Return of the native - and there's much to celebrate

A 75-year-old Chinese clan with just over 220 members who trace their roots to China's Fujian province has been making its mark in recent years.

The Singapore Leong Khay Huay Kuan has won honours at the annual Clan of the Year Awards for the past three years, and everyone says it has to do with businessman Ko Oon Joo taking over as its president in 2011.

That year saw the clan winning an excellence award for its many welfare programmes, including full sponsorship for members aged 75 and older to travel to their native home in China. That was the first year the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations (SFCCA), an umbrella body for more than 200 clan groups, gave away the awards.

The following year, Leong Khay picked up another excellence award for erecting a foundation stone in the clansmen's hometown in China bearing the Chinese characters for Leong Khay, to revive the forgotten name of their native home which was merged in 1963 with another county, Long Cheng, to become Long Hai.

And last year, it was among five associations named Clan of the Year - the highest honour - for launching a $10 million bursary fund to help needy members' children complete their tertiary education.

There was a buzz when Mr Ko, 60, rose to accept the latest award at a special presentation ceremony last month.

Leong Khay is one of only two clans to win awards three years running, the other being the bigger Fujian group, the prominent 5,000- strong Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan which has been named Clan of the Year three times in a row.

Given its relatively small size and modest resources, being named Clan of the Year last year was quite a feat for Leong Khay.

Tucked in the middle of a row of two-storey, pre-war conservation shophouses along Cantonment Road, its premises include an activity hall for members and a conference room. Bigger events such as anniversary dinners and other celebrations are usually held at hotels.

The low-key association used to organise just a few events in the past because its members were ageing. But recent years have seen it reaching out to younger people, especially new citizens from China, and expanding its list of activities.

So who is its leader, Mr Ko Oon Joo?

His late father Ko Teck Siang and uncle Ko Teck Kin were better known in the Chinese community. The brothers made their fortunes in rubber plantations and property soon after World War II.

But the younger Mr Ko, 60, eldest son of Teck Siang, has made his presence felt in the community in a short span of three years and now leads three Hokkien clans concurrently.

In 2011, he was elected president of the Koh Clan Association, for those with the surnames Koh, Ko or Gao. He took over at Leong Khay later that year. Last month, he was elected president of a third group - the Chang Chow General Association, which represents a district in Fujian province.

"My late father and uncle were popular leaders in these three clans, and when I joined and got elected as leader, I could not say no," says Mr Ko, a property developer and investor with projects in Singapore and elsewhere in the region.

"But my father, who died four years ago at 84, had the greatest influence on my decision to start serving the Chinese community, especially when my other five siblings are not doing so."

His childhood memory of his father is of a man who donated generously to the community, particularly to schools such as the former Chinese High School, now Hwa Chong Institution, and Nanyang Girls' High School.

He attended The Chinese High School before his father sent him to a Birmingham college to study business management in the early 1970s. On his return from the UK, he helped in the family's rubber business before working in their department store business. He went on to become a trader himself before moving to Perth with his wife and three young children in 1993, and he began investing in property in the Australian city.

At that time, he had little interest in Chinese community affairs in Singapore.

A few months before his father died in 2010, Mr Ko and his family - except for his second son, a doctor in Perth - returned to Singapore.

"I spent a lot of time with my father during those months and he encouraged me to contribute to the community. So I decided to take up leadership roles in the clans soon after he passed on," he recalls.

When word went out that he had returned and was ready to serve, other Chinese community leaders came calling, not only because he was Mr Ko Teck Siang's son, but also because he had a reputation for being capable.

Last year, he was elected to the councils of SFCCA as well as the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Chinese Development Assistance Council, the community self-help group. He was also elected to the Hokkien Huay Kuan council and made a management committee member of the Ee Hoe Hean Club, an influential social club for Chinese businessmen.

"I have my hands full and I am spending more time attending to community work than my own business now," says Mr Ko, who is managing director of his investment company, Teck Lay Group.

It is clear that he is proud of the changes made at Leong Khay, the small clan that has been winning awards. Asked how he managed to achieve that, he says: "I told my members that in everything we do, we should do it with passion and sincerity."

A recent membership drive he initiated attracted many people in their 40s and early 50s, bringing down the average age of members from the high 60s to the late 50s. Membership has grown to 220 from 180 two years ago.

Of all the work he has done, what he has enjoyed most is helping to provide education opportunities for the needy through bursaries.

"I believe education is the only way the poor can move up the social ladder and that is what my father used to tell me too," he says. He reveals that there are plans to extend the Leong Khay bursary fund to non-members' children as well. Members' children can get grants of between $2,000 and $5,000 annually and others who are Hokkien can get interest-free study loans.

"We hope to extend it to all needy Singaporeans irrespective of their race eventually," he says.

Veteran Leong Khay leader K.T. Kwek, 80, says Mr Ko is a rare find because he is not only capable and dedicated but also humble and generous.

Mr Ko has put his skills to good use at Leong Khay in the past three years, bringing in good profits with the clan's assets through his sound investment advice.

"He is capable of doing more for the community and is going to play an even greater role when given the chance," Mr Kwek predicts.

wengkam@sph.com.sg

This article was published on May 18 in The Straits Times.

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