The sale of a range of medallions and busts featuring first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was suspended by The Singapore Mint just six hours after its launch was announced on Monday, March 2.

The halting of the sale, indicated as "temporarily suspended" on The Singapore Mint website, is possibly because the items contravened the government's published guidelines on the use of Lee's name and likeness. 

Asked to comment on the matter by Today, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth referred it to guidelines on the ministry's website.

The rules state that the name and likeness of Lee may be used for “purposes of identifying with the nation”.

The medium includes works of art or publications or items for charitable purposes, in accordance with law, but should not be used for commercial exploitation or any kind of official endorsement of products or services.

The MCCY guidelines issued in March 2016 read: “Commercial exploitation would ordinarily refer to the use of Mr Lee’s name or image in mass merchandise for sale. Examples include medals or coins; clothing; household linen or similar articles; furnishing material; paper or any other material that may be used for wrapping or packaging purposes; and adhesive tape.”

An earlier news article by The Straits Times a day before reported that it is unclear if The Singapore Mint’s use of Lee’s name and image had flouted the guidelines.

All set for sale

The Singapore Mint is a fully owned subsidiary of utilities and marine group Sembcorp Industries.

It issued a press statement on March 2, before 1pm, to announce that a medallion range will be released to mark Lee's fifth death anniversary.

The items were open for pre-orders from March 2 to March 15.

By 7pm on the same day, the items appeared to have been pulled as they were no longer available for pre-orders on The Singapore Mint's website.

A notice said the Pride of Singapore programme is suspended “until further notice”.

The medallions were available at between S$10 and S$1,888 each.

Pride of Singapore is the second issue of the Singapore Salute Series, The Singapore Mint said in its press release.

The first set of medallions of Sir Stamford Raffles was launched in 2019 to commemorate the Singapore Bicentennial.

Lee Kuan Yew averse to public displays of his image

The launch of the medallions and busts was met with puzzlement and criticism by the public.

Those against the merchandise thought the use of Lee's image was political as 2020 is likely to be an election year.

Others thought using his image for profit through the sale of medallions and busts was wrong and disrespectful.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had addressed the issue of notes and coins bearing the image of his late father in Parliament in 2015.

PM Lee said then that it "is certainly something we can consider for the future”, but he also said as a caveat that “Mr Lee was very careful never to allow a personality cult to grow around him, much less to encourage one himself”.

There are only two known painted portraits of Lee on public display in Singapore.

One is in Parliament House, while the other is at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.