Poh Soo Kai

Poh was born in Singapore in 1930. He is the maternal grandson of prominent businessman Tan Kah Kee.[1] His family fled Singapore before the Japanese invasion and landed in Mumbai, he studied at a Catholic mission school for four years. Poh and his family returned to Singapore after the Japanese surrender in 1945, continued his studies at Raffles Institution and entered the University of Malaya in 1950. He was a founding member of the Socialist Club in 1953 and became its second President from August that year till the following year. Poh was one of the eight members of the Fajar editorial board charged with sedition in 1954. He graduated three years later with a degree in Medicine.

Poh became acquainted with Lee Kuan Yew, who was the legal advisor for the students during the Fajar Trials, during his time in university.[1] He subsequently became a founding member of the PAP in 1954. When the party split in 1961, he left to join the Barisan Sosialis as its Assistant Secretary-General. He was arrested and detained without trial under the Preservation of Public Service Security Ordinance during Operation Coldstore in 1963. He was arrested again without trial under the Internal Security Act in 1976 and 1982.[2] He co-edited the book, The Fajar Generation: The University Socialist Club and the Politics of Postwar Malaya and Singapore (2009).[3] Poh published his memoir titled Living in a Time of Deception in 2016.[2]