Lim Chin Siong, the man who was nearly our PM - Part 10

I have to say that this book and the names mentioned in this book were all pretty alien to me except for Lee Kuan Yew.

Since young, our academic history books were all about merger, separation and Lee Kuan Yew.

From young, we were taught and probably made to think that Lee Kuan Yew was the founding father of modern Singapore, our saviour, its all thanks to him that Singapore is what she is today.

What happened to people like Goh Keng Swee, Toh Chin Chye, and S. Rajaretnam? These people contributed so much and yet little was mentioned in any academic books. Both Toh and Goh, were major and critical contributor of Singapore's economy stability. S. Rajaretnam, until his demise recently, then most people realised that he was the man who wrote our pledge.

And lastly, of course, Lim Chin Siong. The man who co-founded PAP together with Lee Kuan Yew. The man who made such a great impact to many Singaporean workers, the man whom citizens and friends respected and admired. This man, was left out from our books as far as I can remember. I read from somewhere that the recently released Ministry of Education History books of Singapore school textbook for 2007 onwards will feature Lim Chin Siong in one whole page. This is indeed a milestone for our Nation history as this is the first time. Little was mentioned about him in Lee Kuan Yew's Memoirs too.

I was reading this book at home and was telling my younger sister about this man, etc... She who also got interested, picked it up to read too. One of our WP comrades, who was classmates with Lim's son, did not know that his father was once a 'somebody' in Singapore's history until Lim's death in 1996 whereby he saw many ministers who came forward to pay their last respect.

My neighbour who was in her early 80's remembered Lim vividly. When I showed her the book, she immediately recognises him as Lim Chin Siong. She was telling me about the crowd that turned up at his rally, how hundreds and thousands of people waited along the road for his release from the prison.

Lim Chin Siong would have been our Prime Minister if not for Lee Kuan Yew, I should say. However, if Lim were to become our PM instead of Lee, what will Singapore be? Is it going to be better or worse? Are we going to be more democratic as what we were deemed to be.

However, I do believe that Lim was not a communist, gut-feeling tells me so :) Women always has a better 6th sense. He was labelled as one, for one's own selfish political agenda.

Lastly, I would very much love to be able to see Lim's speeches back in those days. If only, we can still find them.

(All pictures used from part 1- 10 were taken from National Archives website)