‘Supporting cast’ also vital to labour movement: PM Lee

SINGAPORE — While founding fathers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee are rightly celebrated as the “lions” of the Republic’s labour movement, the contributions of the supporting cast such as the late unionist and former People’s Action Party Member of Parliament (MP) Ho See Beng were just as critical for the harmonious industrial relations the Republic enjoys today.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made this point yesterday at the launch of a book tracing the life and times of Mr Ho, who died in 2008 at the age of 90.

Ho See Beng: The Washerwoman’s Son, penned by retired colonel Ramachandran Menon, recounts the pioneer union leader’s journey through a tumultuous period for workers here and his passionate fight to improve workers’ lives.

Mr Lee noted that the book “doesn’t tell the story from the vantage point of the big names from the era”.

“It gives the view from the perspective of a man of simple but profound courage, who stood up to be counted at a pivotal moment in our history and made a difference,” he said.

Having suffered unfair treatment under British supervisors when he was a proofreader at The Straits Times, Mr Ho joined the Singapore Printing Employees’ Union in 1957 as he “felt bound to push for (the union) members’ interest”, Mr Menon wrote in the book.

In 1962, Mr Ho was elected the chairman of the new National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and became its first president two years later. From 1966 to 1967, he served as the NTUC’s secretary-general.

Mr Ho, whose daughter Madam Ho Geok Choo also became an MP, served as MP for the Bras Basah constituency from 1963 to 1984.

In Parliament, Mr Ho succeeded in persuading the Government to modify the landmark Employment Act and the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act in 1968, as the NTUC saw it unwise to legislate people above 55 out of a job, labour chief Lim Swee Say said.

Also speaking at the launch, former President S R Nathan, who had worked with Mr Ho for more than 50 years in the NTUC, said Mr Ho had not been given due recognition for his contributions in developing the national labour movement into one of Singapore society’s pillars today.

Mr Nathan was the first to broach the idea for the book in June 2010. He said: “As Singapore looks for inspirational stories from our past, I believe that the Ho See Beng story should be among them.”

Mr Ho’s youngest son, Mr Ho Cheow Teck, remembers his father as a “humble, quiet, and very determined” person. “His guiding principle was always for us to put our hearts and souls into our jobs, which we did,” said the 69-year-old entrepreneur. KELLY NG