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Jeyaretnam is dead

SINGAPORE: J. B. Jeyaretnam, whose lonely name was for some time a byword for opposition in Singapore’s streamlined politics, passed away here on Tuesday, aged 82.

Leader of the Workers’ Party for 30 years until 2001, when he left it, Mr. Jeyaretnam floated the Reform Party about two months ago.

Winning a by-election in 1981 and becoming the first to enter the City-State’s Parliament as an opposition member in over 15 years since independence, he retained his seat in the 1984 general election. Two years later, he was convicted on charges related to his party’s accounts. His political career thereafter was punctuated by an interlude as an MP following the 1997 general election, defamation cases against him, and nearly seven years as “a bankrupt” until a few months ago.

More recently, Mr. Jeyaretnam traced his political “spirit” to his ancestral roots in “the territory of the Tigers” – the LTTE.

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