Barisan Sosialis

(Redirected from Barisan Sosialis Party)

Categories: Cleanup from December 2004 | Political parties in Singapore | Social Democratic parties

The Barisan Sosialis (Socialist Front) is a Singaporean political party formed in 1961, by left-wing former members of the People's Action Party (PAP) and led by people such as Dr Lee Siew Choh and Lim Chin Siong. In the Malay language, the party name translates into Socialist Front.

After the PAP came to power in 1959, the radical leftists of the party were unhappy with the more moderate Lee Kuan Yew's faction and broke away from the PAP. Barisan Sosialis was accused by the PAP for being used as a front for Communism, a charge which members of the party vehemently denied. However, there is no denial that the members of the party had some kind of admiration for the Chinese brand of revolutionary Socialism.

The party's program included anti-Malaysia campaigns. It believed that if Singapore joined the Federation of Malaysia, the anti-Communist Malaysian government would deal them more harshly than the PAP government in Singapore. In addition, it was believed that the merger was done to serve both the interests of the PAP and UMNO, both of which are anti-Communist and would cooperate to eliminate Communism from the Federation.

In February 1963, many members of Barisan Sosialis were arrested during Operation Coldstore by the Internal Security Department. Despite that, in the 1963 election, the Barisan Sosialis won 13 out of 51 seats, becoming the second largest and the leading opposition party. Nonetheless, the election results were viewed as a setback as the party had expected to win power. Earlier, they also failed to prevent the success of a referendum that approved Singapore's merger with Malaysia. In addition, partly because of a split in the opposition vote, the opposition could only win 14 seats (including one from the United People's Party) despite winning 53% of the votes.

After the elections, in a series of anti-Communist and anti-subversive activities, the Internal Security Department would continue to arrest members of the Barisan Sosialis, including MPs. One of them is Chia Thye Poh, a MP who was locked up in 1965 and was only released in 1998. The government has repeatedly insisted that Chia is a Communist and has testimonies from 2 ex-members of the underground Malayan Communist Party to prove this. Chia has repeatedly denied that he is one and insisted that he is a prisoner of conscience.

Meanwhile, the merger with Malaysia was a failure. In 1965, Singapore was expelled from the Federation and became a Republic. After Singapore became independent, the party's members of parliament began to resign one by one in 1966. Though the Barisan Sosialis' official position was to 'take the fight to the streets', in reality, the party believed that Singapore's future was in serious doubt and felt pointless to continue the political struggle. In the by-elections for these vacant seats, the PAP had a clean sweep. Calls for blank ballots by the Barisan Sosialis went unheeded. By 1968, there was no opposition member of parliament and it would take another 13 years before the opposition parties could win a seat in parliament.

Since then, the party itself has failed to win a single seat in parliament.

Later in an election rally in 1980, Dr Lee Siew Choh apologised to the voters for what they did in 1966 and admitted what they had done was a grave mistake. In 1988, the Barisan Sosialis was dissolved and its members, led by Dr Lee Siew Choh, joined the Workers' Party of Singapore.