Mei Si signing in as a councillor of the Kuching Municipal Council.
Chi Meh Si hailed for ‘bringing politics into the kitchen’, initiating the setting-up of SUPP Women
SHE was one of the few Chinese women in Sarawak to venture into politics in the early days, was a discipline and pragmatic woman who believed that women must know their rights in order to be free from the strict confines of their traditional social spheres and get involved with the community.
Chi Meh Si’s foray into politics in the early 1970s was driven by a profound desire to help women know their rights.
She often said: “I did not join politics for my own gain but to help get better deals for women.”
Meh Si dedicated her early years in Sarawak to teaching, which paved the way for her to venture into politics.
A chemical engineering graduate from Nanking University Shanghai, China, Meh Si came to Sarawak in 1950 following her marriage with Chih Shia Kwee, a Sarawakian Foochow from Bintangor, in the 1940s.
They met while pursuing their tertiary education in Shanghai.
Meh Si came from a family with a great love for education. At a time when girls were conventionally raised to fulfil their social responsibility as housewives, her mother pursued her tertiary education and became a lawyer.
Later when she had her own children, she continued to go against the norm, particularly in raising her daughters.
As far as education was concerned, the girls were not allowed in the kitchen. Their duty was to study.
Obviously, her mother had a positive influence on Meh Si, who always believed that girls should be given equal opportunities to pursue education.
She had seen how poor and uneducated mothers in Shanghai who after giving birth to their own babies, had to work as nursing maids. They would go to the homes of the rich to look after their babies as well as breastfeed them.
Her own children were breastfed by nursing maids when they were babies.
Compassion for the needy
Nonetheless, her heart always went out to the less-privileged women.
She used to say: “If I had enough money to educate one child, the child would be a girl because girls, in many ways, are still at a disadvantage.”
Mei Si would remain true to her words when many years later, she sponsored two poor female students to further their studies in university out of her own pocket.
Her husband Shia Kwee returned to Sarawak after the birth of their third child. As they had planned earlier on, Meh Si and their three children would join him after he had secured a job in Sarawak.
When the time came, Shanghai was already in shambles as a result of the Chinese Communist Revolution that culminated in 1949.
Mei Si and the children had to board a crowded ship to Hong Kong en route to Sarawak. It was a punishing journey for the young mother as she had to look after three children aged nine months, three and five years old all by herself in a packed ship.
For the first time she experienced the strain of a ‘tough life’ on a personal level.
She had to tie her two boys to her waist, for fear of losing them in the crowd, with her baby girl strapped to her back.
She not only handled the challenging circumstances throughout the trip, but she also saw it as a learning opportunity. One benefit was that it made it easier for her to relate to others’ suffering, especially since she had a natural urge to aid others.
Initially, Meh Si stayed in Sarikei where her husband was working as a government officer.
The new arrival had to adjust to the local environment.
She was taken aback when she saw men walking on the streets in ‘sirats’ (loincloths). It was a common sight in rural towns then when native Iban men preferred to wear their loincloths as their everyday wear.
“What country is this?” she wondered at the time.
She would keep a safe distance from the ‘King of Fruit’ because she disliked the scent of durian.
Ironically, she only learned to enjoy the fruit after having her first taste of it at her husband’s insistence.
She also adjusted well to her new home. Shia Kwee was only in Sarikei for a short time before being transferred to Sibu, but she already felt like she was a part of the community.
Mei Si during her teaching days in Sibu in the 1950s.
In Sibu, she started a teaching career with Methodist Secondary School. Later when her husband was promoted to deputy director of the Sarawak Information Department, the family moved to Kuching, where she taught as a science teacher at St Mary’s Secondary School.
Meh Si dedicated her early years in Sarawak to teaching, a profession that was dear to her heart and one that paved the way for her to venture into politics.
When Shia Kwee got transferred back to Sibu, she founded a co-ed private school in the town. Named Rejang Secondary School, it was wholly owned by her.
Foray into politics
Archive photo shows Mei Si (second right) participating in a public discussion.
Meh Si persisted in her cause despite her husband’s frequent movements between Kuching and Sibu.
She made the decision to enter politics in the early 1970s after her husband was sent back to Kuching to accept a better position at the state Information Department headquarters.
Consequently, she joined the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).
One of her thrusts was to liberate local Chinese women from some of the regressive and discriminatory customary practices in the Chinese community.
She was keen on ‘bringing politics into the kitchen’, which resulted in her initiating the setting up the SUPP Women’s wing in 1974.
However, it was not an easy beginning for the women. There were fears of communist elements infiltrating SUPP and this had kept many people from joining the party, much less the women’s wing.
Even though the Sarawak Communist Clandestine Organisation (SCCO) had ended their fight with the signing of the historic Sri Aman Peace Accord, fears of their presence were still lingering in the minds of the locals.
Furthermore, most of the women were still confined to their traditional domain. They tended to shy away from politics for lack of exposure and education.
Notwithstanding the constraints and challenges, Meh Si was determined to push on with their membership drive.
She and a few members of the women’s wing travelled across the state, raising political awareness among women from all strata of society, explaining the party’s manifesto and organising cooking demonstrations to attract more women to their meetings.
Helping the less privileged
She also took the opportunity to reach out to the poor and the underprivileged by going further into some of the remote areas in Sarawak, where she saw for herself the living conditions of the people.
She was determined to bring their plight to the attention of relevant authorities for remedial action.
Like the women patriots before her, Mei Si did not rely on the party’s funds for her political activities. In most cases, she bore her own operational expenses.
“Politics is to give and not to take,” she had said.
That was typical of Meh Si. She was disciplined, pragmatic and dedicated to her mission, particularly in reaching out to women.
When she visited her former school in Shanghai in the 1970s, she volunteered to sponsor two bright female students from her alma mater who were underprivileged to pursue their studies at a local university.
The students did well in their studies. After they graduated, they migrated and had a good career.
Grateful, they wanted to repay Meh Si for helping them have a better life but instead, the latter encouraged them to sponsor an underprivileged girl each to go to university.
What she said had a profound impact on the two ladies – “When somebody is kind to you, you must be kind to others.”
Amendment to Chinese inheritance law
The headquarters of the SUPP, where Meh Si initiated the setting-up of its women’s wing in 1974.
In 1983, Meh Si became a key figure in the setting-up of the Sarawak Federation of Chinese Women’s Association. One of the issues raised by the association concerned the Chinese inheritance law, which they contended ‘in need of review’ in order to cater to the needs of Chinese women in the state.
In the Chinese tradition, the right to a man’s property would go to his son and not his wife.
A contentious issue here was that if the man did not have a son, the legitimate ownership of the property would go to the man’s male relatives.
The debate on the matter went on for about a decade before it was resolved following an amendment to the inheritance law.
Mei Si, who was also a member of the then-Kuching Municipal Council, showed persistence in her work that many of her co-workers found it hard to catch up with her.
True to her commitment, she was held in high esteem for her relentless efforts and shining performance in her noble pursuit.
The woman herself was admirable.
When she first arrived in Sarawak in 1950, she made a promise to be true to the country of her husband’s birth, pledging: “This is where I’m going to bring up my children and I will serve this country as long as I live.”
And she lived up to her promise.
For her contribution to the state, she was awarded the Ahli Bintang Sarawak (ABS) by the state government in 1983.
Mei Si died in Sibu of stomach cancer in 2005, 11 years after her husband’s passing.
Her ashes were laid next to her husband’s grave.
Her love, loyalty and contribution to the state could be encapsulated in her own words: “Sarawak gave me a place to live.”
Meh Si remained true to her promise to serve Sarawak till her death.