Paul Lim – an attempt at an obituary from a Brussels perspective

Paul Lim, the only Singaporean who managed to considerably influence EU policies toward his homeland (and the entire ASEAN region) – an attempt at an obituary from a Brussels perspective

By Frank Schwalba-Hoth, Brussels

And suddenly he was there.

To this day, it remains a mystery to me what at the end of the 1980s exactly led to a friendly Southeast Asian in Brussels becoming the most influential person in relations of the European Parliament (EP) with Singapore and the other ASEAN states – especially in matters of human rights and good governance.

But let’s start from the beginning.

In June 1984, the second direct elections to the European Parliament, with its then 434 Members of Parliament (MEPs), took place. For the first time, Green MEPs were also present, including myself. With 12 MEPs from (West) Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy, we formed the GRAEL (Green Alternative European Link). Since we were too few to form our own political group, we looked for additional MEPs. Our “down-to-earth” approach led us to other representatives of civil society. Together with non-dogmatic leftists, regionalists, and EU critics, we founded the “Rainbow Group” (a term that had no connection with LGBTQIA+ at the time).

GRAEL, as the most politically influential part of the Rainbow Group, started politically from scratch. There was a brief common political platform with general maxims – but no concrete political steps. And then Paul Lim appeared. He became an assistant to Wilfried Telkämper, the Green EP Vice-President. This gave him an outstanding platform to contribute his ideas (and values!) to our decision-making on how the EU should deal with Southeast Asia.

Since he had introduced himself as “Public Enemy Number 2” from Singapore with roots in Malaysia, it came as no surprise that these two states were suddenly confronted with initiatives from the EP – initiated through our group. This then expanded to include initiatives regarding the other ASEAN states (certainly not an easy time for these states’ EU ambassadors in Brussels).

Why did we not only accept him, but were grateful for his presence?

We in the GRAEL somehow sensed that he was on our wavelength, that he was capable of translating green ideas into political action against autocratic and authoritarian regimes. It certainly also played a role for us that he was “Public Enemy Number 2 from Singapore” (I don’t remember anyone ever asking him who “Number 1” was). In any case, he had an access badge to the EP, a desk, and a direct telephone connection.

When he eventually moved to Penang, Malaysia, I viewed it with mixed feelings: on the one hand, less expertise for us concerning Southeast Asia, but on the other, a new academic and political chapter for him in his home region.

In Brussels, several boxes of working documents remained that he hadn’t been able to take with him. I arranged for them to be picked up and placed in the German city of Potsdam in the “Grünes Gedächtnis”, the archive of green politics, where they are accessible to the interested public. His electric cooker, which he regularly used to prepare rice for his Brussels colleagues and friends, has found refuge in the Netherlands with Peter Sluiter.

Back in Belgium (he had at least obtained citizenship by then), he died on 21 July after a long battle with pancreatic cancer in Namur. But 21 July isn’t just as any day of the year; it’s extraordinary: the national holiday of his adopted country, Belgium, 2,381 years after the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) was set on fire, 201 years after the death of Rama II, the most important king of Thailand, 126 years after the death of Ernest Hemingway, 81 years after the execution of German resistance fighters (after a failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler), 56 years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon, 36 years after Mike Tyson became world boxing champion. All of this is a fitting date for someone born on 28 April 1948, the day composer Igor Stravinsky premiered his “Orpheus” (the Greek with the ability to enchant all living things, even stones, with his music) in New York.

On Monday, July 28, he was cremated in the Belgian city of Ciney. His human rights commitment had made it impossible for him to visit his homeland again. In keeping with his resourceful nature, his ashes were now transferred to Singapore, where his sisters organized a funeral ceremony for him.