In Memoriam by Dick Gupwell, Chairman of the European Institute for Asian Studies
Paul Lim, who passed away on 21st July 2025, was a dear friend of mine for about the last forty years. A kinder and more sincere and selfless man it would be hard to find.
I first met Paul sometime in the mid-1980s. At that time, I was working in the Secretariat of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament and, amongst my responsibilities were the European Community’s external trade and relations with the countries of South and South-East Asia.
Paul, whose family lived in Singapore, had initially joined a seminary but had then decided to work as a human rights activist amongst factory workers. He had then come to Belgium to pursue his studies in sociology at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, thereby avoiding trouble with the authorities in Singapore.
Thus, Paul had come to Strasbourg, where the European Parliament was in session, and introduced me to a young lady lawyer from Singapore, who had been in solitary confinement for having expressed opposition to the Government. Paul and I soon became friends.
On a later occasion, Paul introduced me to Harn Yawnghwe, a leading member of Burma’s democratic opposition in exile. Harn, whose father, Sao Shwe Thaike, had been Burma’s first post-independence President, was based in Canada. After his visit to the Parliament, Paul and I accompanied Harn to the railway station in Strasbourg and explained to him that the best way to influence the European Community’s Institutions was by opening an office in Brussels. Harn took this idea back with him and it led to the establishment of the Euro-Burma Office (the European Office for the Development of Democracy in Burma), in 1997, with the financial support of the European Parliament, the Commission and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Meanwhile, Paul and I, together with another friend, Malcolm Subhan, the Brussels correspondent of the Economic Times of India, conceived of the idea of setting up an institute in Brussels specialising in South and South-East Asia. We had the support of a few MEP’s, including Dr Hans-Joachim Seeler. We needed a well-known Belgian figure and I went with Paul to see Dr Oscar Debunne, then the Director of the Emile Vandevelde Foundation, who agreed to join us.
The European Institute for South and South-East Asian Studies was then set up in 1989. For the first decade or so, while Dr Seeler was Chairman of our Board, the Institute was run by a Management Committee, which met two or three times per month and which comprised Oscar as our Director, Malcolm as Treasurer, myself as Secretary and Paul, who was then completing his doctorate at Louvain-la-Neuve, as our Research Coordinator. Oscar Debunne then succeeded Dr Seeler as our Chairman, in 1993.
Meanwhile, Paul was also working part-time as an Assistant to a German MEP, Wilfried Telkämper, who was attached to the Green Group in the European Parliament.
One of Paul’s main achievements at our Institute (later called the European Institute for Asian Studies or EIAS) was as a leading member of a team of academics, who produced a book entitled “Asian Values – Encounter with Diversity”, which was published by Curzon Press, in 1998.
Having played a major role in our Institute for about twenty years, Paul decided to move back to Asia and took up academic posts as a university professor, both in Penang and in Taiwan.
When, in retirement, Paul returned to Belgium, we were able to renew our friendship. Although, by then, I was spending much of my time back in England, we were able to meet up during my regular visits back to Belgium.
I’m glad that I was able to visit Paul a few times in his flat in Perwez during the last few months, but was very sorry to see him in declining health, and latterly to visit him a couple of time in hospital in Namur. He said, “I never thought that I would end up like this”. He was comforted by the visits of his many friends and appeared philosophical about his situation.
Then came the sad news that Paul had passed away. I shall miss him and our always stimulating conversations.
Dick Gupwell,
Orleton, Herefordshire, 25th July 2025