MR KENNETH Jeyaretnam, the elder son of late opposition leader
J.B. Jeyaretnam, has joined the opposition ranks and is not ruling
out contesting the next general election.
Three weeks ago, he joined the Reform Party, which was set up by
his father a few months before he died last September.
The 50-year-old hedge fund manager was co-opted into the party’s
13-man central executive committee (CEC) a week later.
Mr Jeyaretnam confirmed to The Straits Times yesterday that he
had joined the opposition party. ‘The timing was right. My father
founded the party, so this is one way to honour him and to continue
his legacy,’ he said.
The party was set up by the late Mr Jeyaretnam - better known as
JBJ - after he was discharged from bankruptcy in 2007. It was
registered last July.
But he died of heart failure two months later. He was 82.
There has been speculation on the opposition scene in recent
months that the younger Jeyaretnam would be entering the fray. This
was in the light of speeches he made at events organised by
opposition parties in memory of his father.
Mr Jeyaretnam said he had recently thought about entering
politics, after Reform Party CEC member James Teo invited him to
join the party. He next met Mr Ng Teck Siong, the party chairman
and his father’s long-time ally, and made his decision.
Married with a 12-year-old son, Mr Jeyaretnam worked in London’s
financial sector for several years before he returned with his
family to Singapore last April.
His brother Philip, 45, is a Senior Counsel and partner at Rodyk
& Davidson, and a former president of the Law Society.
The brothers graduated from Cambridge University with
first-class honours degrees in economics and law respectively.
Asked if his brother would join politics too, Mr Jeyaretnam
said: ‘My brother is his own man. You would have to ask him.’
Mr Philip Jeyaretnam could not be reached for comment.
Mr Ng said the Reform Party plans to tap Mr Jeyaretnam’s
economics expertise, and might also field him at the next
polls.
‘As a party, we will try to get the best people to run for
elections. Kenneth is a potential candidate,’ he said.
Mr Jeyaretnam said he is open to standing as a candidate, and he
sees a need for a ‘real economist’ on the political scene, to raise
economic issues.
He added: ‘Like the Prime Minister, I also have a double first
from Cambridge.’
PM Lee Hsien Loong, 57, earned double first-class honours in
mathematics at Cambridge.
Is Mr Jeyaretnam a potential successor to his father’s
secretary-general post in the Reform Party? ‘The CEC will have to
decide on that,’ Mr Ng replied.
That post has been left vacant since Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam’s death.
Other vacant posts are those of assistant secretary-general and
treasurer, added Mr Ng.
The party has recruited 20 members since October. Among them is
Mr Ng E-Jay, 32, a blogger who is doing a doctorate in mathematics
at the National University of Singapore.
Political observer Eugene Tan, a law lecturer at Singapore
Management University, said Mr Jeyaretnam has given the Reform
Party a ‘tremendous boost’, given his academic achievements,
professional background and political pedigree.
Meanwhile, the party that the late Mr Jeyaretnam used to lead,
the Workers’ Party, has also seen changes in its membership, but in
the form of resignations. Four members have quit in the past two
weeks.
They include Mr Abdul Salim Harun, 27, and Ms Lee Wai Leng, 30,
who were part of the Workers’ Party team that lost to PM Lee’s team
in Ang Mo Kio GRC during the 2006 polls.
The party’s organising secretary, Mr Yaw Shin Leong, who led the
Ang Mo Kio team, said: ‘In all organisations, members come and go.
They have contributed to the party. We wish them well.’
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Singapore is not India and JBJ isn't Gandhi 