{"id":339,"date":"2011-02-25T18:41:17","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T10:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=339"},"modified":"2013-02-20T19:21:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T11:21:00","slug":"lim-kit-siangs-70th-birthday-lim-hui-ying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/lim-kit-siangs-70th-birthday-lim-hui-ying\/","title":{"rendered":"“He loves politics, but he loves his family too.” – Lim Hui Ying"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the youngest daughter in the family and self-confessed apple of her father\u2019s eyes, Hui Ying shares personal insights on her doting father.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Impression of my father <\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/strong>\u201cFrom young, I realised that my father was someone always on the move and was occupied with his work. My family got used to him not <\/strong>being around to do the things that a typical family would enjoy such as shopping or having regular dinners together. We didn\u2019t complain. We learnt to be independent as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the two share a close father-daugher bond, Hui Ying calls her father her most loyal listener. Even during breakfasts when he was rushing off to work, father and daughter would have lively discussions on any subject, with the elder Lim always listening attentively and rarely giving suggestions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a child, whenever I got into any fights with my siblings or hurt myself, the person I would turn to was him. When I fell down, my mother would reprimand me for being careless but he would always comfort me. He would often tell me that our hearts have to be like a big vessel, able to withstand the many trials and tribulations of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing her father\u2019s habit of daily phone calls home, Hui Ying says he rarely missed the routine unless unusual circumstances keep him away. Even when he was travelling, he would always call her mother to find out if the children were safe and sound, rarely chatting about much else.<\/p>\n

Family and politics <\/strong>
\n<\/strong>\u201cMy father loves politics, but he loves his family as well. During the 1970s, when we were having our school holidays he would often bring us along on his outstation trips. It was his way of spending time with us. I remember the time when we were in Cameron Highlands when he was meeting party members for some events, we were allowed to play and have fun. I guessed he was trying to maximise his time to be with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Parliament was in session, Kit Siang, by now an MP, would often bring his family to Kuala Lumpur. They stayed at the DAP Petaling Jaya headquarter office, sleeping on the floor. \u201cMy father lives a simple life,\u201d says Hui Ying, \u201cHe isn\u2019t particular about lodging or food. He was able to sleet well wherever he stayed. In fact I think he has learnt the art of speed-sleeping; why, he could even fall asleep within minutes!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hui Ying recalls memories of her father working from their then home in Melaka, laboriously typing articles and press releases for the media. The rattling sound of his typewriter would fill the neighbourhood, his furious typing speed earning the description of \u201cmachine-gun-like\u201d from neighbours. Then a Form 3 student, she would dutifully await her fathers\u2019 articles and deliver them by motorcycle to the local media office when he was done.<\/p>\n

Joining politics <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Kit Siang\u2019s daughter, it is hard to say no to politics. The womenfolk in the family generally support my father and brother from behind the scenes.\u201d Hui Ying admits she was reluctant when her father first approached her to consider joining politics after she graduated from university. However, after her father lost his parliamentary seat in the 1999 general elections, she decided to support him more tangibly by joining politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when he lost in 1999, I was feeling crushed and disappointed with the result. Yet he was remarkably calm. In fact, he was sadder in 1995 when DAP lost 13 state seats in Penang. I realised that he places the party\u2019s well being above his own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowest moments <\/strong>
\nWhen her father and brother Guan Eng were detained under ISA in Kamunting detention centre in 1987, Hui Ying was 25.
\n\u201cI was worried for them, I felt helpless as I could not do anything for them. My mother was affected badly; she was very depressed. The worse moment for my father came when my brother Guan Eng was jailed in 1998 for allegedly defaming the Melaka Chief Minister. Although he did<\/p>\n

not say so, we felt he blamed himself for not being able to save his son. Days before the court sentence was pronounced, we kept asking him to join us for dinner. He refused many times. Finally we managed to convince him to join us for a family dinner. He left home hurriedly after we were done with dinner.”<\/p>\n

Birthday wish<\/strong>
\nAfter a lifetime of working at a frenetic pace, Hui Ying hopes that he will slow down a little and take better care of his health. She also shares his dream for Malaysia to be a more democratic society and that the two-party system will take place in Malaysia during in his lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has great faith in himself. We are very honoured to be his children. I will always support him in his pursuits and sacrifices for Malaysia.\u201d -The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the youngest daughter in the family and self-confessed apple of her father\u2019s eyes, Hui Ying shares personal insights on her doting father. Impression of my father \u201cFrom young, I realised that my father was someone always on the move and was occupied with his work. My family got used to him not being around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-lim-kit-siang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}