The Associated Press, ALEX KENNEDY
With the death of Joshua B. Jeyaretnam, this thriving Southeast Asian city-state has lost its most iconic political maverick, dealing another blow to an opposition movement enfeebled by government lawsuits and voter apathy.
Jeyaretnam, a once wealthy lawyer driven to bankruptcy under the weight of defamation lawsuits filed by Singapore's leaders, died Tuesday at age 82.
In recent years, he had stood on street corners and outside subway stations peddling his books about politics because no retailer would stock them. A socialist at heart, he argued Singapore's free market policies enriches the elite while an underbelly of poor struggles to get by.
Jeyaretnam found his place in history as Singapore's first opposition politician to be elected to Parliament, in 1981 — 22 years after the governing People's Action Party took power when Britain granted self rule.
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