Chia Thye Poh | |
|---|---|
谢太宝 | |
| 4th Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 1 January 1966 – 7 October 1966 | |
| Prime Minister | Lee Kuan Yew |
| Preceded by | Lim Huan Boon |
| Succeeded by | J. B. Jeyaretnam |
| Leader of the Barisan Sosialis | |
| In office 1961 – October 1966 | |
| Preceded by | Lee Siew Choh |
| Succeeded by | Lee Siew Choh |
| Member of the Singapore Parliament for Jurong SMC | |
| In office 21 September 1963 – 7 October 1966[1] | |
| Preceded by | Chor Yeok Eng |
| Succeeded by | Ho Kah Leong |
| Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Singapore | |
| In office 2 November 1963[2] – 9 August 1965 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 April 1941 Singapore, Strait Settlements, British Malaya |
| Political party | Barisan Sosialis (1961–1966) |
| Chia Thye Poh | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 謝太寶 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 谢太宝 | ||||||||||
| Hokkien POJ | Chiā Thài-pó | ||||||||||
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Chia Thye Poh (born 4 April 1941) is a Singaporean former politician. A former member of the Barisan Sosialis, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Jurong SMC between 1963 and 1966. He was the 4th de facto Leader of the Opposition in 1966.
A leftist populist, Chia is most notable for being detained between 1966 and 1989 under the Internal Security Act for allegedly conducting pro-communist activities against the government, with the intention of causing a communist revolution. As a result, he was imprisoned for 23 years without trial and subsequently placed under conditions of house arrest, also without trial, for another nine years—in which he was first confined to the island of Sentosa and then subject to restrictions on his place of abode, employment, travel, and exercise of political rights. All restrictions were eventually lifted in 1998.
Prior to his detention, he was a teacher, physics lecturer, socialist political activist and a Member of Parliament.[1] Subsequent to it, he was a doctoral student and an interpreter.