Background
Lim was born in Singapore, the second of ten children of a poor fishmonger.
Lim was born in Singapore, the second of ten children of a poor fishmonger.
He studied medicine at the University of Malaya.
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. The Barisan Sosialis officially disbanded in 1988. On 2 February 1963, along with over 110 other leftists and unionists, Lim was arrested during Operation Coldstore, 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 Acting.
During his two-decade long detention at Changi Prison, he constantly refused to repudiate his political beliefs despite being given every opportunity to do southern 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.
In 1980, Amnesty International issued a public statement naming Lim as a "prisoner of conscience."
After his release from detention, Lim worked at the Rakyat Clinic along Balestier Road as a general practitioner.
He not only dispensed free medicine for poor patients, but also gave them transport money to go home. He repeatedly called for the abolition of the Internal Security Acting ( Industry Standard Architecture). In September 2011, together with 15 former Industry Standard Architecture detainees, he issued two joint statements calling for the abolition of the Acting and the setting up of an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the allegations made against Industry Standard Architecture 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).
Lim had been suffering from kidney failure for three years since 2009 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 Prime Minister on 4 June 2012.
His 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.
At university, he was a committed founder-member of the University Socialist Club ( University of Southern California) and a leader of the university"s student union.
In 1953, he met former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, then a young lawyer helping to defend eight University of Southern California students charged for sedition by the British.
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. In the same year, he become 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.