Singapore veteran opposition politician dies

By Koh Gui Qing

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore veteran opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam died early on Tuesday after a heart failure, removing one of the most colourful and dogged characters from the country's often staid politics.

In 1981, Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, popularly known as JBJ, was the first opposition politician to break Singapore's ruling party's monopoly in parliament.

He died at a local hospital, aged 82, his son Kenneth Jeyaretnam said.

Jeyaretnam, an acerbic critic of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), was repeatedly sued by senior PAP members over his 37-year career for making comments the PAP said were libelous.

He was sporadically bankrupted, a status that barred him from standing for parliament.

In June this year, he won approval to set up the Reform Party after paying off S$265,000 ($184,900) in defamation damages.

Jeyaretnam said he was "over the moon" with the new party, which would "reform the system of government, all sectors of society".

"He believed what was right and wrong for Singapore and he wanted to bring change. He never gave up," said Ng Teck Siong, chairman of the Reform Party, who has known JBJ for over a decade.