MR CHIAM SEE TONG

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr Speaker: Order. On 20th August 1993, I received a letter dated 20th August 1993 from the Acting Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) informing me that Mr Chiam See Tong has been expelled from the Singapore Democratic Party with immediate effect.

On 21st August 1993, the Clerk of Parliament wrote to Mr Chiam referring to this letter and asking Mr Chiam to confirm immediately that he had been so expelled from the Singapore Democratic Party.

Mr Chiam replied on 21st August 1993 to state that the Central Executive Committee of the SDP had sent him a letter on 20th August 1993 to expel him from the Party, but that the SDP letter was not valid and was illegal, and that the Supreme Authority of the SDP was the Party Conference comprising all the cadres. Mr Chiam also stated that a Special Party Conference had been requisitioned by cadres of the Party but that the Central Executive Committee had failed to convene such a Conference but instead had proceeded to expel him. He maintained that the Central Executive Committee's act of sacking him was unconstitutional and illegal.

Mr Chiam therefore requested that the Speaker "holds his hands until the legality of my expulsion from the SDP is decided at the next Party Conference of the SDP, which has already been properly requisitioned."

Subsequently, on 27th August 1993, Mr Chiam wrote to me to say that on 25th August 1993 he had obtained an Order of Injunction from the Courts against the Central Executive Committee of the SDP restraining them from expelling him from the Party. He attached a copy of the Court Order in his letter to me.

In view of these developments, in particular Mr Chiam's contention that his expulsion was illegal and the steps he has taken to challenge the validity of the expulsion, it is not appropriate for me to ask Parliament to take any decision until the parties have resolved these issues.