SINGAPORE Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew describes him as "a poseur, always seeking publicity, good or bad"; to many citizens, he is the country's best-known political maverick; to headline writers, he is often contracted to just "Jeya", or "JBJ".

In his own words, however, Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, Singapore's veteran opposition leader, says he might be somewhat tired after two decades of taking on the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), but he remains determined.

"It is a very lonely life," says the 75-year-old head of the Workers' Party and member of parliament. "It shouldn't be. And it isn't in other countries. But in Singapore it is."

The path of confrontation with the PAP, which has dominated Singapore's political landscape since the 1950s, is indeed one chosen by very few. Not only are the handful of detractors lining up against what by most quantifiable measures is one of the world's more successful governments, but they do so knowing PAP leaders defend their positions with great passion, tough politics and often a flurry of lawsuits.

In Singapore, an opposition lifestyle is not for the faint of heart. "We disagree quite a lot with the PAP," says Mr Jeyaretnam. "One of the basic questions is we are . . . opposed to the way that things are run in Singapore, to the system. That is why [Mr] Lee has said publicly, in parliament and outside, that I have to be destroyed."

The Workers' Party claims many Singaporeans have not benefited sufficiently from years of economic growth, that the system of government is too centralised and that, as a consequence, people are discouraged from thinking independently. Mr Jeyaretnam calls it "near-communist control".

"They don't want citizens to think very deeply on national questions, although they keep saying [that they do]," he says. "You see, if you think deeply, then you may be moved to action. And they don't want that . . . a lot of people feel quite dissatisfied with their way of life in Singapore."

Voters could get a chance to pass their own verdict later in the year. Although Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong can wait until August 2002 before he has to call fresh polls, many longtime Singapore pundits believe he will not wait out the full term. Mindful of a slowing domestic economy and an unsettled regional picture, especially in Indonesia, Mr Goh could go to the country before this year is out, they say.

Although everyone agrees the PAP will be swept back into power whenever the elections are held, regardless of whether any opposition MPs are returned, the vote will be keenly watched by those inside and outside the country. It is politics in microcosm.

"I think that [the election] will be this year," says Mr Jeyaretnam. "Economically and politically, it would be good for them to have it before the recession [in the United States] hits us."

The ability of the Workers' Party boss to compete in the forthcoming polls depends on how he has fared in the courts. As is often the case, Mr Jeyaretnam is wrapped up in a slew of libel and defamation lawsuits, some of which have been brought by leading PAP members.

The most serious charge - relating to payment of damages for a 1995 article in The Hammer, the party newsletter - saw him declared bankrupt in January. Under Singapore law, a bankrupt cannot hold a parliamentary seat. "I'll do everything possible to sort out [the cases]. I am only too keenly aware that unless the bankruptcy actions are sorted out, I may not be able to stand," he says.

Over the years, Mr Jeyaretnam has spent as much time in the courts as on the hustings and has skirted bankruptcy several times, after coming out on the losing side of many judgments. A predilection for legal action against the opposition is one of the hallmarks of the PAP, whose leaders say it is essential to take a tough stance to safeguard their personal reputations and the integrity of the political process. For his own part, Mr Jeyaretnam has tried to sue PAP leaders in return, although without much success. He is also facing defamation cases brought in 1997 by Mr Lee, Deputy Prime Ministers Lee Hsien Loong and Tony Tan Keng Yam, and others for comments at an election rally that year. No action was taken on these lawsuits until last December, when they were revived.

Mr Jeyaretnam suggests fresh life might have been breathed into the actions in a bid to render him ineligible for the next poll. "I've said that in court. Clearly, they did not want to proceed [before] because I was already in parliament as a Non-Constituency MP. But now, the elections are coming this year."

The Senior Minister's office declined to comment on this and other suggestions, choosing this time to hold fire in an electoral struggle that dates back to the early 1980s. Mr Lee and his successor Mr Goh got their first real taste of Mr Jeyaretnam's determination in 1981, when he won a by-election in the Anson constituency, breaking the PAP's monopoly on power. Mr Goh had taken charge of defending the seat in that contest and the upset, Mr Jeyaretnam was told, might have reduced today's prime minister to tears. The very public victory came just a year after Mr Jeyaretnam lost his wife, Margaret Cynthia.

"I was told that the night I won, taxi drivers were going around hooting their horns everywhere - boom, boom, boom. And petrol stations were saying: 'Don't worry, you don't have to pay', and [airline] crews overseas broke open champagne when they heard the results.

"So I think that it is fair to say that . . . there was a great relief. Suddenly, there had been an opening, an outlet for their feelings throughout the whole of Singapore," he says.

Inside Parliament, Mr Jeyaretnam and Mr Lee - both lawyers by training - embarked on a ferocious struggle for voters' hearts and minds, trading barbs and jibes in intense debates.

At the following general election, the Workers' Party chief held the Anson seat, but then lost the post amid a protracted and bitter series of legal battles. He re-entered parliament in 1997, but without a constituency, courtesy of a new mechanism to ensure some opposition representation at national level.

The long fight has brought with it a reputation for choosing to stand out in a city where most people opt to conform.

"Some [voters] just acknowledge me from the corner of their eye, instead of looking somewhere else, because they are frightened of being seen to acknowledge me, of coming and shaking my hand. But some do. I think [the PAP] know it, and that is probably why they are very anxious to see that I don't stand for elections," he says.

That might be overstating his case, but whatever the truth of the matter, Mr Jeyaretnam himself and those in the PAP know he is not getting any younger. A temptation to withdraw from a life of taking on a near-omnipotent ruling party is apparent, but the desire to fight remains a stronger impulse.

"Of course there are some times when I ask myself: 'Aren't you getting a bit tired of all this? Don't you think that you should give it up now?'," he says. "But that is only momentary, and I come back to it all the more determined to stand. I am determined to stand at the next elections. And they know it. The man up there is keeping me in the health that I need to continue the fight, so I like to think that it is his will that I go on battling."