The one to watch

LIM GUAN ENG
http://limguaneng.com/

The Most Honourable Lim Guan Eng, MP (Bagan), MLA (Air Puteh), is the 4th Chief Minister of the State of Penang and Secretary-General of the Malaysian Democratic Action Party (DAP). DAP completed a clean sweep of all 19 Penang state seats it contested in the 12th Malaysian General Election. He is the son of Lim Kit Siang, the Opposition Leader in the Malaysian Parliament (1973-1999, 2004-2008), and is married to Betty Chew Gek Cheng, another prominent member of the DAP.

Early Education

Lim Guan Eng attended the La Salle Primary English School in Petaling Jaya, and later the Batu Pahat Montfort Primary English School. For secondary education, he went to Batu Pahat High School and Malacca High School. He graduated from Monash University, Australia in Bachelor of Economics and was a qualified professional accountant by 1983. He was the president of MUISS (Monash University International Student Society).

Political career

Prior to political career, Lim was a Bank Senior executive. Lim was first elected as a Member of Parliament for Kota Melaka in 1986, after defeating Soh Chin Aun with a majority of 17,606 votes. He was re-elected in the subsequent 1990 and 1995 general elections, albeit with reducing majority votes. He thus became the first person to be elected for three consecutive terms in Kota Melaka. He was also the first Malacca High School alumni to achieve this.

In the Democratic Action Party, he was appointed as the DAP Socialist Youth Chairman in 1989 and was elected to that post in 1992. In 1995, he was elected as the DAP Deputy Secretary-General. Lim was elected as the party Secretary-General in 2004, and has held the position since.

Lim was arrested by Malaysian police in 1994, following his criticism of the government's handling of allegations of statutory rape of one of his constituents by former Chief Minister of the state of Melaka, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik. Consequently, while the Attorney General decided not to charge Rahim Thamby Chik, Lim was charged under Section 4(1) (b) of the Sedition Act 1948 for causing 'disaffection with the administration of justice in Malaysia'. Lim was also charged under Section 8A (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 for 'maliciously printing' a pamphlet containing allegedly 'false information' because he had described the alleged rape victim as an 'imprisoned victim' because she was initially detained by Malaysian police without parental consent for 10 days. During the judicial procedure, Lim was quoted saying:

"If I fail and have to go to jail, I have no regrets. I have no regrets of going down fighting for the principles of truth and justice. And pursuit of human rights, especially women's rights. There can be no women's rights if women rape victims are considered equally responsible, and even detained, whilst the accused remain free."
After a series of appeals, Lim was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. He was, however, released after 12 months on August 25, 1999. Due to his incarceration he was disallowed from standing for election to public office for a period of 5 years, and he was therefore ineligible to contest in the 2004 Malaysian General Election.

In 2005, Lim suffered a surprise defeat in his campaign for re-election to the Melaka DAP committee when he and his wife came in last and second-last (respectively). However, as Lim remained Secretary-General of the party, he was automatically included among the committee under the party constitution. Although his wife remained the chief of the state DAP women's wing, she was not included in the committee. Teresa Kok, a DAP Member of Parliament, suggested there was a conspiracy behind Lim's and Chew's ouster from the committee. Nevertheless, Lim garnered the second highest number of votes (620) from delegates at the party's 15th National Congress on August 23rd, 2008. The result was a vindication of his leadership in leading DAP to its biggest electoral win in the 12th general election on March 8th, 2008.

Chief Minister of Penang

In the 2008 general elections, Lim made a political comeback, winning both the Bagan parliamentary seat with majority votes of 22,070 over its rival Song Choy Leng of MCA and the Air Putih state seat with majority votes of 4061 over a new candidate of MCA, Tan Yoke Cheng in Penang. The coalition of DAP-PKR-PAS later known as the Pakatan Rakyat won 29 out of 40 state seats contested, in which DAP is the largest winning party with 19 seats, PKR 9 seats, and PAS 1, and thus defeated the former ruling coalition Barisan Nasional for the authority to rule Penang for the next 4 years. As the Secretary-General of DAP, Lim is nominated to be the next Chief Minister (CM) of Penang replacing long serving former Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon.

As the new Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng announced to waive all summonses issued by the Penang Municipal Council and Seberang Perai Municipal Council involving hawker licences and parking offences issued before March 2008; and to make Penang an NEP Free zone. That caused an outcry within certain quarters. On March 14, a group comprising mostly Umno members and supporters took to the streets after Friday prayers to protest his statements on the NEP. Police managed to disperse the crowd peacefully. No arrests were made but two men were taken in for questioning. Meanwhile, a lawyer also lodged a police report against Lim Guan Eng, alleging that his statements over the NEP were "seditious, racist, irresponsible and may endanger public peace and national security.” However, Lim gave his assurance to Penang Malays that they would not be marginalised.

On March 19, 2008, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that the state exco had approved an open tender system for projects exceeding RM50,000. For projects between RM20,000 and RM50,000, a balloting system will be introduced and a two-week objection period would be given for both the open tender and balloting systems. By applying this, Lim claimed that a clean and cost-effective government can be achieved.