Originally posted by killstyle:
WHY DO I KEPT HAVE THE FEELING THAT SHE WILL REPLAY THE CHEE SOON
JUAN OUTSED CHIAM SEE TONG SAGA IN THE OLD SDP???
LOW THIA KIANG THE NEXT CHIAM SEE TONG??
Why is the INTERNAL POLITICS of
the SDP so badly misunderstood, and CST's exit has always been
blamed on CSJ ?
The following is an extract
from Wikipedia :
the rise of the SDP was not to be, as differences soon emerged in
1993 about what the party should do with Chee Soon Juan's hunger
strike which happened after he was sacked from his university post
when he was found to be misappropriating hundreds of dollars of
research funds by the National University of Singapore (NUS). Chee
Soon Juan claimed this was a political vendetta plotted by the
ruling party (one of the PAP MPs is a NUS professor; Mr S.R.
Vasoo)[citation needed]. The PAP has however denied the accusation
and insisted the offense was real. Chiam See Tong urged Chee to
stop the accusations and get back to real business. However,
Chiam was not supported by most
of the party and the Central Executive Committee voted to get rid
of him as general secretary and replace him with
Chee. Supporters of Chiam quickly left the party
and formed the Singapore People's Party in 1994.
As if this was not enough, the party even decided to strip Chiam
See Tong's membership in the party[citation needed]. Had he lost
his membership, under the current law, he would also have to lose
his seat in parliament. This invoked unhappiness among opposition
supporters in Potong Pasir. Chiam took up this issue to the courts
which ruled in favor of him as it was illegal to do so. Hence
between 1993 and 1997, Chiam kept his seat in parliament officially
as a SDP member. In the 1997 elections, he took over from Sin Kek
Tong as the secretary-general (leader) of the Singapore People's
Party.
