The special copies of Men In White: The Untold Story Of Singapore's Ruling Political Party were snapped up, at $10,000 each, within two days of The Straits Times report on Aug 28. Proceeds go to the newspaper's School Pocket Money Fund.

The pre-orders were made in less than two weeks by employees of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), whose journalists wrote the book. Investment manager C. K. Yeo, 42, who bought a special copy for charity, said: "I come from a simple family background, grew up under the stability of the Government, and benefited from its good education system. I just thought I should give back to society."

Speaking at the book's launch at The Arts House yesterday, SPH chairman Tony Tan said that the book is a story "narrated for the first time through the voices of the victors and the vanquished".

"Without their input, the PAP story would be incomplete and unbalanced. The result is a story of the PAP, with its warts, blemishes and all," he said.

MM Lee, who penned a four- page foreword for the book, was the guest of honour at the event, which was also attended by 150 past and present politicians.

Designed and produced by Marshall Cavendish International and published by SPH, the book details - through interviews with more than 300 people and 200 recorded oral histories from the National Archives of Singapore - how the PAP rose to power.

The 692-page tome was written over seven years by The Straits Times' senior journalists Sonny Yap, 59; Richard Lim, 60; and Leong Weng Kam, 55.

Mr Yap said that he was relieved that the book has finally been published, and hoped that the younger generation will read it to "get a better sense of Singapore's history".

Former senior minister of state Lee Khoon Choy, 85, who contributed to the book, said that it was good to see history from different angles put together by gathering input from all people, because everybody, whether from the ruling party or the opposition, contributed to the development of Singapore.

Thirty-thousand copies of the book are available at leading book stores, and cost $39.90 (before GST) each.

joyfang@sph.com.sg