Lim Kean Chye

Who is Lim Kean Chye?

Lim Kean Chye is a Singaporean politician and lawyer. He is the son of Lim Cheng Ean, a Cambridge-trained lawyer and a legislative councillor in the 1930s, and the grandson of Phuah Hin Leong. Lim Kean Chye comes from an illustrious family which includes brother Lim Kean Siew and sister Dato PG Lim. Like Kean Chye, siblings Kean Siew and PG Lim studied law in Cambridge and bar in London. By studying the Lim Cheng Ean family saw the changing cultural reproduction in the context of migration, colonial rule and new state formation. One can see the formation of the English-speaking Straits Chinese identity, participation in the colonial administration and participation in the politics of Malaya and identification with Malaysia.

Lim was a founder member of the Malayan Democratic Union, which was formed on 21 December 1945. MDU was Singapore's first political party, and consisted of English educated Malaysians whose main objective was the assertion of the right to self-governance.

Upon returning to Malaya after completing his law degree from Cambridge University, Lim Kean Chye was contacted by Eu Chooi Yip and P V Sarma in August 1949 to join the Anti-British League, which he did. He would later be mentor to John Eber in the ABL. In January 1951, Lim escaped arrest and detention without trial when he went to China. His colleagues at the MDU like John Eber, P V Sarma, A Samad Ismail and C V Devan Nair were less fortunate and were arrested.