Dr. Lee Siew-Choh |
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Member of Parliament for Queenstown SMC |
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In office 30 May 1959 – 21 September 1963 |
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Preceded by | Lee Choon Eng |
Succeeded by | Jek Yeun Thong |
Member of Parliament for Non-Constituency |
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In office 3 September 1988 – 31 August 1997 |
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Succeeded by | J.B. Jeyaretnam |
Personal details | |
Born |
Kuala Lumpur |
November 1, 1917
Died | July 18, 2002 Singapore |
(aged 84)
Nationality | Singapore |
Political party |
Workers' Party (1988–1997) Socialist Front (1963-1988) People's Action Party (1959-1963) |
Dr. Lee Siew-Choh (Chinese: 李绍祖; pinyin: Lǐ Shàozǔ; 1 November 1917 - 18 July 2002) was a Singaporean politician and medical doctor. Initially a member of the People's Action Party (PAP), he became a leader of the breakaway Socialist Front in 1961. After the Socialist Front merged with the Workers' Party in 1988, Lee stood as a Workers' Party candidate in the 1988 general election and became Singapore's first Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP), serving in this role until 1991.
Lee was born in Kuala Lumpur and was educated at Victoria Institution. He was trained as a medical doctor, but spent most of his life as a political leader.
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 led the party in the 1963 elections, in which they won 13 of the 51 seats.
Lee was noted for his pro-leftist 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.
The Socialist Front was Singapore's main opposition party at the time of the country's independence in 1965. But the party boycotted the first post-independence general election in 1968, allowing the PAP to win all 51 of the seats in Parliament. The Socialist Front never managed to regain a significant role in Singapore's political scene after this, and in 1988, the party merged with the Workers' Party.