Lee Tai Lim - a student murdered by Communist

Lee Tai Lim, 21 years old of Jalan Hock Chye, off Tampines Road - a senior student of the Chinese High School was shot dead outside the Singapore Chinese High Schools Graduates of Arts Association at Cairnhill Road on 17 April 1955. He was taking harmonica lessons when 2 youths entered and ask for him. Lee Tai Lim went downstairs with them and he was shot in his forehead by a single pistol bullet. Rushed to the General Hospital, he died there nearly 2 hours later. The assailants rode away on bicycles which they later discarded to enter into a car and escape. 

Lee Tai Lim 

It was reported that this was the first incident to involve the slaying of a Chinese student since the Emergency was declared in 1948. A squad of detectives and policemen from Orchard Road police station search the compound where the the point blank murder took place but failed so far to recover the spent cartridge case. The bullet lodged in the victim head was badly smashed against the skull making identification or comparison practically impossible. The police subsequently offer $25,00 for information to the rest of the 2 gunmen (an offer that was the highest by the police at that time). The police said that Lee Tai Lim was murdered by members of the Malayan Communist Party. It was believed at that time that Lee Tai Lim was one of the students who recently assisted the authorities in finding a Communist arms dump with the uncovering of more than 150 grenades off Sennett Road two months prior to his death. 

Buried in Bukit Brown?

I found out the newspaper archives that Lee Tai Lim came from a poor family. Only his family and close relatives attended his funeral. According to the article, he was buried in Bukit Brown Cemetery off Adam Road. Unfortunately, i am not able to find his burial entry in the burial registrar. Is his tomb still in the surrounding area or no longer there because of the building of the Pan Island Expressway ? It is a mystery to me for now.  From newspaper articles, i gathered that he has another older brother, by the name of Lee Tai Song. 

Aftermath

I note with interest that The Singapore Chinese High Schools' Graduates of Arts Association was eventually banned and dissolved by the Council of Ministers in an anti-subversion drive in 1956. Tan Choon Yam, 20 years old, born in China and a student of the Chung Cheng High School was arrested on the Association premises and so was Lim Nai Yan, 23 years old and an unemployed Chinese teacher. It has a membership of 800 then. Lee Tai Lim killers were not found. 

References

Police offer $25,000 for Killer. MCP was behind student's murder. (1955, April 19). Singapore Standard, page 1

Communist gunmen shot dead student in revenge. (1955, April 21). The Straits Budget, page 16

Search on now for catridge case. (1955, April 21). The Straits Times, page 4 

Six arrested, four groups banned. (1956, November 1). The Straits Budget, page 11