Lim Chin Siong
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[edit] Lim Chin Siong's Profile
He was born on Telok Ayer Street in Singapore
read more from some facts here in wikipedia
[edit] Comet in our Sky - a true story about Singaporeans
Pontian Kechil TODATE:[[User:Terry|wowowow|]] 16:58, 2 June 2008 (SGT)
- the late Lim Chin Siong , his legendary namesake was from Wu-Siong t-ah Hu < the Chinese hero who take on the the Tiger!
Comet in our Sky:
Lim Chin Siong in History
[edit] Just a note from my own estimate of LKY
Lim Chin Siong was introduced to the Chief Minister at the basement of David Marshall home.
He had never dared to challenge the late Mr. Lim Chin Siong in fair election and we all know Mr. Lee senior would never want to gamble when he know he will lose out to him..better to do away in jail, so he is to linger for more than 9 years in detention. I always thought of Mr. Lee senior as an opportunist..that's what we thought in the 60s..
[edit] The Abortion of a Prime Minister: Singapore's Lim Chin Siong
adapted from:
Review by Cheah Boon Kheng
New Straits Times July 21, 2001
- In place of a full-length biography, these separate individual accounts and memoirs from Britain, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore represent a composite story of Lim's life and politics, especially when he was a young rising star in Singapore's political firmament in the 1950's and 1960's.
- REDIRECT
Lee Kuan Yew, who had co-founded the People's Action Party with him, introduced him to David Marshall, then Singapore's Chief Minister, as "our future Prime Minister" in 1955. Lim's bright career however, was abruptly destroyed before he could realise its full potential.
It was during his third imprisonment, says his friend Dr M.K. Rajakumar, that Lim was "destroyed, both psychologically and politically". He had a nervous breakdown, became depressed and suicidal.
- In 1969, in this state of depression, he was released from detention after announcing that he would quit politics.
He was allowed to leave for exile in London, and did not return to Singapore again until 1979. He died of a heart attack in 1996 at the age of 62.
Essays by Lim's close friends, especially Tan Jing Quee and Dr M.K. Rajakumar, add an intimate touch and tell an inspiring story of his rapid climb to popularity and as undisputed leader of Chinese workers, trade unions and Chinese middle school students in the 1950s.
He is described as a slim, youthful figure, selfless, dedicated, with a handsome boyish face whose oratory as a speaker in Hokkien among the Chinese masses was legendary.
In his political memoir The Singapore Story, Lee offered ungrudging praise to Lim's "hypnotic" oratory: "...a ringing voice that flowed beautifully in his native Hokkien. The girls adored him, especially those in the trade unions. Once he got going after a cold start at the first two meetings, there was tremendous applause every time he spoke. By the end of the campaign, Lim Chin Siong was seen as a charismatic figure and a person to be reckoned with in Singapore politics and, what was of more immediate concern, within the PAP."
In 1955 Lim had been elected as Singapore's youngest parliamentarian. However, a year later, after widespread riots involving industrial workers and Chinese school students, he was arrested and imprisoned on charges of being one of the leaders of the "communist united front" alleged to have been behind the riots.
Lim's own reputation was a further casualty to the riots' mayhem and bloodshed, and he was detained without trial. He denied charges that he was a communist, charges which remain unsubstantiated until today.
In a startling and revisionist essay, Dr Greg Poulgrain of Griffiths University observes that the British Governor of Singapore and his Chief Secretary in their reports to London had admitted that the police could find no evidence to establish that Lim was a communist.
Poulgrain claims it was actually Singapore's then Chief Minister, Lim Yew Hock, who had deliberately "provoked" the bus and other industrial workers and Chinese middle students to riot in 1956 in order to have Lim Chin Siong arrested.
Lim Yew Hock's own admission to responsibility for the riot appears in an official report to the British Government which Poulgrain found in the Colonial Office records in London which are now open to researchers.
"Lee Kuan Yew was secretly a party with Lim Yew Hock," adds Poulgrain, "in urging the Colonial Secretary to impose the subversives ban in making it illegal for former political detainees to stand for election."
In 1959, while Lim was in prison, the PAP won the general elections under which Lee became Prime Minister, and Singapore was granted self-government by the British in all matters except for internal security, defence and external affairs.
Although Lim and other leftist political detainees were released from prison, their co-operation and alliance with Lee ended in 1961 due to disagreements over policies and strategies.
Until then the media presented the PAP as a leftwing party, indicating the pervasive and dominant influence of Lim's faction within and outside the party. Their rivalry was intense and ideological. Lee finally resorted to arrests to remove Lim and his faction.
When Lim and other political detainees such as Fong Swee Suan and S. Woodhull were released, they were appointed Political Secretaries. But the honeymoon was soon over.
The PAP split in 1961 saw Lim taking away with him almost the entire PAP branches and personnel to form and lead a new party, the Barisan Socialis (Socialist Front).
Not long after this, the Barisan campaigned to oppose the formation of Malaysia which involved Singapore's merger with Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya on the grounds that Lee Kuan Yew had not sought more favourable terms for Singapore.
The Malaysia plan, mooted by Malaya's then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, was endorsed by the British Government which had agreed to relinquish its rule of the other three territories.
Fearing the increasing communist influence said to be behind the Barisan, Lee and the Tunku put pressure on the British authorities to arrest Lim and other leftists in Singapore for their opposition to Malaysia. On Feb 2, 1961 the police, under Operation ColdStore, detained over 100 people, including Lim.
In another essay British historian Dr T.N. Harper discloses that these arrests were initially opposed by top officials in the British Commission in Singapore during meetings of the tripartite Internal Security Council with representatives from the governments of Singapore, Malaya and Britain.
The British Commissioner in Singapore, the Earl of Selkirk, and his deputy, Philip Moore, had argued that such arrests would not only be undemocratic and unfair, but also failed to take into account that Lim and his party had been engaged in constitutional struggle.
The Commissioner's arguments for democracy and fair play were quite extraordinary and out of line with London's official thinking, but were eventually rejected by superior officials in London, especially the British Secretary of State.
The mood at the time of Lim's arrest during Operation ColdStore has been likened to "white terror", vividly described in a dedicatory poem by Tan Jing Quee, a former trade unionist who is now a lawyer and who himself was later detained on charges of being involved in communist united front activities:
- On the second day of February thunder raged through frightened streets lightning blighted all lamps
In essays by other close friends, especially those by Dr M.K. Rajakumar, A. Samad Ismail, A. Mahadeva, Dr Lim Hock Siew and Said Zahari, details of Lim's personal health, suffering, character and political past are brought to light, especially his kind, friendly, charming and charismatic qualities.
To most Singaporeans, their memory of Lim is that of a broken man, a rising star that burnt out. But Tan Jing Quee recalls that Lim "pulled himself out of the depths of despair. Unknown to many people, he made a remarkable recovery."
One cannot help but be moved by Lim Chin Siong's tragic story in Comet in Our Sky, where he appears as Singapore's alternative hero to Lee Kuan Yew.
COMET IN OUR SKY: LIM CHIN SIONG IN HISTORY Edited by K.S. Jomo and Tan Jing Quee Insan RM40, pp170 COMET in Our Sky, a collection of essays, poems and speeches, is a warm literary tribute to former Singapore leftwing trade unionist and socialist parliamentarian, the late Lim Chin Siong.
[[3]]
[edit] Quotable quotes
- I am a elected representative of the people and my actions as such not answerable to an officer of the garmen...
In the past we had fought and won the battle against the old British colonial system imposed upon us, now we must fight against all the unfair system in the Garmen which is no less imposing as the old colonial system.. It’s the lightning party which only represent the selfish interests of a few<the elite> among Singaporeans...see the NKF scenario and you will understand a little how the PAP had totally taken all draconian powers into their own hands to work this great enslaving system among us here.. No different from the old colonial rulers in the past !: Alien talk 07:22, 22 March 2006 (SGT)
[edit] another Quotable quote
C.V. Devan Nair, on the occasion of the death of Lim Chin Siong a left wing politician from the 50s and 60s and being arrested three times and kept by the PAP garmen for nearly a quarter of his active lifetime:
- "The irreistible tidal wave of anti-colonialism which convulsed Singapore in the 1950s found in{Lim Chin Siong} its leading and most eloquent voice, and I do not regret having been one of his closest comrades. It was on the crest of that wave that the People's Action Party found itself installed as the first elected government of a self-governing if not wholly independent,Singapore. Incipient and subsequent disagreements do not abrogate the facts of history.
A true overview of someone whose life was unfairly treated by some of his closest friends and comrades in the fight for freedom from British colonialism, but later detained by his friend ally Mr. Lee Kuan Yew who plotted his detention all along. Mr. Lee was an opportunist who replaced him as the Boss of Singapore.[[User:Terry How|: Terri talk 01:12, October 8,2005 (UTC)]] 00:22, 27 March 2006 (SGT)
- goto read tweaking
- Let my people go free! 07:30, 22 March 2006 (SGT)
All are born free
- Emancipation
- All are born equal
- All are destined to die
- Each and everyone is given a name
- Each and everbody has the right to choose
- All are accountable to one another
- That is basics to all human constitution
- But Some may claim
- All are born free, but some more freer than others
- All are born equal, but some more equal than others
- Each and everyone is given an ID plus a name or nickname name too @alias then U choose Ur a.k.a.
- Each and everyone has the right, some more right than others
- All are destined to die, but some are destined to live as if forever!
- All are accountable, but they want other to be given accounts
- This is basically what we do to our own constitution
[edit] HDB re-development or money-making business of acquiring back old flats?
Where in the world can a garmen have the rights to confiscate properties and used it for money polices or reasons? Answer: As long, as the people are complacent and allow it to happen just as in our little Island!
The facts in some places where the garmen's unique policies had never been questioned (as to the purpose of so-called development our local garmen flats: it always had the free rein to do what it pleases).
Query on Mandatory acquisition of old flats ?
- Is it fair for garmen to engage in making money with such properties which originally were acquired by LAW for pennies?
Perhaps we need to be told about about the story of how they acquired the lands of the peasant (veggie & plantation estate-farmers) community and develop into HDB flats and made money! Goto see what the old people are thinking about re-location and such compensation given by the garmen ..It’s pennies' compensation cp. pound made by the garmen housing moneymaking business of buy and sell (ie.without benefits to re-possessed HDB flats dwellers)!
Meet a lady and her Mother goto see[[4]]
Meet a former MP who became a shopkeeper and shop had to be return to HDB for re-development! [[5]]
[edit] Watch this video in Hokkien by an old neighbor
(She is an alert clear thinking 90 plus lady, and help us to bridge the historical Gap in among the ppl of those born after the great event that brought our new Nation into being:[[User:Terry|wowowow|]] 12:05, 31 August 2009 (SGT)) Sorry it's in Hokkien see translational script for those English educated readers, please! goto see it!
..
[[<embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-7087993603431740875&hl=en&fs=true" style="width:400px;height:326px" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed>]]
iN AN EXCLUSIVE interview with a Chinese Hokkien speaking local Old Senior (this Lady) said, ( In parts)
- In my past I used to work in the rubber plantation estate (Sembwang Group of Estate Rubber Estate holdings), there is no break nor rest except during the Chinese New Year CNY from before sunrise to the late afternoon, every day..that to her is her life..
- I had an acre of land then, & the garmen took it away from me, with a little compensation (20 thousands for a land holding title with 999 years !) All of us have no option (to reject garmen acquisition - no choice) BTW an acre of land at the present is worth at least tens or hundred of millions!
- I have a family of five different generations with my children, grand children and many great grand children too!
(If you understand her Hokkien dialect you will appreciate the mind aand culture of a few decades of our local history since the Japanese occupation(1943-45) until now in the 21st Century!!
- As she re-told the past she is aware that the garmen is also acquiring her present shop house which she had been renting from the Town Council and HDB for nearly thirty years!
[edit] She said, I cannot change the garmen's policy! we all (here on this Island city) have no choice here -regarding garmen policy on land acquisitions
[edit] Link
Goto see the story of King Midas and Marigold
Goto see Tiger
See our earlier historical corner at Hong Lim Our Speaker Corner
Politics in Singapore by a blogger (104 years old!) must read: [[6]]
[edit] Another dimension to the Singapore Story other than the PAP version!
..
- Must look it up & buy Lol!hehehe..
(The Book) ..The end result, according to former left-wing activist Lim Chin Joo, 72, in an endorsement for the book, 'is an apt reminder that there is always another dimension to the Singapore Story'.
His older brother is the late Lim Chin Siong, a PAP assemblyman who quit and formed the Barisan Sosialis, which he led.
- source[[7]]
NB. By a clever move of the garmen Lim Chin Siong was in detention, and never had a chance to stand for election as a Leader of the (then) newly formed Party (now dyfunctional-Barisan Sosialis}
