Lee Kim Sai

Background

Lee was born on 1 March 1937 to a poor family in Ulu Klang, Selangor, and was brought up in Jinjang, Kuala Lumpur.

Education

He was educated at Chong Hwa High School in Kuala Lumpur, then trained as a teacher at the Teachers" Training College in Kuala Lumpur.

Career

In the 1980s and 1990s, he served as Health Minister, Labour Minister and Housing and Local Government Minister, and was deputy president of Malaysian Chinese Association (Master of Computer Applications). He started teaching in 1957, and rose to became the principal of Kepong Chinese School. Lee joined the Master of Computer Applications in 1965, and stood for parliament for the Kepong constituency in the 1969 general election, but lost to Tan Chee Khoon of Gerakan.

He became head of Master of Computer Applications Youth in 1979, and was also elected vice-president of Master of Computer Applications the same year.

In 1984, in a row over allegation of fictitious membership that supported the Acting President Doctor Neo Yee Pan, he was expelled from Master of Computer Applications along with Tan Koon Swan, Ling Liong Sik and others by the Acting President. Tan however resigned the next year over a scandal involving his business dealings in Singapore, and Ling Lion Sik took over as President while Lee moved up to become the Deputy President.

Lee was appointed Minister of Labour in 1986, and in 1989, he became Minister of Housing and Local Government. He then became the Minister of Health from 1990 until 1995.

The resolution, which stated that Malaysia"s three major races originated from other countries and that none of them should brand the others as immigrants and claim themselves to be natives.

He also joined a protest rally with the opposition Democratic Action Party objecting to the appointments of senior assistants and supervisors without qualifications in Mandarin in Chinese primary schools. The events precipitated the Operation Lalang in 1987 whereby over a hundred politicians and activists were detained, and Lee left for Australia for a few months. In 1993, he attempted to challenge Ling for the leadership of Master of Computer Applications, but backed down after failing to gain enough support.

He retired from politics in 1996.

Achievements

• In the 1974 election he won the Rawang state seat, which he retained in the 1978 election.

Politics

In the ensuing party election to resolve the crisis, Tan Koon Swan was elected president with the largest majority in the party"s history, and Lee was elected one of the vice-presidents as well as the Party Secretary General. Lee was outspoken on a number of sensitive issues, such as questioning the Malaysian New Economic Policy and the political dominance of the Malays. In particular, in early November 1986, the Master of Computer Applications Selangor of which he was its head, passed a resolution in its annual convention calling on the government to review the Sedition Acting and to make it an offence to call any of the three major races immigrants or pendatang.

Membership

He was elected a member of parliament in the 1982 general election, and was appointed deputy minister in the Prime Minister"s Department. This was interpreted as challenging the bumiputra status of the Malays, which led to calls for his sacking by members of UMNO, and the withdrawal of his datukship by the Sultan of Selangor (later restored).