新加坡第一家庭上演内斗 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.
新加坡总理李显龙(Lee Hsien Loong)在妹妹李玮玲(Lee Wei Ling)指责其滥用手中政治权力为父亲李光耀(Lee Kuan Yew)逝世一周年举行纪念活动后，被迫发文反驳。此举使新加坡“第一家庭”内部的不和公开化。李光耀被誉为城市国家新加坡的国父。
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上上演的这场争吵源于上周末李玮玲发布的帖子，她在帖子中指责李显龙是“不肖之子”和企图建立政治王朝。
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.
这场争吵罕见地暴露出新加坡精英阶层内部的不和。人权组织表示，新加坡的新闻审查法对媒体施加了严格的控制，诽谤诉讼常被用来压制批评言论。李光耀治理新加坡30多年，在国家的经济转型中发挥了至关重要的作用，这位受人尊敬的国父的政治遗产是一个尤为敏感的话题。
“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（即李显龙英文名字的缩写）毫无顾虑地滥用了他的权力，在李光耀逝世仅满一周年就举办追念活动。”神经外科医生李玮玲发帖称，“如果掌权者想要建立王朝，身为李光耀的女儿，我不会允许他的名字被不肖之子玷污。”她后来删除了帖子。
In a response, Mr Lee said he was “deeply saddened” by her claims.
李显龙回应称，对妹妹的言论“深感难过”。
“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”.
他说：“这些指控完全有违事实。”他还指出，他给新加坡内阁的建议是，由民间自己去发起一周年追念活动。
“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.”
“说我想要建立王朝，就更不合理了，”他表示，“唯才是用是我们社会坚持的根本价值观，我、人民行动党(People’s Action party)或新加坡人民都不会容许任何人这么做。”
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岁）被公认为将一个狭小、资源匮乏的后殖民地国家改造成了世界最安全、最繁荣的国家之一。在举行葬礼之前，逾45万新加坡人排队向他的遗体告别。
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.
这起事件还有一个插曲，李玮玲指责新加坡读者最多的英文报纸《海峡时报》(The Straits Times)审查她的一篇专栏文章，她在文中将对自己父亲的纪念比作中国对毛泽东的崇拜。
The proposed column contrasted the tributes paid to Mao a year after he died with the 50th anniversary commemoration of Winston Churchill’s funeral.
这篇未刊发的专栏文章将毛泽东逝世一周年纪念活动与温斯顿•丘吉尔(Winston Churchill)逝世50周年纪念活动进行了对比。
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.”
她写道：“爸爸死心塌地反对个人崇拜以及任何形式的任人唯亲。如果被迫选择一种纪念方式，爸爸较不抗拒的是类似为温斯顿•丘吉尔举行的那种纪念。”
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.
在新加坡政治观察人士看来，没有什么证据表明李显龙企图建立一个王朝。他的几个孩子都没有表露出对政治的兴趣。新加坡财政部长王瑞杰(Heng Swee Keat)被认为有可能接李显龙的班。
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、新加坡管理大学(Singapore Management University)副教授陈庆文(Eugene Tan)表示，对于李显龙企图操纵周年纪念的指控似乎缺乏根据。
“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.”
“我认为第一个周年纪念总是非常特殊的，”他说，“而且新加坡人的到场相当自发，这的确反映出普通新加坡人的观点是我们应该铭记身为先驱者的那一代人。”
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.
这位已故国父的遗嘱表明了他本人对纪念活动的看法，他在遗嘱中明确表示应拆除他的住所，而不是把它变成纪念馆。在为一本书接受采访时，李光耀表达了一种务实的观点，他认为拆除那座矮房能让周围的邻居建造高一点的房屋，提升土地价值。
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.
《海峡时报》表示，李玮玲在有关编辑修改的讨论还在进行的时候就把那篇专栏文章发布到了网上。该报还指控她涉嫌抄袭。
“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.
“考虑到此文涉嫌抄袭，我们不可能发表她那个版本的文章，”负责李玮玲专栏的编辑伊万•费尔南德斯(Ivan Fernandez)在上周六发表的一篇文章中写道。
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.
这起事件表明，社交媒体的存在现在使得批评者可以绕过新加坡传统媒体受到的限制。尽管在“无国界记者”(Reporters Without Borders)编制的出版自由排行榜上，新加坡在受调查的180个国家中排在第153位，但李玮玲和李显龙都能够直接在Facebook上发表言论。
