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.
Most of your facts are extracted from SDP website. So the
accuracy is hard to believe as well (Same as source taken from
SPP/PAP, if any)
BTW, is there a chance that Chee manipulate the CEC to vote
Chiam out. If there is a such possibility, then it is neither
democratic in any sense, and also, this is forced Chiam out, which
is what I believed anyway.
