Singapore's affluent veneer hides repression and corruption, says son of its modern-day founder

LONDON (AP) — Singapore has become much more repressive, and corruption in the Asian financial hub has worsened in the decade since the death of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, according to his youngest son who fled to Britain to seek asylum from what he described as a campaign of persecution to silence him.

Lee Hsien Yang, who has been granted political refugee status in the U.K., told The Associated Press that Singaporean authorities have “weaponized” the country's laws against critics and that he is just the most prominent example of a growing number of Singaporeans fleeing abroad to seek protection from their own government.