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• Attributes that set Kean Siew apart from peers

©The Star (Used by permission)

PENANG: She was not related to the late Lim Kean Siew in any way but teahouse supervisor Tan Say Wee, who served him tea almost daily for the past 15 years, was saddened by his death.

Together with her two colleagues from the teahouse, Tan were among the 300 who paid their last respects to the prominent lawyer at the Batu Gantung Funeral Parlour here.

Lim died of a heart attack at a private hospital in Penang. He was 85. 

He was laid to rest at the Batu Gantung crematorium yesterday.

“He (Lim) used to come to our teahouse in Campbell Street almost every morning and would spend three to four hours there,” Tan added.

Describing Lim as a serious man with a stern look, Tan said that she was nervous when she first served him.

“However, when we get to know him better, he often offered us good advice and shared with us a lot of his ideas,” she said.

She said she last saw him on Sept 26 when he visited the teahouse as usual.

Lim founded the Labour Party during the 1960s and was its chairman. He was known for his fiery oratory skills.

He left the Labour Party to join the MCA in the early 1970s and was the Penang MCA liaison chairman from 1979 to 1984.

He was MP for Datuk Keramat in Penang for two terms, in 1959 and 1964. He also held the Pengkalan Kota state seat.

He left behind wife Pamela Ong, three sons and two daughters.

Lim’s former partner in Lim Kean Siew and Company, Gerard Chan, said Lim would prefer everyone to celebrate the memory of his life.

“He would have wanted us to celebrate the memory of his life, that was lived to the fullest in the pursuit of truth and beauty and inner peace,” he said when delivering an eulogy at Lim's funeral.

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