ISA detainee Lim Hock Siew passes away aged 81
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By Jeanette Tan | Yahoo! Newsroom – 1 hour 36 minutes ago
Dr Lim Hock Siew, Singapore’s second longest-held political prisoner after Chia Thye Poh, passed away Monday evening from illness at the age of 81, according to his friends.
Though the exact cause of his death is yet unknown, Yahoo! Singapore understands that Lim had been ill in recent years, and had not seen many of his friends.
Lim was one of more than 110 activists who were arrested under the Internal Security Act in “Operation Coldstore” on 2 February 1963, and was the last of his batch of detainees to be released from incarceration on 6 September 1982, after 19 years and eight months.
He was a founding member of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), but resigned after 13 of his fellow members were dismissed from it in 1961, later joining the subsequently-formed Barisan Sosialis, led by Lim Chin Siong and Lee Siew Choh.
The son of a fishmonger, Lim, as a practicing doctor, dispensed free medication at his clinic and gave transport money to needy patients.
When he was arrested under Operation Coldstore at age 32, his son was just five months old, and by the time Lim was released, his son had entered college.
While in prison, Lim resolutely refused to sign statements admitting his wrongdoing, declaring his renouncement of politics, and support of the parliamentary system in Singapore, instead calling repeatedly for his unconditional release, as well as for his fellow detainees.
Filmmaker Martyn See, who recorded a banned video of Lim’s first public speech at a book launch in 2009, said Lim was “one of Singapore’s greatest patriots”.
“If he and his colleagues at Barisan Sosialis hadn’t been arrested and detained in 1963, Singapore would have benefited greatly from a two-party political system,” he said.
Former ISA detainee Teo Soh Lung, who was arrested under Operation Spectrum in 1987, said she was "deeply saddened" by Lim's passing.
"He was a principled, firm and decisive person, a true socialist who believes in and fought for a more equal society all his life," she said.
Senior lawyer Gopalan Raman, a longtime friend of Lim’s, said he will always remember him as one of Singapore’s fighters for freedom.
“(His passing is) a very sad event,” he told Yahoo! Singapore. “He’s considered a great hero by all of us.”
Lim’s wake will be held at 135 Joo Chiat Terrace from Tuesday. He leaves behind his wife Beatrice Chen, son Yue Wen, daughter-in-law Jenn Lui and grandson Sean Lim. -
Rest in peace.
No worry, old smelly lee going to join them soon.
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RIP.
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In death, all return to ashes. Rest in peace.
Let the fight be fought by those who are still struggling to live.
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The world will always need people him. That is why I still believe in humanity. Regardless how selfish the world has become.
Teo Soh Lung, her book Beyond the Blue Gate. Good book.
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He was released in 1982, should be about 51yo. Still young, for politics that is.
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RIP...
may your days inside not be in vain
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Interesting that he lives in Joo Chiat - as in the last GE Joo Chiat was narrowly lost by the Opposition.
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Wah didn't know PAP can do such a horrendous thing.
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man is doing, heaven is watching
god, pls wake up and punish those who ought to be punished
you have been sleeping for too long
demons for terminal illness,
please seek those greedy arrogant filthy wealthy materialistic billionaires
please stay away from ordinary kind souls
may we live in a fairer world where there is justice
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Originally posted by No_10_Tomas:
man is doing, heaven is watching
god, pls wake up and punish those who ought to be punished
you have been sleeping for too long
demons for terminal illness,
please seek those greedy arrogant filthy wealthy materialistic billionaires
please stay away from ordinary kind souls
may we live in a fairer world where there is justice
Sometimes you wonder if heaven really exist.! But politics is not compassion or goodness or kindness, or it wouldn't be called politics. -
Don't worry
Singapore has the best political talents who will never be corrupted.
Singapore has the most cleanest and extra-ordinary government
Our government is the best in the world ! 1000 times better than other countries government.
Extraordinary government has transformed Singapore to where it is today !
None other party in this world would have achieved this kind of success.
Only our party can do it. Politicians elsewhere in the world can't make it !
We are the only party in the world that can propel Singapore forward !
We are indispensible !
Without us, Singapore will decline
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Originally posted by No_10_Tomas:
Don't worry
Singapore has the best political talents who will never be corrupted.
Singapore has the most cleanest and extra-ordinary government
Our government is the best in the world ! 1000 times better than other countries government.
Extraordinary government has transformed Singapore to where it is today !
None other party in this world would have achieved this kind of success.
Only our party can do it. Politicians elsewhere in the world can't make it !
We are the only party in the world that can propel Singapore forward !
We are indispensible !
Without us, Singapore will decline
Oh, you adore the greedy useless regime, I see
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Friends bid farewell to Lim Hock Siew
They honour the 'People's doctor', recall his humour and optimism
By PHUA MEI PIN
DR LIM Hock was remembered yesterday by fellow political detainee Tan Kok Fang as a shining light in the dark days they spent in Changi Prison's "E Dormitory".
Mr Tan, 71 recalled of Dr Lim: "He often said, 'They can imprison my body, but they cannot imprison my spirit'."
Dr Lim, a founding member of the PAP and Barisan Sosialis, was detained without trial under the Internal Security Act from 1963 to 1982.
That made him Singapore's longest-held political prisoner after Dr Chia Thye Poh.
A medical doctor by profession, he died of heart failure last Monday at the age of 81.
Mr Tan was one of three who gave eulogies yesterday afternoon at Dr Lim's funeral.
Held at his Joo Chiat Terrace home, the funeral was attended by a crowd of more than 100 people, some of whom made a special trip here from Malaysia and Australia.
The largely white-haired group of old friends and comrades spilt out of the house and onto the road. They remained standing in the open to listen to the eulogies even when it rained midway through the proceedings.
Smiles broke across the faces of those who gathered, several of whom had also spent time at Changi, when Mr Tan recalled in Mandarin old jokes they had shared.
Dr Lim once told Mr Tan: "All these years, my body may be in prison, but I often also tour the world. I can travel in spirit."
Mr Tan said Dr Lim's humour and optimism had given strength to his fellow detainees.
Eye surgeon Arthur Lim, 77, a close family friend since 1950, also stood up to honour "the people's doctor".
Dr Lim was the founder of the Rakyat or People's Clinic in Balestier Road.
He returned to medical practice upon his release from detention and would not collect money from patients who could not afford to pay.
Remembering his friend, Dr Arthur Lim said: "Hock Siew's big contribution was that he cared very much for his patients...He was a great doctor."
The eye surgeon said he and several other old friends would write a book on Dr Lim Hock Siew's life, so that his story would not be lost.
Two presidential candidates also paid tribute to Dr Lim.
Dr Tan Cheng Bock wrote in a Facebook post that the man should be honoured for making sacrifices for his beliefs.
Mr Tan Jee Say, who spoke at the funeral, said that Dr Lim was his inspiration to purse politics.
After the eulogies, the cortege moved off in the rain to Kong Meng San Crematorium.
After the body was consigned to the flames and the crowd dissipated, another former detainee Lim Chin Joo, 75 said: "It is a loss to the country that a man like him could never have the opportunity to contribute to nation-building."
Home, The Straits Times, June 9 2012, Pg B8
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An Eulogy
by Martyn See
In 2006, after I had made a documentary on Said Zahari, I found the world of former ISA detainees opened up before me. The late Mr Tan Jing Quee had invited me to his home on several occasions, and it was where I first met Dr Lim Hock Siew.
He was a mild-mannered, gentle and soft-spoken person. But everytime he spoke, I found myself leaning over to hear everything that he had to say. He was precise. He minced no words. He also hardly repeated himself, except for two refrain. One, that he had refused to sign any declaration while under detention for almost 20 years because the ISD had wanted him to confess to something that he never did or advocated. He would use the analogy : They wanted me to say that I'll stop beating my wife.The other refrain was his utter contempt for Lee Kuan Yew. Even though Dr Lim was a founding member of the PAP and had met Mr Lee several times in his home on Oxley Road, he told me that he had found Lee to be totally untrustworthy very early on.In his one and only interview with the Straits Times, when asked by the reporter if he had read Mr Lee's autobiography, Dr Lim replied,"I read it like Harry Potter." That answer actually went into print in the Straits Times.I've heard from sources that MM Lee at that time was unhappy about the piece.And thus it was no surprise that when I submitted Dr Lim's first post-detention public speech, recorded at the launch of The Fajar Generation in 2010, to the Board of Film Censors at MDA, the minister Lui Tuck Yew decided to ban the film, stating that it "undermines confidence in the government." It was the same reason his predecessor Dr Lee Boon Yang had used to ban my earlier film on Said Zahari. A few days after the video was banned, Dr Lim texted me on my phone and asked how many hits it's been getting on YouTube. Like me, he was clearly delighted that the ban had generated more interest.
Dr Lim never dwelt in the past. He kept himself abreast with current issues of the day. He once mentioned to me that he read my blog daily. In his recent speech last year at the memorial of Mr Tan Jing Quee, he challenged the then Presidential candidate Dr Tony Tan to repeat his claims that the ISA had never been used on political opponents. He also brought up the Occupy Wall Street movement and how we are witnessing a revolt against capitalism.
Dr Lim Hock Siew was a hero to me. He exemplified all that which is sorely absent in our political leaders today - the courage to speak one's minds, the tenacity to stand by one's own integrity, a compassion for the plight of the poor, and a quiet humility to his own sacrifices and suffering for democracy and for the people of Singapore. -
The other refrain was his utter contempt for Lee Kuan Yew.
Even though Dr Lim was a founding member of the PAP and had met Mr Lee several times in his home on Oxley Road, he told me that he had found Lee to be totally untrustworthy very early on.
In his one and only interview with the Straits Times, when asked by the reporter if he had read Mr Lee's autobiography, Dr Lim replied,"I read it like Harry Potter." That answer actually went into print in the Straits Times.