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Singapore Political Opposition
In the elections of September 1988, the only opposition
member
to win election was Singapore Democratic Party candidate
Chiam See
Tong who repeated his 1984 victory. However, in the
contest over
eight additional seats--two representing single-seat
constituencies, and six representing two newly formed
three-member
group representation constituencies-- the PAP received
less than 55
percent of the vote. Furthermore, under a constitutional
amendment
passed in 1984, the opposition was to be allotted three
parliamentary seats, whether it won them or not. Thus, as
a result
of the 1988 election, in addition to Chiam, the opposition
was
permitted to seat two additional, nonconstituency,
nonvoting
members of Parliament in the new Parliament.
In the 1988 elections, Lee Siew Choh, a candidate of
the
Workers' Party and one of the two opposition members
chosen to sit
in Parliament as nonvoting members, was forced on the
campaign's
opening day to go to court and pay damages for comments he
made
about PAP during the 1984 election. The other opposition
member,
Francis Seow, faced trial for alleged tax evasion, and, if
convicted, faced disqualification from Parliament. Shortly
afterwards, Prime Minister Lee threatened to bring a
defamation
suit against Workers' Party leader J. B. Jeyaretnam.
Another
Workers' Party candidate, Seow Khee Leng, was threatened
by the
government with bankruptcy proceedings. All three had been
successfully sued by Lee for slander in earlier elections.
The state of the opposition was rooted in the PAP's
drive,
beginning in 1963, to suppress all communist and leftist
influence
in Singapore. The government discouraged opposition
political
activity through the use of open-ended laws such as the
Internal
Security Act (ISA), which was originally intended to deal
with
armed communist insurrection during the Malayan Emergency
of 1948-
60. This law permitted the indefinite detention by
executive order
of any person suspected of leftist or procommunist
activity.
Amnesty International frequently cited Singapore for using
the ISA
to suppress legitimate, nonviolent political opposition.
That
organization also cited Singapore's use of deprivation of
citizenship and banishment as means of repression. The
government
often associated opposition with foreign manipulation,
which
compounded its fear of dissent of any kind.
There were few issues on which the PAP could be
challenged.
Under PAP rule, Singapore had achieved unprecedented
economic
prosperity as well as marked social progress in racial
harmony,
education, health care, housing, and employment. The PAP's
achievements had created a popular confidence in the party
that was
difficult to overcome. The opposition parties themselves
were
divided along racial and ideological lines and unable to
compete
with the PAP as a common front.
In May and June 1987, twenty-two people were detained
without
trial under the ISA for alleged involvement in a communist
conspiracy. All detainees were released by the end of the
year with
the exception of Chia Thye Poh, who was held for more than
two
years. A virulent critic of the government and former
member of
Parliament representing the
Barisan Sosialis (The
Socialist Front-- see Glossary), he was finally released in May 1989 after
having
been detained since October 1966. Although Chia was never
charged,
the government alleged that he was a member of the
outlawed
Communist Party of Malaya
(
CPM--see Glossary), assigned to
infiltrate the Barisan Sosialis in order to destabilize
the
government. In 1987 amendments were made to the Parliament
Privilege, Immunities, and Powers Act of 1962, giving
Parliament
the power to suspend any parliamentary member's immunity
from civil
proceedings for statements made in Parliament and to
imprison and
fine a member if he or she were found guilty of
dishonorable
conduct, abuse of privilege, or contempt.
The Workers' Party, led by J.B. Jeyaretnam in 1989, was
the
principal opposition party. The Workers' Party stood for a
less
regimented society, constitutional reforms, less defense
spending,
and more government social services. It was supported by
lower
income wage earners, students, and intellectuals. Next was
the
United People's Front, founded in December 1974 as a
confederation
of the Singapore Chinese Party, the Singapore Islamic
Party, and
the Indian-supported Justice Party. It campaigned for a
more
democratic political system. A third party, ideologically
to the
left of both the United People's Front and the Workers'
Party, was
the People's Front, established in 1971. In 1972 its
campaign
platform advocated a democratic socialist republic and no
foreign
military ties. In 1973 the party's secretary general,
Leong Mun
Kwai, received a six-month prison sentence for inciting
the people
of Singapore to seize government leaders. Seventeen other
opposition parties were registered in 1989, including the
Barisan
Sosialis, once the primary target of the government's
political
surveillance activities because of its former role in
antigovernment street demonstrations, student protests,
and
industrial strikes. Lee Siew Choh, a nonvoting member of
Parliament
in 1989, was the leader of the party's moderate wing.
Data as of December 1989
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