Lee San Choon

Background

Lee San Choon was born on 24 March 1935 in Pekan, Pahang to Lee Debin (Chinese: 李德斌) and Yang Zhenling (Chinese: 楊貞齡), immigrant parents from Tianmen, Hubei in China.

Education

The family moved to Johor Bahru in Johor when he was 12, and he completed his secondary education at the Johore English College.

Career

He led the party in three general election elections in Malaysia, most successfully in the 1982 general election. He held various ministerial posts in the cabinet of the Malaysian government from 1969 to 1983, such as Labour and Manpower Minister, Works and Public Utilities Minister, as well as Transport Minister

Lee had his early education in a Chinese-medium school, Chung Hwa School in Pekan, before being transferred to Sultan Ahmad School for a year of English education. After finishing school, he taught English in a primary school in Singapore, held a minor position in the government"s Social Welfare Department, then worked as a clerk in a textile factory.

Lee San Choon joined the Malayan Chinese Association in 1957.

He was elected Chairman of Master of Computer Applications Youth in 1962. In 1968, as the Master of Computer Applications Youth leader, he was involved in the creation of the Koperatif Serbaguna Malaysia Bhd (KSM), a business organization based on the cooperative principle.

After the May 13 Riots in 1969, he was appointed Deputy Minister with Special Functions in the Cabinet by the National Operations Council. When parliamentary democracy was restored in 1971, he was given the post of Labour Minister in the new cabinet.

He was made Acting President of Master of Computer Applications on 8 April 1974 after the resignation of Tun Tan Siew Sin on grounds of ill-health just before the 1974 general election, and was later elected President of Master of Computer Applications in August 1975.

He held various offices in the Malaysian government, such as the Labour and Manpower Minister, the Works and Public Utilities Minister, and the Transport Minister. Under Lee"s stewardship, five major Master of Computer Applications initiatives were launched. In the 1982 general election, in response to a taunt by the opposition Democratic Action Party (Directory of American Philosophers) that the Master of Computer Applications"s leadership did not dare contest seats with large urban Chinese majority, Lee accepted the challenge and contested the parliamentary seat for Seremban against the Directory of American Philosophers Chairman Doctor Chen Manitoba Hin who had held that seat since 1969.

However, on 24 March 1983, at the height of his career, Lee unexpectedly resigned from the Cabinet for unspecified reason, and relinquished his position as President of Master of Computer Applications a day later.

In 2000, he claimed in an interview with the Chinese edition of Asiaweek that he was "stabbed in the back" by UMNO leaders in the 1982 election. After his retirement from politics, Lee was appointed Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd, Chairman of Malaysian French Bank Bhd and Chairman of Industrial Oxygen Incorporated Bhd.

He is also Chairman of Lee & Mok Sdn Bhd, Sunrise Bhd, Magerk Sdn Bhd and Worldspan Travel (M) Sdn Bhd.

Achievements

• Lee won the contest, and also led his party to a landslide victory, winning 24 out of 28 allocated parliamentary seats and 55 out of 62 state seats.

Politics

These were the building of Wisma Master of Computer Applications, the headquarter of the party. The setting up of a building fund for Tunku Abdul Rahman College to expand opportunity for tertiary education for the Chinese population. The founding of Multi-Purpose Holdings Berhad, an investment holding company.

The establishment of Malaysian Chinese Cultural Society. And a drive to increase Master of Computer Applications membership.

Membership

He was elected a Member of Parliament in the Kluang Utara parliamentary seat in the 1959 Malayan general election, and at the age of 24, he became the youngest Member of Parliament in Malaya.