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Lee Siew Choh (; 1 November 1917 – 18 July 2002) was a Singaporean politician and physician. He was the
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...
for Queenstown from 1959 to 1963 and served as the NCMP from September 1988 to August 1991. Initially a member of the
People's Action Party The People's Action Party ( abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) a ...
(PAP), he became a leader of the breakaway faction of
Barisan Sosialis Barisan Sosialis ( eng, Socialist Front) was a political party in Singapore. It was formed on 29 July 1961 and officially registered on 13 August 1961 by left-wing members of the People's Action Party (PAP) who had been expelled from the PAP. ...
(BS) in 1961. After the BS merged with the Workers' Party (WP) in 1988, Lee stood as a WP candidate in the 1988 election and became Singapore's first
Non-constituency Member of Parliament A Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) is a member of an opposition political party in Singapore who, according to the Constitution and Parliamentary Elections Act, is declared to have been elected a Member of Parliament (MP) without c ...
(NCMP) due to his best performance among the opposition candidates. He served as the NCMP from September 1988 to August 1991.


Biography

Lee was born in
Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...
and was educated at
Victoria Institution The Victoria Institution is the oldest secondary school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is a memorial school, so-called because it was partly funded by public subscription intended for the erection of a permanent memorial to commemorate the Golden ...
. He came to Singapore in 1934 and was trained as a medical doctor at King Edward VII College of Medicine. After graduating in 1942, he joined Kandang Kerbau Hospital as a doctor. He married a volunteer nurse Kathleen Fam Yin Oi (1919 –⁠ 20 April 2018) in 1943 during the
Japanese occupation of Singapore , officially , was the name for Singapore when it was occupied and ruled by the Empire of Japan, following the fall and surrender of British military forces on 15 February 1942 during World War II. Japanese military forces occupied it af ...
, he was later sent to work as a medical officer at the Thai-Burmese border for two years, where the
Death Railway The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 ...
was constructed.


Political career

Lee served in Singapore's Legislative Assembly as a representative of the PAP following the 1959 election. In 1960 he served as the Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs. In 1961, Lee and 13 other members of the assembly broke away from the PAP and formed the Socialist Front. Lee was noted for his pro-
leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soc ...
stance and oratory skills. In 1961, he made the longest speech in the history of Singapore's Legislative Assembly which lasted seven hours on the subject of Singapore's proposed merger with
Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...
. Lee led the party in the 1963 elections, in which they won 13 of the 51 seats. In 1988, Socialist Front merged with the Workers' Party and Lee stood as a Workers' Party candidate in the
Eunos Group Representation Constituency Eunos Group Representation Constituency (Simplified Chinese: 友诺士集选区;Traditional Chinese: 友諾士集選區) is a defunct Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the north-eastern region of Singapore. This GRC existed for the 1988 ...
at the
1988 Singaporean general election General elections were held in Singapore on 3 September 1988. President Wee Kim Wee dissolved parliament on 17 August 1988 on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party, which won 80 of the ...
, along with
Francis Seow Francis Seow, born Seow Tiang Siew ( zh, s=萧添寿, p=Xiāo Tiānshòu; 11 October 1928 – 21 January 2016), was a Singaporean lawyer who was Solicitor-General of Singapore and later the President of the Law Society of Singapore. Seow started ...
and Mohd Khalit bin Mohd Baboo. They lost to the PAP's team in the constituency by 49.1% of the votes to 50.9%. As the Workers' Party's team in Eunos had garnered a higher percentage of the vote than any other opposition losing candidates, the party was eligible to nominate two members of its team from Eunos to become Non-constituency MPs. The party had refused to nominate NCMPs in the past, but this time they nominated Lee and Seow to become NCMPs. Seow was subsequently accused of
espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tang ...
and fled to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
before he could take up his NCMP seat. Lee became Singapore's first-ever NCMP, serving until the 1991 general election. In Parliament, he raised several issues, including the Internal Security Act, living costs and welfare. Lee again stood in Eunos GRC at the
1991 Singaporean general election General elections were held in Singapore on 31 August 1991. President Wee Kim Wee dissolved parliament on 14 August 1991 on the advice of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party, which won 77 of ...
. He and fellow party members Jufrie Mahmood, Neo Choon Aik and Wee Han Kim again lost narrowly to the PAP's team by 47.6% of the votes to 52.4%. However no NCMP seats were offered following that election as the opposition parties won a combined total of four elected seats. Lee left the Workers' Party in 1996, citing differences with the party's leader, Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam.


Personal life

Lee married Kathleen Fam and had three sons, Victor Lee Yew Kwong, Peter Lee Yew Chung and David Lee Yew Keong, and a daughter, Lee Yu Lian. His eldest son, Victor Lee Yew Kwong, died in 1992. Lee died of
lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...
on 18 July 2002.


See also

* Lim Chin Siong * Chia Thye Poh


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Siew-Choh Members of the Parliament of Singapore Singaporean Non-constituency Members of Parliament Workers' Party (Singapore) politicians Barisan Sosialis politicians People's Action Party politicians Singaporean people of Cantonese descent Malaysian emigrants to Singapore People who lost Malaysian citizenship Naturalised citizens of Singapore 1917 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Singaporean physicians