Lim Kit Siang

Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang (born 20 February 1941) is a retired Malaysian politician.

He was the longest-serving opposition leader in Malaysia, having held the position for a total of 29 years on three separate occasions, as well as the second longest-serving member of parliament.

He was also the former Secretary-General and National Chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which is a component party of the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

Lim was born in Batu Pahat, Johor, British Malaya on 20 February 1941.

Lim first emerged as a politician when he was National Organising Secretary of the DAP from 1966 to 1969.

At the same time, he was also entrusted to edit the party's newspaper, the Rocket.

The course of the political landscape changed when he was promoted to Secretary-General in 1969 after being acting Secretary-General for a short stint during a period.

Lim was first elected as an MP for the Bandar Melaka seat in 1969.

His election was initially held to be void, however, because of the ineligibility of an election agent who had previously failed to discharge his duties from standing for election in the future.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdul Razak, moved a motion in Parliament to prevent Lim from serving as an MP, granting him instead a period of time to request a royal pardon from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King).

After receiving the royal pardon, Lim was allowed to retain his seat.

In 1969, Lim was detained lawfully under the Internal Security Act for 18 months.

He was first elected Opposition Leader for an 18-month stint from January 1973 to July 1974.

He also served as a state assemblyman in Melaka and Penang during the following periods: Kubu, Melaka (1974–1982); Kampong Kolam, Penang (1986–1990); and Padang Kota, Penang (1990–1995).

In addition, Lim had also served as the Opposition Leader of Malaysia three times over a span of 50 years.

Next, he assumed the position in November 1975 for the next 24 years before losing his parliamentary seat in the 1999 general elections.

He received his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in United Kingdom and qualified at Lincoln's Inn in 1977.

Ten years later, in 1979, he was convicted of five charges under Official Secrets Act for exposing a legitimate arms deal between the government and a Swiss company.

Apart from 1999 to 2004, during which time he lost his seat due to the Chinese disenchantment with DAP entering into a political pact with the Islamist PAS for the general elections, Lim represented various constituencies in five states:

He led the party as Secretary-General until 1999 when he was elected party chairman, succeeding Chen Man Hin.

He served in the post once more for a four-year stint following the 2004 general elections until 2008.

In 2004, he refused re-appointment as the chairman and Karpal Singh was elected to replace him.

Lim was then elected to an advisory role as the leader of a newly created body called the "Policy and Strategic Planning Commission".

His son, Lim Guan Eng, was the Secretary-General of the party and the Finance Minister of Malaysia.

After winning a parliamentary seat from Ipoh Timor during the 2004 general election, which also saw his party clinching the most seats of any opposition party, Lim became the Parliamentary Opposition Leader.

Lim together with his son Guan Eng first visited his ancestral home in China in Nov 2008 as reported in Chinapress.

His ancestral village is located in Zhangzhou, Fujian province.

He met his brother-in-law during the visit.

Lim went to Batu Pahat High School for his lower high school education.

After that, he went to English College Johore Bahru, where he scored 5As in his Cambridge School Certificate of Education examination.

In the March 2008 general election, he was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Ipoh Timor with a majority of 21,942 votes.

Lim issued an instruction for all DAP representatives to boycott from the swearing-in ceremony for Perak Menteri Besar, claiming that there was no DAP mandate for PAS Menteri Besar in Perak.

Lim contested and won in Gelang Patah against Barisan Nasional's heavyweight and former Menteri Besar of Johor Abdul Ghani Othman in the 2013 general election.

On 22 October 2015, Lim was suspended for six months from Parliament for insulting Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia.

Earlier, he had stated that Pandikar was abusing his powers by ruling that the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) could not continue its ongoing investigation into 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal (1MDB) due to the transfer of four PAC members to the Cabinet.

Pandikar had insisted that Lim apologize and withdraw his statement against him.

However, Lim did not apologise or retract his remarks.

On 20 March 2022, on the 17th DAP National Congress, Lim announced his retirement and that he will not be contesting in the Central Executive Committee and the following general and state elections, citing old age.

The Secretary-general of DAP, Anthony Loke had originally intended to appoint him as the mentor of the party.

However, Lim declined the offer.