Lee San Choon

Lee San Choon (; 24 March 1935 – 3 March 2023) was a Malaysian politician and businessman. He was the fourth president of Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a major component party of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) from 1975 to 1983. He led the party in three general 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.

Early life Lee San Choon was born on 24 March 1935 in Pekan, Pahang to Lee Debin and Yang Zhenling , immigrant parents from Tianmen, Hubei in China. The third of six children, he lost his mother at the age of ten, and he had five other half-siblings after his father remarried. After obtaining his Cambridge GCE O-Level, he taught English at a primary school in Geylang, Singapore. He completed his A-Level in 1955, and although he had intended to continue his education abroad, family financial constraints forced him to abandon the plan.

Political career

Early career Lee San Choon joined the Malayan Chinese Association in 1957. He was elected a member of parliament in the Kluang Utara parliamentary seat in the 1959 Malayan general election, winning the former socialist stronghold by a majority of 1,458 votes, and became the youngest MP in Malaya at the age of 24. After Kluang Utara, he represented the Segamat Selatan constituency from 1964 to 1974 and Segamat until 1982. He was elected Chairman of MCA Youth in 1962. He caused a stir when he urged the leaders of MCA to resign in 1963. In 1965, MCA Youth supported the campaign to make Chinese a national language. Due to the political sensitivity of the issue, he offered to resign but was persuaded to stay. In 1968, as MCA Youth leader, he was involved in the creation of the Koperatif Serbaguna Malaysia Bhd (KSM), a business organization based on the cooperative principle.

1974–1981: MCA leadership On 8 April 1974, just before the 1974 general election, he was made Acting President of MCA after Tun Tan Siew Sin resigned on the grounds of ill health. He was then elected President of MCA in August 1975. By this point, the influence of MCA had waned once the expanded coalition Barisan Nasional dominated by UMNO was formed. The cabinet posts allocated to MCA therefore also declined in importance, in contrast to Tan Siew Sin who was the Minister of Finance, the various offices in the Malaysian government held by Lee as President of MCA included the Labour and Manpower Minister, the Works and Public Utilities Minister, and the Transport Minister. Also in 1979, in a period of internal political struggle, he fought off a challenge from Michael Chen for the presidency of MCA and was re-elected.

1982–1983: Electoral success and resignation In the 1982 general election, in response to a taunt by the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) that the MCA's leadership did not dare contest seats with a large urban Chinese majority, Lee accepted the challenge and contested the parliamentary seat for Seremban against the DAP chairman Chen Man Hin who had held that seat since 1969. Lee won the contest by a small majority, and also led his party to a landslide victory, winning 24 out of 28 allocated parliamentary seats and 55 out of 62 state seats. He never gave an explanation for his resignation, apart from stating in an interview with the Chinese edition of Asiaweek in 2000 that he was "stabbed in the back" by UMNO leaders in the 1982 election.

Business career After he retired from politics, Lee was appointed chair/chief executive officer of Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd, Chair of Malaysian French Bank Bhd, and Chair of Industrial Oxygen Incorporated Bhd. He was also Chairman of Lee & Mok Sdn Bhd, Sunrise Bhd, Magerk Sdn Bhd, and Worldspan Travel (M) Sdn Bhd.

Personal life Lee married Dianne Mok Thye Yuen in 1962. They have two children, son Kwan Por and daughter Ann Gee .

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Campbell University, North Carolina, United States.

Death Lee died on 3 March 2023 at age 87.

Election results

Honours

Places named after him Dewan San Choon Wisma MCA, a Hall for the Annual General Meeting of Malaysian Chinese Association