Nyonya Ch’ng Kim See recounts the life and times of Dr Goh Keng Swee

The article below is the full version of a tribute to the late Dr Goh Keng Swee that was published in The Peranakan, issue 3, 2010. The article was written by Ch’ng Kim See, a seventh generation nyonya. She is the Head of the ISEAS Library, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.

Dr Goh Keng Swee was born on 6 October 1918 in Malacca at no. 122, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock (Heeren Street) to a Baba (Peranakan) family. He died in Singapore on 14 May 2010 at the age of 91.

Dr Goh started his working life as a civil servant before the Second World War, and resumed it after the war. He later quit and entered politics as a founding member of the People’s Action party (PAP) and served in the Singapore cabinet for 25 years,  the last 11 of which as Deputy Prime Minister. He retired from active politics in 1984, but continued to be involved in various capacities until he suffered a stroke in 1999, followed by another in 2000.

Dr Goh’s passing marks the end of an era of Baba influence on the Singapore and Malaysian polity. His local roots can be traced to the first Malacca ancestor Tan Hay Kuan who hailed from the province of Fujian, China over some 200 years ago. Dr Goh was a nephew of Tun Tan Cheng Lock, the well-known Baba politician and businessman of Malacca during the British colonial period and after independence. They shared the same ancestor, Tan Choon Bock (great grandfather and grandfather respectively) who was credited with accumulating enormous wealth that firmly established his descendants in Malacca and Singapore. The late Tun Tan Siew Sin,  the second, and the first Finance Minister of independent Malaya and Malaysia, the son of Tan Cheng Lock, was a cousin.

Known also as the Straits Chinese (or the King’s Chinese) after the British established the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore, Dr Goh’s lineage had become acculturalized and hybriditized having adapted itself to the local Malay culture. It evolved a distinct Baba culture signified by the Baba Malay language that incorporated Malay and some English vocabulary, and Nyonya (female of Baba) attire and cuisine (fusion of Chinese and Malay recipes and ingredients). Though the babas and nyonyas of Malacca spoke English and Baba Malay, but not Chinese or any of its dialects, they retained their Chinese identity through Chinese customary practices and traditions, as well as ancestor worship and filial piety based on Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

From Gov Monitor
Community and corporate support has always been integral to the growth and development of our museums and heritage, says Acting Minister Lui Tuck Yew.

The help of supporters and loans of artefacts and works help to fill the gaps in history and extend the breadth of existing heritage collections, he added.