 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(May 2013) |
Labour Front | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Malay name | Barisan Buroh |
| Chinese name | 勞工陣綫 Láogōng Zhènxiàn |
| Tamil name | தொழும் முன்னணி Toḻum muṉṉaṇi |
| English name | Labour Front |
| Founder | |
| Founded | 21 August 1954 |
| Dissolved | 28 February 1960 |
| Split from | Labour Party |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-left |
The Labour Front was a political party in Singapore that operated from 1955 to 1960.
The Labour Front was founded to contest the 1955 legislative elections by David Saul Marshall, Singapore's first chief minister and Lim Yew Hock, Singapore's second chief minister. A centre-left grouping, the Labour Front won 10 out of 25 elected seats in the legislative council and formed the first elected government of Singapore, which at that time was a separate crown colony.
Between 1955 and 1956, after sending two bi-partisan delegations to London for talks with the British, David Marshall's administration failed to gain approval from Britain for self-government in Singapore. David Marshall, taking responsibility for this failure, resigned in 1956 and soon went to form the Workers' Party of Singapore the following year. Critics believed that the British were not convinced of David Marshall's ability to govern Singapore well and to deal with the then rising threat of insurgency carried out in the name of communism. Marshall's more hardline stance in dealing with the underground communist movement was only counterproductive. He was succeeded by Lim Yew Hock.
The Lim Yew Hock government did not fare any better. Apart from the threat of the underground communist movement, Singapore faced problems in public order, poor economy, poor housing and sanitation, low living standards and corruption in the government. The then-opposition People's Action Party (PAP), led by Lee Kuan Yew, grilled the Labour Front government several times on these issues in parliamentary sessions. Later the majority of the Labour Front led by Lim Yew Hock, left the Labour Front to merge with the Liberal Socialists (formed by the Progressive Party and Democratic Party in 1956) to form the Singapore People's Alliance (SPA) in 1959.
In 1957 and 1958, two bi-partisan delegations successfully negotiated Singapore's status to be a self-governing state.
In the 1959 elections the PAP won 43 of 51 seats in the parliament with a popular vote of 53% and having campaigned on an anti-colonial platform with an ambition to initiate several reforms, improve the economy and living standards of the people and to eradicate corruption in the government. The SPA lost power and was reduced to only a handful of seats in opposition, while the residual Labour Front was reduced to a very small percentage of the original party and was eventually dissolved in 1960.
| Election | Seats up for election | Seats contested | Seats won | Change | Votes contested | Votes polled | Vote share | Swing | Contested vote share | Swing | Resulting Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 25 | 17 | 10 / 25 | new party | 108,632 | 42,300 | 27.06% | new party | 38.94% | new party | Coalition Government with support from the Singapore Alliance |
| 1959 | 51 | 3 | 0 / 51 |  10 | 29,130 | 3,414 | 0.65% | 26.41% | 11.72% | 27.22% | Extra-Parliamentary |
The People's Action Party is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and one of three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and Progress Singapore Party (PSP).
David Saul Marshall, born David Saul Mashal, was a Singaporean barrister and statesman who served as the inaugural Chief Minister of Singapore from 1955 to 1956. He resigned after just over a year at the helm after his delegation to London regarding negotiations for complete home rule and eventual independence of Singapore was initially rejected by the British. However, Marshall was nevertheless instrumental in forging the idea of sovereignty as well as in subsequent negotiations that led to its eventual self-governance from the United Kingdom in 1959.
Lim Chin Siong was a Singaporean politician and union leader active in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the founders of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), which has governed the country continuously since independence. Lim also used his popularity to galvanise many trade unions in support of the PAP.
Lim Yew Hock was a Singaporean-born Malaysian politician and diplomat who served as Chief Minister of Singapore between 1956 and 1959. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cairnhill between 1959 and 1963 and previously a Member of the Legislative Council and later Legislative Assembly between 1948 and 1963. He was de facto Leader of the Opposition between 1959 and 1963. He and his family elected to take up Malaysian citizenship after Singapore's independence from Malaysia.
Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is a post-secondary education institution and statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Education in Singapore.
The following lists events that happened during 1959 in Singapore.
General elections were held in Singapore on 30 May 1959. They were held under the new constitution and were the first in which all 51 seats in the Legislative Assembly were filled by election. This was the first election victory for the People's Action Party (PAP), as they won a landslide victory with 43 seats. The party has remained in power ever since.
The self-governance of Singapore was carried out in several stages. Since the founding of Singapore in 1819, Singapore had been under the colonial rule of the British. The first local elections on a limited scale for several positions in the government of Singapore started in 1948 following an amendment to the Constitution of Singapore.
Singapore, officially the State of Singapore, was one of the 14 states of Malaysia from 1963 to 1965. Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963 by the merger of the Federation of Malaya with the former British colonies of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore. This marked the end of the 144-year British rule in Singapore which began with the founding of modern Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. At the time of merger, it was the smallest state in the country by land area, but the largest by population.
The Legislative Assembly of the State of Singapore was the legislature of the Government of Singapore from 1955 to 1965 and is the predecessor of the Parliament of Singapore. The Rendel Constitution, proposed in 1953, sought to give the local population more self-governance as the Merdeka independence movement grew. The Constitution took effect upon the conclusion of the 1955 general election, creating the new Legislative Assembly to replace the Legislative Council of Singapore. In contrast to the Legislative Council, the majority of seats in the Legislative Assembly in 1955 were allotted by election rather than appointment by the British colonial government. 25 seats were elected and 7 were appointed. The British colonial government still reserved significant power, such as that of veto and control of certain aspects of the government.
General elections were held in Singapore on 2 April 1955 to elect members to the 25 elected seats in the Legislative Assembly. Nomination day was on 28 February 1955.
Ahmad bin Ibrahim was a Singaporean politician who served as Minister of Health between 1959 and 1961, and Minister for Labour from 1961 until his death in 1962, in the First Cabinet of Singapore. An active unionist, Ahmad was first elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Sembawang as an independent candidate in the 1955 general election.
Chew Swee Kee was a Singaporean politician. A member of political party Labour Front, Chew served as the first Minister of Education from 1955 to 1959.
Sir Han Hoe Lim was a Singaporean physician and politician.
Cairnhill Single Member Constituency (SMC) was a former single member constituency in Singapore. It used to exist from 1955 to 1988 as Cairnhill Constituency and was renamed as Cairnhill Single Member Constituency (SMC) as part of Singapore's political reforms. The SMC was merged into Kampong Glam Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in 1991.
Tan Chye Cheng, also known as C. C. Tan, was a Singaporean lawyer and politician.
The following lists events that happened during 1955 in Singapore.
The following lists events that happened during 1956 in Singapore.
Phey Yew Kok is a former Singaporean politician and union leader. He was the Member of Parliament for Boon Teck constituency from 1972 to 1980 and the President of the National Trades Union Congress from 1970 to 1980. He was convicted in 2016 for charges of misuse of union funds laid against him in 1979. He was on the run for 35 years before surrendering to Singapore authorities in 2015.
Armand Joseph Braga was a Singaporean politician and lawyer who served as the first Minister for Health between 1955 to 1959 and was a member of Labour Front. He was apart of the first Legislative Assembly of Singapore, representing Katong Constituency.
Parenthesis indicate seats represented in the Parliament of Singapore | |||||
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Notes: *The MPs of the Progress Singapore Party are Non-Constituency MPs. † The party has yet to contest in an election. | |||||
