Lina Loh Woon Lee ( zh, s=罗文丽, p=Luó Wénlì; born 1949), also known as Lina Chiam, is a Singaporean former politician. She was previously a

Non-Constituency Member of Parliament A Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) is a member of an opposition list of political parties in Singapore, political party in Singapore who, according to the Constitution of Singapore, Constitution and Parliamentary Elections Act, is ...

between 2011 and 2015 and was the committee member of

Singapore People's Party The Singapore People's Party (abbreviation: SPP) is a political party in Singapore. History SPP was founded on 21 November 1994 by Sin Kek Tong, who led a pro- Chiam See Tong faction out of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). Over two years ...

since 2019. A former member of the opposition

(SPP), she contested in the

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

and 2015 generel election in

Potong Pasir SMC The Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency is a Single Member Constituency (SMC) in the central region of Singapore. The current Member of Parliament of the constituency is Sitoh Yih Pin of the People's Action Party The People's Action P ...

, but lost to the governing

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) and ...

Sitoh Yih Pin Sitoh Yih Pin ( zh, s=司徒宇斌, p=Sītú Yǔbīn; born 1963) is a Singaporean politician. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing Potong Pasir SMC since 2011. An account ...

in both elections.

Political career

2011 general election

Loh formally entered politics during the 2011 general election when she contested as a SPP candidate in

. Loh ultimately lost to the PAP candidate

by a narrow margin of 114 votes (0.72%), garnering 49.64% of the vote against Sitoh's 50.36%. Despite her electoral defeat, Loh qualified for a seat in the 12th Parliament as a

Non-constituency Member of Parliament A Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) is a member of an opposition list of political parties in Singapore, political party in Singapore who, according to the Constitution of Singapore, Constitution and Parliamentary Elections Act, is ...

(NCMP) by virtue of being one of the "best losers" in an election in which fewer than nine opposition Members of Parliament had been elected. She accepted the NCMP seat on 12 May 2011 and served in the 12th Parliament from 12 May 2011 to 23 August 2015.

2015 general election

During the 2015 general election, Loh contested under the SPP banner in Potong Pasir SMC, but lost to the PAP's

again, garnering 33.61% of the vote against Sitoh's 66.39%. Since there were six opposition Members of Parliament had been elected in the 2015 general election, only three NCMP seats would be offered. Loh's electoral result in Potong Pasir SMC was lower than that of the opposition candidates in

Punggol East SMC Punggol East Single Member Constituency was a single member constituency (SMC) located in the north-eastern area of Singapore. Following the release of the Electoral Boundaries Review committee report for the 2020 general elections, Punggol Eas ...

Fengshan SMC Fengshan Single Member Constituency was a former single Member Constituency within Bedok, Singapore. The constituency was created in 1984 from parts of Bedok, Changi & Kampong Chai Chee constituencies. As the population in Bedok grew, the consti ...

and

East Coast GRC The East Coast Group Representation Constituency is a five-member Group Representation Constituency in the eastern area of Singapore. The areas of the Group Representation Constituency consists of locations such as East Coast Park, Bedok, Chang ...

, so she was not offered a NCMP seat in the 13th Parliament.

2020 general election and after

Loh and Chiam did not contest in the 2020 general election due to Chiam's declining health, which had led to him stepping down from his position as the SPP's secretary-general on 16 October 2019. Loh remains a member of the SPP's central executive committee after stepping down as its chairwoman in 2019.

Charity work

On 9 March 2017, Loh and Chiam launched the Chiam See Tong Sports Fund at the Old Parliament House to help needy athletes achieve their sporting dreams. They are the co-patrons of the organisation, which is chaired by their daughter, Camilla Chiam.

Personal life

Loh came from a

Hakka Chinese Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around th ...

family in

Sungai Besi Sungai Besi (formerly known as ''Sungei Besi'') (English: Steel River) is a town and suburb within the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. It was also a federal constituency in Kuala Lumpur from 1974 to 1995. Sungai Besi was a historical mining ...

, a suburb of the Malaysian capital

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

. She was trained as a nurse at the

Royal London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and s ...

and had worked for two years as a nurse in Singapore. She quit her job as a nurse to help with administrative work at Chiam's law firm, Chiam & Co, which operated from 1976 to 2002. Loh met Chiam in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1973. They married in Singapore in 1975 when Chiam was 40 and Loh was 26, and have a daughter, Camilla.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loh, Lina Living people 1949 births Singapore People's Party politicians Singaporean Christians Singaporean people of Hakka descent Singaporean Non-constituency Members of Parliament Members of the Parliament of Singapore Malaysian emigrants to Singapore People who lost Malaysian citizenship Naturalised citizens of Singapore Singaporean women in politics