Opposition critic and veteran human rights defender J B Jeyaretnam, who participated in the Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders in January 2002, has faced a series of civil defamation suits over a period of several years launched by members or leaders of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP). These have resulted in his bankruptcy. He has now appealed for a discharge from bankruptcy. If he is successful, he will be eligible to contest the next election and thus once again enter the official political arena.

J B Jeyaretnam, a lawyer, now in his late 70s, became in 1981 the first Opposition candidate in Singapore to be elected to Parliament since independence in 1965. Since his election, he has faced defamation charges and convictions, bankruptcy and imprisonment. He has been barred from practising as a lawyer and expelled from Parliament. Strong criticism of Singapore's restrictions on freedom of expression has been expressed by numerous organizations and bodies, including the Privy Council, Human Rights Watch, Liberal International, Parliamentarians for Global Action, Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada, Asian Human Rights Commission, International Commission of Jurists and Amnesty International.