Members of the Singapore People's Party at a post-election
mobile rally thanking residents in Potong Pasir and Bishan-Toa
Payoh for their support. (Yahoo! file photo)
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Sun, Jan 22, 2012
Tue, Oct 25, 2011
In what seems to be the culmination of several months
of rising tension in the
Singapore People’s Party (SPP), six key members of its central
executive committee (CEC) have resigned from the party.
Yahoo! Singapore has learned that its first assistant
secretary-general Wilfred Leung, second assistant secretary-general
Benjamin Pwee, organising secretary Ting Sze Jiang, Malay/Muslim
Affairs head Mohamad Hamim bin Aliyas, his wife, who is also a
member of the party CEC, and SME businessmen affairs head David Tan
all submitted notice of their resignations from the party to
secretary-general
Chiam See Tong and chairman Sin Kek Tong in the days leading up
to and on Friday evening.
Last week, it emerged that Leung and Pwee had advised the CEC of
their
intention to decline being re-elected, while Tan was the first
to inform the committee of his decision to resign from the
party.
Tan told Yahoo! Singapore on Friday, “My reason is my
sense of belief that one or two key CEC members are not willing (to
accommodate) a complete change over for collective leadership and
accountability, and that being the case, my presence in the party
will not add credible value.”
He added that the decision to leave the party was a difficult one
for both himself and “several like-minded CEC members”, whom he did
not identify.
Yahoo! Singapore also understands that several other CEC
members, including long-time veterans and loyal supporters of Mr
and Mrs Chiam, may be submitting their resignations on
Saturday.
Another source said at one point, Mrs Chiam had even threatened to
commence legal proceedings against a key CEC member.
The mass exodus comes ahead of the party’s annual congress,
scheduled for Sunday afternoon at the SPP headquarters at Siang
Kuang Avenue.
Despite repeated attempts, Mrs Chiam could not be reached for
comment.
