People's Action Party

This article is about the People's Action Party of Singapore. For other groups with the same name, see People's Action Party (disambiguation).

The People's Action Party (abbrev: PAP; Chinese: 人民行动党; Pinyin: Rénmín Xíngdòngdǎng) is a political party in Singapore. It has been the ruling political party in Singapore since 1959 and thus has a large role in the formation of the government of Singapore. From the 1963 general elections onwards, the PAP has dominated Singapore's parliamentary democracy and has been closely linked to the city-state's political, social, and economic development into a developed nation. It has, however, faced criticism from opposition parties for some of the laws the PAP-dominated Parliament has passed because the opposition perceives that this unfairly aids its achievement of dominance.

In the 2006 Singapore general election, the PAP won 82 of the 84 elected seats in the Parliament of Singapore.

Political development

The party was formed in 1954 by English-educated middle-class men who had returned from Britain. The PAP first contested the legislative elections of 1955, in which 25 of 32 seats were allowed to be elected. The PAP won three seats, one by Lee Kuan Yew. The PAP has controlled the Singapore government since the party won the general election of 1959, which was the first election which created a fully-elected parliament with self government. It has won all or vast majority seats of every general election.

Between 1963 and 1965, Singapore was a part of Malaysia and PAP functioned as a Malaysian party. However, the prospect that PAP might rule Malaysia upset the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the Malay nationalist belief in Ketuanan Melayu. Participation of both parties in the elections of the other's sphere of influence in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore respectively, further heated PAP-UMNO relations. The clash of personalities between then PAP Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the then-Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman resulted in an ensuing crisis and led to Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965. Upon independence, the PAP ceased operations outside of Singapore. The PAP has held the overwhelming majority of seats in Parliament since 1966, when the opposition Barisan Sosialis (Socialist Front), a left-wing group that split from PAP in 1961, resigned from Parliament after winning 13 seats following the 1963 state elections, which itself occurred months after a number of their leaders had been arrested in Operation Coldstore. The resignation left the PAP as the only major political party. In the general elections of 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1980, the PAP won all of the seats in an expanding parliament. Opposition parties have not held more than four parliamentary seats since 1984.

Organisation

Initially adopting a traditionalist Leninist party organization together with a vanguard cadre from its communist-leaning faction in 1958 the PAP Executive later expelled the leftist faction, bringing the ideological basis of the party into the centre, and later in the 60s, moving further to the right. In the beginning there were about 500 so-called "temporary cadre" appointed but the current number of cadres is unknown and the register of cadres is kept confidential. In 1988, Wong Kan Seng revealed that there were more than 1,000 cadres. Cadre members have the right to attend party conferences and to vote for and elect and to be elected to the Central Executive Committee (CEC), the pinnacle of party leaders. To become a cadre, a PAP member is first nominated by the MP in his or her branch. The candidate then undergoes three sessions of interviews, each with four or five ministers or MPs, and the appointment is then made by the CEC. About 100 candidates are nominated each year.

Political power in the party is concentrated in Central Executive Committee (CEC), led by the Secretary-General. Most of the members in the CEC are also cabinet members. From 1957 onwards the rules said that the leaving CEC should recommend a list of candidates on which the cadre members can then vote. This has been changed recently so that the CEC nominates eight members and the party caucus selects the remaining ten. The party regards ethnic diversity and representation of women as very important.

The next lower level committee is the HQ Executive Committee (HQ exco) which performs party's administration and oversees twelve sub-committees. The sub-committees are:

1. Branch Appointments and Relations
2. Constituency Relations
3. Information and Feedback
4. New Media
5. Malay Affairs
6. Membership Recruitment and Cadre Selection
7. PAP Awards
8. Political Education
9. Publicity and Publication
10. Social and Recreational
11. Women's Wing
12. Young PAP

Ideology

File:Pap logo highlight.gif

Party logo with a symbol of red lightning that signifies action.

Since the early years of the PAP's rule, the idea of survival has been a central theme of Singaporean politics. According to Diane Mauzy and R.S. Milne, most analysts of Singaporeans have discerned four major "ideologies" of the PAP: pragmatism, meritocracy, multiracialism, and Asian values or communitarianism. In January 1991, the PAP introduced the White Paper on Shared Values, which tried to create a national ideology and institutionalize Asian values. The party also has 'rejected' what they considered Western-style liberal democracy. Some claim largely as a political statement because of the heavy utilisation of many aspects of liberal democracy in Singapore's public policy, specifically the welfare state and recognition of democratic institutions. Professor Hussin Mutalib, however, states that for Lee Kuan Yew "Singapore would be better off without liberal democracy"

The party economic ideology has always accepted the need for some welfare spending, pragmatic economic interventionism and general Keynesian economic policy. However, free-market policies have been popular since the 1980's as part of the wider implementation of a meritocracy on Singaporean civil society and Singapore frequently ranks extremely highly on indices of "economic freedom" published by economically liberal organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Lee Kuan Yew has also said in 1992: "Through Hong Kong watching, I concluded that state welfare and subsidies blunted the individual's drive to succeed. I watched with amazement the ease with which Hong Kong workers adjusted their salaries upwards in boom times and downwards in recessions. I resolved to reverse course on the welfare policies which my party had inherited or copied from British Labour Party policies."

The party is deeply suspicious of communist political ideologies, despite a brief joint alliance with the communists against colonialism in Singapore during the party's early years. It has since considered itself subscribing to social democratic ideologies, though the party has clearly moved to the right since the 1970s.

In 1976 the PAP resigned from the Socialist International, after the Dutch Labour Party had proposed to expel the party.

Controversies

The PAP's methods in consolidating power and suppressing some of its political rivals in the Singapore political landscape are often considered authoritarian by western liberals. The use of the judicial system in suing opposition members for libel, the internment of opposition politicians without trial under the Internal Security Act, its widely-perceived control of the press and media, and the need for police permits to hold any kind of public talk, exhibition, or demonstration are commonly-cited examples to support this view. One example of such controls, was when all demonstrations against the 2003 Iraq war withered due to lack of permits granted to the demonstrators. The leading newspaper of Singapore, the Straits Times is often perceived as a propaganda newspaper because it rarely criticises government policy, and covers little about the opposition. This perception is, furthermore, due to the fact that the parent of the paper, Singapore Press Holdings, is a government-linked corporation.

The election process in Singapore is overseen by the Elections Department, and the boundaries of the multi-seat group representative constituencies of Singapore are officially created by the President of Singapore but is usually advised by the Elections Department. The lack of separation of powers has led to accusations by the opposition parties and their supporters that the PAP is using its role as the ruling party of the government of Singapore to commit gerrymandering. These accusations include that the PAP intentionally causes redrawing of electoral districts just before the general elections, thus often erasing the opposition politicians' efforts in building rapport and community ties in the previously existing political divisions. The official justification is that due to changing demographics and the often rapid movements of Singaporeans across the nation, the constituencies have to be regularly adjusted so that each constituency generally represents the same amount of people, although due to the plurality voting system in effect in most of the constituencies, averaging the population in each constituency generally is to the advantage of the ruling party.

The opposition parties find it suspicious that constituencies in Singapore, especially the group representative constituencies where the PAP did relatively badly in were systematically removed from the electoral map by the next election and divided or merged into different constituencies. Cheng San GRC, Eunos GRC, Braddell Heights constituency, Paya Lebar constituency and Punggol constituency are some examples of constituencies which have been merged or divided into other constituencies, if one observes a list of changes to Singapore's electoral divisions.

Where possible, the observed pattern by the opposition is that they are either merged into strong PAP wards, or distributed between multiple wards. Marine Parade GRC, a PAP stronghold under the leadership of Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, thus extends all the way to the Serangoon area after swallowing Braddell Heights. Cheng San GRC was erased from the map and distributed between Ang Mo Kio GRC, where the current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is represented, Aljunied GRC and Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. The absorption of other constituencies into Aljunied GRC was satirised in an article in TalkingCock , a prominent element in Singaporean popular culture. However, the PAP claims the boundary review committee is a neutral body which advises on electoral boundary changes based on demographic changes.

The party's ability in delivering economic goods has been well proven over the past decades, and this has also been used as political carrots to sway electoral votes. With almost 80% of the population living in government-built public housing flats constructed by the Housing Development Board (HDB) since the 1950s, the HDB announced massive upgrading works for the older precincts across the country via the Main Upgrading Programme, Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme, Interim Upgrading Programme and so forth. As the upgrading works are done on a precinct level in batches, PAP's politicians began to politicise it by clamouring to get precincts within their jurisdiction to be selected first. It was noted that precincts in opposition wards were not selected initially, a situation the government explained as "giving priority to those who demonstrate they needed it most". The PAP did not indicate opposition precincts will be left out completely, but clearly suggested that PAP precincts will be given priority.

During the 1997 general election in the face of the major Tang Liang Hong challenge in Cheng San GRC, the PAP publicly stated that priority for upgrading works will be allocated according to district level polling results. They further warned that constituencies who fail to vote in a PAP candidate risk having their estates ending up as "slums". In the build-up to the General Elections of 2006, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong again voiced his concern that Hougang Single Member Constituency, held by the Workers' Party and Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency, held by the Singapore Democratic Alliance, would continue to be left behind in upgrading policies. He described the neighbourhoods as areas from the '1950s'. This practice is construed as "pork barrel politics" by critics of the PAP. Major criticisms include the idea that the PAP is serving primarily its own interests, instead of the citizens'. A commonly cited scenario is the notion of the elderly resident of an opposition ward having no choice but to climb stairs, due to the lack of lift upgrading, while the PAP holds out for political change in the ward.

Another allegation made against the PAP by the opposition has been that of nepotism. Several of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's family members hold prominent economic and political positions. His son, Lee Hsien Loong, is the present Prime Minister of Singapore and is the Vice-Chairman of the Government Investment Corporation, of which his father is the Chairman. His other son, Lee Hsien Yang, is the CEO of a major telecommunications corporation, Singtel, and Lee Wei Ling, his daughter, is the head of the National Neurological Institute. Lee Hsien Loong's wife, Ho Ching, is the executive director of Temasek Holdings, and in 2005, the Fortune magazine ranked her 11th in the list of most powerful women in business outside the United States. Minister Mentor Lee has been engaged in legal tussles with reputable publication The Economist in the past because of these published allegations, and the latter have issued public apologies as well as paid damages in restitution, on two separate occasions in 2004 and 2006.

Leadership

For many years the party was led by former secretary-general Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore's prime minister from 1959 to 1990. Lee Kuan Yew handed over the position of secretary-general to Goh Chok Tong in 1991. The current secretary general of PAP and prime minister is Lee Hsien Loong who succeeded Goh Chok Tong on 12 August, 2004. Lee Hsien Loong is the elder son of Lee Kuan Yew.

The party Chairman is Lim Boon Heng.

PAP's general election results

1955: won 3 of 25 elected seats, % NA. The PAP began as an opposition party with Lee Kuan Yew as opposition leader. The Labour Front won 13 seats and was the governing party.

1959: won 43 of 51 seats, with 53% of the vote (since 1959, voting in Singapore has been compulsory).

1963: won 37 of 51 seats, with 47% of the vote (opposition votes were spilt between the Barisan Sosialis Party and the United People's Party).

1968: won all of the seats, with 84% of the vote.

1972: won all of the seats, with 69% of the vote.

1976: won all of the seats, with 72% of the vote.

1980: won all of the seats, with 77% of the vote.

1984: won all except 2 seats, with 65% of the vote.

1988: won 80 of 81 seats, with 63% of the vote.

1991: won 36 of 40 contested seats, with 61% of the vote.

1997: won 34 of 36 contested seats, with 65% of the vote.

2001: won 25 of 27 contested seats, with 75% of the vote.

2006: won 45 of 47 contested seats, with 66.6% of the vote.

Trivia

The PAP symbol is similar to the old Flash and Circle used by British Union of Fascists under Oswald Mosley, and later under the Union Movement with the same leader. The meaning assigned to these symbols is also similar. The BUF and UM version (which was red, white and blue) was supposed to represent "...The flash of action inside the circle of unity....", while the PAP symbol (which is red and purple) stands for action inside the "unity of all races".

See also

• Barisan Sosialis
• Democratic Action Party

References

General references

• Goh, Cheng Teik (1994). Malaysia: Beyond Communal Politics. Pelanduk Publications. ISBN 967-978-475-4.
• Hussin Mutalib (2004). Parties and Politics. A Study of Opposition Parties and the PAP in Singapore. Marshall Cavendish Adademic. ISBN 981-210-408-9
• Mauzy, Diane K. and R.S. Milne (2002). Singapore Politics Under the People's Action Party. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24653-9
• "Singapore - People's Action Party". Retrieved November 7 2005.

External links

• People's Action Party - Official website