Former Singapore law minister dies

Former Singapore law minister dies

SINGAPORE (AFP): Former Singaporean law minister Edmund William Barker, one of the key architects of the island-state's independence, has died aged 80, local reports said.

E.W. Barker, as he was more commonly known, never fully recovered from an emergency colon operation in February and died on Thursday aged 80, the Business Times quoted an unnamed close friend as saying.

Barker, one of the old guard from the ruling People's Action Party, drafted the separation papers that paved the way for Singapore's independence after the tiny island-state was ejected from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965.

Barker was the island-state's first law minister and held that post until he stepped down in 1988. Barker is survived by his wife, Gloria, and four children.