J. B. Jeyaretnam

Who was J. B. Jeyaretnam?

Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam 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 the candidate of the governing People's Action Party at a by-election in the constituency of Anson. 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. He returned to Parliament after the 1997 general election as a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament. 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 WP 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.