Sylvia Lim meets Quah Kim Song’s namesake during coffeeshop walk

SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party chair Sylvia Lim was pleasantly surprised while on a recent coffee shop walk, and posted about it over Instagram on Wednesday (1 May).

Ms Lim wrote, “During my Coffeeshop walk today, this young gentleman I bumped into told me that his father named him after Quah Kim Song! So I had to connect the dots… #HappyMayDay“

The Aljunied GRC MP then proceeded to post a photo of Mr Quah Kim Song, her longtime partner, with the young man whose name he inspired.

A prominent Singapore personality in his own right, Mr Quah is a former national football player whom many admired and still remember today as a striker.

In particular, he won the hearts of Singaporeans during the 1977 Malaysia Cup Final at Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur. Mr Quah’s skills were on full display as he scored two goals for Singapore, which won 3-2 against Penang.

It should not come as a surprise that Mr Quah belongs to a big football family. Among his ten siblings, four of his brothers also played for the country: Kim Beng, Kim Siak, Kim Swee, and Kim Lye, a former Singapore national football team captain. Another of their brothers, Kim Tiong was a triple jumper.

In his heyday as an athlete, Mr Quah was fondly known as “Mercurial”, “Quicksilver” and “Speed Demon” by the press and fans alike. He has two adult children with his late wife, Madam Shirley Wang, who died of cancer in 2007.

Not only is Mr Quah a national athlete, he is also known for his considerable guitar skills, and his late wife had once sung with the singing group the Honeydrops.

The 72-year-old Mr Quah first met Ms Lim met over a decade ago, at a 2013 concert organized by the Workers Party. After friends convinced Mr Quah to get up on stage to perform Keith Locke & The Quests’ Don’t Play That Song, he and Ms Lim, who is also known to belt out a tune or two, ended up dancing on stage.

The WP chair later told journalists that she had been impressed by Mr Quah. She has also gone on record as having been a football fan who watched Mr Quah play years before.

In a 2015 interview for The New Paper, the footballer said, “I know her as Sylvia Lim, and not Sylvia Lim, chairman of Workers’ Party. We are enjoying our time together and hope to be together for a long time.” /TISG

Read also: Quah Kim Song joins Sylvia Lim at Serangoon North Hungry Ghost Festival dinner