Jeyaretnam may lose parliament seat


	Agence France Presse July 20, 2000 THE grand old man of Singapore's opposition ranks could lose his parliamentary seat after an unsuccessful appeal against defamation claims that could force him into bankruptcy, the Straits Times reported today. J.B. Jeyaretnam, the 74-year-old head of the Workers' Party, lost an appeal in the High Court Wednesday to stop eight members of the Tamil Language Week organising committee, allegedly defamed by him, from claiming S$223,000 (US$128,735) in damages. The eight could take action to have Jeyaretnam declared bankrupt if he does not pay the damages, forcing his ousting from parliament. The eight members were found to have been defamed by a 1995 article in the Workers' Party newsletter, The Hammer, about an Indian community event which they organized. In May, Jeyaretnam saved his seat by paying S$12,092 in damages for defaming lawyers R. Kalamohan and R. Ravindran in the same article. Jeyaretnam failed in his bid for an elected seat in the January 1997 elections but became an MP on the strength of a law allowing the best-performing losing party to nominate a representative in parliament. The opposition parliamentarian has faced jail, fines and lawsuits during his long and lonely struggle against the powerful ruling People's Action Party. He is one of only three opposition MPs in the 93-seat parliament.