PUBLISHED ONNovember 27, 2020 9:00 AMBySeow Kai Lun
Becoming is a series where we showcase individuals who have had to overcome adversity to become the person they are today.
I'm on the train, making my way towards Khatib station and the rain is relentless. Yet, I'm not afraid of getting drenched later on. This is because Nee Soon South has a network of well-connected covered walkways. "You can get anywhere in Khatib without an umbrella even if it rains," a friend tells me proudly.
The woman who engineered this? Dr Lee Bee Wah, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency (GRC) from 2011 until the recent General Election in July this year. She had personally walked the ground in her Nee Soon South to discover all the "gaps" in the walkways and famously brought the issue to Parliament.
I'm with her in her beloved ward on a Sunday and it's been a while since she's been to the coffeeshop at block 848 that she used to visit weekly without fail. And as we make our way to her usual table, it feels as if I'm with a celebrity.
We're stopped by residents eager to shake her hand and snap a photo with her. "Long time no see", "We miss you" and "You look slimmer and fitter" were the common compliments thrown her way as packets of food get shoved into her hands.
The people continue coming to speak to her even after we are seated for breakfast and I can barely get a question in without being interrupted. And this love is a mutual love as I found out when speaking to Dr Lee — she is as dedicated to them as they are to her.
"My residents are so warm. They treat me like their family member. They confide in me, sharing with me their challenges, their family problems. They share their joy with me too."
Not saying yes to what life throws her way
As long as it benefits her residents, there's nothing that Dr Lee won't do — even if it means ruffling government feathers. Telling her that she just needs to say "yes" and take the given outcome like everyone else is not something that sits well with her.
She was upfront about this trait of hers when she was being interviewed by the People's Action Party as a potential candidate for the 2006 election. To a panel consisting of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, she said, "I am not a 'yes woman'."
If not for her grit and inability to just go with flow, Dr Lee would not be where she is today. Born to a rubber tapping family, she was asked to quit school in Primary 5 as her parents wanted her to take care of her newborn brother instead. She grudgingly did so but realised a few days later that she really wanted to go back to school.
Luckily for her, a school teacher by the name of Mrs Ng intervened, driving all the way to the rubber plantation where her parents worked at and persuaded them to allow her to return to school, she shares.
Mrs Ng continued to play an important role in Dr Lee's life. Aside from helping her to apply for financial assistance, Mrs Ng asked her to move into the Ng family home when she needed a place to study for her national exams. Eventually, Dr Lee made it to the National University of Singapore to study engineering on her own merit.
A problem-solver who dares to speak up
Engineering was something she was naturally drawn to as she enjoyed finding solutions for others from a young age. "I loved to help my classmates solve problems," Dr Lee recounted.
She shares: "My impression of engineers is very hands-on. They have to build infrastructure... So I thought if I'm an engineer, later on, I can improve the lives of many people."
And she has since put her engineering knowledge to good use. As she walks with through Nee Soon South with me, she points out the various structures that she has had a hand in recommending and pushing through. Being a professional engineer worked to her advantage as she knows how much things cost and can help find the appropriate department to fund it.
Other than solving problems, she is someone that "likes to da bao bu ping (fight against injustice)".
"If someone bullied them (my classmates), they will come to me," she quips.
Unsurprisingly, she would find all sorts of ways to find solutions for the difficulties her residents faced when she was an MP. She brings me to Lentor underpass in her former ward, which links Lower Seletar Reservoir to Springleaf Nature Park.
"I realised the residents would walk along the river underneath a bridge to get to the otherwise of the road just to take a bus. And I felt that this was quite dangerous, especially when the water levels are high and the path is slippery," she shares while pointing out the makeshift path to me.
While an overhead bridge could have solved the problem, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that the number of people who would use the bridge did not justify the cost it would incur.
When the North-South expressway was announced though, she saw an opportunity to add an underpass into the plans. And when the expressway was delayed, she somehow managed to get a separate budget for the underpass approved and roped in NParks to build a park connector alongside it.
"We need to persevere, find the opportunity to bring up again. For issues that I feel strongly about, I will always try to find timing, opportunity again to bring it up until it is resolved."
Her tenacity of tackling issues close to her and her residents' hearts has not always gone down well with her fellow politicians.
"Initially during my first term, some of the ministers could not accept what I'm doing. They even complained to the Prime Minister (PM)," she shares.
"I was summoned by the PM to go to his office. I told him, this is the feedback at the ground. Do you want me to give you genuine feedback? Then, of course, he said yes and that was that."
By her second term, there were lesser complaints.
"I think most of the ministers know that this is Lee Bee Wah style, Ah Hui style. I remember one very senior minister mentioned, 'Bee Wah is the only one who can speak anything in Parliament and get away with it'," she recalls with a chuckle.
"I just feel that it is my duty to bring up ground issues because sometimes the real ground issues may not reach the ears of ministers… I normally do my homework. So if any minister wants to question me, I can always debate on it because these are the information that I have collected from the ground. It is not [imaginary], not fake news."
Strong support from her family
One big reason that she has been able to do as much as she did is due to her family, who have been very gracious about sharing her time with her MP work, she says.
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She was introduced to her husband, who is an electrical engineer, by her hostel friend in university and the two bonded over their common love of sports. When Dr Lee decided to start her own consultancy, he encouraged her to pursue her dream while he held down a stable job.
And when she chose to go into politics, he was behind her all the way, though it meant that she would be spending most of her time in her ward doing house visits and speaking to residents.
"Fortunately, my husband is the best husband. He's so supportive, so understanding, taking care of the children and doing the marketing as well."
Life after politics
Now that she has retired — both from politics and professional engineering practice — she would like to spend more time with her family, particularly her mother in Malacca, as well as travel together with her loved ones. However, Covid-19 has put a curb on those plans for now.
"I will still take up some projects and some assignments, but I will be very selective. I would like to do something that is meaningful," she shares.
Since retiring, she has become the school advisory committee chair of the Nanyang Technological University School of Civil and Environmental Engineering to give back to the local engineering community.
She has also become a board member of Mandai Park Holdings, something that she finds "very purposeful and meaning because it looks into various ways of how to be sustainable and also how to save some of the animals that are in danger of going extinct".
With a twinkle in her eye, she confesses that the developments will also benefit those who live in the North, including her residents in Nee Soon South.
"My residents" is how she refers to the people living in Nee Soon South throughout my interview with her.
"But you're no longer their MP now though," I point out.
"It doesn't matter, they'll always be 'my residents'," she smiles.
She's also not ruling out popping up in a government agency in the future. "If there is something that I can do, I feel that I can help to improve some of the policies, I will be keen to be on board."
Watch the video to find out more about the former MP's journey from Malacca to Singapore, how her desire to help other led to her entering politics and the strong relationship she has built with her residents.
kailun@asiaone.com