First, let us read what objective parties have to say about
Chiam See Tong’s departure from the SDP.
“Conventional wisdom has it that Chee Soon Juan was the power
keg that caused the SDP to break up. Chee
succeed Chiam as secretary-general, and his more confrontational
approach certainly drew heavier PAP fire than
the SDP was used to. However, the truth
behind the SDP’s downfall is a lot more
complex. Internal differences were simmering before Chee appeared,
and probably would have boiled over even without him. The party’s
problems have more to do with its leaders’ inability to manage its
own growth and success.
This is the inevitable conclusion one would have to draw from
the curious events of 1993. That May, Chiam resigned as
secretary-general in a fit of pique, after he failed to persuade
the rest of his central executive committee to censure Chee for his
hunger strike. When the CEC members failed to
coax him back and announced his departure to the press, Chiam
proceeded to bad-mouth them openly, provoking them into holding a
disciplinary hearing that expelled him from the party. The renegade
MP took the CEC to court. Justice Warren Khoo
said that Chiam had brought his problems upon himself, but since
the party’s hearing had been carried out in an “inept manner,” the
sacking was unlawful. Chiam was ordered to be reinstated as a cadre
member, which he remained until he quit before the 1997 General
Election.”
- (Cherian George’s Singapore: The Air-Conditioned Nation)
“Furthermore, Chiam started to bring his own symphathizers who
attempted to change the SDP constitution to
prevent CEC members from holding paid
positions at the town councils run by the SDP
(these suggestions were thrown out by Ling after he won the
SDP chairmanship). Whatever the case, the
refusal by the CEC to condemn Dr Chee’s
hunger strike struck a nerve with Chiam, who then immediately
resigned without allowing himself to be persuaded by his own
CEC to be reasonable. Not long after his
resignation as Secretary-General, Chiam attacked his own party at a
Singapore Press Club event, during which he said:
I had to disassociate myself from people who are definitely
going in the wrong direction.
Nothing about being “forced out” there. Hmm.”
Taken from: http://dlzj.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/chiam-gate…
Now let us examine the facts of the matter.
Fact #1: Problems were already brewing between Mr Chiam and his
CEC colleagues even before I had joined the
SDP. This was revealed in court when he sued
the SDP in 1993.
Mr Chiam: “To me, the problems started in 1988, when Wong Hong
Toy and about 15 other Workers’ Party members joined the
party…there was backbiting and other problems…”
Former SDP chairman Mr Ling How Doong
confirmed this: “In my view, all the troubles between Chiam and
Wong Hong Toy started after the 1991 General Elections, when Wong
came to help me full-time.”
Mr Ashleigh Seow (Mr Francis Seow’s son), then a CEC member, testified: “Most people have had a difficult
time with [Mr Chiam] at one time or another.” Mr Seow was referring
to the period between 1988-1991 and to CEC
members like Messrs Jimmy Tan, Cheo Chai Chen, Francis Yong and
himself.
Fact #2: Mr Chiam did not like the idea of collective
leadership, which is what a CEC of a
political party and democracy are about.
I can only wonder why he is in Parliament as an Opposition
member when he is against the idea of collective leadership in the
first place. By the way, Mr Lee Kuan Yew of the PAP isn’t too fond of the idea of collective leadership
either…
Mr Chiam: “Collective leadership is nonsense.”
Mr Ling: “You’re talking of dictatorship.”
Fact #3: Mr Chiam first resigned as the secretary-general of the
party on 17 May 93. When the CEC refused to
support his motion to censure Chee Soon Juan for going on a hunger
strike, Mr Chiam tendered his resignation on the spot.
Fact #4: Mr Chiam’s demands to the SDP in
exchange for his return to the party was undemocratic and against
the party’s constitution. He insisted that he would return as
secretary-general only if the CEC gave him
sole power to appoint and dismiss CEC and
cadre members. He also wanted the SDP to sack
Mr Wong Hong Toy, then vice-chairman.
Fact #5: The SDP tried negotiating with
Chiam See Tong and kept his resignation made on 17 May 93 under
wraps for a month.
Taken from:
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/truth-about/35…
Fact #6: Chiam See Tong admitted himself that he was not ‘forced
out’.
The Straits Times quoted Mr Chiam as saying: “I had to
disassociate myself from people who are definitely going in the
wrong direction.”
He had to DISASSOCIATE. Nothing about
being ‘forced out’.
Fact #7: Chiam See Tong broke his own oath.
The attack by Mr Chiam at the SPC was
especially difficult to take given that it was he, when he was
secretary-general, who had made CEC members
sign an oath and a deed to “prevent high-ranking officials from
disparaging the party.”
Fact #8: 11 of the 13 CEC members voted to
expel Chiam See Tong.
Clearly, it wasn’t Chee Soon Juan who ‘ousted’ Chiam. It was
Chiam See Tong’s own CEC members who voted in
a democratic manner to expel him.
Fact #9: Even after the CEC voted to expel
Chiam, overtures were made by them to seek reconciliation. Chiam
See Tong was the one to turn down the olive branches.
Fact #10: Former High Court Judge, Warren Khoo, was quoted as
saying: “It may be fairly said that [Mr Chiam] brought the
disciplinary proceedings and court action on himself.”
Taken from:
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/truth-about/35…
Fact #11: Heavy-weight PAP members such as
Goh Chok Tong and Wong Kan Seng openly supported Chiam See
Tong.
Fact #12: Chiam See Tong was willing to force a 3-corner fight
in the 1997 General Elections, pitting the SPP against the SDP, which was not
only his former party but a fellow opposition party as well.
Fact #13: Chee Soon Juan behaved like a gentleman and refused to
be goaded into mudslinging his fellow opposition politician when
contacted by SPH.
Taken from:
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/truth-about/35…
In conclusion, we can safely say (without fear of defamation)
that Chiam See Tong was not ‘forced out’ of the SDP by any one single person. Records will show that the
CEC voted overwhelmingly to expel him.
Also, even after Chiam See Tong announced his resignation,
SDP CEC members were still willing to
negotiate with him, but it was Chiam See Tong who made unreasonable
demands that went against the party’s constitution. And even after
those demands were made, and after the CEC
voted to expel him, several olive branches were extended to Chiam
only to be rejected.
We now know that Chiam See Tong himself made CEC members swear an oath not to criticize the
SDP, but he himself broke that oath when he
attacked the SDP, not in private but in front
of the whole nation when he gave an interview to SPH.
Throughout the whole saga, Chee Soon Juan and his party members
in the SDP acted like perfect gentlemen and
refused to be goaded into a mudslinging match with a fellow
opposition politician. But the recent interview given by Mrs Chiam
showed that the PAP was not willing to let
the matter rest, and that they are perfectly willing to keep using
this lie, supported partly by Mr Chiam See Tong himself, to attack
the SDP.
And thus, Chee Soon Juan is forced to speak up and let the truth
be known. Had he maintained his silence, I am sure the PAP media will keep on using the Chiams to attack the
SDP as the General Election approaches.
