Lim Guan Eng

Biography

Lim Guan Eng (born 8 December 1960) is a Malaysian politician and accountant who served as Minister of Finance from 2018 to 2020 and as the fourth Chief Minister of Penang from 2008 to 2018. He is the Member of Parliament for Bagan and the Penang state assemblyman for Air Putih, and has been an adviser to the Democratic Action Party (DAP) since 2025. He is the son of Lim Kit Siang, who led the parliamentary opposition for most of the period between 1973 and 2008. Lim was educated at Batu Pahat High School and Malacca High School and graduated in economics from Monash University in Australia, working as a senior bank executive before entering politics. He was first elected in 1986 as MP for Kota Melaka, defeating Soh Chin Ann, and became the first person to win that seat three times consecutively. He chaired DAP's socialist youth wing from 1989, became deputy secretary-general in 1995, and was the party's secretary-general — its effective leader — from 2004 to 2022, a tenure that spanned DAP's growth from a small opposition party into the largest single party in the Dewan Rakyat. Lim led the coalition that took Penang in 2008 and governed the state for two terms, a period marked by large infrastructure commitments and by his administration's emphasis on open tenders and state finances. Appointed Finance Minister in the first Pakatan Harapan government, he inherited the fiscal aftermath of the 1MDB scandal and served until the government's collapse in February 2020. He has been the subject of repeated legal proceedings, including a corruption charge relating to the Penang undersea tunnel project brought after his time as chief minister, and has himself brought several defamation suits. His wife, Betty Chew Gek Cheng, is a former Malacca state assemblywoman.

Constituencies (2)

Electoral track record

214 mentions across 12 months

News mentions