Weekend TODAY
VIP WIVES OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Equally, yours
PAULINE D LOH
Foreign editor
paulined@mediacorp.com.sg
Out of the shadows ... how roles of VIP wives have changed
SHE'S known as Ms Ho Ching, rather than Mrs Lee Hsien Loong. And she has a
very high-profile job apart from being the Prime Minister's wife.
That alone has set Ms Ho apart from her two predecessors, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew
and Mrs Goh Chok Tong, whose maiden names the public are hard put to
recall. It could be by choice, or a reflection of society's expectations
at the time, but the two older women - both successful professionals in
their own right - opted to play the traditional role of the supportive
spouse, to be seen, more than heard.
Mrs Lee Kuan Yew, the wife of Singapore's first Prime Minister, had kept
such a low profile that she had never granted an interview while her
husband was in office. The only interview she did give was to help
publicise his memoirs, published after he had stepped down as Prime
Minister.
Likewise, Mrs Goh was rarely on the public's radar screen.
Ms Ho's decision to be known as more than the PM's wife has certainly
raised eyebrows. But then again, perhaps she is just a product of the
times, where women no longer feel they have to apologise for pursuing
separate lives from their politician-husbands.
Many countries have long had their share of strong-minded "first wives".
Even conservative Japan has seen the rise of an assertive first wife in
the form of Mrs Akie Abe. She is celebrated for holding her husband's hand
in public instead of walking two steps behind him, and her readiness to
drink for her teetotaller husband during toasting sessions.
This unusually forward behaviour made her a valuable diplomatic asset -
some had credited her with helping to prevent then-Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe's dismal approval ratings from falling even further - during his
ill-fated tenure.
The strong woman in the first office is no recent evolution, although
changing attitudes and opportunities have pushed her to the frontlines.
Back in the 1930s and early 1940s, US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt - whom
the equally controversial Hillary Clinton would cite as a role model half
a century later - was a dragon guarding her polio-stricken husband,
Franklin.
Then, there was Jackie Kennedy who elevated the art of First Lady-hood to
new heights of grace and fashion.
Across the pond, the equally qualified Cherie Blair had a harder time
fanning her own political hopes, which some say were actually dampened by
husband Tony Blair's flamboyant tenure and uncharacteristic enthusiasm for
American-led wars.
While the western first wives were making waves at home and abroad, the
wives of the first two Prime Ministers in Singapore preferred to stay in
the background.
Mrs Lee Kuan Yew chose to use her intellect to support her husband behind
the scenes. In his memoirs, he paid homage to her as his "one powerful
critic and helper". She has always stood by him, even when her health was
not in top form. It was sometimes left to outsiders to give tantalising
glimpses of the symbiosis between the Lees.
For example, Mr Richard Nixon paid rare homage to Mrs Lee in a speech in
1973 at the White House.
"We have welcomed many very distinguished guests in this room, and I would
say that none is more deserving of our respect and of being honoured, as
we honour him tonight, than the Prime Minister (Lee Kuan Yew) and, I may
say, his wife.
"Now, I had read something about their courtship ... They had gone to
school together, they had both graduated from law school in the same
class, and so tonight, when you saw me turning to Mrs Lee, I said: 'Mrs
Lee, tell me, is it true that you were number one in the class at
Cambridge Law School and your husband was number two?" And she said: "Mr
President, do you think he would have married me if that were the case?"
"But I probed further, and I found that, as a matter of fact, Mrs Lee, our
distinguished guest, did receive a first at Cambridge Law School. Her
husband did also, but like a very loyal wife, she said: "He had a first
with a star after his name, and that is something very special."
President Nixon should have asked Mr Lee instead. She was indeed
academically ahead of him, but it was at Raffles College, not Cambridge.
Mr Lee wrote in his memoirs: "At the end of each of the three terms in the
academic year there were examinations, and for the first of these I was
the best student in mathematics, scoring over 90 marks. But to my horror,
I discovered I was not the best in either English or economics. I was in
second place, way behind a certain Miss Kwa Geok Choo."
Another outsider, a veteran journalist, recounted two anecdotes involving
the Lees.
One, at an election rally at Old Fullerton Square, just outside the
General Post Office (GPO), which was refurbished to become the Fullerton
Hotel.
He said: "Mr Lee was in his element, giving a fiery speech attacking Mr
Chiam See Tong. I looked up at the GPO, and there was Mrs Lee on the
rooftop, getting a helicopter view of the proceedings."
The second incident happened when the Lees were in the Soviet Union for an
official visit. The journalist said: "The VIP couple were attending an
opera. The interval came and Mr Lee was offered some tidbits as
refreshment. Mr Lee stretched out his hand, but his wife, like a concerned
mother, stopped him in his tracks with just one word: Harry!"
Like Mrs Lee, Mrs Goh Chok Tong - her maiden name is Tan Choo Leng by the
way - was also mainly seen at official functions with her husband, or
appearing as the patron of a charitable organisation.
Unfairly perhaps, many are likely to remember Mrs Goh, a lawyer, for her
infamous "peanuts" remarks in 2005, when Mr Goh was no longer Prime
Minister. Mrs Goh, who was patron of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF)
when it was under its controversial chief executive officer, Mr T T Durai,
had described the annual compensation of $600,000 paid to him as
"peanuts". Mr Goh, now Senior Minister, later told the press that Mrs Goh
regretted making the remark.
Ms Ho has chosen a different way to support her husband. She is the chief
executive officer of Temasek Holdings, whose stated mission is to "create
and maximise long-term shareholder value as an active investor and
shareholder of successful enterprises" but whose underlying objective is
to contribute to Singapore's success story.
Now an established corporate figure in her own right, she was named by
Forbes magazine this year as the world's third most powerful woman. But
like her predecessors, Ms Ho, too, avoids talking freely to the press. The
one interview she did gave rare glimpses into their private lives and
showed where the lines are drawn.
There is no conflict of interests, she insists during the interview with
The Straits Times in June 2002.
"He is in politics. She is in business. They both work passionately for
the national interest."
She is non-committal when it comes to personal details and says she cannot
remember how she met the Prime Minister, although she concedes the bare
crumbs that she is not a "yes-woman at home" and that "she and her husband
hold different views on some issues, and that they do argue".
If there is velvet beneath the corporate steel, she is reserving that for
her four children, and for the first time, the pronoun changes when she
tells journalists: "Sometimes you feel like tearing your hair out because
of their growing-up problems. But, the world they are growing up in is
different. We don't mollycoddle them. If we leave them to themselves,
hopefully they will grow up well."
Indeed, it is a different world, and first ladies and first wives are the
original super-women, juggling private and public lives.
And increasingly, more and more political spouses are coming to the
realisation - along with increasing social acceptance, grudgingly at
times - that they do not have to be two steps behind to help their
husbands govern.
Equally, yours
PAULINE D LOH
Foreign editor
paulined@mediacorp.com.sg
Out of the shadows ... how roles of VIP wives have changed
SHE'S known as Ms Ho Ching, rather than Mrs Lee Hsien Loong. And she has a
very high-profile job apart from being the Prime Minister's wife.
That alone has set Ms Ho apart from her two predecessors, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew
and Mrs Goh Chok Tong, whose maiden names the public are hard put to
recall. It could be by choice, or a reflection of society's expectations
at the time, but the two older women - both successful professionals in
their own right - opted to play the traditional role of the supportive
spouse, to be seen, more than heard.
Mrs Lee Kuan Yew, the wife of Singapore's first Prime Minister, had kept
such a low profile that she had never granted an interview while her
husband was in office. The only interview she did give was to help
publicise his memoirs, published after he had stepped down as Prime
Minister.
Likewise, Mrs Goh was rarely on the public's radar screen.
Ms Ho's decision to be known as more than the PM's wife has certainly
raised eyebrows. But then again, perhaps she is just a product of the
times, where women no longer feel they have to apologise for pursuing
separate lives from their politician-husbands.
Many countries have long had their share of strong-minded "first wives".
Even conservative Japan has seen the rise of an assertive first wife in
the form of Mrs Akie Abe. She is celebrated for holding her husband's hand
in public instead of walking two steps behind him, and her readiness to
drink for her teetotaller husband during toasting sessions.
This unusually forward behaviour made her a valuable diplomatic asset -
some had credited her with helping to prevent then-Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe's dismal approval ratings from falling even further - during his
ill-fated tenure.
The strong woman in the first office is no recent evolution, although
changing attitudes and opportunities have pushed her to the frontlines.
Back in the 1930s and early 1940s, US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt - whom
the equally controversial Hillary Clinton would cite as a role model half
a century later - was a dragon guarding her polio-stricken husband,
Franklin.
Then, there was Jackie Kennedy who elevated the art of First Lady-hood to
new heights of grace and fashion.
Across the pond, the equally qualified Cherie Blair had a harder time
fanning her own political hopes, which some say were actually dampened by
husband Tony Blair's flamboyant tenure and uncharacteristic enthusiasm for
American-led wars.
While the western first wives were making waves at home and abroad, the
wives of the first two Prime Ministers in Singapore preferred to stay in
the background.
Mrs Lee Kuan Yew chose to use her intellect to support her husband behind
the scenes. In his memoirs, he paid homage to her as his "one powerful
critic and helper". She has always stood by him, even when her health was
not in top form. It was sometimes left to outsiders to give tantalising
glimpses of the symbiosis between the Lees.
For example, Mr Richard Nixon paid rare homage to Mrs Lee in a speech in
1973 at the White House.
"We have welcomed many very distinguished guests in this room, and I would
say that none is more deserving of our respect and of being honoured, as
we honour him tonight, than the Prime Minister (Lee Kuan Yew) and, I may
say, his wife.
"Now, I had read something about their courtship ... They had gone to
school together, they had both graduated from law school in the same
class, and so tonight, when you saw me turning to Mrs Lee, I said: 'Mrs
Lee, tell me, is it true that you were number one in the class at
Cambridge Law School and your husband was number two?" And she said: "Mr
President, do you think he would have married me if that were the case?"
"But I probed further, and I found that, as a matter of fact, Mrs Lee, our
distinguished guest, did receive a first at Cambridge Law School. Her
husband did also, but like a very loyal wife, she said: "He had a first
with a star after his name, and that is something very special."
President Nixon should have asked Mr Lee instead. She was indeed
academically ahead of him, but it was at Raffles College, not Cambridge.
Mr Lee wrote in his memoirs: "At the end of each of the three terms in the
academic year there were examinations, and for the first of these I was
the best student in mathematics, scoring over 90 marks. But to my horror,
I discovered I was not the best in either English or economics. I was in
second place, way behind a certain Miss Kwa Geok Choo."
Another outsider, a veteran journalist, recounted two anecdotes involving
the Lees.
One, at an election rally at Old Fullerton Square, just outside the
General Post Office (GPO), which was refurbished to become the Fullerton
Hotel.
He said: "Mr Lee was in his element, giving a fiery speech attacking Mr
Chiam See Tong. I looked up at the GPO, and there was Mrs Lee on the
rooftop, getting a helicopter view of the proceedings."
The second incident happened when the Lees were in the Soviet Union for an
official visit. The journalist said: "The VIP couple were attending an
opera. The interval came and Mr Lee was offered some tidbits as
refreshment. Mr Lee stretched out his hand, but his wife, like a concerned
mother, stopped him in his tracks with just one word: Harry!"
Like Mrs Lee, Mrs Goh Chok Tong - her maiden name is Tan Choo Leng by the
way - was also mainly seen at official functions with her husband, or
appearing as the patron of a charitable organisation.
Unfairly perhaps, many are likely to remember Mrs Goh, a lawyer, for her
infamous "peanuts" remarks in 2005, when Mr Goh was no longer Prime
Minister. Mrs Goh, who was patron of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF)
when it was under its controversial chief executive officer, Mr T T Durai,
had described the annual compensation of $600,000 paid to him as
"peanuts". Mr Goh, now Senior Minister, later told the press that Mrs Goh
regretted making the remark.
Ms Ho has chosen a different way to support her husband. She is the chief
executive officer of Temasek Holdings, whose stated mission is to "create
and maximise long-term shareholder value as an active investor and
shareholder of successful enterprises" but whose underlying objective is
to contribute to Singapore's success story.
Now an established corporate figure in her own right, she was named by
Forbes magazine this year as the world's third most powerful woman. But
like her predecessors, Ms Ho, too, avoids talking freely to the press. The
one interview she did gave rare glimpses into their private lives and
showed where the lines are drawn.
There is no conflict of interests, she insists during the interview with
The Straits Times in June 2002.
"He is in politics. She is in business. They both work passionately for
the national interest."
She is non-committal when it comes to personal details and says she cannot
remember how she met the Prime Minister, although she concedes the bare
crumbs that she is not a "yes-woman at home" and that "she and her husband
hold different views on some issues, and that they do argue".
If there is velvet beneath the corporate steel, she is reserving that for
her four children, and for the first time, the pronoun changes when she
tells journalists: "Sometimes you feel like tearing your hair out because
of their growing-up problems. But, the world they are growing up in is
different. We don't mollycoddle them. If we leave them to themselves,
hopefully they will grow up well."
Indeed, it is a different world, and first ladies and first wives are the
original super-women, juggling private and public lives.
And increasingly, more and more political spouses are coming to the
realisation - along with increasing social acceptance, grudgingly at
times - that they do not have to be two steps behind to help their
husbands govern.
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