People's Action Party

This article is about the People's Action Party of Singapore. For other groups with the same name, see People's Action Party (disambiguation).

People's Action Party
Malay nameParti Tindakan Rakyat
Chinese name人民行动党
Rénmín Xíngdòng Dǎng
Tamil nameமக்களின் செயல் கட்சி
Makkaḷin Ceyal Kaṭci
AbbreviationPAP
ChairmanHeng Swee Keat
Secretary-GeneralLee Hsien Loong
Vice ChairmanMasagos Zulkifli
Deputy Secretary-GeneralLawrence Wong
Assistant Secretaries-General
Founders
Founded21 November 1954; 70 years ago (1954-11-21)
Preceded byMalayan Forum
Succeeded by
(Malaysia)
HeadquartersBlock 57B New Upper Changi Road #01-1402 Singapore 463057
Youth wingYoung PAP
Ideology
Political positionCentre-right[8]
ColoursWhite, red, blue
SloganOur Lives, Our Jobs, Our Future[b]
Governing bodyCentral Executive Committee
Parliament
79 / 103
Website
pap.org.sg

The People's Action Party (PAP) is a major conservative[9][10] political party of the centre-right[11] in Singapore. It is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in the Parliament of Singapore, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and the Progress Singapore Party (PSP).[12][13]

Initially founded as a traditional centre-left party in 1954, the leftist faction was soon expelled in 1961 by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in the midst of Singapore's merger with Malaysia, desiring to move the party's ideology towards the centre after its first electoral victory in 1959.[14] Beginning in the 1960s, the party began to move towards the centre-right.[15] Following the 1965 agreement which led to Singapore's independence from Malaysia, the entire opposition boycotted the general elections in 1968, except for the Worker's Party, which won no seats in the election. For decades thereafter, the PAP exercised exclusivity over its governance of national institutions and become the largest political party in the country.[16]

From 1965 to 1981, the PAP was the only political force represented in Parliament until it saw its first electoral defeat to the WP at a by-election in the constituency of Anson. Nevertheless, the PAP has not seen its hegemony threatened and has always received over 60% of the votes and 80% of the seats in every subsequent general election. Having governed for over six decades, the PAP is the longest uninterrupted governing party among modern multiparty parliamentary democracies. It is the second-longest governing party in history after Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which led for 71 years from 1929 to 2000.[17]

Positioned on the centre-right of Singapore politics, the PAP is ideologically socially conservative and economically liberal. The party generally favours free-market economic policies, having turned Singapore's economy into one of the world's freest and most open,[18] but has at times engaged in state interventionism reminiscent of welfarism. The party has supported the creation of state-owned enterprises, known locally as government-linked corporations. This was done in order to jumpstart industrialisation, spearhead economic development and lead to economic growth, primarily job creation, in various sectors of the Singaporean economy. Socially, the PAP supports communitarianism and civic nationalism. The cohesion of the country's main ethnic groups into a single Singaporean national identity forms the basis of many of its social policies.[19] On foreign policy, it favours maintaining a strong and robust military, serving as a purportedly indispensable guarantor of the country's continued sovereignty within the context of its strategic position for international finance and trade.[20][21]

  1. ^ Goldblatt, David (2005). Governance in the Asia-Pacific. Routledge. p. 293.
  2. ^ Berger, Mark (2014). Rethinking the Third World. Macmillan. p. 98.
  3. ^ Kuah-Pearce, Khun Eng (2010). Rebuilding the Ancestral Village. Hong Kong University Press. p. 37.
  4. ^ Lim, Benny (18 January 2017). "Nation building reboot needed". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  5. ^ Ortmann, Stephan (2009). "Singapore: The Politics of Inventing National Identity". Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs. 28 (4): 23–46. doi:10.1177/186810340902800402. ISSN 1868-4882.
  6. ^ Singh, Bilveer (2017). Understanding Singapore Politics. World Scientific Publishing Company. p. 36.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Diane K. Mauzy and R.S. Milne (2002). Singapore Politics Under the People's Action Party. Routledge. p. 147. ISBN 0-415-24653-9.
  9. ^ Wan, Ming (17 October 2007). The Political Economy of East Asia: Striving for Wealth and Power. CQ Press. ISBN 978-1-4833-0192-1.
  10. ^ Cinar, Emre; Demircioglu, Mehmet Akif; Acik, Ahmet Coskun; Simms, Chris (1 March 2024). "Public sector innovation in a city state: exploring innovation types and national context in Singapore". Research Policy. 53 (2): 104915. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2023.104915. ISSN 0048-7333.
  11. ^ Diane K. Mauzy and R.S. Milne (2002). Singapore Politics Under the People's Action Party. Routledge. p. 147. ISBN 0-415-24653-9.
  12. ^ Rodan, Gary. "The Internet and Political Control in Singapore" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  13. ^ Reyes, Sebastian (29 September 2015). "Singapore's Stubborn Authoritarianism | Harvard Political Review". Harvard Political Review. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  14. ^ "Singapore's Cadre System". www.asiasentinel.com. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  15. ^ Lam, Peng Er (1999). Lee's lieutenants: Singapore's old guard. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-86508-172-4.
  16. ^ "GIGA IAS Booth A9 at ICAS 10 Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 20-23 July 2017". Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs. 35 (3): 204. 2016. doi:10.1177/186810341603500312. ISSN 1868-1034.
  17. ^ Oliver, Steven; Ostwald, Kai (2018). "Explaining Elections in Singapore: Dominant Party Resilience and Valence Politics". Journal of East Asian Studies. 18 (2): 129–156. doi:10.1017/jea.2018.15. ISSN 1598-2408. S2CID 232329919.
  18. ^ "Index of Economic Freedom: Promoting Economic Opportunity and Prosperity by Country". www.heritage.org. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  19. ^ Ortmann, Stephan (December 2009). "Singapore: The Politics of Inventing National Identity". Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs. 28 (4): 23–46. doi:10.1177/186810340902800402. S2CID 73649569.
  20. ^ "SAF remains final guarantor of Singapore's independence". Singapore: Channel NewsAsia. 1 July 2007. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  21. ^ "Lunch Talk on "Defending Singapore: Strategies for a Small State" by Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean" (Press release). Ministry of Defence. 21 April 2005. Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 19 February 2011.


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