SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party chair Sylvia Lim commemorated this year’s Father’s Day in a less than conventional way, writing in a June 18 (Sunday) Instagram post that she and her father, who has passed away, had some “turbulent times.”
However, she quickly followed this up by adding that later on, they “became the best drinking buddies.”
“That’s Family! Happy Father’s Day to all fathers!”
Ms Lim, a Member of Parliament representing Aljunied GRC since 2011, wrote that she met several fathers that morning at Lorong Ah Soo and shared a photo of herself in conversation with a man at a hawker centre.
“Some were relieved that their kids were grown and working; others lamented that they should have imparted more values to them when they were younger.”
As for herself, she shared that “my late father and I had some turbulent times, but in the later years of his life, we became the best drinking buddies.”
Ms Lim’s father, Mr Lim Choon Mong, had once been part of the police force but eventually resigned and went on study law in London.
At the age of 39, he became a practising lawyer.
Before she entered politics, the WP chair’s career was somewhat similar, as she studied law in Singapore and London but also worked as a police inspector from 1991 to 1994.
However, she revealed in a 2013 AsiaOne interview that she had almost dropped out of the National University of Singapore, where she studied law because she could not see how being a lawyer would help society.
In the final year of her studies, she saw a policeman directing traffic while standing in the rain and realized that this would be a way for the law can serve society.
She then decided on a career in law enforcement, which her father was less than thrilled about.
He, therefore, sent her to the University of London for her Master of Laws degree, hoping she would change her mind.
But the strong-willed Ms Lim did not, telling the interviewer. “In my heart, I just felt that I just had to do” join the Police Academy.
Her father then threw her out of the house.
The article notes that he had been critical of Ms Lim. When she was in university and occupied with many extracurricular activities, Mr Lim told her, ”The rate you’re going, you’ll end up with a second lower. You’ll be one of those people whose CVs I throw in the dustbin.”
Nevertheless, Mr Lim also formed Ms Lim’s political education when he talked about the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his policies around the dinner table. While Ms Lim’s mother, sister, and brother were uninterested, she engaged in discussions with him.
Despite all the “turbulent times” Ms Lim and Mr Lim had with each other in the past, they seem to have worked things out for the better and have even become “the best drinking buddies” now.
“That’s Family!” as Ms Lim said.
“Happy Father’s Day to all fathers!” /TISG
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