History
The NSP was founded by a group of middle-class businessmen and women in July 1987. The party has contested every general election in Singapore since 1988.
In 2001, the NSP became a founding member of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), along with the Singapore Justice Party (SJP), the Singapore People's Party (SPP) and the Singapore Malay National Organization (PKMS). The Chairman of the alliance was the SPP leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Potong Pasir, Chiam See Tong.
At the 2001 general election, Chiam was re-elected as MP for Potong Pasir, and NSP Secretary-General Steve Chia became the SDA's second representative in Parliament when he earned a position as a Non-Constituency MP. Chia achieved this by garnering 34.6% of the votes in the constituency of Chua Chu Kang, which was the highest percentage of the vote secured by a losing opposition candidate at the election.
At the 2006 general election, the NSP again fielded candidates as part of the SDA grouping. However Chiam was the only SDA candidate to enter Parliament at that election when he was re-elected as MP for Potong Pasir. Steve Chia increased his share of the vote in Chua Chu Kang to 39.63%, but this was lower than the 43.9% gained by the Worker's Party in Aljunied GRC, and hence Chia lost his position as a Non-Constituency MP.
In 2007, the NSP decided to withdraw from the SDA with a view to "explore new possibilities through wider latitude to manoeuvre, re-engineer, and rebuild the NSP". Sebastian Teo also took over the leadership of the party from Steve Chia. The party acquired a new collective colour of orange for their activity jersey as a sign of vitality and rebirth. The party's newsletter underwent a transformation and adopted the new name North Star.
Read more about this topic: National Solidarity Party (Singapore)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
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“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)