Shashi Jayakumar - A History of the People’s Action Party, 1985-2021

A History of the

Peoples Action Party

19852021

SHASHI JAYAKUMAR

2022 Shashi Jayakumar

Published by:

NUS Press
National University of Singapore
AS3-01-02, 3 Arts Link
Singapore 117569

Fax: (65) 6774-0652
E-mail:
Website: http://nuspress.nus.edu.sg

eISBN 978-981-325-182-3

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.

National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data

Name(s): Jayakumar, Shashi.

Title: A history of the Peoples Action Party, 19852021 / Shashi Jayakumar.

Description: Singapore : NUS Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifier(s): OCN 1164363746 | ISBN 978-981-32-5128-1 (hardcover)

Subject(s): LCSH: Peoples Action Party (Singapore)--History. | Political parties--Singapore--History. | Singapore--Politics and government.

Classification: DDC 324.25957--dc23

The text in the background of the cover is taken from the Constitution of the Peoples Action Party.

To
Mum and Dad with all my love

Contents

This book has taken a considerable amount of time to write. My only defence is that writing about the past is difficult, especially, I have now come to realise, for historians.

Numerous debts have been incurred in the course of this journey.

Firstly, I am grateful to serving and former MPs, Party leaders, and other individuals who played a part in these events for speaking to me on record. The interviews that I conducted have been listed in the bibliography. Beyond this, however, the path has been illuminated by dozens of Party officials, MPs, activists and cadres who spoke on background, and who assisted in clarifying various points of detail and historical incidents. This book would have been poorer without their clarifications and frank insights. I have respected their wishes not to be named.

It would not have been possible to understand the inner workings of the PAP, its machinery, and its evolutions, if not for many conversations over the years with former Organising Secretaries of the Party: Tang See Chim, Dr Ow Chin Hock and Lau Ping Sum. I am in their debt. Lau Ping Sum in particular has patiently answered hundreds of queries, in addition giving advice on my translations from Chinese to English (which I take primary responsibility for).

The unsung and dedicated staff at the National Archives of Singapore rarely receive recognition they deserve. I would like to thank them for facilitating my requests for access to papers and files. Equally helpfuland extremely patienthas been indefatigable Florence Tan-Ler.

The anonymous reviewers of this book made me think much harder about what I was trying to saytheir comments helped considerably. Peter Schoppert and Lena Qua from NUS Press shepherded this projectno more than an idea in 2011through to publication ten years later. Sunandini Lal and Anne Sanow have saved me from many, many errors (those which remain are my own). I am also grateful to the research assistants I have worked with over this time: these include Christine Chan, Beatrice Lee, Clement Liew, Benjamin Low, Daryl Ong, Angela Poh and Ong Wei Zhong.

Various individuals have shared their expertise and deep knowledge. Conversations with the late S.R. Nathan made me ponder the nature of leadership and the wielding of power. Prof. Chan Heng Chees asides to me provided perspectives I would not otherwise have come by. The same should be said (particularly when it came to whom to ask and where to look) for Sonny Yap and Leong Weng Kam, who shared their views in the earlier phase of research. I am also grateful to Assoc. Prof. Terence Ho, Assoc. Prof. Eugene Tan and Assoc. Prof. Shandre Thangavelu when it came to untangling and interpreting various issues of policy. Bobby Yap has patiently shared his knowledge of aspects of grassroots organisations and their work. Assoc. Prof. Rahul Sagar has been a keenly supportive presence throughout.

My thinking when it comes to the earlier, pre-1980, history of Singapore and of the Party (which inevitably informs writing on the more recent period) has evolved over time, in part due to many productive conversations with Assoc. Prof. Albert Lau.

I would like to thank Prof. Kishore Mahbubani for giving me a home at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where I was a research fellow from 201114. Subsequently, Ambassadors Barry Desker and Ong Keng Yong provided an equally congenial environment at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and supported my work.

This volume would not have been written without the love and support of my family and especially my understanding (very understanding) wife Miranda.

Readers might find a very small number of paragraphs familiar. While this project has been under way for some time, certain elements first found their way into publication via a shorter primer on the PAP co-authored with Assoc. Prof. Albert Lau (Singapore Chronicles: PAP), which was published in 2019 by the Straits Times Press, under the auspices of the Institute of Policy Studies, National University of Singapore. The work here has of course been extensively reworked, updated and expanded since then.