THE PERANAKANBaba Peter Lee recounts the origins of the Tun Dato Sir Cheng-Lock Tan Scholarship Trust Fund,
which marked its 30th anniversary in 2025.
On 28 July 2025, it was my privilege to host the 30th anniversary celebration of the Tun Dato Sir Cheng-Lock Tan Scholarship Trust Fund, which was established in 1995 to support the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies – Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS). Since then, scholarships have been awarded to 65 recipients pursuing a master’s degree in a range of subjects related to the region.
The evening event was held in my house, and it was a huge pleasure to welcome Professor Chan Heng Chee, Chairman of the ISEAS Board of Trustees, who in 1995 was the director of the Institute accepting the gift from Alice Scott-Ross and Agnes Tan, daughters of Tun Tan Cheng Lock. My co-hosts for the evening were Mr Choi Shing Kwok, CEO of ISEAS, and Ms Sharnika Silva, Head of Trust and Fiduciary Services at HSBC Trustees.
This Trust Fund has an inspiring history and a Peranakan background, and my involvement in it as a Co-Trustee since 2009, is something that happened quite by chance. This is painfully pedantic, but some explanation of family connections would help to make the story clear.
Here goes: My granduncle Tan Cheng Lock, a fifth generation Peranakan from Malacca, had one brother and three sisters. He and his brother resided in ancestral Malacca while his sisters all moved to Singapore, and the youngest, Tan Guat Poh, was my grandmother. My father Lee Kip Lee was therefore a first cousin of his four children: a son, Alfred (Siew Sin), and four daughters Lily, Nellie, Alice and Agnes. The latter three (Nellie, Alice and Agnes) lived in Singapore. Of the younger three in Singapore, only Alice was married (to Marcus Scott-Ross) but none of them had children.Â
In the 1960s and 1970s we would see Aunty Alice and Agnes at family events. We found them mesmerizing and slightly terrifying. They were all shimmering Thai silk, glittering diamonds, and lavender-scented powder. And never without big sunglasses even indoors in the daytime. Aunty Nellie was a recluse and seldom joined family gatherings.
It was only in the early 1990s when I was already in my 30s and very much interested in family history that I mustered up enough courage to chat with them about the old days at such gatherings. To my utter surprise, I discovered that Alice was full of effervescent charm and had a cheeky and irreverent sense of humour. Agnes was the adoring sidekick, smiling and silently nodding a lot, in awe of her sister.
I was quickly embraced into their world…lunches at Tanglin Club, tea at her house in Chancery Hill Road, with the best sardine and cucumber sandwiches I have ever had.
Nellie had just passed away and Alice revealed to me that she had persuaded her to gift her estate to a scholarship trust fund in memory of her father. She told me about her long conversations with then ISEAS head Professor Kernial Singh Sandhu. He was apparently more interested in a fellowship for shaping Asean policy. But Alice was adamant that it had to be a scholarship directed to students pursuing further studies.
Aunty Alice told me this story about how her father had made a heartbreaking discovery that a former domestic helper of his had fallen on hard times and ended up a sex worker. He realised her lack of formal education was the direct cause of her inability to improve her livelihood. This story has motivated Alice and her two sisters’ philanthropy and the establishment of this scholarship trust fund.
Tun Tan Cheng Lock was a visionary in the business and political worlds of his time, and strived to create an egalitarian, multicultural society. In his political speeches he often quoted this well-known panton:
Pisang emas bawa belayar, With golden plantains sail away,
Masak sebiji diatas peti, While on a chest lies one that’s ripe,
Hutang emas dapat di bayar, The debts of gold we can repay,
Hutang budi di-bawa mati. But debts of kindness last through life.
The depth of this gratitude motivated him throughout his life, and is reflected in his politics and his attitudes to family and society, for which he received several honours: Commander of the British Empire (CBE, 1933), Knight Commander of the Order of the Crown of Johor (SMN, with the title Dato, 1949), Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE, with the title Sir, 1952), and Grand Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (DPMJ, with the title Tun, 1958). For the naming of the Trust Fund, Aunty Alice and Agnes preferred to include his colonial title, which required his surname to appear after his personal name.
His legacy continues with the philanthropy of Alice, Nellie and Agnes, bestowed in his memory. In 2004 Agnes gave NUS $1.5 million for the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre for Asian Urban and Architectural Heritage in Malacca, and a further $6 million two years later for the establishment of NUS Baba House. In 2016 she also funded the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Bursary and Merit Award in Malay studies with the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
As they had no children Alice asked me and John if we would help realise their charitable causes upon their deaths. Alice passed away in 2002, and Agnes in 2021. As executors of Agnes’s estate (which included Alice’s estate) a total of $61 million was given away to 8 charities last year.
This scholarship with ISEAS together with another trust set up by Alice and Agnes known as the Tun Tan Cheng Lock Trust will continue to benefit scholars and institutions for some time to come. This year, $2.4 million was given by the second trust for the establishment of the Tan Cheng Lock Gallery, a public exhibition space on level 1 of the National Library that will display some of its treasures. Other projects are in the pipeline with NUS and the Peranakan Museum.
director of the Instutute of Southeast Asian Studies, at the launch of the Trust in 1995.
Yang di Pertua Negeri of Malacca, and host NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, among others.
It is wonderful that so many of the recipients gathered together to celebrate this milestone. Among them were Members of Parliament Dr Jamus Lim and Pritam Singh, Dr Graham Ong-Webb, Adjunct-Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University, and former Nominated Member of Parliament, Dr Eugene Tan who is also Associate Professor of Law at the Singapore Management University. The recipients studied in institutions in Singapore, United Kingdom, Australia and America, including Oxford University, Flinders University and the University of Chicago. I am sure Alice, Nellie and Agnes would be so heartened and happy to know that their gesture has helped nudge so many individuals along their professional journeys. May we all long be inspired by their passion and generosity.Â
Credits: 30th Anniversary Event photos courtesy ISEAS -Yusof Ishak Institute. Other photos, including one of Prof. Chan collecting a presentation cheque from the sisters, courtesy of the Family of Mr and Mrs Lee Kip Lee.
