Oct 3, 2010
Farewell, Mrs Lee
A nation mourns the death of the wife of Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
Mrs Lee trod softly through Singapore's history but her imprint was no less significant. She was a tower of strength who saw Mr Lee through the nation's toughest moments in almost 60 years in politics. -- ST FILE PHOTO
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In life, Madam Kwa Geok Choo was a quiet, dignified cheongsam-clad presence by her husband's side.
In death, she leaves behind a void that not only her husband, but also the entire nation, will feel.
Madam Kwa, known to the world as the wife of Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, died yesterday evening at 5.40pm at her Oxley Road home, with her daughter Wei Ling, 55, by her side. She was 89. Her younger son Hsien Yang, 53, had been by her side earlier in the day.
Her husband of 63 years was in hospital with a chest infection.
Elder son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 58, yesterday cut short an official visit to Belgium where he was to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting summit. He is due to arrive in Singapore today.
A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said the wake will be held tomorrow and on Tuesday at Sri Temasek, the official residence of the Prime Minister located within the Istana grounds. Mrs Lee had spent many hours watching her children, and later her grandchildren, play at Sri Temasek, while their father went about his business or exercised.
Visitors may pay their respects there from 10am to 5pm on those days. A private funeral will take place on Wednesday at the Mandai Crematorium.
In a moving tribute, President S R Nathan said: 'To know Mrs Lee's greatness, one has to listen to what has not been said of her until now. Mrs Lee was great in many ways - as a legal luminary, as a mother of an illustrious family, and more than that for her stoic presence next to Mr Lee Kuan Yew during times of turbulence and tension in the many years of his political struggle.
'There was not a single important event or development that she was not an intimate witness of. Indeed she lived a life that had its fair share of pain and uncertainty, which was not evident in public.'
He sent his condolences to Mr Lee, 87, saying that his 'grief over her passing must be heavy and immeasurable.'
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou also conveyed their condolences to the Lee family.
Mrs Lee had been ill for some time. A stroke in 2003 had left her frail, with weakened peripheral vision, but she remained bravely active, accompanying Mr Lee on numerous official functions here and overseas.
On one trip to China, she gamely donned a long-sleeved swimsuit with long pants, and swam in the hotel pool, never mind zig-zagging across the lane. Her gait was uncertain and she needed a supporting arm, but she continued in good cheer, her sharp wit intact.
In 2005, on a visit to Temasek House in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Lee pointed out a photograph on the wall and described the picture to her: 'This is a picture of you doing the joget.' Her swift retort: 'Put it in the furnace.'
She suffered another two strokes in 2008 which left her unable to walk or speak. Nurses cared for her at the Lees' Oxley Road home.
In the last two years, Mr Lee has spent many hours by her bedside, reading from her well-thumbed copies of English poetry and novels and telling her about his day.
In an upcoming book to be published by The Straits Times in January, Mr Lee revealed that in her last days, 'I'm the one she recognises the most. When she hears my voice she knows it's me.'
Theirs was a lifelong love story.
Mrs Lee, a brilliant student who came out top in her Senior Cambridge year, and who went on to build a successful law practice at Lee & Lee, was the intellectual equal of Mr Lee, but she saw herself first and foremost as a wife and mother, in keeping with her upbringing in a conservative Straits-Chinese home.
In public, she was a traditional Asian wife who metaphorically walked two steps behind her husband, as she once quipped.
In private, she was a devoted mother, a caring, gentle woman, and a quick-witted conversationalist who loved literature, classical music and botany. She was a 'tower of strength' to her husband and family, emotionally and intellectually. She believed in the same causes as Mr Lee did - independence from colonial rule in the early years, and later, a multiracial, meritocratic Singapore.
She saw Mr Lee through the nation's toughest moments in 51 years in office, 31 as Prime Minister, girding him for battle the way only a wife can. She helped him through the anguish of separation. She shared with him her instinctive grasp of character among the people they met. She helped him draft and polish his speeches, memoirs and even legal documents.
She engaged him in heated debate on policy matters like the rights of women and was wont to chide him if she thought him too demanding of others.
An intensely private woman who shunned the limelight, Mrs Lee trod softly through Singapore's history. She was a pioneer in her own right, but she chose to remain on the sidelines in public, content to play a supporting role.
But her imprint on Singapore was no less significant for being so gentle. Her quiet dignity and self-discipline, her selflessness and modesty, were unique. The nation will not see the likes of Madam Kwa Geok Choo again.
WAKE FOR MRS LEE
The wake for Mrs Lee Kuan Yew will be held at Sri Temasek, official residence of the Prime Minister and located within the Istana grounds, tomorrow and on Tuesday.
Visitors who wish to pay their last respects may do so on these two days from 10am to 5pm. Members of the public may call 6835-6614 if they have any queries.
A private funeral will take place on Wednesday at Mandai Crematorium.
The family requests that no obituaries and wreaths or flowers be sent. All donations will go to the National Neuroscience Institute Health Research Endowment Fund.
FLYING HOME: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong leaving his hotel in Antwerp, Belgium, for home yesterday evening. He was in Belgium for an official visit and to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting in Brussels due to begin tomorrow. He will arrive in Singapore later today.
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Oct 3, 2010
Confidante, counsel and companion of 63 years
Brilliant and intensely private, the late Madam Kwa Geok Choo is best remembered as Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's loyal partner, whose strength of character supported him as he built a new nation
Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Madam Kwa Goek Choo at their wedding reception at the Raffles Hotal in 1950. They were married secretly in Britain in 1947. -- PHOTO: ST FILE PHOTO
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She was the supremely capable wife who signed the cheques and kept the family strong, prompting her husband, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, to suggest, only half in jest, that he was a 'kept man'.
Many men will cringe at that status, believing that being kept is a contemptible station in life. Not so Mr Lee, who sometimes made counter-intuitive remarks about his wife that hinted at how equal their marriage was.
Married in 1947, their union spanned the decades from Singapore's vulnerable infancy to its arrival as a First World country. Telling the nation that he was a kept man was Mr Lee's way of acknowledging how central his wife, Madam Kwa Geok Choo, a brilliant cheongsam-clad lawyer, was in his career.
Because he had a resolute, able and successful wife at his side during the riotous 1950s, he had the freedom of mind to take arms against colonialism and communism, without worrying that their three young children might suffer if anything were to happen to him.
It was years later, in 1985, that he would say in Parliament: 'Over the years I've been a kept man. My wife keeps the family.'
That was a rare moment when the role in his life played by his intensely shy and private spouse surfaced.
For she had chosen all her life to support him from behind the front line. It was not her place to offer political advice, both appeared to agree, or advance her own agenda or take a direct part in politics.
When senior Straits Times journalists, interviewing him in the late 1990s for their book Lee Kuan Yew: The Man And His Ideas, wanted to know what 'influence' Mrs Lee had on him, he responded:
'Not in political matters. In political matters, she would not know enough to tell me whether this is right or wrong.'
Tellingly, though, he indicated that she was a discerning judge of character.
Other times, he valued her frugality and staid quality. 'She's a very caring person, very staid, very caring; she's not frivolous and does not like to socialise, which saves a lot of time,' he said.
Trusted intermediary
Mr and Mrs Lee, together with Mr Lee's brother Kim Yew, set up the Lee & Lee law firm in a shabby Malacca Street shophouse in 1955.
It was there that Mrs Lee, or Choo as her husband called her, 'first personified the whole hazardous balancing act that was to decide the fate of Singapore', according to the late British journalist Dennis Bloodworth, who authored The Tiger And The Trojan Horse.
There, under the radar, she played the unlikely role of 'cut-out' or trusted intermediary between Mr Lee and two irreconcilable enemies - the British Governor and the 'Plenipotentiary' of the Malayan Communist Party.
Governor William Goode would make contact with Mr Lee, leader of the radical People's Action Party (PAP), through his confidential secretary Pamela Hickley, who would phone Mrs Lee and communicate in hushed tones.
As for 'The Plen', Mr Fang Chuang Pi, he did not trust telephones. But Lee & Lee's clients then included petty gangsters, unlicensed hawkers and a whole host of other humble people, so it was easy for The Plen's courier to slip upstairs to her office.
As Mrs Lee drily pointed out to Mr Bloodworth: 'A four-digit lottery runner would look much the same as a communist agent.'
Mr Bloodworth was able to consult her in the early 1980s for his rich account of the duel between the non-communist PAP and communists. Her voice as it emerged in brief quotes in the book sounded coolly cogent and eloquent, hinting at a precise, lawyerly wit.
The same voice was also evident in the odd e-mail interviews she gave the media in her later years.
For example, when asked if she and Mr Lee had disagreements, she responded: 'Would you believe me if I say we never disagree or quarrel?
'Fortunately, these are over little matters. Kuan Yew leaves household decisions to me. Family matters have not been a problem.'
Another time, in a light-hearted sequence when Radio Television Hong Kong quizzed the couple in 2002, she teased Mr Lee. The interviewer, who started by asking them if they held hands, wondered about changes since their romantic Cambridge years.
Mrs Lee gave a deliberately plain reply: 'The only change is that we've grown older.'
Cheekily, the interviewer said: 'Black hair to white hair.'
Mrs Lee, who often banters with her husband, looked at him and quipped: 'Black hair to no hair.'
Nixon's compliment
In 1973, then United States President Richard Nixon paid artful homage to her at the White House:
'Tonight, when you saw me turning to Mrs Lee, I said, 'Mrs Lee, tell me, is it true that you were No. 1 in the class at Cambridge Law School and your husband was No. 2?' And she said, 'Mr President, do you think he would have married me if that were the case?'
'But I probed further, and I found that, as a matter of fact, Mrs Lee... did receive a first at Cambridge Law School.
'Her husband did also, but like a very loyal wife, she said, 'He had a first with a star after his name, and that is something very special'.'
Mrs Lee was being modest, for she had outshone her husband academically - not at Cambridge but earlier, at Raffles College.
As Mr Lee related in his memoirs, The Singapore Story, he was the best student in mathematics, scoring over 90 marks.
'But to my horror, I discovered I was not the best in either English or economics. I was in second place, way behind a certain Miss Kwa Geok Choo.'
He sat up. 'I knew I would face stiff competition for the Queen's Scholarship,' he wrote.
They had first met at Raffles Institution. As the only girl in a boys' school, the principal had asked her to present the prizes in 1939, and he collected three books from her.
Their intellectual rivalry turned into friendship - and then love.
Her Prince Charming
The war from 1943 to 1946 disrupted their education. Together with Mr Yong Nyuk Lin, later a minister, whose wife was Miss Kwa's sister, Mr Lee started a small business making gum, which was then in short supply. The young Kuan Yew reconnected with Geok Choo in that context.
Later, he recalled: 'She told me... she was looking for her Prince Charming. I turned up, not on a white horse but a bicycle with solid tyres!'
It was often in his happy recollection of their love story - from his moonlight proposal to their secret wedding in 1947 while they were law students in Cambridge - that Mr Lee's forceful personality seemed to soften, even sparkle, most.
But then Mrs Lee regularly revealed a different side of the leader simply by her presence, or her well-timed words in a light British accent.
One day, for a Straits Times report to highlight healthy living, he hopped onto a bicycle on the Istana grounds.
The photographer and journalist found it awkward to instruct the leader of the land to keep cycling. Mrs Lee stepped to the fore, urging her husband to continue riding in circles until the photo shoot was complete.
In the public mind, however, she was very much the silent partner. 'I walk two steps behind my husband like a good Asian wife,' she said in 1976 on a visit to Kuala Lumpur. 'I am not used to interviews. I suppose I am interview-shy.'
In 1971, the Manila Times marvelled at the way the Lees kept out of the public eye. Mr Lee made sure there was 'no Lee Kuan Yew family with a capital F' and 'no Lee Kuan Yew cult', the paper said in a front-page story. And Mrs Lee was 'almost an invisible entity', the paper observed - in marked contrast to some first ladies elsewhere, including in the Philippines itself.
In this respect, she personified - and in many ways, set the model for - the Singapore-style political spouse: in the background, not a newsmaker, not flashy. She was always very quiet by Mr Lee's side in public. And by her manner and deportment, she set the moral tone for all the other political wives. Which was not to say she wasn't always observant - of situations as well as of people.
Mr Lee paid a glowing tribute to his wife in the preface to the first volume of his memoirs, The Singapore Story, which was dedicated to 'Choo':
'Choo was a tower of strength, giving me constant emotional and intellectual support,' he wrote. She would stay up with him till 4am while he laboured over his tome. 'A powerful critic and helper', she went over every word. 'We had endless arguments,' he wrote.
This was an echo of his early political life, when she used to polish his speeches because he had no time.
More significantly, she also had a hand in the 1965 Separation Agreement with Malaysia drafted by then Law Minister Eddie Barker.
Mr Lee had wanted the critical water agreements with Johor to be included in the Separation Agreement. He recounted in his memoirs: 'I was too hard-pressed, and told Choo, who was a good conveyancing lawyer, to find a neat way to achieve this.'
The paragraphs she drafted later became part of the Malaysian Constitution, guaranteeing Singapore's water supply from Johor.
The couple were inseparable. One evocative photograph that has appeared in this paper shows Mrs Lee watching and listening to her husband from a private coign on a rooftop, as he spoke at Fullerton Square rally during the 1984 General Election.
Even after her first stroke in 2003, which occurred while she and her husband were in London, she would still accompany him on trips - whether it was to Chinese New Year dinners in his Tanjong Pagar constituency or on long visits to the Middle East.
At every turn of their marriage of 63 years and in the nation's life of over 45 years, Mrs Lee's love for the father of modern Singapore ran like a leitmotif in his and the nation's life.
In the end, her life, so quiet and yet so entwined with his, made her a vital partner in the Singapore story.
ABOUT MRS LEE
Madam Kwa Geok Choo was born in Singapore on Dec 21, 1920. Her parents were Mr and Mrs Kwa Siew Tee. Her father was the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation's (OCBC Bank) general manager from 1935 to 1945.
1936: Completes secondary education at Methodist Girls' School. First in the Senior Cambridge Examination for the whole of Malaya.
1937-39: Joins Raffles Institution Special Class, where she meets Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
1940-46: Enrols in Raffles College in 1940 and returns in 1946 after end of World War II.
1947: Graduates from Raffles College with First Class Diploma in Arts, winning the Queen's Scholarship.
1947-49: Reads law as a second-year student in Girton College, Cambridge University.
Places first in Part II of the Law Tripos - the first woman in Malaya to win this distinction.
1947: Secretly marries Mr Lee in December.
1950: Passes Bar final in May. Both she and Mr Lee are called to the Bar at the Middle Temple on June 21. Returns to Singapore. Marries Mr Lee again on Sept 30.
1951: Is admitted to the Bar in Singapore on Aug 7. Joins and becomes senior partner of a local law firm.
1952: Gives birth to son Lee Hsien Loong.
1955: The Lee & Lee law firm is established by Mr Lee, his brother Kim Yew and Madam Kwa.
1955: Gives birth to daughter Lee Wei Ling.
1957: Gives birth to second son Lee Hsien Yang.
1959: Mr Lee Kuan Yew is elected Prime Minister of Singapore. His brother and Madam Kwa take over the reins of Lee & Lee. They remain as consultants even after retirement from active practice.
1965: Helps in drafting parts of the Separation Agreement when Singapore leaves Malaysia.
2003: Suffers a stroke in October while on a visit to London. Recovers soon after and continues to accompany her husband on official trips.
2008: Suffers two strokes in May and in June, which leave her unable to get out of bed, move or speak.
2010: Dies at age 89, 11 weeks before her 90th birthday.
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Oct 3, 2010
Model political wife
Mrs Lee's modest and unassuming personal style set the standard for other political spouses
Mrs Lee keeping a watchful eye at a press conference chaired by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in December 1981. Behind her is the late former president Ong Teng Cheong, then a Cabinet minister. On Mr Ong's left are the late former head of the civil service Sim Kee Boon and Dr Yeo Ning Hong, who was to become a Cabinet minister later. -- PHOTO: ST FILE PHOTO
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At first glance, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew's role as a political wife seems subdued.
She did not hold court decked in jewels, lending her influence to this or that political faction. An intensely private person who shunned the limelight, she was a silent partner to her more illustrious husband, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
But her political legacy runs deep. Her discretion, simplicity and honesty set an example that has permeated Singapore's political culture. She became the model for all political spouses.
Without her, Mr Lee might have been a very different politician. She polished his speeches. She vetted the drafts of his memoirs, staying up with him till 4am, making corrections.
'I have been proof-reading and sometimes correcting his speeches from his earliest 1950 speech to the Malayan Forum in London,' she told The Straits Times in 1998.
The early history of the People's Action Party (PAP) also bears the stamp of her involvement. She might have had a hand, she told the writers of the book Men In White, in the drafting of the PAP Constitution in 1954.
'Who else would have drafted that Constitution for them?' she said. 'My husband doesn't draft things. He was an advocate; he was a court lawyer.'
Drafting the rules of a society, by contrast, was her speciality.
Mrs Lee was also credited with registering the PAP with the Registry of Societies. She was one of the first women to join the party and objected when she was barred from party meetings.
'I felt it was unfair that I should be dropped. I thought I could have made a contribution. But I did not take a strong stand about it,' she told the authors of Men In White.
She also acted as a go-between for her husband in his dealings with the British governor and a plenipotentiary from the Malayan Communist Party.
In 1959, she delivered her first and only party political broadcast during the general election that year, urging women to vote for the PAP. She was the only English-speaking woman in the party who had the requisite firmness and conviction for the broadcast.
She attended PAP rallies and other official events, standing steadfastly by her husband. She accompanied him on countless official trips.
Many times, Mr Lee leaned on her sound judgment of people. Ms Deborah Barker, the daughter of former law minister Eddie Barker, said that it was Mrs Lee who told Mr Lee to bring her father into politics. Mr Barker became law minister in 1964.
'My father felt that she had very good judgment, and he would go to her for advice on important personal matters,' Ms Barker recalled.
Mr Lee was forthright about Mrs Lee's influence on him in an interview with the writers of Lee Kuan Yew: The Man And His Ideas.
'She would tell me whether she would trust that man or not,' he said. 'And often she is right, because she has an intuitive sense of whether the chap is trustworthy and friendly or unfriendly.'
Her political instincts did not fail when it came to the question of merger with Malaysia.
'She did tell me that she didn't think Malaysia would work,' Mr Lee said. 'She didn't think it would work because, she said, 'You know the way they do things and we'll never change them'.'
Singapore left Malaysia after just two years of merger.
She had also expressed reservations over the PAP's decision to make Mr Ong Eng Guan the party's treasurer. Mr Ong became mayor of Singapore and later national development minister, but became disenchanted with Mr Lee and eventually left to form his own party.
But Mrs Lee's most far-reaching impact, perhaps, has been on Singapore's political culture.
Her personal style - plain, simple, unassuming, modest - has set the standard for other political spouses.
Following her lead, they stay out of the public eye and do not use their position to flex political muscle.
The tone of government in the early years of independence might have been very different if the wife of the prime minister had been a socialite or a conspicuous consumer of finery or a power broker. By her example and demeanour, Mrs Lee helped shape a modest and sober political culture.
'To me, Mrs Lee was a humble and courteous person, straightforward with no airs or pretences,' said the wife of former Old Guard minister Jek Yeun Thong.
Mrs Elisa Chew, who tailored dresses for Mrs Lee, remembered her as an 'amiable' person, with 'no pretences'.
'She would always greet me when she came into the store, and was even willing to take a photograph with me,' Mrs Chew said.
Mrs Lee was no political wallflower, though. Silent partner she may have been, but she made her mark on the PAP's history, most especially as a political confidante to Mr Lee.
And, crucially, her example has inspired generations of political wives who aim for the same combination of simplicity and sense that she made her own.
A kind, warm and caring woman
'My wife and I are very sad to learn of the passing of Mrs Lee. We express our deepest condolences to MM Lee, PM and their family. We had known her since I joined politics in 1984. She was a very kind, warm and caring woman. Although she did not hold any political office, her contribution to Singapore is immeasurable. Her care and love for her family enabled MM to devote his time and energy to develop Singapore from the Third World to the First in one generation. We will all miss Mrs Lee.'
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER WONG KAN SENG
KWA GEOK CHOO'S RADIO BROADCAST
Madam Kwa Geok Choo was one of the founding members of the People's Action Party. In this edited excerpt from his memoirs, Mr Lee Kuan Yew tells the story of how she came to make her first - and only - political speech, which was broadcast on radio. The speech was on the PAP's position on women.
We shared the view of the communists that one reason for the backwardness of China and the rest of Asia, except Japan, was that women had not been emancipated.
They had to be put on a par with the men, given the same education, and enabled to make their full contribution to society...
During the election campaign... we could not find a PAP woman member who was a good enough speaker to take on the programme in English.
After Choo had auditioned the wives of two candidates in Lee & Lee's office, she came into my room, where I was in discussion with (Goh) Keng Swee and (S.) Raja(ratnam), to tell me that they sounded too soft, not tough enough.
When she left us, my two friends suggested that she should do it.
I asked her, and after a moment's hesitation, she agreed. Raja wrote the first draft, which she amended so that it would sound like her.
It was cleared by the central executive committee and translated into the other languages, and she delivered it in English over Radio Malaya. One paragraph was crucial:
'Our society is still built on the assumption that women are the social, political and economic inferiors of men. This myth has been made the excuse for the exploitation of female labour. Many women do the same kind of work as men but do not get the same pay... We are fielding five women candidates in the election... Let us show them (the other parties) that Singapore women are tired of their pantomime and buffoonery. I appeal to women to vote for PAP. It is the only party with the idealism, the honesty and ability to carry out its election programme.'
This was a serious commitment, or I would not have agreed to my wife making it in a broadcast. I wanted to implement it early, although it meant urgent work for the legal draftsmen in the Attorney-General's Chambers.
They searched for precedents in the legislation of other countries, and drew up the Women's Charter, which we passed into law within a year.
It established monogamy as the only legal marital condition and made polygamy, hitherto an accepted practice, a crime - except among Muslims, whose religion allowed a man to have four wives.
The charter was comprehensive and altered the status of women. But it did not change the cultural bias of parents against daughters in favour of sons. That has still not been achieved.
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Oct 3, 2010
Devoted mother
Mrs Lee raised her children to be well-mannered and disciplined, and took pride in their achievements
Mrs Lee and her three children at the opening of the Coronation Road Community Centre in 1962. When they grew up, she was a confidante and companion to them. -- PHOTO: ST FILE PHOTO
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To the country, she was Mrs Lee. To her husband, she was Choo.
To her three children, she was Mama - who corrected their English, took time off from work to lunch with them every day, occasionally wielded a cane, and continued to look out for them when they were adults, down to replacing her daughter's toothbrush when it was worn out.
She took Hsien Yang, now 53 and chairman of Fraser & Neave, out to the beach, watching over him like a hawk as he built sandcastles.
She bought clothes for Wei Ling, now 55 and director of the National Neuroscience Institute, as the latter was a 'reluctant dresser'.
And when her eldest son, Hsien Loong, now 58 and the Prime Minister of Singapore, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1992, she agonised as only a mother could.
With a mother's telepathy, she knew instinctively when her children were in trouble.
Dr Lee Wei Ling, in a column for The Sunday Times, wrote of how in 1995 she had called home after a brush with death on a hiking holiday in New Zealand, but without intending to tell her parents what had happened.
Her mother nevertheless sensed instinctively that something had happened - 'but I'd rather not know what', she told a relative.
Wrote Dr Lee: 'My mother knew me better than I knew myself.'
By accounts, Mrs Lee practised tough love when the children were growing up, making sure that they never threw their weight around although they were the offspring of the prime minister.
When the need called for it, she did not spare the rod 'when the children were particularly naughty or disobedient', recounted Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in his memoirs.
'She brought them up well-mannered and self-disciplined,' he wrote.
As the family's main breadwinner during the early days of MM Lee's foray into politics, she worked long hours at the law firm she had co-founded with MM Lee and his brother, but would forego business lunches so as to be with the children.
In the evenings, she would take them to 'run around the Istana grounds while Kuan Yew played golf or practised on the practice tee and the putting green', she recalled in an interview with The Straits Times. 'And I remember taking them along to PAP picnics, and to Pulau Ubin to visit the Outward Bound School.'
For holidays, the family would visit the Cameron Highlands or Fraser's Hill in Malaysia at least once or twice a year - up to 1965. After that, they would vacation in Changi.
She took quiet pride in the children's achievements.
For instance, when Dr Lee had essays published in the Chinese newspapers, she would cut them out and paste them neatly in an exercise book.
Educated in Chinese-medium schools, their command of English is her achievement. A voracious reader with a passion for literature, she corrected their grammatical errors.
But the couple left it to the children to decide their careers, although she did dissuade Dr Lee, who was fond of dogs, against a career as a vet.
After the trio grew up, Mrs Lee's role evolved from a disciplinarian to that of confidante and companion.
In cahoots with her daughter, she persuaded Mr Lee on his 75th birthday to donate the proceeds from his book sales to polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education students instead of academically gifted students.
Her advice was often laced with her trademark humour.
Dr Lee recounted how as a by-product of being MM Lee's daughter, various people would ask to meet her though they had nothing specific to say to her.
'My mother used to say wryly of such people: 'If they cannot see the panda, the panda's daughter may be an acceptable substitute.'
She was a brilliant student and a sharp conveyancing lawyer. But it was clear that being a wife and mother were the most important roles to Mrs Lee.
In 2003, when the family auctioned for charity various personal possessions, she kept one thing: a pair of small ivory seals which she and Mr Lee had used to stamp the report cards of their three children. Another of her prized possessions was a gold pendant that Mr Lee had commissioned for her, with the engraved Chinese characters 'xian qi liang mu' (virtuous wife and caring mother) and 'nei xian wai de' (wise in looking after the family, virtuous in behaviour towards the outside world).
Dr Lee has written of how she had once e-mailed her mother when her toothbrush needed replacing. Mrs Lee e-mailed back:
'I am telepathic. I just got a toothbrush for you.
'But one day, the commissariat will not be around.'
Labour movement supporter who cared for workers
'We in the labour movement are saddened by the passing of Mrs Lee. Together with MM Lee, Mrs Lee helped unions fight unscrupulous employers in the 1950s and 1960s for better wages and working conditions. The legal assistance given by Lee & Lee then helped to lay the foundation for the labour movement to progress to where we are today. For this, we are deeply indebted to Mrs Lee, an outstanding person who cared a lot for our workers. She will be missed.'
MR LIM SWEE SAY, secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress
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Oct 3, 2010
Warm boss who set very high standards
She was a brilliant property lawyer and a pioneer in the legal world.
During a time when most women were absent from the corporate world, Madam Kwa Geok Choo built a law firm from scratch and became the only woman among that first generation of larger-than-life lawyers whose names are now mastheads.
Mr and Mrs Lee, together with Mr Lee's brother, the late Dennis Lee Kim Yew, first set up the law firm Lee & Lee in a small office in Malacca Street in 1955. It was furnished with second-hand furniture.
In 1959, Mr Lee left the firm to become prime minister of Singapore, and his brother and wife took the reins, building Lee & Lee into one of Singapore's leading law firms.
Mrs Lee was remembered by colleagues yesterday as a warm but exacting boss.
She always had time for her subordinates: Lawyers did not need to make appointments and were told to just pop into her office any time.
At the same time, her high standards of professionalism were legendary.
Before the age of e-mail, lawyers communicated with handwritten notes. 'If she found any lawyer's handwriting difficult to read, she would buy a Ladybird handwriting book,' recalled former Lee & Lee partner Tan Kok Quan. 'She would give it to the lawyer with the advice to try and follow how the characters are written in the book.'
She was also keenly aware of her status as the prime minister's wife, and took great pains to avoid clients she thought might be attempting to make use of the fact.
Mr Tan recalls a client whose house had been raided by the authorities for illegal gambling. The client pleaded his innocence and asked for a letter to be written to the police. The police soon informed Mr Tan that his client was actually not so innocent.
'She said to me that people will always want to make use of the name of 'Lee & Lee' to threaten the authorities,' he said of Mrs Lee's reaction to the matter. 'Always be careful not to let the firm's name be misused.'
In a documentary screened in 2001, Mr Dennis Lee, who died in 2003 at the age of 77, recalled that if his sister-in-law had to make an application to the Government for a client, she would not use her initials on the letterhead because she did not want government servants to see that the letter was from her.
'She doesn't want the civil servants to even have a chance to practise favouritism,' he said.
In fact, Mrs Lee was so careful to avoid the appearance of impropriety that she never socialised with clients outside of office hours, leaving that responsibility to him.
She was the firm's 'intellectual mind', while Mr Dennis Lee took care of the business side of things.
She kept an eye on matters through a formidable work ethic: She read every piece of mail the firms' lawyers received.
Colleagues recalled that she would take home with her three bags of mail and documents. They would receive their mail the next day with her notes and instructions attached.
Mrs Lee's personality, according to one prominent lawyer who declined to be named, is best summed up in the way she always dressed impeccably in a cheongsam to work, but would change into rubber flip-flops once there.
'When we heard her walk around in the flip-flops, I would joke that that is power,' he said. 'Power in rubber flip-flops.'
Mrs Lee began to slow down in the 1990s, semi-retiring into a consultant's position. But even then, she had a special status in the office as founding senior partner, said lawyer Andrew Mak, who worked for Lee & Lee in the mid-1990s.
'The first working day back after the Chinese New Year, every lawyer would visit her in her office with two oranges,' he recalls. 'It was a firm tradition.'
Despite her health problems, which began in 2003 when she suffered her first stroke, Mrs Lee always held the law firm she had built close to her heart - literally.
For the 25th anniversary of Lee & Lee in 1980, the firm's partners had two gold coins specially made for the two senior partners, Mrs Lee and Mr Dennis Lee.
Unbeknownst to them, Mrs Lee had a chain made for the coin, and would wear it as a necklace on special occasions and at formal functions.
Long after she left the firm, partners would glimpse the gold coin around her neck when her image appeared on TV or in newspaper pictures.
She was appearing at those formal functions as the wife of Singapore's founding father. But the gold coin around her neck was a reminder that she was also a trailblazing legal luminary in her own right.
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Oct 3, 2010
Remembering a kind Mrs Lee
Former students, ministers and MPs recall her caring nature
In November 1989, Mr and Mrs Lee made a visit to the park on Telok Blangah Hill, where they scanned Telok Blangah new town and the coastline in the south. -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF LEE FAMILY
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After completing her secondary school education at Methodist Girls' School, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew returned to her alma mater to do a spot of relief teaching.
It was a short stint but she left a long-lasting impression on her students.
One of them, Ms Lau Biau Chin from the class of 1946, said: 'We had a very good relief teacher by the name of Miss Kwa Geok Choo. Most of us cried bitterly when she left after a term.
'The next relief teacher loved to make us write lines...'
Ms Lau wrote of her memorable experience in a 1998 book, Treasured Memories, which gathered the recollections of former students of MGS.
Mrs Lee was one of its most illustrious old girls, having topped her class of 1936. She, too, contributed a treasured memory of her role as a coolie in a school play: 'My mother and I went down to Sungei Road and bought what the coolies would have bought. Pure cotton, dyed with indigo. When I had it washed, I would not wear it unwashed, the blue colour ran - real indigo.'
A picture of her in the play now hangs in MGS in its Heritage Room, said the school, its board of management and alumnae association, in a condolence statement last night.
Senior Minister of State Grace Fu, speaking on the sidelines of a grassroots event, remembers the late Mrs Lee as an amiable, genuinely caring woman.
Ms Fu, whose father James Fu was a former press secretary to Minister Mentor Lee, said: 'MM Lee has in the past a very stern and fearsome look, but Mrs Lee has always been able to be the balancing factor around him.'
She added: 'MM Lee loves to have a conversation and sometimes when we have a dinner or discussion that gets on too late into the night, she'll be the one that says, 'You know, Harry, let them go and take a rest.'
'She always had our interests at heart; we appreciate her for that.'
Mrs Jek Yeun Thong, 76, met Mrs Lee in the late 1950s, when her husband was political secretary at the Prime Minister's Office.
Mrs Jek last night recalled her generosity: 'When my father passed away in 1960, we went to see her for help with our legal paperwork like his will, and she said she wouldn't charge me.
'This I remember because she was very generous towards friends.'
Cabinet ministers yesterday hailed Mrs Lee's unstinting support for her husband, saying it contributed to the development of Singapore.
Said Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng: 'Although she did not hold any political office, her contribution to Singapore is immeasurable.
'Her care and love for her family enabled MM to devote his time and energy to developing Singapore from the Third World to the First in one generation.'
Labour chief Lim Swee Say, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said the legal help Mrs Lee, with her husband, gave unions laid the foundation for the labour movement. Using her expertise, she helped fight unscrupulous employers in the 1950s and 1960s for better wages and working conditions.
'For this, we are deeply indebted to Mrs Lee, an outstanding person who cared a lot for our workers.'
Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, who entered politics in 2001, said Mrs Lee struck him as 'a very simple person, warm and friendly, putting all of us at ease' at a dinner with other MPs.
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam admired Mrs Lee for her 'grace and penetrating wit'. He added: 'Mrs Lee's courtship and getting married to MM Lee was a beautiful love story, and how different Singapore is because of it.'
A motherly teacher
'I remember Mrs Lee as a very motherly type. My sister Carla worked and trained under her for three years. She was a caring boss and a great teacher. When my sister took her first holiday as a lawyer to Europe, Mrs Lee arranged for travellers' cheques for her. In those days, we didn't carry cash and she felt it was important to take precautions. So she went out to get them and made my sister sign them in her presence.'
MS DEBORAH BARKER, daughter of former minister Eddie Barker. Ms Carla Barker worked in Lee & Lee between 1976 and 1978.
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Oct 3, 2010
A stoic presence amid turbulence
Tribute from President S R Nathan
My wife and I are deeply saddened to learn of the passing away of Mrs Lee Kuan Yew, wife and life-long companion of Minister Mentor. We send our deepest condolences to Minister Mentor, whose grief over her passing away must be heavy and immeasurable.
To know Mrs Lee's greatness, one has to listen to what has not been said of her until now. Mrs Lee was great in many ways - as a legal luminary, as a mother of an illustrious family, and more than that, for her stoic presence next to Mr Lee Kuan Yew during times of turbulence and tension in the many years of his political struggle. Many would not know of her quiet but important contributions to the State, as she walked that long road with him. She followed him faithfully - always by his side - throughout all changes that befell him in his political career. By his side she helped him pursue his chosen path in politics, preoccupied always with the good of Singapore before anything else, which she shared. She was his companion, confidante and counsel, and we may never fully appreciate the impact and influence she had in shaping Minister Mentor's thinking and life.
There was not a single important event or development that she was not an intimate witness of. Indeed, she lived a life that had its fair share of pain and uncertainty, which was not evident in public.
To her family and close friends she has left a treasure trove of memories, experiences, knowledge and personal bonds. There can be no substitute for the place she had in their life, nor consolation for her family. The sorrow and pain must be great for them as well. As it is for us Singaporeans who had been touched by her in one way or another.
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