The Barisan Sosialis headquarters in Victoria Street, which was raided by the Singapore Special Branch during Operation Coldstore in 1963. - ST/ANN
SINGAPORE: A total of 14 dormant political parties, including Barisan Sosialis - once Singapore’s largest opposition party - have been asked for proof of their existence by the authorities.
In a notice published in the Government Gazette on Aug 7, assistant registrar of societies Ravinder Kaur asked for the information, “having reason to believe that the societies...have ceased to exist”.
The political parties have three months to furnish proof of their continued existence, failing which the Registrar can then publish another notice in the gazette to declare them as defunct under the Societies Act.
Barisan Sosialis, registered in August 1961, was formed by thirteen former PAP assemblymen following their expulsion for abstaining from a Legislative Assembly vote on the confidence of the government.
Several of its members, including party leader Lim Chin Siong, were among the more than 100 people arrested in Operation Coldstore - a security swoop against leftists and pro-communists on Feb 2, 1963.
At the 1963 general election, the Barisan won 13 of the 46 seats it contested. Following Singapore’s separation from Malaysia in 1965, its MPs boycotted Parliament as they deemed the Republic’s independence as “phoney”.
The Barisan returned to fight the 1972 general election, but failed to win any seats. It was last represented at an election in 1984, and merged with the Workers’ Party in 1988.
Among the other parties called upon to provide proof of their existence was the United People’s Party (UPP), founded by former PAP leader Ong Eng Guan in July 1961 following his expulsion from the PAP.
As with the Barisan, the UPP fielded 46 candidates in the 1963 general election. It won one seat - Hong Lim, where Ong was the incumbent. He left politics in 1965.
The only party on the list registered post 2000s was the People’s Liberal Democratic Party.
The party was registered by former independent candidate Ooi Boon Ewe on May 2, 2006, but the application to set up the party was approved too late for him to run in the election held that year.
Dormant political parties here have been revived in the past. At the 2015 general election, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) - which had been inactive for over a decade - formed a joint team with the Singapore People’s Party to contest Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC. The PAP won with 73.59 per cent of the vote.
The other political parties mentioned in the gazette notice were: Alliance Party Singapura, National Party of Singapore, Partai Rakyat, Singapore State Division, Parti Kesatuan Ra’ayat (United Democratic Party), People’s Front, People’s Republican Party, Persatuan Melayu Singapura, Singapore Chinese Party, Singapore Indian Congress, United National Front and United People’s Front.
The Straits Times has contacted the Ministry of Home Affairs, which the Registry of Societies comes under, for more information about the Gazette notice, such as the criteria used to judge if a society is defunct. - The Straits Times/ANN
