DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang will join the ranks of individuals bestowed with the ‘Tan Sri’ title tomorrow.
The investiture ceremony will be in conjunction with Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah’s formal 64th birthday celebration.
Several DAP leaders confirmed with Malaysiakini that Lim will be receiving the second highest federal award next to the title Tun.
"In DAP WhatsApp groups everyone is congratulating lao da already," one DAP leader told Malaysiakini, using the Mandarin term for big brother to refer to Lim.
The 82-year-old will be the first DAP leader to be bestowed the Tan Sri title, as the party's general policy to not receive any titles while in office has seen only a few among them accepting a Datukship.
A DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) member said Lim, who has since retired as an MP, is now free to accept the title with the party's approval.
Yesterday, DAP’s former Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi also posted a photograph of Lim and an Istana Negara official during a rehearsal for the award ceremony.
Long political career
Even after his departure from Parliament following the 15th general election, Lim continued to keep a keen eye on the latest political developments through his many lengthy statements.
Throughout his decades in politics, he holds the record for the nation’s longest-serving opposition leader – having held the post for 29 years over three separate terms from January 1974 to June 1975, November 1975 to November 1999, and March 2004 to February 2008.
In those years, Lim represented eight Parliament seats in five states, with the exception of between 1999 and 2004 when he lost in Bukit Bendera, Penang, as the then DAP secretary-general who faced off against Gerakan's then secretary-general Chia Kwang Chye.
Within DAP, Lim rose through the ranks up until his appointment as national chairperson in 1999, after which he stepped down into an advisory role.
He decided to quit politics last year after opting not to run for a spot in the CEC or for state-level party posts. - Mkini
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