Jeyaretnam to stay in parliament

SINGAPORE'S veteran opposition leader Joshua Jeyaretnam on today won a fight to stay in parliament after a bankruptcy ruling against him was overturned.

Jeyaretnam said the High Court had earlier in the day overturned a previous ruling against him, after the 74-year-old lawyer and head of the opposition Workers' Party, failed to meet payments on S$30,000 (US$17,400) in damages arising from a defamation suit.

Under Singapore law, bankrupts cannot sit in parliament and Jeyaretnam would also have been prohibited from practising law.

"The judge said you pay and so we paid and the whole thing was set aside," Jeyaretnam told Reuters.

"I'll be in parliament on the 22nd of May when parliament is sitting."

The defamation suit stemmed from an article in the opposition party's publication that referred to several people of Indian heritage, including a ruling People's Action Party (PAP) member of parliament.

A court in 1998 ordered Jeyaretnam, editor of the publication, the author of the article and the party to pay damages totalling S$265,000.

Jeyaretnam had paid part of his share of the libel damages but failed to meet the final payment to one of the plaintiffs who then proceeded to take the bankruptcy action.

Jeyaretnam became the first man to break the PAP's monopoly in post-independence Singapore when he was elected in 1981.

His verbal jousts with then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in parliament became famous as he accused the government of curtailing civil liberties and freedom of the press.

Many of Singapore's best-known opposition leaders have faced legal action brought by the government or members of the PAP.

Critics say the actions and huge damages have had a chilling effect on political activity. PAP leaders counter that they act only as necessary to defend their integrity when unfairly attacked