Sahorah Ahmat: Singapore’s First Female Malay MP
‘Women in Politics’ Series: Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Women’s Charter (1961–2021)
Very little is known of Singapore’s first Malay Assemblywoman (known today as Member of Parliament or MP). Puan Sahorah Binte Ahmat — also sometimes referred to as Che Sahorah Ahmat — made history in Singapore’s 1959 General Elections as one of the five women elected into the Legislative Assembly (now Parliament), and the first ever Malay woman to do so. Formerly from the Singapore branch of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Puan Sahorah defected to the People’s Action Party (PAP) and won the Siglap constituency; serving for only one term until 1963, the year Singapore joined the Federation of Malaysia. After Sahorah Ahmat, the next Malay/Muslim woman to be elected into Parliament only came nearly 40 years later with none other than Madam Halimah Yacob in 2001, who also later served as the first female Speaker of Parliament and now currently the 8th President of Singapore.
True humble beginnings
Writing as a guest blogger in a blog dedicated to Princess Elizabeth Estate, former resident Mr Johar Anuar wrote about the Malay politicians he knew and encountered growing up in the Hillview area. Mr Johar recounted that as young children, he and his siblings went to Puan Sahorah’s home for Quranic lessons. He only knew later that the unassuming Puan Sahorah was “no ordinary housewife”, but a political activist for UMNO— something which he noted to be a “rarity for a Malay woman in those days”. Indeed not much is known of Puan Sahorah’s early beginnings and her motivations for being involved in politics. Mr Johar’s brief account is the rare anecdotal insight on this mysterious figure in our pre-Independence history. The name Sahorah Ahmat is usually invoked in the dramatic events of the Legislative Assembly vote of confidence called by Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on his government in 1961. Other than that, many are generally clueless of the fact that before Madam Halimah Yacob, Puan Sahorah Ahmat already made history as Singapore’s first Malay assemblywoman ever to be elected in Parliament.
Chapter on Sahorah Ahmat in Beyond Bicentennial: Perspectives on Malays
A commendable academic effort was undertaken by Muhammad Suhail Mohd Yazid from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute who wrote a chapter on Puan Sahorah Ahmat in the book Beyond Bicentennial: Perspectives on Malays. The chapter is befittingly titled “A Malay Woman in the House: Recovering Sahorah Ahmat’s Legacy in Singapore’s History”. This is thus far the most extensive profile on the enigmatic figure to date. In the chapter, Suhail Yazid acknowledges that:
Not much in known about her, whether in the pages of our history books or in the realm of public memory … The outcome of that election (1959 General Elections) was a clear unprecedented breakthrough for women representation in Singapore politics … During this time of significant political transition, the place of women in Singapore politics, like other contested areas in Singapore society, was full of possibilities.
Before delving into Sahorah Ahmat proper, the chapter gives a succinct historical context of Singapore in the late 1950’s, and its political developments in light of decolonisation and the move towards statehood. More importantly, the historicity of the period helps the reader to better appreciate the significance of Sahorah Ahmat as the first Malay woman elected to public office at a time where great changes were abound.
From UMNO to PAP
Perhaps it is unsurprising that Puan Sahorah started her career in politics with the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the party considered to be the voice and legitimate representative of the Malays at that time. In 1957, UMNO and its partners led the Federation of Malaya in gaining full independence from the British Empire. Interestingly, the very same year also saw a few leaders of the Singapore branch of UMNO defecting to the opposition People’s Action Party (PAP). Puan Sahorah was one of them, despite already being the leader of the Women’s Wing of Singapore UMNO (SUMNO). Suhail Yazid notes that this occurred due to the increasing frustration with “SUMNO’s focus on fighting for the political rights of the Malays while failing to use its position as a coalition partner of the Marshall and Lim government to better the community’s socio-economic conditions”.
Largest women representation… until 2001
While most of Singapore’s political narrative tend to focus on post-Independence, i.e. after leaving the Federation of Malaysia in 1965, Singapore’s statehood actually began earlier in 1959 when the United Kingdom granted the Crown Colony of Singapore full internal self-government after the success of the second all-party Merdeka Talks in London led by Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock. The 1959 General Elections formed the first fully-elected Legislative Assembly (now Parliament) in the new State of Singapore. Despite being in a seven-corner fight in the Siglap constituency, Sahorah Ahmat won and became one of the five elected Assemblywomen, together with fellow PAP candidates Chan Choy Siong (Delta), Ho Puay Choo (Bras Basah), Fung Yin Ching (Stamford), and Seow Peck Leng (Mountbatten) from the Singapore People’s Alliance (SPA). To put this into perspective, the five Assemblywomen in 1959 remained the biggest elected female representation in the Parliament of Singapore well until the 2000s.
After Puan Sahorah retired from politics in 1963 due to ill health, there were no Malay/Muslim woman represented in Parliament until Halimah Yacob in 2001. Thereafter, PAP introduced one additional female Malay/Muslim MP with every subsequent General Elections. In the 2020 General Elections, a record additional three Malay women were elected into Parliament; Mariam Jaafar and Nadia Samdin from the PAP, and Raeesah Khan from the Workers’ Party (WP) — who became the first female Malay Opposition MP. To date, there is a total of only 8 Malay/Muslim women ever elected to Parliament.
Fighting for women’s rights
To garner support from the women voters in 1959, one of the promises in the PAP election manifesto named The Task Ahead outlines the “emancipation of women” as part of its 5-year plan. The Singapore Council of Women (SCW) had campaigned against the practice of polygamy and proposed a charter of rights for women. When the PAP came into power, the new government moved for the legislation of what will later be known as the Women’s Charter. Part of the Charter carries the “one man, one wife” principle, or simply “one-wife law”. This law on monogamous marriage however is only applicable to non-Muslims, since the Muslim religion has provisions that allow polygamy.
Puan Sahorah Ahmat, as the sole representative of Malay/Muslim women, needed to be careful in not upsetting religious sensitivities but at the same time continued to advance the rights of Muslim women. Suhail Yazid in the Beyond Bicentennial chapter quotes Puan Sahorah to have said:
I hope that the government will establish a court to punish Muslims who fail to treat their wives, if they have more than one, equally in all respects.
Suhail Yazid details that at a PAP Women’s Wing rally, Puan Sahorah “reiterated her hopes that the rights of the Muslim women would be guarded by other legislative means” and to this effect, amendments based on Puan Sahorah’s proposals were later made to the Muslim Ordinance that made it “more difficult for men to enter into polygamous marriage through measures such as stricter evaluations of financial means, and also by giving powers to the Sharia Court to enforce maintenance orders”.
Puan Sahorah the Assemblywoman
Other than campaigning for women’s rights, Suhail Yazid’s chapter also briefly covers Sahorah Ahmat’s work in her Siglap constituency; from getting electricity access for the villages to combating frequent village fires, and her steadfastness in continuing grassroots work despite the violent threats posed by the Communists. Puan Sahorah also stood firm in face of criticisms from Singapore UMNO against the ruling PAP government in light of the heated Merger discussions and status of Malay rights in Singapore. A strong proponent of the Malaysia Plan and abhorred the Communists for wanting to sabotage it, Puan Sahorah declared that:
I am willing to die in order to follow the right path. I do not like my country — the place of my birth — to fall to the Communists. We must remember that this country is the possession of the people of this place.
In 1961, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew faced tremendous pressure both internally from the PAP and the Opposition after losing two by-elections — an indication that the government is losing its support. PM Lee Kuan Yew actually offered his resignation, but it was agreed that a motion or vote of confidence will be called instead in the Legislative Assembly. The Prime Minister had to secure a majority of at least 26 votes out of the 51 members, or the government will collapse. PM Lee was only able to secure 25 votes. The crucial 26th vote would come from none other than Sahorah Ahmat.
The dramatic vote that saved the PAP government from collapse
At that time when the motion of confidence was called, Puan Sahorah was ill and bedridden at the Singapore General Hospital. Either way, it was indicated that she had originally no intention of voting in support of the Prime Minister. Lee Kuan Yew recounts the following in his memoirs The Singapore Story:
… (Chan) Chee Seng said he had visited Sahorah only the day before and was confident he could get her to come to the Assembly to vote for us. I had given up and told him not to waste time, but (Toh) Chin Chye interjected that there was no harm in trying … Sahorah told Chee Seng that her Malay colleagues had been distancing themselves from her at government functions, showing that they despised her. So she had refused to be persuaded by them to support the government. But she liked Chee Seng and agreed to come.
In the book Men In White: The Untold Story of Singapore’s Ruling Political Party, PAP assemblyman Chan Chee Seng is stated to have appealed to a tearful Puan Sahorah not to switch sides because if she did, the PAP government would collapse. When she relented, Chan Chee Seng arranged for the hospital to send Puan Sahorah to the Legislative Assembly in an ambulance. He said:
Sahorah was carried up to the chamber. We walked in, the door closed and the bell rang. She voted just in time. I flashed a V sign to a smiling Lee (Kuan Yew).
With Puan Sahorah’s vote, PM Lee managed to win the vote of confidence. The dissidents considered as “pro-Communists” within the PAP were later expelled, and they formed the Barisan Sosialis party.
Suhail Yazid in his chapter in Beyond Bicentennial states that Puan Sahorah is often remembered for this very role she played in what historian John Drysdale called as the PAP’s moment of destiny. The memory of Sahorah Ahmat in the public domain is usually confined to that legendary moment, but with the research compiled by academics like Suhail Yazid, we can now have a better appreciation of Puan Sahorah’s contributions and the impact she has made as the first ever female Malay MP in Singapore’s history.
References
Beyond Bicentennial: Perspectives on Malays “A Malay Woman in the House: Recovering Sahorah Ahmat’s Legacy in Singapore’s History” — Muhammad Suhail Mohd Yazid
Princess Elizabeth Estate “Malay Politicians from Hillview” — Johar Anuar
Singapore Journal of Legal Studies “Fifty Years and More of the Women’s Charter of Singapore” — Leong Wai Kum
The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew — Lee Kuan Yew
Men In White: The Untold Story of Singapore’s Ruling Political Party — Sonny Yap, Richard Lim and Leong Weng Kam
