Malaysia’s first ethnic Chinese lieutenant general reaches for the stars

Malaysia’s armed forces made a historic move when it promoted Johnny Lim Eng Seng to lieutenant general on Monday. Lim is the first ethnic Chinese serviceman to reach the rank of a three-star senior officer.

It was a significant promotion in the country’s Malay-dominated military, which has long struggled to attract interest from among the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian minorities to enlist as soldiers.

Lim, who hails from Melaka state in the peninsula’s south, has been with the armed forces for over 40 years.

A graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK, he was commissioned into the Malaysian Royal Ranger Regiment before rising to his current post as commandant of the Malaysian Armed Forces Defence College.

“It is truly something special. To say I am very proud of the achievement is an understatement. All the sacrifices made have been worth it,” he said, as quoted by The Star newspaper.

Lim joined the army in 1984, during Malaysia’s communist insurgency. His mother was initially reluctant to let her eldest child join up, he said. “However, her love for me erased all doubts and she eventually gave her blessing.”