Progressive Party

Progressive Party may refer to:

Active parties

Historical or former parties

See also

Progressive Party (Singapore)

The Singapore Progressive Party (abbrev: PP; simplified Chinese: 进步党; traditional Chinese: 進步黨; pinyin: Jìnbù Dǎng; Wade–Giles: Chin4 pu4 tang3; Malay: Parti Progresif), or just, the Progressive Party is a now defunct political party that was formed on 25 August, 1947. It won the Legislative Assembly general elections in 1948 by winning 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.

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. The locals (especially the Chinese), and the communists also blasted the Progressive Party, claiming that they were Hanjian (a Mandarin term for Chinese 'traitors')

Progressive Party (Cape Colony)

The Progressive (British) Party of the Cape Colony, was a political party in the Cape Parliament that was primarily composed of and supported by British immigrants to the Cape. It supported pro-British, pro-Imperialist policies, and was in power from 1900 until 1908.

The Progressive Party formed in the late 1890s from the pro-imperialist politics of politicians such as Cecil John Rhodes, Alfred Milner and John Gordon Sprigg.

They initially formed the opposition to the government of Prime Minister William Philip Schreiner, after they lost the 1898 election to him. However, the Progressives came to power on 18 June 1900 under Prime Minister John Gordon Sprigg, and later under Prime Minister Leander Starr Jameson.

They lost power on 2 February 1908, to the opposition South African Party under John X. Merriman. After this election the Progressives renamed themselves the "Union Party".

The similarly named "Progressive Movement" started in the neighbouring Transvaal in 1891 as a movement of wealthy British immigrants (or "Uitlanders") who opposed the Afrikaner government of the Transvaal. Just before Union, they became the "Progressive Association of the Transvaal".