The People's Action Party, or the PAP as it is more commonly known, carries the unique distinction of being the first Southeast Asian political party to control all the seats of the legislature through free elections. Since the general elections of April 1968, when the PAP won all the 58 seats (51 of which were uncontested) Singapore has had a one-party Parliament. Yet when the Party was inaugurated in 1954 its policies were criticised by a local paper as being “nicely calculated to attract the unthinking, a feast of promise with little regard to facts”.