Ong Kee Hui was the great-grandson of Ong Ewe Hai, a leading Sarawakian merchant and Rajah Charles Brooke's advisor on Chinese Affairs, and also confidant; grandson of Ong Tiang Swee, the first Chinese nominated to the Sarawak Council Negri in 1937; and son of Ong Kwan Hin, a recognised authority on Chinese temples, who was nominated to the Sarawak Council Negri as well. Generations of the Ong family played a prominent role for the Hokkien community in Sarawak. His great-grandfather Ong Ewe Hai was a prominent Kapitan China to the Hokkien community of Sarawak, and a successful businessman in multiple fields. His grandfather, Ong Tiang Swee was Kapitan China, and also President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. His father, Ong Kwan Hin was also Kapitan China. Both Ong Tiang Swee and Ong Kwan Hin were the first two Chinese people nominated to the Sarawak Council Negri in 1937. Today, there are seven roads in Kuching, Sarawak named after generations of the Ong family, some by the Rajah in recognition of their contribution to the community. These include Jalan Ewe Hai, Jalan Ong Tiang Swee, Jalan Ong Kwan Hin, Jalan Ong Kee Hui, Jalan Hui Sing, Jalan Datin Wee Siew Eng and Jalan Ong Hup Leong, a branch road of Jalan Ong Tiang Swee. Ong Kee Hui is also related to Ong Poh Lim. His great grandfather Ong Koon Tian was born in Bai Jiao, Fujian, China and left for south-east Asia to make his fortune, at which he was not successful - on his death he left three sons and three daughters impoverished.
Honours
He was bestowed the titles "Datuk" later upgraded to "Dato' Sri" and "Datuk Amar" by the Sarawak State Government, "Datuk" by the Sabah State Government and "Tan Sri" by the Government of Malaysia. The Malaysian Institute of Chemistry also awards the Tan Sri Datuk Ong Kee Hui Postgraduate Chemistry Award to candidates who produce an outstanding thesis. In Kuching, there is a road named after him, called Jalan Ong Kee Hui. The headquarters of the Sarawak United People's Party sits here. A road called Jalan Hui Sing, or better known as Hui Sing Garden in Kuching is also named after Ong Kee Hui and Ong Moh Sing in a joint venture development for a residential area.
* Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of Hornbill Sarawak - Datuk Amar
Early life
Born in 1914 in Kuching, he was educated at St. Thomas's School in Kuching and later St. Andrew's School in Singapore before receiving his diploma in Agricultural Science from Serdang College.
Career
In 1935, he entered the Sarawak Government civil service when he returned home to serve the Department of Agriculture. He believed in Sarawak's cession to Great Britain in 1946, which ended Brooke Sarawak and brought citizenship to Sarawak based on jus soli to the Chinese, who were regarded as immigrants. Leaving government service in 1948, Ong entered business under the tutelage of Datuk Amar Wee Kheng Chiang, his father-in-law, who appointed him manager of the family’s Bian Chiang Bank, today known as CIMB Group, devoting himself to business and banking.
Rise to politics
In the mid-1950s, Ong Kee Hui started his political career as a nominated member of the Council Negri, and he was elected to the Kuching Municipal Council as the Mayor of Kuching and an unofficial member of the Supreme Council as Minister of Technology, Research and Local Government. The “divide and rule” method of the British encouraged the communal polarisation of Sarawak politics, something that he and his contemporaries viewed with alarm as boding ill for future Sarawak democracy. To counter this trend, Ong, together with Datuk Amar Stephen Yong Kuet Tze and colleagues, established the Sarawak United People's Party as Sarawak's first political party in 1959. When Malaysia was proposed, Ong argued for Sarawak's independence, before joining the greater federation. The Sarawak United People's Party supported his stance for independence. Ong was also a member of the Malaysian Solidarity Convention's Sarawak delegation in 1962. Malaysia became an independent country in 1963. In 1965, he seized the expulsion of Singapore to call for a referendum but was rejected. After much encouragement and pragmatism from then Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, he was convinced to forge political partnerships and consequently, Sarawak United People's Party joined the State Government in 1971. He served as the Minister of Local Government and Housing and Minister of Science Technology & Environment under Tun Abdul Razak's Cabinet. However, being a federal minister in Kuala Lumpur divorced him from Sarawakian grassroots politics. In 1980, he stood down as party chairman of SUPP and retired to pen his memoirs, Footprints in Sarawak.
Spouse and Children
On 14 September 1937, he married Wee Bee Siok, the daughter of a successful banker and businessman, Datuk Wee Kheng Chiang, in a traditional Chinese ceremony. They have eight children - two sons and six daughters.
