People's Action Party
Political party in Singapore / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right[8] political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and Progress Singapore Party (PSP).[9][10]
People's Action Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Malay name | Parti Tindakan Rakyat |
| Chinese name | 人民行动党 Rénmín Xíngdòng Dǎng |
| Tamil name | மக்களின் செயல் கட்சி Makkaḷin Ceyal Kaṭci |
| Abbreviation | PAP |
| Chairman | Heng Swee Keat |
| Secretary-General | Lee Hsien Loong |
| Vice Chairman | Masagos Zulkifli |
| Deputy Secretary-General | Lawrence Wong |
| Assistant Secretaries-General | |
| Founders | |
| Founded | 21 November 1954 |
| Preceded by | Malayan Forum |
| Succeeded by | (Malaysia) |
| Headquarters | Block 57B New Upper Changi Road #01-1402 Singapore 463057 |
| Youth wing | Young PAP |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-right[8] |
| Colours | White, red, blue |
| Slogan | Our Lives, Our Jobs, Our Future |
| Governing body | Central Executive Committee |
| Parliament | 83 / 103 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Initially founded as a traditional centre-left party in 1954, the leftist faction was soon expelled from the party in 1961 by 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.[11] Beginning in the 1960s, the party henceforth began to move towards the centre-right.[12] Following the 1965 agreement which led to Singapore's expulsion from the Malaysian federation, almost the entire opposition except for the WP boycotted the following elections in 1968 in response to their initial incredulity towards independence, thereafter allowing the PAP the opportunity to exercise exclusivity over its governance of national institutions and become the largest political party in the country.[13]
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 effectively threatened and has always exceeded 60% of the votes and 80% of the seats in all subsequent elections. The PAP is the longest, uninterrupted governing party among multiparty parliamentary democracies in the world at 63 years as of 2022, and the second in history after Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which led for 71 years from 1929 to 2000.[14]
Positioned on the centre-right of Singapore politics, the PAP is ideologically socially conservative and economically liberal. The party generally favours free-market economics, having turned Singapore's economy into one of the world's freest and most open,[15] but has at times engaged in state interventionism reminiscent of welfare capitalist policies. Notably, since Singapore’s independence in 1965, the party has also supported the creation of state-owned enterprises, known within Singapore as Government-linked Corporations (GLCs), in order to jumpstart industrialisation, spearhead economic development and lead to economic growth (primarily job creation) in various sectors of the Singaporean economy as there was a lack of private sector funds and expertise, particularly in the early years of nationhood. Socially, it supports communitarianism and civic nationalism, with the cohesion of the country's main ethnic groups of the Chinese, Malay and Indian into a united Singaporean national identity forming many of its policies.[16] 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.[17][18]