ABSTRACT
The People’s Action Party (PAP), formed with Lee Kuan Yew as SecretaryGeneral in 1954, won 43 seats out of 51 to the Legislative Assembly in May 1959, and formed a new government. In June of that year Singapore achieved internal self-government, and subsequently became a member of the British Commonwealth. In the first half of the 1960s, however, the country was politically unstable at home, and had difficult relations with the neighbouring countries. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had to struggle with the left wing inside his party for the next few years. In 1961 the dissident faction formed a new political party, the Barisan Sosialis (Socialist Front), and continued to challenge the PAP’s supremacy until 1963 when the new party collapsed.1
