PM Lee emphasizes need for strong family foundation

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has once again underscored the importance of strong families in the country. 

Mr Lee says a fair share of residents he met during his meet the people session on Wednesday at his TeckGhee and Ang Mo Kio GRC Divisions were those with housing problems.

But he adds that the root cause was family breakups.

Sharing some cases on his Facebook page, Mr Lee recounted one incident. 

The resident he saw was locked out of his marital home years back, recently divorced, and has transferred the flat to his ex-wife.

Another recent divorcee is having to sell her flat, leaving her and her teenage daughter to fend for themselves, with no other relatives to fall back on.

In both cases, they had asked him for HDB rental flats.

Mr Lee says he often receives such messages through Facebook too. 

The Prime Minister explained that family breakups led to many other problems: housing, financial difficulties, custody of children, among other things.

But ultimately Me Lee says the family members have to work things out themselves, and ideally avoid breaking up in the first place.

And that's why strong families are so important.