Political Parties (Singapore)

Last modified: 2008-12-13 by ian macdonald
Keywords: singapore | politics | people's action party | ray | circle (blue) | hammer | circle (yellow) | text: english | text: chinese | text: malay | text: tamil |
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• People's Action Party
• Singapore Democratic Alliance
• The Workers Party of Singapore

See also:

• Singapore

image by Ivan Sache, 15 November 2008

The People's Action Party (PAP) was founded in 1954. Since 1959, the PAP has won all of the general elections; the party has been ruling Singapore since the independence obtained in 1963, with the Secretary General of the party serving as the Prime Minister: Lee Kuan Yew (1959-1990), Goh Chok Tong (1991-2004), and Lee Hsien Loong, the son of Lee Kuan Yew (2004-).

Smith (1975) shows the flag of the PAP as white with the party emblem in the middle, which he describes as "a thick blue circle vertically crossed by a red flash".
According to the party website:
- The blue circle stands for unity of all races;
- Red represents action;
- The white background signifies purity and integrity.

http://www.pap.org.sg/about.shtml
Ivan Sache, 15 November 2008

Singapore Democratic Alliance

image by Ivan Sache, 15 November 2008

The Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) was formed in June 2001 by three opposition parties, the Singapore People's Party (SPP, the most important component of the alliance, founded on 21 November 1994), the Singapore Malay National Organization (Pertubohan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapore, PKMS) and the Singapore Justice Party (SJP). The chairman of the SDA, Chiam See Tong (SPP), elected representative of Potong Pasir in 1997, 2001 and 2006, is the single representative of the SDA in the Parliament of Singapore.

The flag of the SDA, as shown on photographs taken during street demonstrations (May 2006), is white with the SDA emblem, made of four interlaced blue rings placed horizontally and surmounted by a red star. The emblem seems to have originally belonged to the SPP, which transferred it to the SDA in 2001 and adopted a related emblem made of four interlaced red rings surmounted by a white red blue star, the whole being inscribed into a blue ring. On the SPP new emblem, the four rings represent inter-racial society, while the five points of the star represent democracy, peace, progress, equality and justice, respectively.

However, the Constitution of the SDA says:
"15. Emblem.
The emblem, badge and flag of the SDA is a red outline of a flag with the SDA abbreviation and backdrop of Singapore island (Map)."

http://www.spp.org.sg/ - Photo of the flag http://www.spp.org.sg/GE%202006%20May%20144.jpg - Direct link to the image
http://www.spp.org.sg/LOGO.htm - SPP emblem
http://www.spp.org.sg/SDA%20Constitution.htm - SDA Constitution
Ivan Sache, 15 November 2008

image by Guillermo Tell Aveledo

The current flag shows a golden hammer inside golden circle over red.
Guillermo Tell Aveledo, 14 September 2000

Workers' Party 1950s-1960s

image by Guillermo Tell Aveledo

Version from the 1950s-1960s, before the People's Action Party won power in Singapore. It bears, over a red field, a black and white hammer on the centre, and the name of the party in all four languages of Singapore: English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese — I am unsure about the meaning of the Chinese characters on the hoist side. The details of the hammer on the actual flag were richer.
Guillermo Tell Aveledo, 14 September 2000

The vertical Chinese words read (from top down) Dao Da Qu — it should sound something like "dao-dar-chee". Dao Da roughly translates as 'to oppose' or more accurately 'to counter-attack'. Qu means 'zone' or 'area'. So put together, it says that this is a area where opposition takes place.
Edmund Leong, 5 May 2003

image by Ivan Sache and Guillermo Tell Aveledo, 15 November 2008

The old flag, with the black and white hammer and writings, is shown on a black and white photograph taken in 1957 during a party rally for the  City Council elections (http://www.wp.sg/photos/photos_57-70.htm). Another photograph from the same period shows party supporters celebrating the victory of J.C. Corera in the City Council seat of Delta. The flag shown there has the hammer but no writing. We can safely assume that the flag field is red (http://www.wp.sg/photos/photos_57-70.htm)

image by Ivan Sache and Guillermo Tell Aveledo, 15 November 2008

The most recent flag shown here is red with the party emblem in the middle. This flag can be seen on a photograph taken in 1988 during a public rally of the party: http://www.wp.sg/photos/photos_71-00.htm. The front page of the party website shows a photograph of a meeting of the party, with the same flag but on a white background (http://www.wp.sg/wordpress/)

The emblem of the WP is described on the party website as follows: "The Workers' Party logo consists of a yellow hammer. The hammer symbolises workers and yellow represents power of the people. The hammer rests on a red background. Red signifies passion. The hammer is surrounded by a yellow ring, which stands for unity of the workers of Singapore."
http://www.wp.org.sg/party/about.htm 
The party's journal is called "The Hammer".

<sg}wp2.gif> - Flag with the hammer, to be co-credited to Guillermo
Tell Aveledo

Regards

--
Ivan Sache