Lim was by then 17 years old, and distracted in his studies by numerous events: the victory of the Communists and the proclamation of the People's Republic of China; the African anti-colonial movement; and the ill treatment of students, particularly of Chinese descent, in Singapore.

[2] These were factors which influenced Lim to join the Anti-British League (ABL), an anti-colonial organisation that received instructions from the Malayan Communist Party.

[5] With the support of the ABL, and with his classmate and later political partner, Fong Swee Suan (1931–2017;[6] 方水双; Fāng Shuǐshuāng), Lim organised a successful boycott of the Chinese junior middle school examinations in 1951.

[3] Lim's work in the unions caught the eye of Lee Kuan Yew, who had returned to Singapore from Britain and organised regular secret meetings in the basement of his Oxley Road house which were attended by Toh Chin Chye, S. Rajaratnam and Devan Nair, among others.

Lee Kuan Yew also did not state outright that Lim was not culpable, and in a long speech during the debate said that the riots could only have been incited because of the way the workers were treated, and that it was not possible to fight both the colonial masters and communists at the same time.

Lim supported this proposal and made his stand clear during the talks,[4] but the British were concerned that Marshall was too soft and emotional to control the "communist" influence as could be seen from the riots of the last year, and rejected it.

Unlike Marshall, who was very reluctant with the use of force, Lim Yew Hock[a] was ruthless and was keen to show the British that he could control any disruptive influences in Singapore.

On 18 September 1956, Lim Yew Hock used the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance (PPSO), which allowed him extraordinary police powers, to dissolve seven organisations and detain seven people, mainly from Chinese middle schools.

A transcript of the speech by the Special Branch, recently declassified, revealed that Lim Chin Siong had said,[10] "A lot of people don't want to shout "Merdeka"!

Lim Yew Hock's government again made a sweeping round of arrests, imprisoning all the "communist" members, before the "moderates" re-assumed their office.

It was in the prison where Lim Chin Siong was asked to endorse a document called "The Ends and Means of Malayan Socialism", which indicated that the detainees were committed to a "free, democratic, socialist and non-communist Malaya".

[16] With this victory, Lim Chin Siong and his fellow PAP colleagues who were imprisoned were released on 4 June 1959, just a few days after a hastily held CEC elections.

Ong Eng Guan, the former Mayor of the City Council, presented a set of "16 Resolutions" to revisit some issues previously explored by Lim Chin Siong's faction of the PAP: abolishing the PPSO, revising the Constitution, and changing the method of selecting cadre members.

Ong was then expelled, and he resigned his Legislative Assembly seat to challenge the government to a by-election in Hong Lim in April 1961, where he won 73.3% of the vote.

[17] The British had earlier tabled a proposition to merge the Malaya, Singapore, and North Borneo territories into a single sovereign country, calling it "the Grand Design".

[18]: 44  However, Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Malayan premier, had never been very keen on the proposal, as he was concerned that Singapore's majority Chinese population would outnumber the number of Malays and would hence dominate the political scene.

For the price of having autonomy in labour and education matters, Singapore would: Lim and the Barisan stated that such a merger proposal was giving away the rights of Singaporeans to the Federation, instead of trying to preserve them.

However, Option B was deliberately misrepresented: in a radio forum, Goh Keng Swee announced that the Barisan proposal would make "nearly half of the present citizens" lose their voting rights.

However, the PAP was quick in amending the referendum rules at the last minute: it ensured that blank votes would be treated as 'undecided' and the ultimate decision for where they would count would be made by the Legislative Assembly, which they controlled.

For months before the referendum, the British, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew had sought a justifiable reason to make a mass round of arrests, including Lim and many of his Barisan Sosialis members and supporters.

Initially, men were kept in solitary confinement, had no access to the toilet, and were forced to stay in a barren cell except for a small lightbulb on the ceiling and a chamber pot.

[1] Lim's achievements include co-founding the PAP, galvanising the trade unions against colonialism, and predicting correctly that the marriage of Malaya and Singapore as a single country would be short-lived.

Philip Moore, the deputy high commissioner in Singapore, stated in confidential correspondence in September 1961 that Lim "was a really clever United Front Communist operator".

[3] It was also noted in the minutes of a Barisan Sosialis meeting on 30 September 1962 that even having been defeated by the PAP in the referendum that they agreed to keep using "peaceful constitutional processes" to win elections.

In 2010, Meira Chand's historical novel A Different Sky published by Harvill Secker featured Lim getting elected, along with fellow People's Action Party candidate, Lee Kuan Yew, to the Legislative Assembly at the climax.

[33] In May 2015, comics artist Sonny Liew released the graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, featuring Lim, his life story and his political rival Lee Kuan Yew.

Upon its release, the National Arts Council withdrew a S$8,000 publishing grant as it found that "the retelling of Singapore's history in the graphic novel potentially undermines the authority of legitimacy of the Government and its public institutions".

[34] In July 2015, actor Benjamin Chow played Lim in The LKY Musical opposite Adrian Pang's Lee Kuan Yew, directed by Steven Dexter.

The Straits Times' critic, Corrie Tan noted that "the musical's designated anti-hero, Lim Chin Siong, is thankfully not relegated to the ranks of villainy and one-note declarations... the charismatic left-wing leader, with his compelling oratory and rapport with the common man [is portrayed]".

[35] During the musical's run, actor Chow published a blog post, later removed, on how the writers had been "extremely open to input" from the Ministry of Communications and Information.