Tag Archives: Barisan Sosialis

I have attended a number of wakes. I know the etiquette, know the loved ones were heartbroken and how tired the mourners were. What I knew was just the tip of the iceberg until I was on the host instead of guest. After the shock of discovering a black hole where a large part of my world used to be, I had to talk to medical first respondents, police investigators and alert family members. After the morgue, funeral arrangements, obituary release and in dad's case, the press, everything was a daze.

Regrettable and shocking ignorance of Singapore's history. We WERE a multi-party democracy in 1965. In 1963 General Election, the PAP won 37 seats and 46.9% of the vote; the Barisan Sosialis won 13 seats and 33.2% of the vote; and the United People's Party won 1 seat and 8.4% of the vote. Between 1966-67, arrests, detentions, and resignations steadily reduced the opposition presence in Parliament, leading to the first PAP sweep of Parliament in the 1968 elections

The Plen had revealed how he had used the Chinese press to disseminate his opposing views. He also revealed how he had had secret meetings in Jakarta to lead the united front in Singapore and target the PAP for subversion, how he had ordered a top CPM cadre in the Workers Party to resign