Lim Hock Siew

Lim attended the Rangoon Road School and then the Raffles Institution.{{Cite book|title=The University Socialist Club and the Contest for Malaya: Tangled Strands of Modernity|last=Loh|first=Kah S|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-9089644091|location=Amsterdam|pages=271}} Then he studied medicine at the University of Malaya. At university, he was a committed founder-member of the University Socialist Club (USC) and a leader of the university's student union.

In 1953, he met Lee Kuan Yew, then a young lawyer helping to defend eight USC students charged for sedition by the British. They won the case and the USC rallied behind Lee Kuan Yew and his associates when they formed the People's Action Party (PAP) in 1954. Lim was a member of the PAP from its inception until 1961, and as its member campaigned in the 1955 and 1959 Singapore general elections.

On 26 July 1961, thirteen left-wing PAP assemblymen who had abstained in a crucial vote of confidence for the government held five days earlier were expelled from the PAP. Lim left the PAP on his own accord and resigned from his government service doctor post in 1961.

In the same year, he became a member of the Barisan Sosialis, a party which was formed in 1961 by the 13 expelled PAP assemblymen and 6 prominent left-leaning trade unions leaders.The Straits Times, published on June 6, 2012{{cite web |title=Lim Hock Siew, Singapore's 2nd longest-held political detainee, dies |author= Ellen Joy Anastacio |url=http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120605-350675.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608064125/http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120605-350675.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 June 2012 |date= 5 June 2012 |publisher= AsiaOne |access-date=5 June 2012}}[http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1148_2008-11-30.html Singapore Infopedia article on the Barisan Sosialis] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509185330/http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1148_2008-11-30.html |date= 9 May 2012 }}

On 2 February 1963, along with over 110 other leftists and unionists, Lim was arrested during Operation Coldstore,{{cite news|last1=Choo |first1=Deborah |title=Lim Hock Siew was a leader, and a true inspiration to all: Friends and relatives |url=https://sg.news.yahoo.com/lim-hock-siew-was-a-leader--and-a-true-inspiration-to-all--friends-and-relatives.html |access-date=8 January 2015 |agency=Yahoo! |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305014311/https://sg.news.yahoo.com/lim-hock-siew-was-a-leader--and-a-true-inspiration-to-all--friends-and-relatives.html |archive-date= 5 March 2016 }} a massive security crackdown ordered by the government and targeted at communists and alleged communists. Immediately after his arrest, he was detained without trial indefinitely under the Internal Security Act. At the time of his arrest he was only 32 years old and his son was just 5 months old. During his two-decade-long detention at Changi Prison, he constantly refused to repudiate his political beliefs despite being given every opportunity to do so.

About 9 years into his detention, he was asked to sign a statement committing to support the democratic system in Singapore, and not to participate in politics. He refused, pointing out that the two demands were contradictory: if a democratic system really existed in Singapore, then there would be no reason for him to be deprived of his right to participate in politics.

He was released from political detention on 6 September 1982 and was Singapore’s second-longest-serving political prisoner after Chia Thye Poh.[http://sg.news.yahoo.com/lim-hock-siew-was-a-leader--and-a-true-inspiration-to-all--friends-and-relatives.html Lim Hock Siew was a leader, and a true inspiration to all: Friends and relatives] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609005323/http://sg.news.yahoo.com/lim-hock-siew-was-a-leader--and-a-true-inspiration-to-all--friends-and-relatives.html|date=9 June 2012}} After his release, Lim repeatedly called for the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA).{{cite journal|last1=Loh|first1=Andrew|title=SDP honours ex-ISA detainee Dr Lim Hock Siew|url=https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/honouring-ex-isa-detainee-dr-lim-hock-siew-040412895.html|journal=SingaporeScene|access-date=8 January 2015}}

In 1980, Amnesty International issued a public statement naming Lim as a "prisoner of conscience."{{cite news|date=30 January 1980|title=Report of an Amnesty International Mission to Singapore30 November to 5 December 1978|publisher=Amnesty International|url=https://www.amnesty.org/ar/documents/asa36/010/1979/ar/}}

In September 2011, together with 15 former ISA detainees, he issued two joint statements calling for the abolition of the Act and the setting up of an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the allegations made against ISA detainees. Lim also sued book publisher Editions Didier Millet, the National Library Board, Peter Lim and Tien Wah Press in 2011 over a news item in a book, Chronicle Of Singapore: Fifty Years Of Headline News (1959-2009).{{cite journal|date=17 February 2011|title=Dr Lim Hock Siew sues NLB and book publisher|url=http://singaporerebel.blogspot.sg/2011/02/dr-lim-hock-siew-sues-nlb-and-book.html|journal=Singapore Rebel|access-date=8 January 2015}}

After his release from detention, Lim worked at the Rakyat Clinic (人民药房) along Balestier Road as a general practitioner, together with Dr Mohd Abu Bakar. He not only dispensed free medicine for poor patients, but also gave them transport money to go home.

Lim was the second of ten children of a fishmonger.

Lim married Dr Beatrice Chen in October 1961 and their only son was born in 1962.{{cite journal|date=6 June 2012|title=Dr Lim Hock Siew : A Singapore Patriot|url=http://singaporerebel.blogspot.sg/2012/06/dr-lim-hock-siew-singaporean-patriot.html|journal=Singapore Rebel|access-date=8 January 2015}}

Lim had been suffering from kidney failure for three years since 2009{{cite news|url=https://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120605-350675.html|title=Lim Hock Siew, Singapore's 2nd longest-held political detainee, dies|date=5 Jun 2012|access-date=8 January 2015|agency=AsiaOne|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150222081524/http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120605-350675.html|archive-date=22 February 2015|url-status=live}} but, according to his family, had otherwise been in good health until he bumped his head at home at the end of May 2012 and was sent to hospital. He was in stable condition at the Parkway East Hospital, but experienced a fatal heart attack at 10:30 PM on 4 June 2012.{{cite web|title=Lim Hock Siew|url=http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2014-11-27_174645.html|publisher=National Library Board|access-date=8 January 2015}}

Lim's funeral was held on 8 June 2012 and he was cremated on the same day at the crematorium at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.{{cite web | url=http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_807637.html | title=Barisan Sosialis leader Lim Hock Siew dies at 81 | publisher=The Straits Times | date=6 June 2012 | access-date=13 April 2016 | author=Andrea Ong | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610043200/http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_807637.html | archive-date=10 June 2012}}

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Category:1931 births

Category:2012 deaths

Category:Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Singapore

Category:Singaporean prisoners and detainees

Category:University of Malaya alumni

Category:Singaporean general practitioners

Category:Singaporean people of Hokkien descent

Category:Singaporean healthcare managers

Category:20th-century Singaporean physicians

Category:People's Action Party politicians

Category:Barisan Sosialis politicians