Chiam See Tong

Political career

Chiam first entered politics in 1976 when he contested as an independent candidate in Cairnhill constituency, where he lost to Minister for Communications and National Development Lim Kim San. In the 1979 by-election, Chiam contested the Potong Pasir seat for the first time, again as an independent, and got 33% of the votes against the People Action Party (PAP)'s candidate Howe Yoon Chong.

Chiam founded the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) on 6 August 1980, and was the party's Secretary-General (leader) until 1993. He contested the Potong Pasir seat again in 1980 and lost to Howe again, but his vote share increased to 41%. In 1984, Chiam contested the seat against Mah Bow Tan, and won with 60.3% of the votes, on a swing of 19 percent against the PAP.

In his subsequent five elections, Chiam continued to fend off challengers from the PAP. His winning margin reached a peak of 69.6% in the 1991 polls.

When Chiam was first elected to Parliament in 1984, he was only the second opposition politician ever to be elected to Singapore's Parliament after J. B. Jeyaretnam of the Workers' Party (WP), in 1981. After Jeyaretnam was expelled from Parliament in 1986, Chiam was Singapore's sole elected opposition MP until 1991.

At the 1991 general elections, two other SDP members, Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen, were also elected to Parliament. Low Thia Khiang of the WP was also elected, making a total of four opposition MPs, with Chiam effectively the leader of the opposition.

In 1992, Chiam recruited Chee Soon Juan, a psychology lecturer at the National University of Singapore, to be an SDP candidate for a by-election in the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency. Although the SDP was unsuccessful in the by-election, the recruitment of Chee as a candidate generated considerable public interest. However differences between Chiam and Chee soon emerged. Chee was sacked from his job as a university lecturer in 1993, and publicly claimed that he had been the victim of a political vendetta by the governing People's Action Party (PAP). Chiam wanted to censure Chee for these comments, but the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) backed Chee. Chiam then resigned as Secretary-General of the party, and was replaced by Chee. The CEC, after convening a disciplinary hearing, voted to expel Chiam from the party after he publicly criticised them. However, Chiam won a court case to prevent them from doing so on procedural grounds. The CEC then appointed Ling How Doong to replace Chiam as the party's parliamentary leader.

Chiam left the SDP in December 1996 and accepted an invitation to join the Singapore People's Party (which was formed by a breakaway faction of the SDP in 1994) and became its leader. Standing for his new party, he was re-elected as MP for Potong Pasir at the 1997 general election. The negative publicity generated by the disputes with Chiam affected the SDP's electoral prospects, and both Ling and Cheo lost their seats, leaving Chiam and Low Thia Khiang as the only two elected opposition MPs. Chiam and Low remained the only two opposition MPs elected at all the subsequent general elections until 2011. At the 2001 general election, Chiam won Potong Pasir for the fifth time. At the 2006 general election, he won 55.82% of the votes to claim his sixth term, defeating the PAP's Sitoh Yih Pin. He had secured 8,245 votes against 6,527 for Sitoh. For many, this was a surprise victory for Chiam, as the PAP had offered an S$80 million upgrading package for the residents of Potong Pasir and had brought in then-Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong to help the PAP's campaign in the constituency.

In early 2008, Chiam suffered a mild stroke which led to the suspension of his 'Meet-the-People' sessions. In 2011, Chiam said "there's still remnants of the stroke which I suffered".

In 2009, Chiam celebrated his 25th year as MP for Potong Pasir. That year, he also announced that he did not plan to stand as a candidate for Potong Pasir at the next general election (due to be held on May 2011), and would instead be a candidate in a Group Representation Constituency (GRC).

In 2010, Chiam tried to bring the Reform Party into the SDA. He reportedly accepted the conditions the Reform Party set out for joining the alliance, however the terms of entry were opposed by other members of the SDA's Council who blocked the move. In 2010 and early-2011, it was also reported that some members of the SDA's Council felt that Chiam was unable to properly fulfil his role of Chairman of the alliance, after he had cut back his political activities following his stroke in 2008. On 28 February 2011, the SDA's Council voted to relieve Chiam of his role as chairman, however the Council stressed that they still hoped to field Chiam as a candidate at the next general election. But two days later, on 2 March 2011, Chiam announced that the Singapore People's Party was withdrawing from the SDA, and that he would stand under the banner of the SPP instead of the SDA at the next general election.

For the 2011 general election, Chiam's wife, Lina Loh Woon Lee (sometimes referred to as Lina Chiam), the SPP candidate in Potong Pasir. Chiam himself became a candidate in the Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency. Chiam's team in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC finished with 43% of the votes, and was defeated by the PAP team led by then-Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng. His wife Lina Chiam (Lina Loh) failed to retain his old Potong Pasir seat and was defeated by his opponent in the last two elections, the PAP's Sitoh Yih Pin, by a margin of 114 votes (0.72%). A week later, the Singapore People's Party (SPP) announced that Lina Chiam would accept an offer to become a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament as one of the best-performing losing opposition candidates.

In October 2014, 29-year-old Loke Hoe Yeong, the assistant secretary-general of SPP, released the first instalment of a two-part biography of Chiam, Let the People Have Him. Published by Epigram Books, the 232-page book traced Chiam's road to Parliament, and revealed that Chiam's grandfather, Chiam Seng Poh, was a revolutionary who helped Sun Yat-sen overthrow the Qing dynasty. In addition, Let the People Have Him revealed that one of Chiam's maternal aunts, Mabel, married Kwa Soon Siew – a brother of Kwa Geok Choo, the wife of Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. The second part of Chiam's biography is expected to be released in 2017.

Life outside politics

Chiam qualified as a barrister at the Inner Temple in London in 1974. He then joined Philip Wong and Company as a lawyer, before starting his own law firm, Chiam and Company, in 1976.

Chiam retired from his law practice in 2002 to become a full-time politician.

Parliamentary Committee membership

Chiam has been a member of Parliament since 22 December 1984.