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Reform Party (Singapore)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Singaporean political party. For other uses, see Reform Party (disambiguation).

The Reform Party
Malay nameParti Reformasi
Chinese name革新党
Géxīn Dǎng
Tamil nameசீர்திருத்தக் கட்சி Cīrtiruttak Kaṭci
ChairmanYasmine Valentina (acting)
Secretary-GeneralKenneth Jeyaretnam
FounderJ. B. Jeyaretnam
Founded3 July 2008; 16 years ago (2008-07-03)
Split fromWorkers Party
Headquarters18A Smith Street
Singapore 058932
NewspaperThe New Dawn
Youth wingYoung Reformers
Ideology
Political positionCentre-left
National affiliationPeople's Alliance for Reform
Colours  Yellow
Parliament
0 / 104
Website
reform.sg

The Reform Party (abbreviation: RP) is a political party in Singapore. It is a liberal-democratic party. According to the party's constitution, it seeks to promote "political, social and economic reform; the restoration of full human rights; a fairer and just distribution of wealth with the elimination of poverty; an independently appointed judiciary and a fully elected and sovereign parliament". Its stated philosophy is "That every member of the society is born with fundamental rights which cannot be abrogated... and that it is the paramount duty of the society to promote the human dignity of its every single member."[2]

It was founded by opposition veteran and lawyer J. B. Jeyaretnam, the former Secretary-General of the Workers' Party of Singapore (WP) and the first opposition candidate in post-independence Singapore, on 3 July 2008. Around three months after the party's foundation, Jeyaretnam died on 30 September, and the leadership has since taken over by his son, Kenneth Jeyaretnam.[3]

History

[edit]

Founding and change in leadership

[edit]

The Reform Party was founded by lawyer and veteran politician J.B. Jeyaretnam in 2008. Formerly from WP, Jeyaretnam (then a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament) was sued by Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong over defamation at the total damages amounting S$565,000 including court costs of S$270,000, and was declared bankrupt (which also barred the right from standing in elections) after failing to follow up his payment. He subsequently resigned from his leadership post and party later, citing that the party did not give him support to help him with his payments. In May 2007, Jeyaretnam was discharged from bankruptcy and eventually reinstated to the bar later in September. He would go on to register and form Reform Party on 3 July 2008, where he became the pro-tem Secretary-General.

On 30 September, around three months after founding RP, Jeyaretnam died following a heart attack, and over a thousand people attended his funeral.[4] Jeyaretnam's son, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, who at the time resided with his family in the United Kingdom and had previously never participated in politics directly, took over as secretary-general in April 2009.

First election and by-election

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On 8 May 2010, the party announced its six candidates well in advance of the upcoming General Election, which also include Kenneth.[5] However, several members who joined the party resigned to join other parties, such as Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, Tony Tan Lay Thiam and his wife Hazel Poa and Nicole Seah.[6] Earlier on, the party was initially invited by Chiam See Tong to join the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) with RP setting out 11 conditions to join the SDA.[7] However, the rest of the leadership of SDA voted not to make a decision on the list of conditions,[7][8] and the discussion was leaked to the press. As a result, Jeyaretnam decided that RP would not join the SDA.[8]

During the 2011 general election, RP fielded two teams to contest in West Coast and Ang Mo Kio GRCs, which were respectively led by Minister of Trade & Industry Lim Hng Kiang and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, both of the People's Action Party (PAP). In his first campaign speech on late April 2011, Kenneth said that competition in politics would lead to better and more intelligent policies for Singapore. He also noted that the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) would likely open the floodgates to more foreigners to enter Singapore again once they formed the next government.

However, their electoral debut was unable to bear fruit, as both contests were lost to the PAP with a combined vote share of under 35% from the two constituencies that it contested. Some members subsequently left the party afterwards.

A by-election in Punggol East Single Member Constituency was held on 26 January 2013 after the resignation of former parliamentary speaker Michael Palmer on 12 December 2012. Secretary-general Kenneth participated in the by-election, but was defeated to WP's Lee Li Lian in a rare four-cornered contest.[9] Kenneth forfeited his S$14,500 election deposit as he garnered only 1.2% of the valid votes cast (per electoral rules, the threshold of retaining the deposit is 12.5%, or one-eighth, of the valid votes cast for the constituency).[10]

Further electoral defeats and leadership changes

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During the 2015 general election, RP fielded 11 candidates contested in three constituencies, Ang Mo Kio and West Coast GRCs and Radin Mas SMC, a ward which was part of the Jeyaretnam's former Anson constituency. The election also marked the debut of activists Roy Ngerng and M Ravi. In their nomination speech for Ang Mo Kio GRC, Ravi's speech was made semi-viral after he accidentally chanted out PAP before quickly correcting to RP while persuading the voters to vote for their party. On 7 September, RP subsequently released their manifesto.[11]

On 11 September, their electoral performance dwindled down compared to the last election as they garnered only 20.60% of the votes on the three constituencies contested, which was mostly attributed to the large swing towards the ruling party, where they attained large winning margins.[12][13]

In 2018, they were among the seven other opposition parties (the other were People's Power Party, Singaporeans First, Singapore Democratic Party, Democratic Progressive Party, National Solidarity Party, and People's Voice Party, the latter formed by former NSP chief Lim Tean) present in a meeting led by former PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock, in their discussion of a possibility of forming a collation for the next election.[14]

During the 2020 general election, RP fielded only six candidates and contested two constituencies, Ang Mo Kio GRC and Radin Mas;[15] in breaking tradition, the party chose not to contest West Coast GRC,[16] avoiding a three-corner fight with Progress Singapore Party, a new party led by former PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock.[17] Initially intending to contest Yio Chu Kang SMC, RP accused PSP for not living up to an agreement that RP would ceded West Coast GRC to PSP while PSP would not contest Yio Chu Kang SMC. In response, the PSP argued that no such agreement existed.[18] During the campaigning period, secretary-general Kenneth did not participate in the campaigning nor turn up for televised broadcasts as he was serving a mandatory 14-day Stay Home Notice after a visit to United Kingdom.[19] On 10 July, the party won neither constituencies, with vote shares of 28.09% and 25.97% respectively. RP improved their party's vote share by 27.84% from the last election.[20][21]

On 5 August, chairman Andy Zhu and treasurer Noraini Yunus were removed by Jeyaretnam from the CEC with CEC member Charles Yeo and deputy treasurer Mahaboob Batcha, taking their places as chairman and treasurer respectively.[22] Several members left the party and followed Zhu and Noraini to form the Singapore United Party.[23]

On 15 January 2022, Yeo temporarily relinquished his chairmanship of the party due to his arrest over alleged offences of criminal breach of trust and forgery in the course of his work.[24]

In June 2023, the Reform Party would, along with the Democratic Progressive Party, People's Voice and People's Power Party, form the People's Alliance for Reform.[25]

Objectives

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The slogan on the Reform Party's website states "Transparency, Accountability and Inclusion: A democratic Singapore for Singaporeans." In the 2015 elections, the party slogan was "A Brighter Future Tomorrow, Today".

The main objectives of the party stated in its constitution are: to maintain and promote an independently appointed judiciary and a fully elected and sovereign parliament; to ensure that every member of society is entitled to political, social and economic rights; and to eliminate poverty by enforcing a fairer and just distribution of wealth.

In its National Day Message 2015 published on 9 August 2015, the party stated, "We need to secure for Singaporeans a fairer distribution of the national wealth by redistributing some of the massive wealth hoarded by the PAP Government." It proposed to do this "without adopting a high tax regime which might damage Singapore's competitiveness", given the healthy state of Singapore's national finances.

On 1 September 2005, nomination day for the 2015 General Elections, the party proposed a S$500 monthly allowance to Singaporean citizens aged 65 years and above.[26]

Organisation

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The Reform Party is unique among the political parties in Singapore, both government and opposition, in that its party structure does not follow a cadre based system of political organisation.[27] The party constitution states that the Party Conference is the supreme governing authority.[2]

Leadership

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List of secretaries-general

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No Name Years
1 J. B. Jeyaretnam 2008–2009
2 Kenneth Jeyaretnam 2009–present

Central Executive Committee

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Title Name
Chair Charles Yeo
Secretary-General Kenneth Jeyaretnam
Treasurer Mahaboob Baatsha
Member Janice Chin Mei Lin
Yasmine Valentina
Jahanghir Ibrahim

Electoral performance

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Parliament

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Election Leader Votes % Seats NCMPs Position Result
Contested Total +/–
Seats Won Lost
2011 Kenneth Jeyaretnam 86,294 4.28% 11 0 11
0 / 87
 Steady
0 / 3
 Increase 5th No seats
2015 59,517 2.63% 11 0 11
0 / 89
 Steady
0 / 3
 Steady No seats
2020 54,599 2.19% 6 0 6
0 / 93
 Steady
0 / 2
 Decrease 7th No seats

By-elections

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Election Leader Constituency
contested 		Votes % Seats Result
Contested Total +/–
Won Lost
2013 Kenneth Jeyaretnam Punggol East SMC 353 1.2% 0 1
0 / 1
 Steady Lost

References

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  1. ^ "About Us" http://reform.sg/?page_id=575 Archived 19 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ a b "Our Constitution | The Reform Party". reform.sg. Archived from the original on 18 August 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  3. ^ Geoffrey Robertson (7 October 2008). "Joshua Jeyaretnam". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Archived from the original on 3 September 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  4. ^ "Over 1,000 people turned up at JB Jeyaretnam's funeral". Channel News Asia. MediaCorp. 4 October 2008. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  5. ^ "Reform Party unveils six election candidates" Yawning Bread Archived 12 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine, 9 May 2010
  6. ^ "Several key members of Reform Party resign" [1] Archived 29 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine, 23 February 2011
  7. ^ a b Kor, Kian Beng; Au Yong, Jeremy (8 May 2010). "Reform Party still in talks with SDA". The Straits Times. pp. A14.
  8. ^ a b Kor, Kian Beng; Au Yong, Jeremy (10 May 2010). "SDA-Reform Party alliance: On or off?". The Straits Times. pp. B5.
  9. ^ "WP's Lee wins Punggol East by-election". Channel NewsAsia. 26 January 2013. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  10. ^ "RP picks Kenneth Jeyaretnam as candidate for by-election". Channel NewsAsia. 15 January 2013. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  11. ^ Patrick John Lim (7 September 2015). "Reform Party unveils 12-page party manifesto". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  12. ^ Ong, Justin (27 August 2015). "Reform Party unveils slate of candidates for West Coast, Radin Mas". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 29 August 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  13. ^ "GE2015: RP unveils Ang Mo Kio team led by M Ravi". TODAY Online. 28 August 2015. Archived from the original on 30 August 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  14. ^ "7 opposition parties discuss forming a new coalition, invite former PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock to be leader". The Straits Times. 28 July 2018. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  15. ^ Charmaine Ng (27 June 2020). "Singapore GE2020: Reform Party announces campaign slogan, manifesto". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  16. ^ Tee, Zhuo (24 June 2020). "GE2020: No more three-cornered fight in West Coast as Reform Party backs out". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 24 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  17. ^ Koh, Fabian (13 June 2020). "Progress Singapore Party close to finalising line-up for West Coast GRC team led by Tan Cheng Bock". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  18. ^ Aw, Cheng Wei (27 June 2020). "Singapore GE2020: Reform Party and PSP in dispute over 'deal' on Yio Chu Kang". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  19. ^ "GE2020: MOH rejects Reform Party chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam's request to waive stay-home notice". CNA. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  20. ^ "GE2020 official results: PAP wins Ang Mo Kio GRC with 72% against Reform Party". Straits Times. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  21. ^ "GE2020 results: PAP's Melvin Yong wins Radin Mas SMC with 74.03% of votes over RP's Kumar Appavoo". AsiaOne. Archived from the original on 12 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  22. ^ "Charles Yeo becomes Reform Party chairman, party to conduct GE2020 post-mortem". Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  23. ^ "Former Reform Party chairman Andy Zhu and others form new political party, Singapore United Party". The Straits Times. 3 January 2021.
  24. ^ "Charles Yeo steps aside as Reform Party chairman, gives more details about how he was arrested". mothership.sg. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  25. ^ "Four opposition parties to form new alliance ahead of the next GE". The Straits Times. 1 June 2023. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  26. ^ Mediacorp Channel 5 News, 9 pm, 1 September 2015
  27. ^ "The cadre system, our biggest obstacle to democracy". Reinventing the Rice Bowl. Kenneth Jeyaretnam. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
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