Chan · CNA · JoinSINGAPORE: Singapore leaders paid tribute to Dr Lee Wei Ling, who died on Wednesday (Oct 9) at 69.
She was the daughter of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. Dr Lee, the second of three children, is survived by her brothers, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Mr Lee Hsien Yang.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, currently in Laos for the ASEAN Summit, paid tribute to Dr Lee’s devotion to her medical profession.
“I did not know Dr Lee personally. But I do know that she devoted her life to medicine, as a paediatric neurologist, epileptologist, and head of Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s neuroscience department,” he said in a Facebook post.
“She helped to establish the National Neuroscience Institute and later served as its Director for 11 years. Throughout her career, she was unswerving in her focus on patient welfare and medical ethics.
Dr Lee was also a regular contributor to The Sunday Times, and her columns were later compiled into a book, A Hakka Woman's Singapore Stories: My life as a daughter, doctor and diehard Singaporean.
“Later in her career Dr Lee wrote newspaper columns, where she shared her stoic outlook in life, as well as stories of Mr Lee Kuan Yew,” said Mr Wong.
“Many readers would have come away enriched by her strong convictions and incisive observations.”
Dr Lee's death was announced by Mr Lee Hsien Yang at 5.50am on Wednesday in a Facebook post. She suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare brain disease that affects body movements such as walking and swallowing.
A high-achieving student, she was awarded the President's Scholarship in 1973, alongside Mr George Yeo and Mr Lim Hng Kiang, who would go on to become Cabinet ministers.
Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, who was also in that batch of President's Scholars, described Dr Lee as a “passionate and dedicated person”, who “put her all into what she did, in particular as a doctor”.
“Over the five decades we’ve known each other, we had a number of deep discussions on the issues which meant much to her, like early childhood education,” he said in a Facebook post.
“She remained stoic in her final years though she was afflicted with a degenerative and debilitating illness and saw just a few close family members and associates,” said Mr Teo.
“May she Rest in Peace.”
Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong described Dr Lee a “fighter” who was loyal to her friends.
He also remembered how, as the doctor in the family, his younger sister took a close interest in the treatment of his lymphoma which he battled in the early nineties.
“One day at our weekly family lunch at Oxley Road, one of her nephews came with a tummy ache. She did a quick examination, suspected appendicitis, and sent him to be properly examined. She turned out to be right,” Mr Lee recounted.
Dr Lee was a filial daughter, remembered Mr Lee.
“After the sons married and moved out, Ling stayed on at Oxley Road with our parents. She kept a watchful eye on their wellbeing as they grew older,” said Mr Lee.
“She supervised our mother’s care after her strokes. She took care of my father too, who was himself growing older and frailer even as he looked after our mother, and especially after she died in 2010.”
Mr Lee’s wife, Ho Ching, the former head of Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek, also paid tribute to her sister-in-law.
“You are now free and at peace,” she said in a Facebook post.
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