"I decided to contest the election because I am interested in the welfare of the community."
- Lee Nai Choo, December 25, 1976
Only three women contested in Singapore's 1976 General Election. One of them was an independent candidate by the name of Lee Nai Choo (李乃珠). Lee contested in the Moulmein constituency and the election saw a three-corner fight between the People's Action Party, the Workers' Party and Lee.
Lee was a total unknown who parachuted into the election from nowhere. Conflicting reports put her age at that time as 21, 22 and 29. She received her tertiary education in Britain and returned to Singapore only in July that year. She was an accounts assistant when she contested.
According to a report in the Nanyang Siang Pau, Lee was elusive on Nomination Day. When the press approached Lee, she denied that she was Lee Nai Choo. A Sin Chew Jit Poh columnist wrote that Lee even threatened to smash the reporters' cameras. "If she is so shy, why do something so high profile?" The columnist asked.
The press tracked Lee to her home. Lee told them that she did not want any publicity but then went on to reveal that she was campaigning for the abolition of compulsory voting and for additional police patrols in Moulmein to reduce crime.
Polling Day was on 23 December 1976. A Nanyang Siang Pau report described Lee's arrival at the polling station at around 9:15pm. She wore a red dress and dark pants. She told the press that she was a principled person but because her campaign was self-funded and she did not have the means to campaign. Lee told the press that she would get the lowest number of votes in history. After speaking to the press, Lee left in a waiting car.
The results: The PAP's Sia Khoon Seong won a landslide victory. Lee won 447 votes (3.8%). She had to forfeit her $1,200 electoral deposit.
On 25 December, Lee spoke to the Straits Times about a rumour that she had joined the election as part of $5,000 bet with her friends: "I am a highly principled person. I would never take any money from an outsider because it is against my principles."
After her defeat, Lee faded away from the limelight. She committed suicide in 1987. Lee fell to her death from a Toa Payoh flat, leaving behind a note which indicated her desire to end her life as it had n meaning. The Straits Times report indicated that Lee was an assistant manager and director of a securities firm. She was married to an engineer from Hong Kong. The couple had no children.
Today, there are large numbers of female PAP and Opposition candidates in Singapore's political landscape but back in 1976, politics was still a man's game. All three female candidates for 1976 were defeated and the election ended with an all-male parliament.
What would compel a young and politically inexperienced woman to contest as an independent in such a political climate? Was it a naive attempt to serve her community? Was her campaign a quixotic effort at denting the PAP"s power?
Her 1976 campaign was the pinnacle of Lee Nai Choo's short life and although she is no longer able to speak for herself, perhaps one day previously unrevealed information can surface to clarify her motives.
Lee Yue Heng (29/12/2024)