Desmond Lim

Early life

Desmond Lim grew up in a poor and difficult family of nine and together they lived in a small room of a house. The room was so small that Lim and his brothers had to sleep on the street. The street happened to be one of the dangerous areas of Singapore with many frequent street fights between gangs. Lim recalled in an interview that very often he would hear and witness violent fights between gangs while he and his brothers were trying to sleep.

Because of his family's poverty, Lim and his brothers would often wait for left over bread crumbs in a bread factory. Those bread crumbs would be saved up for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Lim didn't start speaking until he was 7. His mother brought him to a Chinese opera troupe to beg for a bowl of rice. They were kind and Lim said his first word to thank them.

Career

Lim is a principal engineer at telecommunications organisation M1 Limited

As a politician, he has more than twenty years of experience. Lim describes himself a "dedicated & determined" leader. He was also a former member of the Singapore People's Party. As the current leader of the Singapore Democratic Alliance, he contested and lost both the 2001 and 2006 Singaporean general elections. He also contested the Singaporean general election, 2011, and lost, having only garnered 4.5% of the valid votes.

He held Singapore's first online rally during the Singaporean by-election, 2013, on January 21, 2013, during which he spoke about the cost of living and property prices in Singapore. The online rally drew much criticism, most of which concerned his poor command of English. Lim, in contrast, hailed the online rally as a "great achievement" and also replied:

Everyone is not perfect. The most important thing is that we are learning, and I'm learning and there are leaders at the beginning when they come into politics, their English is also not as good as mine, but nevertheless most importantly is never give up and be sincere and have the heart to serve the people.

During the by-election, it was reported that some residents admired his "underdog indefatigability". However, Lim ultimately lost the by-election, finishing fourth and last with 168 votes (0.57%); he therefore set a new record for the lowest percentage garnered in an election since the independence of Singapore in 1965. This record was later superseded by Independent Samir Salim Neji at Bukit Batok SMC with 150 votes in GE 2015.

Education

Lim holds a Master's degree in engineering management from the University of Wollongong.

Personal life

Desmond Lim is married.

In a short interview with The New Paper, Lim revealed that he didn't attend kindergarten during his early childhood. This resulted in his poor command of English pronunciation, which was made fun of by netizens during the SDA's Online Rally during the 2013 Punggol East By-Election. However he assured residents that he is able to communicate in Mandarin to make up for the lack of proficiency in English. Lim further emphasised that in the Parliament of Singapore, members are allowed to speak in any of the four official languages. Lim also attributed the poor pronunciation of certain English words in the Online Rally to the fact that he was unfamiliar with the script which was only given to him 5 minutes before recording and that the recording was done late at night. He also emphasised YouTube's poor handling of his speech, resulting in skewed subtitles. Following this interview, it is unclear as to whether Lim is able to communicate in Mandarin fluently.