[Photo: The late Mr Ho championed the cause of the ordinary and the less privileged.]

By Goh Chin Lian

A SCHOLARSHIP and an award in the name of labour movement stalwart and long-time MP Ho See Beng is being launched by Singapore Management University (SMU).

It hopes to preserve the legacy of the late Mr Ho, who championed the cause of workers and co-founded the National Trades Union Congress in 1962, said SMU's director of special projects Tan Siok Sun.

She told The Straits Times: 'His focus throughout his life was the worker - who should be fairly compensated and treated with dignity - and he did not see that in the Singapore of the early 1950s and 1960s.'

Mr Ho was a People's Action Party MP from 1963 to 1984, representing Bras Basah, where the university is now located, and later, Khe Bong.

Mr Ho, 90, died last Dec 5 after a long illness. Scores of people paid their last respects to him at his Joo Chiat home, including President SR Nathan, Cabinet ministers, former and present MPs, unionists and members of the public.

SMU hopes to rely on 'many small contributions from many people' to raise at least $300,000 to $500,000 for an endowment fund, said Ms Tan.

The amount will generate an estimated $9,000 a year in interest and that is about the cost of annual tuition fees at SMU, she added.

The Ho See Beng Scholarship will go to full-time undergraduates at the School of Social Sciences. The five-year-old school has 470 undergraduates and takes in more than 100 students every year.

All things being equal, priority for the scholarship will go to more needy students, said Ms Tan. Preference will also be given to those with a commitment to active involvement in community service.

The Ho See Beng Excellence Award will go to the top social science graduating student who has demonstrated exemplary leadership.

Mr Ho's youngest daughter, Madam Ho Geok Choo, an MP for West Coast GRC, said she was touched by SMU's gesture to launch a scholarship and an award in her father's name.

She described the scholarship as 'a fitting legacy to his role as a trade unionist and politician who championed the cause of the ordinary and the less privileged in order to make a difference to their lives'.

Noting that the scholarship will help deserving students from lower-income families to pursue a university education, she told The Straits Times: 'It was an opportunity that eluded my father, who came from a very poor background, and who had to stop attending school at 17 in order to work to help support his family.

'My father deeply appreciated the value of a higher education, which he aspired to, but was prevented from attaining because of poverty.'

The merit-based Excellence Award illustrates that in a meritocratic society, everyone has an equal opportunity to make good, Madam Ho added.

'It exemplifies my father's life journey from his humble beginnings to becoming a leader of men in the meritocracy of Singapore.'

Those who are interested to donate can call SMU on 6828-0463 for details.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.