Today's (11/01/07) Straits Times carried an article on Jeyaratnam; going along with the same spirit of openness, I reproduce a number of articles on Singapore's "opposition" figures (quotes because they are not all in politics.

Mr Jeyaratnam's New Party

Like the similarly familiar figure Francis Seow, JB Jeyaretnam started his career within the Singapore government system:

Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam: Date of Birth: January 5, 1926 Served as a judge in Singapore District Court (1952-1957) Attorney Generals' Chamber (1957-1961) Registrar Of Singapore Supreme Court, District Judge and Head of Subordinate Judiciary (1961-1963)

I am not familiar with why he left the judiciary to start his own practice - it appears the firm did OK but he was not particularly well off - nor with why he decided to enter politics. He was very much "under the radar" till 1981 when he stood for a by-election in Anson. Again, I am not sure anyone still remembers why there was so much voter discontent in that area, only that he won over some well qualified technocrat (whom, I guess, the PAP would prefer to forget). The one story I do remember was that whereas the PAP candidate spent little time campaigning in Anson, other than attending a couple of rallies (it was said he drove there in his BMW, during the days when BMWs were still rare in Singapore), JB diligently canvassed for votes from door to door. However, since PAP had been winning all the seats in general elections that way for many years, there must have been some particular factors in that by-election causing their accustomed methods to fail.

In the 1984 general election, PAP put up Ng Pock Too, considered one of their strongest candidates, against JBJ in the hope of recovering Anson. In the same way they put up Mah Bow Tan against Chiam See Tong, leader of the newly formed Singapore Democratic Party. (you might like to see box below The Implosion of Singapore Democratic Party )Both electorates went against the PAP, and they had to wait for another 4 years before entering parliament. Mah joined the cabinet soon after, while Ng rose in the business world to head Sembawang Corp (till Philip Yeo took charge there some time before the 1997 asian financial crisis - Ng, however, lost in the 1991 general election and exitted politics).

In the cut-and-thrust of parliamentary debates and election hustles, JBJ remains the most effective of all the Singapore opposition figures I have seen, (Low Thia Kiang too can speak well, in Tewchiu) but he had limited chances to use his abilities as he was repeatedly disqualified because of various legal issues that arose. Forced out of parliament in 1986, he came back as a non-electoral member of parliament (for exlanation see various subpages in navigation section;  http://sinazen.com/election is also of interest ) in 1997 but soon got disqualified again. This part of the history is well covered by journalists so I wont repeat it here.

JBJ has just settled his debts and exitted from his status of bankrupcy, and is again able to stand for parliament. As the Workers' Party, of which he was founder and leader, had since then moved on without him, he will form a new party.

I actually saw him in person once: taking the escalator up from City Hall MRT station to go into Raffles City, I found him at the MRT entrance lobby just outside the shopping centre giving a speech on government persecution. No one stopped to listen, but he continued undeterred. I guess that will be his description till nature stops him.

His son Philip Jeyaretnam, a graduate of NUS and Harvard, is a major figure in Singapore legal circles, but has no involvement in politics. His view about dad's activities is not publicly available. It is also unknown what part he may have played in helping JBJ to be discharged from bankrupcy.

Added on 20/3/11 JBJ's other son Kenneth, who works in the financial industry, took over Reform Party, which JBJ formed shortly before his death; like SDP, RP showed much initial promised and scored some success in attracted well qualified personnel into its ranks, including a husband-wife pair who were both formerly government scholars; however, it went into bickering and disunity even faster than SDP, much to the relief of PAP; it is the usual story of people who advocate more democracy but do not know how to run their own organizations democratically.

added on 22/3/11: of the three new PAP candidates introduced to the public for the next election, two are sons of former opposition politicians; this seems a statement that the "system" accommodates people of different backgrounds

the third candidate happens to be Tewchew speaking, presumably to stand against Low Thia Kiang in Hougang in view of Low's success in dialect campagining