VIP wives out of the shadows

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Saturday November 24, 12:47 PM

VIP wives out of the shadows
SINGAPORE: 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 S$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. - /ra