1924–27.02.2016
Lee Khoon Choy
Lee Khoon Choy was born in Butterworth into a Hakka family and began as a journalist in Penang and Singapore. From 1959 he sat in Singapore's Parliament for twenty-five years for the People's Action Party, then served as ambassador to several countries. He wrote books about the countries where he served, and was also active in music and painting.
Biography
As a schoolboy, Lee Khoon Choy played the hated Japanese character in a patriotic anti-Japanese play, and a local newspaper printed a photograph of him in the role. When the Japanese army occupied Malaya in the early 1940s, that recognition became dangerous.
He was born in the town of Butterworth, in what is now Malaysia, into a Hakka family. His date of birth is given differently: 24 or 29 January 1924 are both named, and only the year is certain. He studied at the Yeok Keow Chinese School and at Chung Ling High School in George Town, on Penang. His father died early, and his mother raised him. When the Japanese invaded, he is said to have hidden on his maternal uncle's farm in a remote area. Accounts of how he survived the occupation differ: by some, his knowledge of Japanese helped; by others, a friend who worked for the Japanese police wrote him a certificate identifying him as a “law-abiding resident”. This is hard to verify.
After the war, in 1946, he began work as a journalist in Penang at the newspaper Sin Pin Jit Poh, then moved to Singapore. He wrote for Chinese-language papers (Sin Chew Jit Poh, Nanyang Siang Pau) and English-language ones (the Singapore Tiger Standard), and in 1957 joined The Straits Times. In 1949 he went to London on a one-year scholarship to study journalism at Regent Street Polytechnic. According to some accounts, he covered the trials of Japanese war criminals in Singapore.
In 1959 he left the newspaper for politics and was elected to the legislative assembly for the People's Action Party. From 1959 to 1963 he was the party's first Party Whip (the member responsible for parliamentary discipline) and represented the Bukit Panjang constituency. From 1965 to 1976 he was Member of Parliament for Hong Lim, and from 1977 to 1984 for Braddell Heights. He held the posts of Minister of State for Culture, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office. He left Parliament in 1984.
From 1968 a diplomatic career ran alongside. He was Singapore's ambassador to Egypt, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Lebanon and Indonesia, High Commissioner in Pakistan, and, after leaving Parliament, ambassador to Japan and South Korea. In Tokyo he was much involved in cultural exchange between the two countries.
He retired from public service in 1988, and in 1990 founded the consulting firm Eng Lee Investment Consultants and sat on the boards of several companies.
His honours: the Indonesian Bintang Bakti Utama (1974); a prize from the Japan Institute of Oriental Philosophy for his research on eastern thought and culture (1986); the South Korean Order of Diplomatic Service Merit (1988); the Singaporean Darjah Utama Bakti Cemerlang (1990); and honorary membership of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing (1997).
He wrote books about the countries where he served: “Japan: Myth and Reality”, “Indonesia: Myth and Reality”, “Notes on Eight Countries”, “Politics and Life” and “In Search of One's Own Country”, which appeared in English, Chinese and Japanese. Lee Khoon Choy died on 27 February 2016 in Singapore.
Profile notes