Ang Swee Chai Explained

Ang Swee Chai
Birth Date:[1]
Birth Place:Colony of Penang
Citizenship:British[2]

Ang Swee Chai is an orthopedic surgeon and author. She is a co-founder of the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Life

Ang was born in Penang, Malaysia but raised in Singapore. She attended Kwong Avenue Primary School, Raffles Girls' School, and the National University of Singapore where she studied medicine. She then received a master's degree in Occupational Medicine in 1976.[1]

In 1977, Ang married Singaporean human rights lawyer Francis Khoo. Two weeks after the marriage, she was briefly detained during a government crackdown on dissidents as the authority attempted to arrest her husband. She fled to London to be with her husband and they were granted asylum there.[3] She trained to be an orthopaedic surgeon in Britain, where she obtained her FRCS (Eng) and completed her training in Newcastle. She later became the first female consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London.[1]

In August 1982, Ang responded to an appeal for medical personnel from Christian Aid to treat war casualties in Lebanon and went to work at the Gaza Hospital near the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. The following month, she became witness to the Sabra-Shatila massacre during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.[4] She and two other hospital staff testified to Israeli Kahan Commission on the Sabra and Shatila massacre in September 1982.[5] Ang would also testify to the massacre in front of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission in 2013, during a hearing that eventually found the State of Israel guilty of genocide.[6]

With her husband, Francis Khoo, and some friends, Ang helped to form the British charity, Medical Aid for Palestinians, following the 1982 massacres.[7]

Awards and honours

In 1987, President Yasser Arafat awarded Ang the Star of Palestine, the highest award for service to the Palestinian people.[8]

In 2016, Ang was inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame.[9] However, she could not receive the award in person in Singapore as she retained her British citizenship and refused to give up either British or Singaporean citizenships.[10] Singapore does not allow dual citizenship. In November 2020, Ang was officially stripped of her Singaporean citizenship after a commission of inquiry.[11]

Telegraph article

On 24 September 2014, The Telegraph reported that Ang had forwarded a video entitled “CNN Goldman Sachs & the Zio Matrix” featuring Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.[12] Ang responded by saying “I am concerned that if there is any truth in the video, that Jews control the media, politics and banking, what on earth is going on? I was worried.”[12] [13]

Publications

Ang wrote a book on her experience, .[14] The book has been translated into Chinese.[15] She also co-authored War Surgery: Field Manual with Hans Husum and Erik Fosse.[16]

References

  1. Web site: Ang Swee Chai /Singapore Women's Hall of Fame . Singapore Women's Hall of Fame . 2014-03-03 . 2019-07-29 .
  2. News: Wong . Kim Hoh . ‘Gaza makes me cry every day’: Humanitarian Ang Swee Chai is devoted to helping Palestinians . 7 April 2024 . The Straits Times . Singapore Press Holdings . 7 April 2024 . en.
  3. Web site: 38妇女节：舍身为教育、生命付出的奇女子！. 8 March 2019. JadeMag.
  4. Web site: Ang Swee Chai – From Christian Zionist to Palestinian Activist – Book Review. Syed Mohd Khair. Syed Ahmad Fathi. 21 June 2019. theindependentinsight.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20190621160500/http://theindependentinsight.com/2019/06/21/ang-swee-chai-from-christian-zionist-to-palestinian-activist-book-review/. 21 June 2019. 2019-07-25.
  5. News: Doctors Testify About Massacre. Farrell. William E.. 1982-11-02. The New York Times. 2019-07-25. en-US. 0362-4331.
  6. Web site: Scoop. Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission: Israel Guilty of Genocide. 27 November 2013.
  7. Toh. Han Chong. Tambyah. Paul Ananth. 10 October 2006. Dr Ang Swee Chai - Surgeon With A Mission. SMA News. Singapore. Singapore Medical Association. 38. 10.
  8. Web site: Palestinian plight not a religious issue but a humanitarian one, says social activist. The Star Online. Bedi. Rashvinjeet S.. 2019-07-25. 2 November 2016.
  9. Web site: Dr Ang Swee Chai, a self-imposed exile, faces issue with ICA over dual citizenship . Terry Xu . 16 March 2016 . The Online Citizen . 27 October 2019 . 15 November 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191115182350/https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/03/16/dr-ang-swee-chai-a-self-imposed-exile-faces-issue-with-ica-over-dual-citizenship/ . dead .
  10. Web site: Dr Ang Swee Chai, a self-imposed exile, faces issue with ICA over dual citizenship. 2016-03-16. The Online Citizen. en-GB. 2019-10-31. 15 November 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191115182350/https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/03/16/dr-ang-swee-chai-a-self-imposed-exile-faces-issue-with-ica-over-dual-citizenship/. dead.
  11. News: Wong . Kim Hoh . ‘Gaza makes me cry every day’: Humanitarian Ang Swee Chai is devoted to helping Palestinians . 7 April 2024 . The Straits Times . Singapore Press Holdings . 7 April 2024 . en.
  12. News: Simons. Jake Wallis. 2014-09-22. Lancet 'hijacked in anti-Israel campaign'. en-GB. 2020-06-16. 0307-1235.
  13. News: Bernstein. David. Leading British medical journal refuses to retract open letter on Gaza written by authors concerned that "Jews control the media, politics and banking". 2020-06-16. Washington Post. en.
  14. Book reviews : From Beirut to Jerusalem By SWEE CHAI ANG (London, Grafton Books, 1989). Nancy . Murray. January 1, 1990 . Race & Class. 10.1177/030639689003100307.
  15. News: 流亡40年的新加坡人——访战地医生洪瑞钗. 苏颖欣. 14 December 2016. Malaysia Kini .
  16. War surgery: Field manual. H. Husum, Swee Chai Ang & E. Fosse. Penang: Third World Network, 1995. 764 pp. Price US$100 (softcover), US$ 140 (hardcover) plus postage. Available to 'Third World' countries at US$ 25 (softcover), US$ 35 (hardcover) plus postage. ISBN 983-9747-14-2 . Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 91. 3. May–June 1997. 368. 10.1016/S0035-9203(97)90116-4 .

External links

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ang Swee Chai".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.