In July 1961, Lim Chin Siong and seven pro-communist People's Action Party (PAP) members of the Legislative Assembly challenged the PAP leadership. When their challenge failed, they were expelled on 26 July 1961 and thirteen PAP assembly members and twenty-two PAP branch officials quit the party to form the Barisan Sosialis (Socialist Front). The new party's officers were Lee Siew Choh, chair; Sandra Woodhull, vice chair; Lim Chin Siong, general secretary; and Ppo Soon Kai, assistant general secretary. They opposed Singapore's merger with Malaysia on the terms proposed by the PAP. In 1963, twenty-four leading members of the Barisan Sosialis (excluding Lee Siew Choh and the other Barisan assembly members) were detained in a security operation named Cold Store, together with twenty-one trade union leaders, nineteen university graduates and undergraduates (including seventeen from Nanyang University), seven members of rural associations, and five journalists. In the 1963 general election with compulsory voting and a 95 percent turnout, the Barisan won thirteen of the fifty-one seats with 33 percent of the votes.
In 1965 the Barisan Sosialis, having given an unconvincing performance in the Hong Lim by-election of that year, was already a flaccid political force, made weaker by internal fissures. The thirteen Barisan Members of Parliament boycotted Parliament when the Constitution Amendments Bill and the Singapore Independence Bill were passed by a two-thirds majority on 22 December 1965. In 1966, eleven Barisan MPs resigned on the grounds that neither national independence nor parliamentary democracy existed in Singapore. The Barisan decided to take their struggle "against imperialist oppression" to the streets. By 1967, when they called for a general strike, only three trade unions participated and twenty-six declined, and since then Barisan has failed to secure a seat in Parliament.
Further Reading
Drysdale, John. (1984) Singapore: Struggle for Success. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Times Books International.
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