Respecting and Remembering Dr Lim Hock Siew

Out of the 81 years, almost 20 were taken from him at the prime of his life by a repulsive despot.

Dr Lim Hock Siew's passing is reported in yahoo news [Link]  

Apart from the video above recorded last year, I also have the opportunity to listen to Dr Lim speak in 2009 on the injustice and cruelty done to him by Lee Kuan Yew. He said, "After 9 years of incarceration, they wanted me to issue a statement to firstly support the so-called democratic system in Singapore and secondly to renounce politics. I told them that these two demands are self-contradictory because if there is parliamentary democracy then I don't have to give up politics. So they said, 'You must say something to show repentance. Otherwise, Lee Kuan Yew would lose face'. For me it was not a question of pride, it's a question of principle. In the first place if a person has to save his face by depriving somebody else of his fundamental rights, then that's not a face that is worth saving . . . In Singapore we have a situation where government leaders said that they have integrity that has to be sustained by the highest pay in the world but yet they demand from political opponents and detainees an integrity that has to be sustained by the longest imprisonment in the world. Why should anybody has to sacrifice so much just to sustain his integrity and his beliefs." [Link]

Though I do not know Dr Lim personally, I went to his funeral wake this morning. After introducing myself to his son Yue Wen, I very respectfully bowed to Dr Lim 3 times for teaching and touching me with his integrity, honour and fortitude in taking on the tyrant and the cruel system!

Come Friday, I shall go again to Joo Chiat Terrace to pay my last respect to a patriot who was cheated of his freedom and joy of fatherhood for almost 20 years by a despot too cruel and a system too vile.

To me, being present at Dr Lim's funeral on Friday is an emblem of we the citizens of Singapore showing and doing our part to build a democratice society based on justice and equality.

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