[9][10] Chiam retired after 39 years in politics at the age of 80 prior to the 2015 general election for health reasons.

[15] He completed his GCE Advanced Level examinations in 1955 and graduated from the Victoria University of Wellington in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science.

B. Jeyaretnam, a lawyer who was also a member of parliament from the opposition Workers' Party (WP), represented Chiam in filing a writ in the High Court seeking damages from Howe and Dhanabalan.

[20][13] In 1992, Chiam recruited Chee Soon Juan, a psychology lecturer at the National University of Singapore, to join a four-member SDP team to contest in Marine Parade GRC in the 1992 by-elections.

Although the SDP team lost after garnering just 24.5% against a four-member PAP team led by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong,[21] Chee's candidacy had generated considerable public interest as it was the first time that an academic from a state-run university had stood for election against the PAP.

[23] In 1992, PAP Member of Parliament Choo Wee Khiang said in a speech that when he drove to Little India one evening, he found it "pitch dark, not because there was no light, but because there were too many Indians around.

These tensions escalated when Chiam attempted to censure Chee for a hunger strike, a motion that the CEC did not support.

[26] Filing a lawsuit against the SDP, Chiam obtained a court reversal of his expulsion, allowing him to retain his parliamentary seat until the next general election.

[23] In 1995, Chiam supported the Singapore government's refusal to delay the execution of Filipino domestic worker Flor Contemplacion for murder despite appeals from Fidel V. Ramos, the President of the Philippines.

After the incident caused Philippines–Singapore relations to be strained, Chiam made a speech in Parliament, stating that he would not allow the foreign press to use the opposition to attack the Singapore government.

Under the SPP banner, he contested in Potong Pasir SMC again during the 1997 general election and won with 55.15% of the vote against the PAP candidate Andy Gan.

In 2010 and early 2011, it was reported the some SDA council members felt that Chiam was unable to fulfil his role as the chairman of the party after his stroke in 2008.

On 28 February 2011, the SDA council voted to relieve Chiam of his role as chairman, but stressed that they still hoped to field him as a candidate in the next general election.

[33][34] Between 1997 and 2011, Low Thia Kiang from the Workers' Party and Chiam from the SPP were the only elected opposition MPs.

During the 2011 general election, Low and Chiam left their respective strongholds in Hougang and Potong Pasir SMCs to challenge the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) in group representation constituencies (GRCs).

[9] However, Low's gambit paid off as he led the Workers' Party to a historic breakthrough in the election, with a victory in Aljunied GRC.

[36] On 4 September 2019, the SPP announced that Chiam would be resigning from his position as the party's secretary-general due to his declining health.

Chiam Seng Poh had fled China with his family after one of those failed uprisings and settled in Muar, Malaya.

[2] Mabel Lim, one of Chiam's maternal aunts, married Kwa Soon Siew, a brother-in-law of Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

[15] Chiam's mother, Lily Lim, was a founder of the 7th Singapore Company of the Girls' Brigade at Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church in the 1950s.