Letter from Baba Colin Chee, President, The Peranakan Association Singapore
(This is a monthly column to TPAS members and guests)
Dear Babas and Nyonyas,
THE 120th ANNIVERSARY PERANAKAN BALL, JULY 2020
I remember very clearly the Thursday afternoon of 4 April when my iMac alerted me to the arrival of an anticipated email.
I was then deep in thought working on a document for an important meeting the next day. I was finalising a list of discussion items that I would like covered with someone I had identified as the most suitable Organising Chairperson for our 120th Anniversary Peranakan Ball to be held next year on 18 July 2020.
I quickly checked my mailbox and saw an email from the Media & Communications Team in the President’s Office.
The most important sentence I was looking for simply popped on screen: “President has accepted the invitation.”
It was in answer to an invitation the Association had sent just over two weeks earlier on 18 March to her Excellency, President Halimah Yacob, to be our Guest-of-Honour at our 120th Anniversary Peranakan Ball.
We received it with a great sense of relief, honour and happiness.
President Halimah Yacob’s acceptance as Guest-of-Honour at our Peranakan Ball next year continues an unbroken tradition which started with our late President Dr Wee Kim Wee and Mrs Wee; our late former President Dr S R Nathan and Mrs Nathan; and our former President Dr Tony Tan and Mrs Tan.
For me, personally, it has come one full cycle.
I remember working in the late 80s with a young, bright, female Malay lawyer in the then Ministry of Manpower. She was helping to mediate disputes between the multinational company I was working for as its Industrial Relations Advisor and our industry-based trade union.
She was so capable I had asked her why she was working with the government and not go into private practice. In those years, law firms were paying good money for fresh-out-of-school law graduates.
The gist of her reply struck and humbled me. She said she came from a poor family and had always been educated through government bursaries and scholarships. She added she wanted to pay back to the country.
After this first encounter with now President Halimah about 30 years ago, I am really looking forward to catching up with her again in July next year.
I have lived long enough to agree with the late Steve Jobs’ comment that, sometimes, all the dots that we casually jot down in life may one day begin to connect into something recognisable and welcoming.
As it is with our President, so too my chance meeting with Nyonya Genevieve Peggy Jeffs, our Chairwoman for the Organising Committee of our Association’s 120th Anniversary Peranakan Ball next year.
I first saw Peggy at the Baba Nyonya Convention in Penang in November 2017. I was covering the event as the photographer/writer for The Peranakan magazine.
She was always beautifully dressed and made her presence felt through her exquisite, almost eccentric, head dresses.
When I saw her again in November last year at the Baba Nyonya Convention in Indonesia, I made it a point to chat with her. I was then into my sixth month as president of the association but I still did not even know her name or who she was!
I was so impressed by Peggy’s down-to-earth, common-sense approach to life and philanthropy I asked if she would advise our team for our 120th Anniversary Peranakan Ball. She said yes without hesitation.
When I returned home and googled Peggy Jeffs, I realised she could just be our Organising Chairwoman, if she had the time and inclination, because although our Association is not a charity, we still need to raise funds for our activities.
This was how Singapore Tatler had described Peggy:
The effervescent Genevieve Peggy Jeffs’ passion for improving the lives of the less fortunate has led her to chair numerous fundraising gala committees. These include the Singapore Red Cross, Breast Cancer Foundation and in 2018, the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 2019, she will chair the Singapore Red Cross 70th Anniversary Benefit Gala.
In a way, we have broken with tradition to always have a General Committee member lead the Peranakan Ball by having Peggy, our high-society doyenne with a huge heart, to chair it.
We are very confident that Peggy will bring a different perspective and sense of fun to our much-awaited Peranakan Ball. She will still maintain our standards of excellence.
Baba Raymond Wong, our 2nd Vice President, is the Organising Committee’s Advisor.
Thank you, Peggy, and welcome to our team!!!
Babas and Nyonyas, please save the date, 18 July 2020, to attend our gala dinner. It will be fabulous, glamorous and may well be the Ball of the Year! More of this in the months to come.
MALAM JOLLY WESTERN, DEC 2019
Another date to lock in is Saturday, 28 December for this year’s Malam Jolly Western!
Our Association treasurer, Baba Bryan Tan, will again lead the team for this year’s Malam Jolly. He coordinated last year’s very well-received Christmas Malam Jolly.
This year’s Malam Jolly will be held at Joyden Hall, a large, pillar-free function hall with superb acoustics. Because this year’s event is close to the New Year, we have opted for a sit-down, 8-course, specially curated dinner.
The hall is large enough to accommodate 26 tables including a dance floor. That’s four more than last year’s 22 tables which were quickly sold out.
The venue on Victoria Street, is a very short walk away from Bugis MRT station and is also easily accessible by bus, taxi and car.
Keeping with the Western theme, Singapore’s very own country singers, Matthew and the Mandarins, will entertain with tunes to get you dancing!
Best of all, we will joget the evening away with our very own Peranakan Voices choir and The Merrilads band.
Look out for booking details in the next few months.
MELAKA CONVENTION, NOVEMBER 2019
Babas and Nyonyas, thank you for your overwhelming response to this year’s convention. It is being hosted by PPCM in Melaka from 22-24 November 2019.
All 40 twin rooms allocated to our Association have been fully booked and largely paid for.
However, for the few members who have booked with TPAS but have not yet paid up, a last reminder and deadline will be given.
If, by the deadline, the fees are still not forthcoming, their places will be released without further notice or reminders.
We have many members on the waiting list and it is only fair that they be given a chance to attend if others do not want to confirm their places by paying in full.
Please note too, that bounced cheques will NOT be considered as payment. Do be careful to ensure your cheque is made out to “The Peranakan Association Singapore”.
Several cheques have bounced because they were made out to “The Peranakan Association OF Singapore”.
Please treat this as fair alert of what we aim to do. We are trying to be as fair as possible to everyone concerned.
Also, please note that the organiser, PPCM, will not accommodate any independent delegates for this Convention. All registrations must be made through any one of the 13 associations in the Federation of Peranakan Associations.
Until my next letter, do keep well, be safe and make time for your loved ones.
Blessings,
Colin Chee
Unity. Stability. Growth
It is not going to be business as usual
30 April 2019