1959 Singaporean general election

General elections were held in Singapore on 30 May 1959. They were held under the new constitution and were the first in which all 51 seats in the Legislative Assembly were filled by election. This was the first election victory for the People's Action Party (PAP), as they won a landslide victory with 43 seats, and the party has remained in power ever since these elections.

Background

Political developments

David Marshall, the politician who led the ruling Labour Front after winning the previous general election in 1955, was vocally anti-British and anti-colonialist, and the British found it difficult to come to an agreement or a compromise about a plan for self-government; Marshall resigned from the party a year later, pledging that he would either achieve self-government or to resign. In his place, Lim Yew Hock campaign and manage to convince the British to make a definite plan for self-government.

By the time of the 1959 elections the Labour Front was in turmoil; Lim's strategy against the communists alienated a large part of the Chinese Singaporean electorate, which was the demographic targeted most during the anti-communist campaign. Lim's campaign also saw allegations of civil rights violations as many activists were detained without trial with the justification of internal security and tear gas were used against demonstrating students during the 1956 Chinese middle schools riots which were both anti-colonialist and anti-communist alike.

Constitutional reform

The Constitution of Singapore was revised accordingly in 1958, replacing the Rendel Constitution with one that granted Singapore self-government and the ability for its own population to fully elect its Legislative Assembly. Previously under the Rendel Constitution, drawn up in 1955 by a commission led by George William Rendel, the Legislative Assembly and its leaders could not fully be determined by the population; the British government appointed seven of the 32 members, with the remaining 25 seats elected by the public, albeit with limited suffrage. This itself was an improvement from the pre-1955 Legislative Council, electing nine members to the council.

This election was the first election after its full internal self-government granted by the British authorities; Singapore was now a recognised state, but was yet to gain full independence since the British still have external affairs such as the military and foreign relations. Due to the removal of suffrage restrictions, voting was implemented to be compulsory for the first time, and had done so in every election since 1959.

Parties

Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock on 10 November 1958, which consist of previously-elected Labour Front assembly members who were defected from Labour Front. SPA also invited members of Liberal Socialists and Workers' Party. SPA was formed to present a fresh image to voters in the lead up for the 1959 election, and ran on secure full employment and fair working conditions for workers, and achieving independence of Singapore through a merger with Malaya.

The tenure of Lim Yew Hock as Chief Minister, who succeeded Labour Front's David Marshall after his resignation in 1956, saw scant improvement to living conditions and unpopular tough measures on protesting unions. Lim's government also saw corruption during his tenure, and until the term expiry for Labour Front, all ten elected Assemblymen had resigned from the party due to credibility. These resignations saw the formation of three parties; in 1957, David Marshall founded the Workers' Party (one of the successful opposition parties of Singapore); in 1958, the Singapore People's Alliance (founded by Lim) and in 1959, the Citizens' Party.

SPA attempted to fight the record of the PAP administration in the City Council of Singapore with charges of corruptly appointing its supporters to fill up posts in the City Council, as well as raising concerns over the tenders of some Council contracts. The SPA even went as far as setting up a Commission of Inquiry in April 1959 to investigate whether there had been "irregularities or improprieties" in the working of the City Council. The inquiry, however, failed to reveal anything suspicious against the City Council and the hearings were adjourned indefinitely.

A new Party, Liberal Socialist Party (LSP) was formed by a merger of the Progressive Party and the Democratic Party. The Progressive Party which had won the 1948 and 1951 elections (but lost to Labour Front in the 1955 elections) had already fallen out of favour as it was perceived by much of the electorate by working for reform too slowly.

The Alliance was a coalition comprising the Singapore branch of three political parties from Malaya, namely the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC), which they ran on raising the standards of living as well as to strengthen economic ties between Singapore and Malaya. As their parent parties were the ruling coalition in Malaya under Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Alliance promised voters that it could work for an early merger if voted into power as they knew "exactly" what their Malayan counterparts wanted.

The Malay Union

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases