Champion of Malayan independence passes away

GEORGE TOWN: Lim Kean Chye (pic), one of the champions for Malayan independence, has passed away at the age of 103.

His family said Kean Chye, a founding member of the Malayan Democratic Union, died on Wednesday.

A proponent of left-wing politics, his party fought for the independence of Malaya and Singapore, and was part of the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action, which drafted the constitutional proposal for Malaya in 1947.

Kean Chye, like his father Lim Cheng Ean, was a Cambridge-trained lawyer who was a legislative councillor in the 1930s.

He was the grandson of Phuah Hin Leong, one of the two younger brothers of the late Tan Sri Lim Phaik Gan, better known as PG Lim.

Kean Chye’s daughter Lim Miao Yiong said her father had a pacemaker installed 10 years ago, and was frail and weak.

“He died of old age,” she said.

She said there will not be a wake and the family wanted a private cremation ceremony.

Kean Chye is survived by his wife, daughters Miao Ling and Miao Yiong, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.