Chiam See Tong
Chiam See Tong is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who served as the second longest-serving opposition Member of Parliament after Low Thia Khiang, having represented the constituency of Potong Pasir in Parliament from 1984 to 2011. Chiam was also formerly the longest-serving Opposition Leader in terms of total time served, as well as the opposition Member of Parliament until the end of 2017, when former Workers' Party then-secretary general Low Thia Khiang surpassed both of his records.
Chiam founded the Singapore Democratic Party in 1980 and led the party up to 1996, when he left the party to join the Singapore People's Party prior to the 1997 general election. He subsequently spearheaded the formation of the Singapore Democratic Alliance, and was its chairman and de facto opposition leader from 2001 to 2011. Later that year, he announced that he was withdrawing the SPP from the SDA grouping, and would contest the next general election under the SPP banner. At the 2011 general election, Chiam decided not to seek re-election in his Potong Pasir constituency and instead stood as a member of the SPP's team in the Bishan–Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency. The SPP was defeated by the PAP's team. His wife Lina Chiam had contested in his former seat but narrowly lost the election in Potong Pasir and had accepted a seat as a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament, where she served until 2015. Chiam retired from politics after 39 years at the age of 80 prior to the 2015 Singaporean general election, due to health reasons.
Political career
Independent
Chiam first entered politics in 1976 when he contested as an independent candidate in Cairnhill constituency, where he lost to Minister for Communications and National Development Lim Kim San. In the 1979 by-election, Chiam contested the Potong Pasir seat for the first time, again as an independent, and got 33% of the votes against the People Action Party 's candidate Howe Yoon Chong.Singapore Democratic Party
Chiam founded the Singapore Democratic Party on 6 August 1980, and was the party's Secretary-General until 1993. He contested the Potong Pasir seat again in 1980 and lost to Howe again, but his vote share increased to 41%. In 1984, Chiam contested the seat against Mah Bow Tan, and won with 60.3% of the votes, on a swing of 19 percent against the PAP.When Chiam was first elected to Parliament in 1984, he was only the second opposition politician ever to be elected to Singapore's Parliament after J. B. Jeyaretnam of the Workers' Party, in 1981. After Jeyaretnam was expelled from Parliament in 1986, Chiam was Singapore's sole elected opposition MP until 1991, in which two other SDP members, Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen, alongside Low Thia Khiang of the WP were elected, making a total of four opposition MPs, with Chiam effectively the leader of the opposition. At that time of the 1991 election, their party's performance attained its best result, scoring 48.6% of the party's popular vote, including Chiam's best-performing opposition result to date at 69.6%.
In 1992, Chiam recruited Chee Soon Juan, a psychology lecturer at the National University of Singapore, to be an SDP candidate for a by-election in the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency. Although the SDP was unsuccessful in the by-election, the recruitment of Chee as a candidate generated considerable public interest. The following year, conflicts between Chiam and Chee emerged after Chee was expelled from his job as a lecturer from NUS for citing about the misuse of funds to pay the courier fees for his wife, and also publicly claimed that he had been the victim of a political vendetta by the governing People's Action Party.
Chiam wanted to censure Chee for these comments, but the party's Central Executive Committee backed Chee. Chiam then resigned as Secretary-General of the party and proceeded to sue the party. The CEC, after convening a disciplinary hearing, voted to expel Chiam from the party after he publicly criticised them. Chiam filed a lawsuit against the SDP and won the court case to prevent them from doing so on procedural grounds.
Singapore People's Party
Chiam left the SDP in December 1996 and accepted an invitation to join the Singapore People's Party and became its leader. Standing for his new party, he was re-elected as MP for Potong Pasir at the 1997 general election. Chiam with Low remained the only two opposition MPs elected at all the subsequent general elections until 2011. At the 2001 general election, Chiam won Potong Pasir for the fifth time. At the 2006 general election, he won 55.82% of the votes to claim his sixth term, defeating PAP's candidate, Sitoh Yih Pin, who got the other 44.18% or 6,527 votes. For many, this was a surprise victory for Chiam, as the PAP had offered an S$80 million upgrading package for the residents of Potong Pasir and had brought in then-Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong to help the PAP's campaign in the constituency.In early 2008, Chiam suffered a mild stroke which led to the suspension of his 'Meet-the-People' sessions. In 2011, Chiam said "there's still remnants of the stroke which I suffered".
In 2009, Chiam celebrated his 25th year as MP for Potong Pasir. That year, he also announced that he did not plan to stand as a candidate for Potong Pasir at the next general election, and would instead be a candidate in a Group Representation Constituency.
In 2010, Chiam tried to bring the Reform Party into the SDA. He reportedly accepted the conditions the Reform Party set out for joining the alliance, however the terms of entry were opposed by other members of the SDA's Council who blocked the move. In 2010 and early-2011, it was also reported that some members of the SDA's Council felt that Chiam was unable to properly fulfil his role of Chairman of the alliance, after he had cut back his political activities following his stroke in 2008. On 28 February 2011, the SDA's Council voted to relieve Chiam of his role as chairman, however the Council stressed that they still hoped to field Chiam as a candidate at the next general election. But two days later, on 2 March 2011, Chiam announced that the Singapore People's Party was withdrawing from the SDA, and that he would stand under the banner of the SPP instead of the SDA at the next general election.
For the 2011 general election, Chiam's wife, Lina Loh Woon Lee, the SPP candidate in Potong Pasir. Chiam himself became a candidate in the Bishan–Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency. Chiam's team in Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC finished with 43% of the votes, and was defeated by the PAP team led by then-Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng. His wife Lina Chiam failed to retain his old Potong Pasir seat and was defeated by his opponent in the last two elections, the PAP's Sitoh Yih Pin, by a margin of 114 votes. A week later, the Singapore People's Party announced that Lina Chiam would accept an offer to become a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament as one of the best-performing losing opposition candidates.
In October 2014, the biography of Chiam, Let the People Have Him, by Loke Hoe Yeong revealed that Chiam's grandfather, Chiam Seng Poh, was a revolutionary who helped Sun Yat-sen overthrow the Qing dynasty. In addition, Let the People Have Him revealed that one of Chiam's maternal aunts, Mabel, married Kwa Soon Siew – a brother of Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew.
On 30 August 2015, Chiam announced that he chose not to stand in the 2015 general election. At the same election, his party, SPP, lost to PAP again and with WP having the closest result instead of SPP, Lina Chiam was not offered the NCMP position, ending their presence in the parliament after 31 years.
On 4 September 2019, the SPP announced that he would step down from the secretary-general post due to declining health. Chiam stepped down on 16 October 2019.
Life outside politics
Chiam qualified as a barrister at the Inner Temple in London in 1974. He then joined Philip Wong and Company as a lawyer, before starting his own law firm, Chiam and Company, in 1976.Chiam retired from his law practice in 2002 to become a full-time politician.
In 1981, Chiam initiated defamation action against some PAP leaders after they disparaged his professional competence. The PAP leaders agreed to pay damages and to settle the matter without trial.