Singapore Court asked to wind up Workers' Party

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, including PAP member of parliament R. Ravindran, told Reuters on Wednesday a petition had been filed with the High Court to wind up the Worker's Party after it failed to pay over S$500,000 ($290,000) in libel damages and legal costs.

Under Singapore law, members of parliament automatically lose their seats if they are no longer members of the party that put them up for election.

Worker's Party Assistant Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang was directly elected for a second term in the 1997 general election. Veteran opposition leader J.B. Jeyaretnam earned his seat under a Singapore law as the best loser in that election, though he does not have voting rights.

The PAP holds 81 of the 83 elected seats in parliament.

The only other opposition member in parliament is Chiam See Tong of the Singapore People's Party.

Jeyaretnam, a colourful personality in Singapore's political scene and secretary general of the Worker's Party, has often been a vocal member of parliament championing causes such as civil liberties.

Jeyaretnam, who broke a PAP monopoly in parliament when he won election in 1981, could not be reached immediately for comment.

The lawyer said that the petition would be heard on April 16. She said the judge could issue winding up orders for the Worker's Party on that day as it had not applied for a stay of execution.

The party has appealed against the original libel judgment but no date has been fixed for the hearing.

"The law is that an appeal does not operate as a stay of execution. This is an execution procedure, so execution follows from the judgment. There is no application made by the Worker's Party (for a stay of execution)," she said.

The High Court ruled in December that the Worker's Party, Jeyaretnam and another member, A. Balakrishnan, had defamed members of a committee which organised a Tamil Language Week in 1995. All the plaintiffs who filed the petition to wind up the party were on the committee.

The suit was brought by the organising committee over an article in the party newsletter which alleged the organisers were government stooges seeking power.

The judge ordered them to pay S$265,000 in damages and legal costs.

The party argued the article, written by Balakrishnan, did not refer to the organising committee by name, but to individual groups which organised the event.

But the court said the article was defamatory and did refer to the committee. It also said the party's defence of fair comment was flawed.

The Straits Times newspaper said plans were also underway to take bankruptcy action against Jeyaretnam and Balakrishnan if they failed to pay the money owed.

Jeyaretnam only last month successfully evaded bankruptcy charges when he managed to persuade lawyers acting for Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong to give him more time to pay the remainder of S$100,000 in libel damages.