Constitutionally engineering non-partisanship

• Main Author: EUGENE, Tan K. B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Election Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/4163; https://search.library.smu.edu.sg/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99580288802601&context=L&vid=65SMU_INST:SMU_NUI&lang=en&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,The%20nominated%20member%20of%20parliament%20scheme:%20Are%20unelected%20voices%20still%20necessary%20in%20parliament%3F&offset=0
• Institution: Singapore Management University

On 8 December 1965 when Parliament sat for the first time after Singapore’s independence, not a single Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) attended. Barisan Sosialis (BS) MPs, a breakaway faction of the People’s Action Party (PAP), had boycotted the sitting in protest of Singapore’s “phoney” independence and the “undemocratic laws” of the PAP Government. In the following year, all the BS MPs vacated their parliamentary seats. BS also boycotted the 1968 General Election, opting to take their political struggle outside of Parliament. This boycott was a massive strategic blunder as it left the PAP unchallenged in the political arena. No Opposition MP was elected into Parliament until J. B. Jeyaretnam of the Workers’ Party (WP) won the Anson seat in a by-election in 1981…