Wong Soon Kai was a general surgeon and a politician in Sarawak, Malaysia, where he served as deputy chief minister. He was born on 10 February 1927 in Sibu, Sarawak, the son of Wong Yen Chieng, a businessman, and Ting Suk Mui, a housewife. His parents were originally from Minqing, Fuzhou, China. He attended Chiew Kung Primary School and Kwong Hua Secondary School, both in Sibu, and then the Chinese High School and St Anthony’s School in Singapore. He went on to attend medical school at the University of Malaya, Singapore, where he was the overall top student on graduation in 1953, with distinctions in anatomy, bacteriology, pathology and public health. He was a houseman at Singapore General Hospital and a medical officer at the Lau King Howe Hospital in Sibu. He then went to the UK, where he was a clinical assistant at Cardiff Royal Infirmary. He gained his fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and of England in 1959. On his return to Malaysia, he was appointed as a surgical specialist at the Lau King Howe Hospital in Sibu and served as a government doctor for 15 years and in private practice for four years before entering politics in 1974. He was minister of agriculture and social development and held several other state ministerial positions. He was president of the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party from 1991 to 1996 and deputy chief minister from 1994 to 1996. Following his retirement in 1996 he was a science adviser to the state government. He was also president of the Medical Association of Sarawak and chairman of the Red Cross/Red Crescent of Sibu. Outside medicine he was interested in swimming, badminton and golf. He was president of two golf clubs in Sarawak and president of the Sarawak Amateur Golfers’ Association. He was a keen bridge player. In 1954 he married Jane Yong Sau Kan, a doctor. They had three children – Chee Liang, Chee May, and Chee Lin.