新加坡第一家庭上演內鬥 Singapore's first family plays out public feud on Facebook
A public feud has erupted in Singapore’s first family, with the prime minister forced to issue a rebuttal after his sister accused him of abusing his political power over anniversary commemorations for the death of Lee Kuan Yew, the city state’s founding father.
新加坡總理李顯龍(Lee Hsien Loong)在妹妹李瑋玲(Lee Wei Ling)指責其濫用手中政治權力爲父親李光耀(Lee Kuan Yew)逝世一週年舉行紀念活動後，被迫發文反駁。此舉使新加坡“第一家庭”內部的不和公開化。李光耀被譽爲城市國家新加坡的國父。
The spat, which has played out on Facebook, follows a weekend post in which Lee Wei Ling accused Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of being a “dishonourable son” and of seeking to establish a political dynasty.
在Facebook上上演的這場爭吵源於上週末李瑋玲發佈的帖子，她在帖子中指責李顯龍是“不肖之子”和企圖建立政治王朝。
The rift is a rare display of acrimony among the city-state’s elite — censorship laws impose tight controls on the press, while defamation actions have been used to stifle critics, human rights groups say. The legacy of the country’s revered patriarch, who governed for more than three decades and was instrumental in Singapore’s economic transformation, is a particularly sensitive matter.
這場爭吵罕見地暴露出新加坡精英階層內部的不和。人權組織表示，新加坡的新聞審查法對媒體施加了嚴格的控制，誹謗訴訟常被用來壓制批評言論。李光耀治理新加坡30多年，在國家的經濟轉型中發揮了至關重要的作用，這位受人尊敬的國父的政治遺產是一個尤爲敏感的話題。
“HL has no qualms about abusing his power to [have] a commemoration just one year after LKY died”, said Dr Lee, a neurosurgeon, in comments that have since been taken down. “If the power that be wants to establish a dynasty, LKY’s daughter will not allow LKY’s name to be sullied by a dishonourable son.”
“HL（即李顯龍英文名字的縮寫）毫無顧慮地濫用了他的權力，在李光耀逝世僅滿一週年就舉辦追念活動。”神經外科醫生李瑋玲發帖稱，“如果掌權者想要建立王朝，身爲李光耀的女兒，我不會允許他的名字被不肖之子玷污。”她後來刪除了帖子。
In a response, Mr Lee said he was “deeply saddened” by her claims.
李顯龍迴應稱，對妹妹的言論“深感難過”。
“The accusations are completely untrue,” he said, noting that his advice to Singapore’s cabinet was to leave the first-anniversary commemorations to “ground-up efforts”.
他說：“這些指控完全有違事實。”他還指出，他給新加坡內閣的建議是，由民間自己去發起一週年追念活動。
“The idea that I should wish to establish a dynasty makes even less sense,” he continued. “Meritocracy is a fundamental value of our society, and neither I, the [People’s Action party] nor the Singapore public would tolerate any such attempt.”
“說我想要建立王朝，就更不合理了，”他表示，“唯纔是用是我們社會堅持的根本價值觀，我、人民行動黨(People’s Action party)或新加坡人民都不會容許任何人這麼做。”
Lee Kuan Yew, who died a year ago aged 91, is credited with transforming a tiny resource-poor postcolonial state into one of the world’s safest and most prosperous nations. More than 450,000 Singaporeans queued to file past his body when it lay in state before last year’s funeral.
去年逝世的李光耀（享年91歲）被公認爲將一個狹小、資源匱乏的後殖民地國家改造成了世界最安全、最繁榮的國家之一。在舉行葬禮之前，逾45萬新加坡人排隊向他的遺體告別。
In a further twist to the affair, Dr Lee has accused the Straits Times, the island’s most widely read English newspaper, of censoring a column she wrote that compared the commemoration of her father to the veneration of Mao Zedong in China.
這起事件還有一個插曲，李瑋玲指責新加坡讀者最多的英文報紙《海峽時報》(The Straits Times)審查她的一篇專欄文章，她在文中將對自己父親的紀念比作中國對毛澤東的崇拜。
The proposed column contrasted the tributes paid to Mao a year after he died with the 50th anniversary commemoration of Winston Churchill’s funeral.
這篇未刊發的專欄文章將毛澤東逝世一週年紀念活動與溫斯頓•丘吉爾(Winston Churchill)逝世50週年紀念活動進行了對比。
She wrote: “Papa was dead set against a personality cult and any hint of cronyism. If he was forced to choose one form of commemoration, Papa would have objected the less if the commemoration resembled that held for Winston Churchill.”
她寫道：“爸爸死心塌地反對個人崇拜以及任何形式的任人唯親。如果被迫選擇一種紀念方式，爸爸較不抗拒的是類似爲溫斯頓•丘吉爾舉行的那種紀念。”
Observers of Singapore’s politics see little evidence that Mr Lee is attempting to establish a dynasty. None of his children has expressed an interest in politics. Heng Swee Keat, the finance minister, is tipped as the prime minister’s likely successor.
在新加坡政治觀察人士看來，沒有什麼證據表明李顯龍企圖建立一個王朝。他的幾個孩子都沒有表露出對政治的興趣。新加坡財政部長王瑞傑(Heng Swee Keat)被認爲有可能接李顯龍的班。
Eugene Tan, a political analyst and associate professor at Singapore Management University, said the charge that Mr Lee was attempting to manipulate the anniversary appeared unfounded.
政治分析人士、新加坡管理大學(Singapore Management University)副教授陳慶文(Eugene Tan)表示，對於李顯龍企圖操縱週年紀念的指控似乎缺乏根據。
“I think the first anniversary is always very special,” he said, “and the fairly spontaneous turnout by Singaporeans does reflect the average Singaporean’s view that we ought to remember the pioneering generation.”
“我認爲第一個週年紀念總是非常特殊的，”他說，“而且新加坡人的到場相當自發，這的確反映出普通新加坡人的觀點是我們應該銘記身爲先驅者的那一代人。”
One indication of the late patriarch’s own views about commemoration came in his will, in which he specified that his family home should be demolished rather than turned into a memorial. In an interview for a book, Lee expressed the pragmatic view that demolishing the bungalow would allow neighbours to build taller homes, raising land values.
這位已故國父的遺囑表明了他本人對紀念活動的看法，他在遺囑中明確表示應拆除他的住所，而不是把它變成紀念館。在爲一本書接受採訪時，李光耀表達了一種務實的觀點，他認爲拆除那座矮房能讓周圍的鄰居建造高一點的房屋，提升土地價值。
The Straits Times said Dr Lee had posted the proposed article online while discussions were still taking place about editorial changes, and accused the prime minister’s sister of plagiarism.
《海峽時報》表示，李瑋玲在有關編輯修改的討論還在進行的時候就把那篇專欄文章發佈到了網上。該報還指控她涉嫌抄襲。
“Given the plagiarism it contained, there was no question of our publishing her version of the article,” Ivan Fernandez, the editor who dealt with Dr Lee’s column, wrote in an article published on Saturday.
“考慮到此文涉嫌抄襲，我們不可能發表她那個版本的文章，”負責李瑋玲專欄的編輯伊萬•費爾南德斯(Ivan Fernandez)在上週六發表的一篇文章中寫道。
The episode is an indication of how social media now allows critics to bypass the limitations of Singapore’s traditional press. While Reporters without Borders ranks Singapore 153rd out of 180 countries surveyed for its level of press freedom, both Dr Lee and the prime minister were able to publish directly on Facebook.
這起事件表明，社交媒體的存在現在使得批評者可以繞過新加坡傳統媒體受到的限制。儘管在“無國界記者”(Reporters Without Borders)編制的出版自由排行榜上，新加坡在受調查的180個國家中排在第153位，但李瑋玲和李顯龍都能夠直接在Facebook上發表言論。
