Lim Kean Chye (Chinese: 林建材; pinyin: Lín Jiàncái; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Kiàn-chhâi; 22 December 1919 – 7 June 2023) was a Malaysian politician and lawyer.^[1][2]

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Lim was the son of Lim Cheng Ean (Chinese: 林清淵; pinyin: Lín Qīngyuān; Jyutping: Lam4 Cing1 Jyun1; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Chheng-ian), a Cambridge-trained lawyer and a legislative councillor in the 1930s, and the grandson of Phuah Hin Leong.^[3] Lim had a brother and sister, Lim Phaik Gan.

Lim was a founder member of the Malayan Democratic Union,^[4][5] which was formed on 21 December 1945. MDU was Singapore's first political party^[6] and consisted of English-educated Malaysians whose main objective was the assertion of the right to self-governance.

Upon returning to Malaya after completing his law degree from Cambridge University, Lim was contacted by Eu Chooi Yip and P V Sarma in August 1949 to join the Anti-British League (ABL), which he did.^[7] He would later be mentor to John Eber in the ABL.^[8] In January 1951, Lim escaped arrest and detention without trial when he went to China.

Lim was called to the Singapore Bar in 1950, and the Malayan Bar in 1961.

Lim lived in Penang. He turned 100 in December 2019,^[9] and died on 7 June 2023, at the age of 103.^[2]