Jeyaretnam faces bankruptcy court again

"I've not kept up with the payments," Jeyaretnam told Reuters.

Court records showed Jeyaretnam had been due to face a bankruptcy order on Friday, brought by lawyers for Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, but the case was subsequently postponed.

Under Singapore law, if the long-time Worker's Party (WP) leader were made a bankrupt he would lose his seat in parliament and be unable to continue his legal practice.

Jeyaretnam said the case had been postponed and a new court date would be fixed later. He did not elaborate on the reasons for the postponement.

Lawyers acting for Goh could not be reached for comment.

Jeyaretnam owes Goh S$100,000 (US$59,000) in damages, plus interest, on a finding that he libelled the prime minister.

Last October Jeyaretnam escaped being made a bankrupt when Goh accepted his plan for the damages to be paid in five equal instalments, including interest.

Goh's lawyers Allen & Gledhill filed the bankruptcy order in the high court after Jeyaretnam failed to make the payments.

Jeyaretnam -- who entered parliament in 1997 under a provision allowing the "best loser" a place if elected opposition seats fell below three -- said he would try to make the payments.

"I have to or I'll have to face bankruptcy," he said. The 72-year-old liberal politician has been in parliament before. In 1981 he became the first opposition member to be elected since independence in 1965.

Jeyaretnam's verbal jousts with then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew became the stuff of legend as he launched blistering accusations the government was curtailing civil liberties and freedom of the press, and he has continued to raise such issues.

Only this Thursday he moved a motion for parliament to ask the government to assure it would allow for a completely independent press. A columnist for a principal target of his argument, the government-linked Straits Times, said:

"In an eloquent, if rambling, hour-long speech, (Jeyaretnam) asked if a 'castrated' and 'manacled' press was consistent with Singapore's ambition of being a vibrant, competitive economy in the 21st century."

But, as has often been the case, his proposal got little sympathy from the government, and was overwhelmingly rejected.

A ruling party member said Singapore did not subscribe to the US model of the media, but wanted a non-adversarial press that reported accurately and objectively.

In any case, he said: "We don't control the press, we don't control what they publish."