Lim Chin Siong
(1933–1996), Singapore politician. Lim Chin Siong was a great orator in Chinese. He was one of the conveners of the People's Action Party at its founding when he was twenty-one years old. As a trade unionist, he was a charismatic leader who cared deeply for the welfare of workers.
Lim Chin Siong was involved in organizing strikes and boycotts among workers and Chinese middleschool students in the early 1950s, when Singapore was trying to break free of British colonialism. He contested the 1955 general election and was one of three PAP members, one of whom was Lee Kuan Yew, elected into the Legislative Assembly. In 1959, when PAP came into power, he was appointed political secretary to the finance minister, Goh Keng Swee. He was sacked from his post two years later when he joined twelve PAP assemblymen to oppose the party leadership. He then became the secretary-general of the newly formed Barisan Sosialis. The PAP government accused him of being a communist "open-front" leader with links to the Malayan Communist Party and arrested him in 1963. He was placed in detention until 1969, when he decided to quit politics and resigned from the Barisan Sosialis. He went to London and stayed there for ten years before returning to Singapore, where he lived until his death.
Further Reading
Drysdale, John. (1984) Singapore: Struggle for Success. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Times Books International.
"SDP Pays Tribute to Lim Chin Siong." (1996) The Straits Times (8 February).
"SM: Chin Siong Taught Me the Meaning of Dedication to a Cause." (1996) The Straits Times (9 February).
Wang Hui Ling. (1996) "Lim Chin Siong Cremated." The Straits Times (10 February).
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