Lim Koon Teck

Lim Koon Teck (; 28 November 1904 – 29 October 1984) was a barrister-at-law, industrialist and politician in the Malaya and Singapore. He was the first Asian in the Straits Settlements to be appointed to the Colonial Legal Service. He was a magistrate at Penang and Crown Counsel, Singapore. After resigning government service, he joined the Lee Rubber Company. He was interested in introducing new construction methods, like lightweight concrete, to bring down building costs and was interested in helping to solve Singapore's housing shortage. These directed his commercial and political activities.

Early life and education Lim was born to a Teochew family on 28 November 1904, in a small terraced shophouse at St. Gregory's Place, off Hill Street, opposite the Armenian Church, in British Malayan Singapore, the eldest of the 14 children of Lim Boon-Seng, a cloth merchant, and Tan Gek-Neo. Upon him qualifying as a barrister, his father moved the family to a rented house at 119 Emerald Hill Road, next-door to Seow Poh Leng, to reflect Lim's status.

After returning to Singapore, Lim was called to the Singapore Bar and was appointed deputy registrar of the supreme court, Singapore in January 1928. He was offered $500 a month but was not given housing and transport allowances. He was appointed to the additional responsibility of Sheriff for Singapore in 1928 and 1929. His application to the Colonial Legal Service, however, was not approved.

Lim was appointed acting registrar during the absence on leave of Registrar W. A. N. Davies in December 1933, through 1935, and took on the added appointment of Sheriff in succession to D. F. J. Ess in August 1935. By 1936, Lim, who was by then Senior Deputy Registrar, was again appointed Acting Registrar of the Supreme Court in the Straits Settlements Civil Service, upon the departure of W. A. N. Davies and at this time it was thought that he would be eventually appointed Registrar.

Lim sat for and passed in Malay in August 1936, and was appointed Registrar of the Straits Settlements High Court in January 1937. He was then made Deputy Public Trustee, Singapore in the middle of 1937, and was then transferred to Penang to serve as Second Magistrate there. By January 1939 he was moved down to Third Magistrate.

In May 1940, Lim was transferred from his position as Third Police Magistrate in Penang to Malacca to act as District Judge and Registrar, Supreme Court. Lim's accommodation at Malacca is a large bungalow house at 1 Pringgit Hill, was just below the house of the Resident. The houses of all other civil servants were situated below Lim's and they were not happy with that. In July, it was announced that Lim that he would be transferred back to Penang. On 27 September, Lim resumed his duty as the Third Police Magistrate at Penang. In October, he was appointed Magistrate at Penang.

In 1941, Lim was promoted to Colonial Legal Service, the first Chinese in Malaya in the service.

After World War II was over and the British returned to Penang, the local government was reformed with the previous administration except for Lim. After reestablishment of the local government, the British Military Police took Lim away for investigations relating to collaboration with the Japanese. He was freed after about five hours in solitary confinement in an area usually reserved for condemned prisoners awaiting hanging. His wife, Betty, had called up a Judge, who in turn called the Chiefs of the Military Police and the British Military Administration. Lim put his case for wrongful imprisonment before a Judge who cleared him of all suspicion and praised him for having saved the lives of British soldiers.

There were not enough Public Prosecutors right after the Japanese Occupation and at one time there was an eight-month backlog of cases. Despite all that had been done to him and the way he had been treated in the past, Lim responded to the Government's appeal and voluntarily went back, on a part-time basis, working for about six months, as Crown Counsel or Public Prosecutor - he was paid half what full-time prosecutors got. But he did not accept the Attorney-General's invitation to return full-tile to the legal profession – even with the promise of the Solicitor-General's position a few years after rejoining, Lim could make $100,000 a year outside compared to, at most, $12,000 a year back in Government service.

He was member of The committee, appointed in April 1947 by Governor Sir Franklin Charles Gimson, to report on housing in Singapore and draw up a preliminary plan for building to relieve the housing shortage. The committee was chaired by C. W. A. Sennett (the then Commissioner of Lands and Chairman of the Singapore Rural Board). Other members of The Committee included E. C. Cooper representing the Singapore Chamber of Commerce, R. Jumabhoy representing the Indian Chamber of Commerce, S. I. O. Algasoff (Municipal Commissioner), and Teo Cheng-Tian. Lim represented the interests of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The Committee issued its report in August 1948. The committee's programmes for 1950–1953, were approved by Sir Patrick Abercrombie, British town planner. By June 1947 The committee had inspected possible sites for their $50,000,000 plan to re-house 50,000 low-income members of the population.

By December 1947 Lim was made deputy public prosecutor. He was then informed that he would be appointed Ipoh District judge, but, a month after that, still prejudiced against him being local, Lim was informed that he was being posted to Seremban as registrar of the high court, there, instead – the lowest post in the Malayan Civil Service. Lim objected. Lim wrote a letter of complaint for being sent to the lowest possible post despite all he had done to keep order in Penang, the lives he had saved, and his being cleared of all charges of collaboration. He also noted his ill-health. A copy of the letter was sent to the acting chief justice in Kuala Lumpur. In less than a week he received a letter putting him on early retirement at full pension, at just 42 years of age, which was unheard of. He was promoted to Lieutenant from 25 October 1932.

After World War II started in 1941, the British started withdrawing from Malaya. On 13 December 1941, fearing the very real possibility of execution for being a magistrate and an officer of the Straits Settlements Volunteer Corps “C” Company, Lim and his family prepared to board a ferry and leave with the rest of the troops only to be refused entry and told that the ferry was for "whites" only. After the departure of the British, Lim Cheng Ean and Lim cordoned off the main shopping and harbour districts in order to stop looting.

A Japanese Lieutenant with 10 men arrived from the mainland on a sampan. Lim approached the officer and handed over Penang to him. He was asked to take the Lieutenant around and he did so, taking him all over Ayer Itam, after which the officer, having observed that everything was peaceful, instructed Lim to carry on with his governance of the place which he did for about a month before the Japanese took complete control. Lee Rubber had receipts of payments for all its premiums on its $15 million insured but the head of the committee did not want to do anything until all claims were in and so he sat on everything for a year while Lim scurried around getting hold of all the other directors of big companies in Singapore and have them prepare and submit their claims. Then Lim was sent to London to address the authorities there. He related his experience and a senior officer of Lloyd's was sent to Singapore to replace the head of the Claims Committee. All claims were settled within two months, the first being those of Lee Rubber, who recovered $13 million. It seems clear that Lee Rubber did not expect to have recovered this much. Lee Kong-Chian gave Lim $500,000 in appreciation for managing to recover as much as he had. In March 1955 he said that his life's ambition was to build low-cost houses for low-salaried wage-earners. He was, at that time associated with two housing estates whose object was to build 2,000 to 3,000 houses for people with low incomes, and factories producing building materials. By the end of 1955, one of those, Phoo Yong Estate, off the sixth mile Bukit Timah Road, became home to 150 low income families. The houses in estate were priced at $6,000, $8,500 and $12,000. The estates were the property of Lee Kong Chian, to whom Lim was legal adviser. In 1952, he had demonstrated that low cost housing for low-income wage-earners was a very real possibility. By 15 November, over 1,500 people had come to see the block of four cheap "package" houses completed in 140 hours by 10 workers at cost of $2,000 each. Eace of these came with a bedroom, sitting room, store, kitchen and bathroom, and if wood were to be substituted for steel in the house frame, a lavatory could be added on for free. The estimated labour cost was $500, but, if he chose to, a homeowner could build it himself with the help of an experienced labourer. The estimated cost for installation of light and water was $300 and the amount of land needed was only 500 square feet.

Expanding Lee Kong Chian's business Lim and Lee Kong Chian had served together at the Garden Club when the latter was president and the former a member of the Election and the Management committees. Lee was also associated with Lim's father-in-law, Seow Poh Leng, the two of them having been established businessmen and had served together as long-time members of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Association, Straits Settlements Association, Singapore Chinese Recreation Club, board of directors of the Singapore Chinese Girls' School, board of directors of the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, founded earlier by Seow, Rotary Club, Chinese Swimming Club, and the Garden Club, where Lim also served. He helped solve problems of delays at the Singapore Improvement Trust's Tiong Bahru project caused by a brick shortage by supplying them with 2,000 light cellular concrete blocks.

Concrete block terraced houses were built on 25 acres and sold (without sewage) for $6,000 each, and semi-detached houses (with sewage) for $10,000. When the Salvation army approached Lim for help in building a Home for Boys he turned to Lee who agreed to give them the other 25 acres.

Lim heard that Bukit Sembawang Rubber Estate had short-sold 500 acres to a syndicate for $3,000 an acre, the price the Admiralty and Air Force had paid the estate for much more land that was used for the Seletar Navy and Air bases. He knew that the price ought to have been at least double. He informed Lee who was dismayed. Lee had a lot of shares in Bukit Sembawang Estate. At his suggestion Lim went to London to address the Board of Directors there and was appointed a Director with a responsibility for Sales.

St. Andrew's School In later years Lim would become the first Old Boy's representative on the Board of Governors of St. Andrew's School, Singapore. Lim Lim became the 8th president of the Saint Andrew's School Old Boys Association (SAOBA Home | St Andrew's Alumni) in 1952 and concentrated on raising funds for the School Building Project and on the promotion of sports among members of the OBA. The play Lady Precious Stream was hosted again by the SAOBA raising $15,615 for the School Building Fund.

Political career Lim stood for elections for the City in 1949 under the Progressive Party, Paya Lebar in 1955 under the Progressive Party and Aljunied in 1962 under the Singapore Alliance.

Lim's interest in the welfare of the people led him to look more closely at the subject of the new independence. He joined the Progressive Party and was made candidate for Paya Lebar Constituency. Lim had wanted to contest Tanglin Constituency, where he lived, but party leaders thought that was too easy. Most of the labourers and working-class lived there. So Lim did not mind and agreed to this.

In December 1958, Lim took his seat on the benches of the Singapore People's Alliance in the Legislative Assembly. Taking up his new seat he showed that his position, however, had not changed, when he made a call, in the Legislative Assembly, for the Government to help lower income groups in need of housing, proposing that Government start a 'revolving fund' of $1,000,000 to buy land and sell cheaply as building sites, the proceeds of which could be recycled indefinitely.

During the nomination day for the 1959 general election, Lim's nomination to contest Aljunied Constituency was rejected by an assistant returning officer. People's Action Party's candidate S. V. Lingam had objected to the nomination of Lim as the serial number of Lim's proposer was not filled in on the duplicate of the nomination forms. Lim decided to appeal against the objection with an elections petition. Lingam won the election.

Independence movement In 1955 a commission to inquire into the Malayanisation of the public services was set up under the Inquiry Commissions Ordinance, 1941. Lim appeared before the commission and told them of how he retired from service in disappointment. While he had applied to join the Colonial Legal Service in 1936, it was only four years later (1940) that he was told he had been appointed. He informed The Commission that he was acting Registrar of the Supreme Court, Singapore, in 1936, when he applied to join the Colonial Legal Service, and was only told he had been appointed to that service four years later, in 1940. At that time the post given to him was one specially created for him – Registrar, Civil District Court, which was lower than the post he had when he first joined the service four years earlier. Then the war occurred, and after liberation he was informed that he would be appointed district judge, Ipoh, but a month later he was told that he was to proceed to Seremban as registrar of the high court there. This, he told the commission, was "too much," and he retired from the service in 1946.

In April 1956 Lim, representing the Liberal Socialist party accompanied Chief Minister David Marshall to London for the first Malayan Independence or Merdeka Constitutional Talks at Lancaster House. Included in the delegation were Minister for Labour Lim Yew Hock, Minister for Local Government Abdul Hamid bin Haji Jumat, Minister for Health A. J. Braga, Minister for Commerce and Industry J. M. Jumabhoy, Wong Foo-Nam, and Seah Peng-Chuan (other members of the coalition government), William Tan, Lim Choon Mong, and Lim Cher Keng (Liberal Socialists), Lee Kuan Yew, and Lim Chin Siong (People's Action Party).

Lim was also one of a select few included in Singapore's Merdeka Mission to London in 1957. There were five delegates – three from the Coalition Government and one each from the Liberal Socialist Party and the People's Action Party. The delegation of five was made up of the Chief Minister, Lim Yew Hock, the Minister for Education, Chew Swee Kee, the Assistant Minister for Education, Sidek bin Haji Abdul Hamid and the PAP leader, Lee Kuan Yew and himself.

Other official roles

Corporate directorships Director, Lee Rubber Director, Hume Industries (Far East) Limited, in 1967 Director, British and Malayan Trustees Limited Director of Singapore Land and Investment Company Limited

Non-corporate roles Vice-president and patron, Singapore Arts Theatre. Fund-raiser, University of Malaya Endowment Fund. Chairman, Committee of Approval regarding evictions from premises belonging to the Singapore Improvement Trust. Member, Board of Management of St. Andrew's Mission Hospital. Founding member, Singapore's Safety First Committee. Member, Elections Committee and Management Committee of the Garden Club.