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The Workers' Party of Singapore (WP), founded in 1957, is one of the largest opposition parties in Singapore, holding one of the 84 elected seats in the current session of Parliament. The single seat for the electoral division of Hougang is held by its Secretary-General, Low Thia Khiang, while its incumbent chairman, Sylvia Lim, is currently a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP). Based on social democracy, the party is considered centre-left. The members of the party now wear blue shirts and black trousers or skirts to show its links with the blue-collar workers.
| Fast Facts
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| Workers' Party of Singapore
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| Leader
| Low Thia Khiang
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| Founded
| 1957
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| Headquarters
| 216-G Syed Alwi Road
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Singapore 207799
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| Ideology
| Social democracy
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| Official colors
| Blue
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2. The Workers' Party was founded by David Saul Marshall, a Labour Front leader, in 1957 after he resigned as the first Chief Minister of Singapore, due to the failed Merdeka Talks to seek self-governance for Singapore. During the pre-independence period from 1957 to 1958, it had four Members of Parliament (MP). Played out by his own party members, Marshall resigned from the Workers' Party in January 1963,[1] and stood as an independent candidate in the September 1963 election. Obscurity subsequently befell the party until it was revived by a group of lawyers, led by Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, in 1972.
3. In 1981, the Workers' Party was the first opposition party since Singapore's independence to win a seat when party leader Jeyaretnam won the Anson by-election held that year. Jeyaretnam kept his and the party's only seat in the 1984 general election but finally lost it after a financial conviction in 1986. In 1987, several of its party members were accused by the government of being communists and were briefly detained under the Internal Security Act. They were released on condition that they would not enter politics again.
4. In the run-up to the 1988 general election, the Barisan Sosialis party and the Singapore United Front were absorbed into the Workers' Party. Even so, the Workers' Party failed to win a single seat but came close to winning the three seats in the Eunos Group Representation Constituency. In view of the introduction of a new scheme to allow the top opposition losers who obtained more than 15% of the votes in their respective constituencies to become Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMP), the Workers' Party was awarded one such seat.
5. In the 1991 general election, the Workers' Party won a seat in Hougang by its then Vice-Secretary General, Low Thia Khiang. Low captured national attention for his performances in the legislature in which he received praise and admiration for his assertiveness, good analytical abilities and his willingness to be constructive, rather than opposing for the sake of opposing. In 1996, Lee Siew Choh, the former head of the Barisan Sosialis, left the party, citing irreconcilable differences with the party leader Jeyaretnam. Jeyaretnam, however, resigned the party leadership in 2001 and was succeeded by Low. Observers claimed that with Low at the helm, the party would tone down its more hard-line stance and go for a more centrist outlook. more... at Wikipedia
