HO CHING ACCORDING TO LEE KUAN YEW: A GOOD MOTHER TO THE CHILDREN

QUESTION: Would Li Yipeng (PM Lee’s son from his first marriage who has Asperger’s syndrome and is albino) have made it as a university graduate if your family did not have additional resources?

LKY: He would not. He was sent to Dover Court Preparatory School, run by the British…… For secondary school, the mother, HO CHING, caref...ully looked for a principal who would look after him, accept him as a strong boy in the class. Many schools just said no, we don’t have the resources. He went to Zhonghua, not a popular school. The principal was compassionate. He’ll take him. And Yipeng flourished. Passed his ‘A’ levels eventually, took more time, more years because he’s disadvantaged, can’t see well……….”
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QUESTION: So he (Li Yipeng) was forunate enough to benefit from the family’s resources?

LKY: Not just resources, attention. Personal attention. This is not just resources. It is the personal attention of Ho Ching and the father. Ho Ching scouted around for a secondary school that will look after him and accept him with his disadvantages. He was turned down in so many schools. They said, no, we haven’t got the teachers to look after him. This school principal said he would try. And it was a success…….”

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QUESTION: In your personal life, apart from your wife, what was the most trying and difficult period for you?

LKY: (Long pause) I think when my son’s (Lee Hsien Loong) wife died. His whole tent collapsed. The pole was struck down… I said at the end of the day you have to move on. Moving on means you have to find a woman who will marry you and accept these two children… In the end, he (Lee Hsien Loong) decided on a workplace associate. Ho Ching was in the Defence Ministry in the cipher department. Loong was in computers. He was also in ciphers for some time. I suppose they must have known each other then. They must have redeveloped the friendship. I said, “You better make sure that she accepts your two children otherwise it’s a real misery. You’ll be sad, your mother will be sad, I’ll be sad.”

Ho Ching came in fully aware that she’s walking into a family. She has been a good mother to the children. In fact, she’s bent over backwards for them, as a result of which my granddaughter has not enough discipline……”