Glad that Prime Minister Lawrence Wong is planning to field more women candidates in the coming general election. Our Parliament would become much more balanced, I hope.
We have always had committed women MPs/politicians way back before the PAP became all-dominant and all-male from 1970 to 1984. They included Chan Choy Siong, late wife of PAP 1G minister Ong Pang Boon, Ho Puay Choo (Barisan Sosialis Assemblyman), Felice Leon-Soh (Liberal-Socialist City Councillor) and Seow Peck Leng (Singapore People’s Alliance Assemblyman).
Also, Mrs Devan Nair stood in as Assemblyman for Moulmein while her husband went over to become MP for Bangsar, KL, the PAP’s only MP in the Malaysian Parliament, before we left the Federation in 1965. A rich and illustrious history of Singapore women MPs indeed.
And let’s not forget Halimah Yacob becoming Singapore’s first woman President, a noteworthy milestone in itself, whatever the circumstances that led to that.
For 14 years after Chan Choy Siong resigned in 1970, the Singapore Parliament was barren of an elected woman MP’s voice. Women issues like maternity leave, work discrimination and female juvenile delinquency were discussed without women’s participation, especially in relaying the true ground sentiment of affected citizens.
Then came Dixie Tan, Aline Wong and Yu-Foo Yee Shoon in 1984. Singaporeans were, in Boomer/Millennial lingo, so not used to seeing women in their august testosterone-loaded Parliament that the gasps were audible.
I was writing the leader in The Straits Times on the day of the announcement. I had only heard of Yu-Foo Yee-Shoon but not the other two. I double-checked with sources. I could see that the trio represented a variety of expertise – Tan was a doctor, Wong was a sociologist, and Yu-Foo was from the trade unions. So, they would offer professional perspectives to issues which might not necessarily be women’s issues.
And so we are now in 2024. Women MPs are no longer a rarity.
Wikipedia: “The present 14th Parliament has 98 MPs, consisting of 87 elected MPs, two Non-Constituency MPs (NCMPs) and nine Nominated MPs. Since the 1990s, the number of women participating in politics has progressively increased.
There are currently 27 elected women parliamentarians out of a total of 93 elected members: 24 from the ruling PAP and three from the Workers’ Party, while there is one NCMP (Hazel Poa) from the Progress Singapore Party.
There are three full Ministers, two Senior Ministers of State, three Ministers of State and one Parliamentary Secretary.”
Plus, there was Lina Chiam, wife of Chiam See Tong, who served as NCMP (Singapore People’s Party) after she narrowly lost in the Potong Pasir constituency long held by her husband.
The stage is now finally set for the full participation of women in politics on both sides of the House divide.
Earlier on, the return of women to the PAP parliamentary ranks was followed by some notable contributions from the Workers’ Party women MPs – Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) and He Ting Ru (Sengkang GRC).
Their performances on the ground and during Parliamentary debates have shown that capable women are not the monopoly of the ruling party. Lim and He are articulate communicators who usually do their research before taking part in debates. For example, He’s speech earlier this year on making sure the Singapore parliament was impartial and accessible (transparent) was noteworthy because she backed it with examples of such parliaments in other countries.
Like her PAP counterparts, He had to make sacrifices when she entered politics, more so as her husband, Terrance Tan, was also very active, at least until he left.
The Straits Times: “Two-time general election candidate Terence Tan, who represented the WP in Marine Parade GRC in 2015 and East Coast GRC in 2020, has left the opposition party to focus on his career and family.
The 53-year-old, who is married to Sengkang GRC MP He Ting Ru, said he had stepped down from the party in January 2024 and that the party’s leaders had been very understanding about it.
‘I think from the perspective of one nuclear family with young children, my wife’s contribution is sufficient,’ said Tan, who has three sons below the age of seven with He. ‘I feel that my time is better served trying to support my wife, to spend more time with my kids, and to develop my career.’
If both he and his wife were in the political fray, his children would bear the brunt of that decision, he said.”
Tough. So I salute our Opposition women MPs – even as I welcome more PAP women MPs to the next Parliament.
Tan Bah Bah is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a magazine publishing company