Lim Tean is a Singaporean politician and lawyer, who is the founding leader of the political party Peoples Voice. He has previously served as Secretary-General of the National Solidarity Party from 30 August 2015 to 18 May 2017.
Early life
Lim was born in 1964 as the eldest son of Lim Chin Teong, a senior civil servant and former Chief Executive Director of the People's Association in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His mother, Aw Eng Lian, was a Chinese-language teacher at Zhonghua Girls School for over 40 years. Both of Lim's parents graduated from the now defunct Nanyang University. At the age of seven, Lim enrolled in Montfort Junior School for his primary education. However, after being selected to study Russian in Moscow by the Singaporean government, his father accepted a posting as First Secretary for the Singaporean mission to the Soviet Union, and Lim travelled with his family to live in Moscow. While in the USSR, Lim attended the Anglo-American School of Moscow from 1971-1974. After three years in the Soviet Union, Lim's parents became increasingly worried about the future of his children's education. They resolved for Lim's father to return to Singapore and transfer to the civil service. Consequently, Lim returned to Montfort Junior School in Primary 4. He continued there and went on to attend Montfort Secondary School. After graduating from Montfort Secondary School, Lim entered Hwa Chong Junior College, where he was elected as a student councillor. He took Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics for the GCE Advanced Level examinations. After his graduation from Hwa Chong Junior College, Lim enlisted for two years of conscription in the Singapore Armed Forces and was commissioned as an artillery officer.
Legal career
In 1985, Lim went to England to study law at the University of Reading. He was conferred a LLB in 1988 and resided in London as a qualified barrister at the Middle Temple. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1989. He further studied a Master of Law degree at Gonville and Cauis College at the University of Cambridge. Lim remained in Cambridge from 1989 to 1990. After being conferred his LLM, Lim returned to Singapore and was recruited by Drew & Napier LLC in 1990. He was admitted to the Singapore Bar in June 1991. At Drew and Napier, Lim became the pupil of Steven Chong, who became the Singaporean Attorney-General from 2012 to 2014. Lim joined Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP on 2 January 1998 and became its Head of the Admiralty & Shipping department in 2000. In 2007, Lim rose to an equity partner in Rajah and Tann, joining the ranks of noted alumni such as V.K. Rajah, Steven Chong and Sundaresh Menon. Concurrently in 2007, Lim took a sabbatical from the legal practice to explore the business world. He founded an Indonesian mining company based out of Sulawesi. His mining company became the first company to produce and ship iron-ore from the island. In 2017, Lim decided to return to Singapore and founded his law firm Carson Law Chambers. Lim is currently the representing lawyer of prominent anti-government critic and blogger Leong Sze Hian in the ongoing high profile case brought by current Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Political career
Lim first became involved in politics in 2011 when he joined the National Solidarity Party. However, he remained relatively inactive within the party until 2015, when then Secretary-General Hazel Poa resigned in protest over the party’s policy regarding multi-cornered contests. Just a week before the 2015 General Elections, NSP approached Lim and invited him to serve as their new Secretary-General. Despite the relatively short time before the election, Lim accepted and along with a team of candidates contested Tampines Group Representation Consitutuency, receiving 24.9% of the votes cast. In May 2017, Lim resigned from his position, citing disagreements with the party. Despite not being a political party member at that time, Lim continued to grow a significant social media following online. He became well known in Singapore for his sociopolitical commentaries and various videos uploaded between March 2017 and October 2018. In the summer of 2018, Lim began to call for an alliance of Singaporean opposition parties. On 29 October 2018, Lim announced the founding of a new political party, Peoples Voice, headed by himself. Peoples Voice was contesting 2 GRCs and 1 Single Member Consituency in the 2020 Singaporean general election, with Lim contesting Jalan Besar GRC with three other party members.
Bankruptcy application
In September 2013, a Chinese national, Huang Min, and Lim entered into an agreement in which Huang agreed to lend US$150,000 to Lim. However, their agreement was disputed over whether it was a loan or a deposit for the purchase of the iron ore mine. Lim appealed to the High Court but withdrew the appeal on 15 January 2019. A day later, he issued two cheques to settle the monies and legal costs, ahead of another hearing scheduled on the 17 of January 2019, and Huang withdrew the application. An article by The Straits Times published on 22 June 2020 stated that Lim is involved in two bankruptcy applications from DBS Bank and Sing Wing, a trading company, totalling about S$1.45 million. A hearing for the application by Sing Wing was scheduled on 16 July 2020, while there was no further details about DBS Bank's applications. The outcome is yet to be known as the matter is ongoing.
