S'pore opposition warhorse still feisty at the age of 70
S'pore opposition warhorse still feisty at the age of 70
By Rene Pastor
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Under leaden skies, Joshua Jeyaretnam raised a mock mallet while several thousand supporters around a grassy meadow cheered.
J.B. Jeyaretnam has been the Don Quixote of Singapore politics for over three decades, tilting at the juggernaut of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) in Singapore.
The 70-year-old warhorse of Singapore politics is off again to the hustings for today elections that the PAP has already won because the opposition is contesting only 36 of parliament's 83 seats.
He has tangled often with Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew and was sued twice for libel by his rival.
But Jeyaretnam became the first man to break the PAP's stranglehold on power when he won election to parliament in 1981. Thrown out after being convicted of making false declarations and barred from running in the 1991 general elections, Jeyaretnam is leading his Workers Party (WP) in what will probably be his last campaign.
"The PAP's answer to the opposition is to hurl abuses, lies, threats," he told Reuters. "All they can say is (we're) crooks, liars. That's all that the PAP are capable of."
"We in the opposition have to struggle, struggle very hard," he told the crowd at a rally beneath the spires of a church in the city-state's Hougang district. "Nothing the PAP can do will kill your spirit."
The crowd, which already numbered several thousand, continued to swell in the gathering dusk despite the heavy clouds that began to sweep in and threaten rain. A breeze began to blow across the still muddy meadow.
Matrons cradling children tried to juggle their infants. Wrinkled old men carried their own chairs and umbrellas, prepared to stay put and listen even if the rain fell.
Whole families strode in to attend the rally, while mosquitoes started swarming out of the nearby river.
A red banner was strung across the small wooden stage while the WP's slogan of "Take Your Power" hung limply in the glare of light bulbs.
They came apparently to hear the old man speak.
Jeyaretnam said 40,000 people showed up at a rally his party organized recently, buoying his hopes of victory. Other observers, however, placed the number of people at the rally closer to 10,000, but said that was still an impressive figure.
Jeyaretnam heads a ticket of five WP candidates running against a PAP slate led by Education Minister Lee Yock Suan in a multi-member constituency. It's a winner-take-all contest, the victorious slate grabbing all the seats in parliament.
"All I know is there's a greater chance of democracy taking its roots in this country. I think the people are becoming aware of the need to have a say in decision-making," Jeyaretnam said.
The opposition had four of the 81 seats in the outgoing parliament and hopes to win about 10 seats in this election. The PAP simply wants to shut them out.
But Jeyaretnam is dismissed by the PAP as being out of touch and offering outmoded ideas to run a Singapore that must brace for stiff competition to maintain its robust economy.
"They can't run the place," Lee Kuan Yew warned voters at a rally about what would happen if Jeyaretnam and company swept to power.
Referring to Jeyaretnam's stint in parliament, Lee said: "What did he contribute? Lies and more lies."
The PAP has derided a proposal by the WP to implement a comprehensive public health insurance scheme as similar to Western welfare programs now in disrepute.
But Jeyaretnam asked Singaporeans in a televised broadcast to ask themselves whether they should buy the PAP line to "leave everything to us and we will give you what is good for you".
"Is that not what is wrong in our society and has been for the last 31 years?" he asked. "Have we surrendered our human dignity, our power to think for ourselves, to one party for material promises?
"They talk about us being mired in the past. It's a laugh. It's they who are mired in the past," Jeyaretnam declared.