Former PAP MP Chan Chee Seng dies, aged 90
Former senior parliamentary secretary and People’s Action Party (PAP) stalwart Chan Chee Seng died on Saturday evening, aged 90.
Mr Chan’s elder daughter, Ms Chan Mun-E, told The Straits Times on Sunday that he had been hospitalised with pneumonia at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where he died.
He was surrounded by family members, said Ms Chan, who added that the family had gathered at the hospital to celebrate Mr Chan’s life with him.
Mr Chan was in politics from 1957 to 1984, said the website of ISS International School, which he founded and where he last served as the chairman of its board.
He was a long-serving MP of the Jalan Besar ward, which he held for more than 20 years, and also served as the senior parliamentary secretary for social affairs and for trade and industry during his time in politics.
After retirement, he focused his energies on growing ISS. He was joined by his wife Chan Ching Oi in this endeavour in 1993, when she left the Ministry of Health to join the school.
General surgeon Chia Kok Hoong, a friend of Mr Chan’s, said the former MP will be remembered for his genuineness, generosity and ability to connect with others.
Dr Chia said Mr Chan had demonstrated through his life “what it means to make the best out of every situation”, adding that he “never lamented that he got a short straw in life”.
The 62-year-old said Mr Chan had received little formal education as his family could not afford the school fees. At about nine years old, he started working for Kwong Onn department store in South Bridge Road informally as a runner, where he met Dr Chia’s father, who was a manager at the store.
In 1951, undeterred by his lack of educational qualifications, Mr Chan walked into a Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp office and asked for work. He landed the job of a clerk, said Dr Chia.
“This opened a chapter in his life. He was someone who created opportunities for himself,” added Dr Chia.
While working at the bank, Mr Chan met several PAP leaders such as Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Dr Toh Chin Chye and Mr S. Rajaratnam, who recruited him to join the party. He joined in 1954, and was elected city councillor in 1957.
In 1968, Mr Chan helped Dr Chia’s mother – whose husband had had a stroke and who had four children to feed – to find a job as a school cleaner.
Dr Chia said this changed the course of his life, allowing his family to break out of the poverty cycle through his mother’s wages.
“If not for him, I would not be a surgeon,” said Dr Chia, who became closer to Mr Chan from 2009, when he entered private practice. He was regularly invited by Mr Chan to weekend lunches with his old PAP comrades.
“He was a person who was able to connect – and connect with – people, and that is probably what made him popular at the grassroots level,” said Dr Chia, adding that Mr Chan never cared about people’s backgrounds and could break the ice with individuals from all strata of society.
PAP assistant organising secretary Alex Yam wrote on Facebook on Sunday that Mr Chan was pivotal to the PAP’s survival.
He recounted that the Legislative Assembly was split in 1961, following by-elections in April and July that year, which prompted Mr Lee to move a motion of confidence in the PAP government on July 20, 1961, after the second by-election.
“With a razor-thin margin requiring every vote, it was unknown if PAP assemblywoman for Siglap, Che Puan Sahora Ahmat, who was hospitalised, had switched her allegiance away from the party leadership,” wrote Mr Yam.
He added that Mr Chan rushed to the Singapore General Hospital to persuade the assemblywoman, and then arranged an ambulance at 3am to take her to Parliament, where she was stretchered in and helped into her seat by PAP members Ismail Rahim and Chan Choy Siong.
“A division was taken at 3.55am and the PAP government survived the confidence motion with 27 votes, a majority of just one – that of Puan Sahora who had been persuaded by Comrade Chan,” wrote Mr Yam.
Mr Chan is survived by his wife, two daughters and three grandchildren. His wake is being held at Singapore Casket level 2, Regency Hall, and his funeral ceremony will take place there on Wednesday at 8.30am.
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