Singapore People’s Alliance poster with candidates

Singapore’s first woman opposition politician, Mrs Seow represented Mountbatten for the Singapore People’s Alliance from 1959 to 1963. In September 1959, she told the Legislative Assembly that a new Malayan nation should depend on local-born, English-educated “Peranakans who, though comprising several races, for various reasons, some because of intermarriage, have decided to make Singapore their homeland.”

Moreover, she stressed the distinctiveness of their cul¬ture; Peranakans have “in the course of over 100 years developed a language, liter¬ature, drama, songs and dances, traditions, customs, costumes, hair styles, cuisine, games and religion of their own”.