Kwa Geok Choo (; 21 December 1920 – 2 October 2010)
was a Singaporean lawyer. She was the wife of former
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...
and the mother of current Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong
Lee Hsien Loong (; born 10 February 1952) is a Singaporean politician and former brigadier-general who has been serving as Prime Minister of Singapore and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party since 2004. He has been the Member of Par ...
. She was also the co-founder and partner of law firm Lee & Lee.
Biography
Kwa was the daughter of Kwa Siew Tee,
former general manager of
Oversea-Chinese Bank and
Singapore Municipal Commissioner who was a
Tong'an
Tong'an District () is a northern mainland district of Amoy which faces Quemoy County, Republic of China. To the north is Anxi and Nan'an, and to the south is Jimei. Tong'an is also east of Lianxiang and Changqin to the West. It covers ese on his paternal side who also had a
Teochew mother, and Wee Yew Neo, Geok Choo's Teochew mother was from
Shantou. Kwa attended the
Methodist Girls' School
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...
,
Raffles Institution
Raffles Institution (RI) is an independent educational institution in Singapore. Founded in 1823, it is the oldest school in the country. It provides secondary education for boys only from Year 1 to Year 4, and pre-university education for both ...
and
Raffles College, and was a
Queen's Scholar of
Malaya.
According to Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, by 1939, Kwa and Lee were both top students in Raffles, often coming first and second in exams.
They continued their courtship during the Japanese occupation when their studies were disrupted. After the war, Kwa resumed her studies at Raffles College in 1946 while Lee left Singapore to pursue his law degree at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
. Kwa was admitted to
Girton College
Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...
in 1947, after Lee petitioned for her, saying she was "a very bright girl, brighter than I was".
She graduated with first-class honours in 1949 and was called to the bar in the subsequent year. She returned to Singapore and was admitted to the Colony Bar in 1951.
Kwa was one of the few female lawyers of the country then, practising at Laycock & Ong.
Kwa married Lee in secret in London in 1947 and then remarried in Singapore on 30 September 1950. They had two sons – Lee Hsien Loong and
Lee Hsien Yang – and a daughter –
Lee Wei Ling. Her brother, Kwa Soon Bee, served as a Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry of Health. She had three sisters: Mrs Cheah, a teacher at
Methodist Girls' School
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...
; Mrs Yong, the wife of
Yong Nyuk Lin; and Mrs Earnest Lau, who was also a teacher at Methodist Girls School.
On 1 September 1955, Kwa founded law firm Lee & Lee with Lee Kuan Yew and Dennis Lee Kim Yew. Kwa practised conveyancing and legal draftsmanship. She retired from partnership in 1987 but stayed on as a consultant thereafter.
During Lee's years as Prime Minister and
Senior Minister, Kwa was frequently seen with her husband, especially on diplomatic trips and meetings with other foreign ministers. After suffering two strokes in May and June 2008, she was bedridden and developed
locked-in syndrome
Locked-in syndrome (LIS), also known as pseudocoma, is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and bli ...
, being unable to speak, but remained conscious and able to understand speech.
Civil and political work
Kwa was a founding member of the
People’s Action Party (PAP) and helped to draft the PAP Constitution. She made her first political speech on Radio Malaya on PAP's policy on women before the
1959 elections, advocating equal pay for women and for monogamous marriages. She mostly stayed out of the political limelight throughout her husband's career.
When Singapore
separated from the
Malaysian Federation, Kwa drafted the clauses in the Separation Agreement for the guarantee of the
water agreements between the Malaysian state of Johor and Singapore. This guarantee was done via an amendment to the
Federal Constitution of Malaysia
The Federal Constitution of Malaysia ( ms, Perlembagaan
Persekutuan Malaysia) which was promulgated on 16 September 1963, is the supreme law of Malaysia and contains a total of 183 articles. It is a written legal document which was preceded ...
.
Kwa was also a pioneer advocate of women's rights in Singapore.
She spoke on family planning, and supported legal protection for women. Together with other women’s activists such as
Chan Choy Siong
Chan Choy Siong (; 1931 – 11 February 1981) was a Singaporean politician and women's rights activist. Chan was one of the first women to be elected to the Parliament.
Biography
Chan grew up in Chinatown. She attended Nanyang Girls' High School ...
, Kwa's suggestions were included into the landmark 1961
Women’s Charter, which sought to improve and protect the legal rights of women.
Death
Kwa died in her sleep at home, following a long illness on 2 October 2010 around 05:40 AM hours
SST.
She was given a
state funeral and cremated at
Mandai Crematorium on 7 October 2010.
Legacy
In 2011, the
Singapore Management University named its new law library, a new scholars programme and a top law graduate award after Kwa. In the same year, the
National University of Singapore established a professorship in property law, a distinguished visitors programme, bursaries and scholarships in her honour.
Nanyang Girls' High School
Nanyang Girls' High School (NYGH) is an independent girls' secondary school in Bukit Timah, Singapore. Founded in 1917, it is one of the oldest schools in the country. NYGH offers a six-year Integrated Programme, which allows students to skip the ...
also unveiled a bust of Kwa at its Yu Zhi Library, which is named after her. Her alma mater, the Methodist Girls' School, named their auditorium in her honour after it was refurbished in 2011.
Singapore's
Peranakan Museum
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currently displays Kwa's barrister wig on its third floor.
Cultural depictions
In 2011, former ''
Far Eastern Economic Review
The ''Far Eastern Economic Review'' (''FEER'') was an Asian business magazine published between 1946 and December 2009 in the English language. Based in Hong Kong, the news magazine published weekly until December 2004, when it converted to a m ...
'' comic artist
Morgan Chua released ''In Memory of Kwa Geok Choo (1920-2010)'', a book of sketches and political cartoons in tribute to her.
In October 2014, the
Madame Tussauds Singapore museum unveiled wax figures of Kwa and
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...
seated and smiling together against a backdrop of red flowers formed in the shape of two hearts. The statues were created based on a photograph that was taken by Kwa's niece, Kwa Kim Li, of the pair on Valentine's Day in 2008 at
Sentosa
Sentosa Island, known mononymously as Sentosa, and formerly ''Pulau Belakang Mati'', is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore's main island. The island is separated from the main island of Singapore by a channel of water, the K ...
.
In the same month,
Cultural Medallion
The Cultural Medallion is a cultural award in Singapore conferred to those who have achieved artistic excellence in dance, theatre, literature, music, photography, art and film. It is widely recognized as Singapore's pinnacle arts award.
Histo ...
recipient
Tan Swie Hian
Tan Swie Hian () is a Singaporean multidisciplinary artist known for his contemporary Chinese calligraphy, Chinese poetry and contemporary art sculptures found in Singapore and many parts of the world.
Early life
Born in Indonesia, Tan migra ...
completed a painting of Kwa and Lee Kuan Yew entitled ''A Couple''. The painting, which took Tan five years to complete, was partially damaged by a fire in 2013. It depicts Kwa and Lee in their youth, is based on a 1946 black-and-white photograph of the couple in the University of Cambridge, and incorporates in its background Tan's poem written in memory of Kwa. Tan said, "I have always felt
adam Kwawas a great woman who, despite her intelligence and capability, was also a humble and dedicated wife." ''A Couple'' was donated to the National Library of Singapore in 2017 and is displayed at the National Library Building in Victoria Street.
In 2022,
Toy Factory Productions produced a play, ''Madam Kwa Geok Choo'', a monologue where Tan Rui Shan portrayed Kwa.
Honours and awards
* : Golden Heart Presidential Award (15 January 1974)
References
External links
The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101005002746/http://www.pmo.gov.sg/News/PressReleases/Press+Statement++Passing+of+Mrs+Lee+Kuan+Yew.htm Press statement from Prime minister's office: Passing of Mrs Lee Kuan Yew]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwa, Geok Choo
1920 births
2010 deaths
Lee family (Singapore)
Queen's Scholars (British Malaya and Singapore)
Singaporean women lawyers
Spouses of prime ministers of Singapore
Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge
Singaporean people of Hokkien descent
Singaporean people of Teochew descent
Methodist Girls' High School, Singapore alumni
20th-century Singaporean lawyers