The First Wave by Loke Hoe Yeong

Author:Loke Hoe Yeong
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-981-48-4543-4
Publisher: Epigram Books
Published: 2019-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chee Soon Juan and opposition talks on the Marine Parade by-election

Chiam had always openly admitted that he never subjected his party’s potential candidates to ultra-rigorous background checks that the PAP did for theirs, such as psychometric tests. For if Chiam were too picky, the opposition would be left with no candidates at all. It was hard to convince Singaporeans to take the risk of running for elections under the opposition banner.

But the 30-year-old Dr Chee Soon Juan had the stellar qualifications, unmatched among the opposition in Singapore, to be a star candidate of the SDP. He had a PhD from the University of Georgia and was an up-and-coming lecturer in psychology at NUS. Moreover, he was a fresh, energetic young face that was well placed to represent the future of the opposition cause. Chiam even began to see Chee as the possible heir to his leadership of the SDP.

Chiam asked Ashleigh Seow to check up on Chee’s background and to dig up any possible dirt that the PAP could potentially throw at him at election time. This usually meant checking whether the SDP’s candidates were bankrupt or were involved in any activities that could be painted by the PAP as being immoral or unbecoming. Seow said he found Chee to be “clean” and that he had “no problems.”55

Chiam began to spread the word in opposition circles about the SDP’s new catch of a candidate. Among its ranks, the SDP had PhD holders such as Chiam’s own brother Joon Tong, a founding member, but they had never stepped forward so publicly as to stand as election candidates. There was also Fok Tai Loy, the founding chairman of the SDP, a Colombo Plan scholar who ran in Cairnhill in 1980 under the SDP banner but died shortly before the 1984 general election. Now the SDP could herald the first PhD-qualified opposition candidate in Singapore.

But it would be most impactful to introduce Chee to the public at an election. According to Chiam, Chee also wanted to run in an election soon. The next general election would be at least a few years away, as Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong was unlikely to call another one so quickly. Goh would not do so without first trying to reverse the trajectory of the opposition’s upward swing. Goh also needed to consolidate his power base in the PAP and improve his overall standing in the eyes of the voting public.

But Chee did not need to wait long. Goh had, after all, promised a by-election in his own ward of Marine Parade. The problem was that Goh said the by-election would be meant for Jeyaretnam, who could not participate in the 1991 general election because of his disqualification from politics, and hence Goh would give Jeyaretnam the chance to run soon after.

Would it be unethical for opposition politicians other than Jeyaretnam to contest that by-election? It seemed quite straightforward that Goh called the by-election to keep his promise to Jeyaretnam. To SDP members like Kwan Yue Keng

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.