J. B. Jeyaretnam
| Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Member of Parliament for Anson SMC |
|
|
In office 31 October 1981 – 10 November 1986 |
|
| Preceded by | Devan Nair |
| Majority | 2,376 (13.6%) |
| Member of Parliament for Non-Constituency |
|
|
In office 2 January 1997 – 3 November 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Lee Siew Choh |
| Succeeded by | Steve Chia |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
5 January 1926 Jaffna, British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) |
| Died | 30 September 2008 (aged 82) Novena, Singapore |
| Nationality | Singaporean |
| Political party |
Workers' Party (1971–2008), Reform Party (2008-2008) |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Jeyaretnam |
| Children |
Kenneth Jeyaretnam, Philip Jeyaretnam |
| Religion | Anglican |
| Nickname(s) | The Tiger (of Anson) |
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam (5 January 1926 – 30 September 2008), more commonly known as J. B. Jeyaretnam or J.B.J., was a Singaporean politician and lawyer. He was the leader of the Workers' Party from 1971 to 2001. In 1981, he became the first opposition politician since Singapore's independence in 1965 to win a seat in Parliament, when he defeated Pang Kim Hin of the governing People's Action Party (PAP) in a by-election in Anson Single Member Constituency. He was re-elected at the 1984 general election, but lost his seat in Parliament in 1986 following a conviction for falsely accounting the party's funds. His conviction was subsequently overturned by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which called the conviction a "grievous injustice". Jeyaretnam returned to Parliament after the 1997 general election as a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP). However, he was stripped of his NCMP seat in 2001 when he was declared bankrupt after failing to keep up with payments for damages owed to PAP leaders as a result of a libel suit. He left the Workers' Party later that year. He was discharged from bankruptcy in 2007, and founded the Reform Party in June 2008. He died of heart failure in September 2008, three months after founding the Reform Party, which is now led by his son Kenneth Jeyaretnam.
An Anglican Christian of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, Jeyaretnam was born in the village of Chankanai in Jaffna while his parents were on leave from Malaya. Jeyaretnam started his formal education in Muar in a French convent where his eldest sister was a student. His subsequent education at English College Johore Bahru was disrupted by the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Jeyaretnam learned Japanese to make himself more employable, and began working in the census department, then as an interpreter in japanese Transport Department. In Jeyaretnam's oral interviews, he said it was a means to avoid being pressed into building the Burma Railway, called the "Death Railway" due to the high fatality rate during the construction. After the war, Jeyaretnam moved to Singapore where he continued his education at St Andrew's School, before going on to read law at University College London.
...
Wikipedia