Progressive Party (Singapore)

The Singapore Progressive Party (abbreviation: PP), or simply the Progressive Party, was a political party that was formed on 25 August 1947. It won the 1948 Legislative Assembly general elections with half of the contested seats in the Legislative Assembly, 3 out of 6. At that time, the self-government power of the Legislative Assembly was still rather limited.

Progressive Party
Chinese name	进步党 Jìnbù Dǎng
Malay name	Parti Progresif ڤرتي ڤروݢريسيف
Tamil name	முற்போக்குக் கட்சி Muṟpōkkuk kaṭci
Founder	Tan Chye Cheng
Founded	25 August 1947 (1947-08-25)
Dissolved	10 May 1956 (1956-05-10)
Merged into	Liberal Socialist Party
Succeeded by	Liberal Socialist Party
Ideology	Reformism
Colours	Purple
Politics of Singapore Political parties Elections

History

The party was founded by three lawyers, namely Tan Chye Cheng, John Laycock and Nazir Ahmad Mallal. All three were educated at the University of London and were three of the six first ever elected legislative councillors in Singapore. The party was Singapore's first political party.

Party ideology

The Progressive Party was heavily backed by and made up of English-speaking upper class professionals. Its campaign ideology was to advocate progressive and gradual reforms, rather than sudden, quick, radical ones, which fell in line with British policy at the time, to slowly let Singapore gain full self-government. This approach was criticised vehemently by David Saul Marshall, leader of the Labour Front who instead wanted rapid reform.

Legislative Council

In the Legislative Council, the SPP worked closely with the British Government. The SPP fought for equal treatment with both local and European civil servants, but this did not please the Chinese-educated locals, who were very unhappy with the SPP's Pro-British stance.

Central Provident Fund

In 1951, PP drafted a law for the setting up of a Central Provident Fund, and it was approved by the British government in 1954, this CPF scheme provides financial security for workers in their retirement or for workers who were unable to work, this scheme came into effect in 1955, when David Marshall took office, and even after so many years, the CPF scheme despite having a few revisions and changes, remains in Singapore.

Election Results

Legislative Council

Election	Seats up for Election	Seats contested by Party	Contested seats won	Contested seats lost	Total seats won	Change	Total votes	Share of votes	Swing	Resulting Government	Party Leader
1948	6	5	3	2	3 / 6	3	11,754	49.49 / 100	49.49%	—	Tan Chye Cheng
1951	9	8	6	2	6 / 9	3	11,202	45.37 / 100	4.12%	—	Tan Chye Cheng

Legislative Council By-Elections

Election	Seats up for Election	Seats contested by Party	Contested seats won	Contested seats lost	Total seats won	Change	Total votes	Share of votes	Resulting Government	Party Leader
1948	1	1	0	1	0 / 1		705	23.91 / 100	—	Tan Chye Cheng

Legislative Assembly

Election	Seats up for Election	Seats contested by Party	Contested seats won	Contested seats lost	Total seats won	Change	Total votes	Share of votes	Swing	Resulting Government	Party Leader
1955	25	22	4	18	4 / 25	2	38,695	24.75 / 100	20.62%	Opposition	Tan Chye Cheng

Municipal Council(till 1951) / City Council(since 1951)

Election	Seats up for Election	Seats contested by Party	Contested seats won	Contested seats lost	Total seats won	Change	Total votes	Share of votes	Swing
April 1949	18	16	13	3	13 / 18	13	10,874	73.89 / 100	New Party
December 1949	6	6	3	3	12 / 18	1	3,907	50.05 / 100	23.84%
1950	6	4	3	1	9 / 18	3	3,902	32.41 / 100	17.64%
1951	6	6	2	4	9 / 18		6,729	43.20 / 100	10.79%
1952	6	6	4	2	9 / 18		9,637	42.88 / 100	0.32%
1953	6 (including 1 unopposed)	4	3	1	9 / 18		8,532	40.52 / 100	2.36%

References

• Background of Progressive Party