People's Action Party

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

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The People's Action Party (abbrev: PAP; Chinese: 人民行动党; Pinyin: Rénmín Xíngdòngdǎng; Malay: Parti Tindakan Rakyat) 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.

Contents 1 Political development 2 Organisation 3 Ideology 4 Leadership 5 PAP's general election results 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 References 8.1 Citations 8.2 General references 9 External links

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 ^[1] 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. ^[2]

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 outgoing CEC should recommend a list of candidates from which the cadre members can then vote for the next CEC. 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. ^[3] 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

[edit] Ideology

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" ^[4]

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." ^[5]

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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". The industrial band Throbbing Gristle has a very similar logo, albeit symbolising the short circuiting of power.

[edit] See also

• Barisan Sosialis
• Democratic Action Party

[edit] References

[edit] Citations

[edit] General references

[edit] External links

• People's Action Party - Official website