6 things SDP's Chee Soon Juan wished you'd forget about him

Since general election 2015, Dr Chee has swung so far from his old ways that voters cannot help but think that this is his way of trying to cover up his brash misdeeds from the past. None of which Dr Chee has personally apologized for by the way; in his own defense, he has blamed the People's Action Party, biased news reporting and his old mentor Chiam See Tong for everything that has happened to him so far.

In this context, I will list down six things that Dr Chee wishes the average Singaporean voter would forget about him and leave readers to make their own conclusions about the man.


1. Dr Chee Soon Juan was sacked from NUS for dishonesty. He later went on a glucose water "hunger strike", but was discovered to have cheated on his strike by consuming breakfast.

In 1993, Dr Chee inflated taxi money claims of up to $798 and misappropriated $226 worth of research funds from the National University of Singapore, which he used to send his wife's PhD examination papers via courier service to the US. He was fired from his job, a decision which Dr Chee contested bitterly, leading up to a confrontation between him and his head of department for Social Work and Psychology, Dr S Vasoo, who was also a PAP MP for Tanjong Pagar.

Prior to the conflict, Dr Chee had also tried to secretly record a conversation between himself and Dr Vasoo over his decision to join the Singapore Democratic Party, but was caught doing so. Despite being confronted on the spot by Dr Vasoo, Dr Chee vehemently denied taping his superior and claimed that he was taping the conversation for "research" purposes. Even more disturbingly, in the tape that he used to record his conversation with Dr Vasoo, Dr Chee was also found to have secretly recorded an even earlier conversation between himself, Dr Vasoo and other third parties at the university for his own purposes.

Having already broken the trust of his superior with the taping incident, the last straw came when Dr Chee misused the department's research funds. Dr Vasoo informed his superior, Faculty Dean Professor Ernest Chew, and the Vice Chancellor about Dr Chee's dishonesty, which led to Dr Chee's eventual dismissal. Failing to secure his position at NUS, Dr Chee and the SDP then led by Mr Chiam See Tong, blamed the government for dismissing Dr Chee from NUS on politically motivated grounds.

It was at this time that Dr Chee went on his infamous glucose-water-only "hunger strike", when Dr Chee refused all food and drink but resorted to drinking glucose water to sustain himself for 4 days. Ironically, Chinese reporters caught wind that Dr Chee had also broken his strike by consuming a nutritious breakfast prepared by his doting wife every morning at 5.30am before resuming his strike at 6.00am.

A parliamentary hearing over Dr Chee's accusations against the government, which attracted huge public attention because of Dr Chee's hunger strike, put a serious dent into Dr Chee's reputation as a serious politician and left a well-meaning Mr Chiam See Tong red in the face from trying to defend his protege's questionable ethics. Even moderate MPs like Mr Tan Cheng Bock came out openly to condemn Dr Chee's actions.

Taken from Official Reports - Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 13 April 1993, "DISMISSAL OF DR CHEE SOON JUAN" 

2. Dr Chee Soon Juan ousted his former mentor Chiam See Tong from the SDP which Chiam had built over 13 years, effectively crippling the rising opposition movement in Singapore.

As if he had not caused his benefactor and mentor enough trouble, Dr Chee, along with other allied members of the SDP Central Executive Committee, successfully ousted Chiam See Tong from his position as secretary-general of his own party in the same year Dr Chee went on his hunger strike.

Following Chiam's failed attempt to defend Dr Chee in parliament, Chiam tried to table an internal party motion for the SDP to criticize Dr Chee's hunger strike as an embarassment to the party's image. Chiam got a rude shock when the CEC, which had become very friendly to the wildly popular Dr Chee, blocked his motion. Realizing that his influence had been usurped, Chiam resigned the same day.

17 years after the fact in 2010, Dr Chee later went public with his own account of how Chiam was thrown out of the SDP, in which he heavily criticized the PAP and Chiam See Tong for blaming him for Chiam's ousting. He labelled Chiam as a difficult and incompetent man who had turned against his own party, conveniently leaving out the fact that Chee had played a direct role in turning Chiam's own CEC against him. Tellingly, having kicked Chiam out of the SDP, Dr Chee's next course of action was to write to the Speaker of Parliament to inform him of Chiam's ousting, an action that would have prompted the Speaker to strip Chiam of his parliamentary seat.

Chiam recalled that in the final SDP disciplinary hearing that led to his expulsion on 28 July 1993, the SDP CEC helmed by Dr Chee had interrogated and challenged Chiam "in random fashion" without according him the dignity or respect of a founding member. The poor handling of that disciplinary hearing eventually helped Chiam win a lawsuit against the SDP for wrongful dismissal. Chiam remained a member of the SDP until 1996 when he set up the Singapore People's Party.

3. Dr Chee Soon Juan was denounced by Chiam See Tong as a "megalomaniac" who was leading the SDP astray.

On 15 September 1996, Dr Chee Soon Juan received a sponsorship to attend an "alternative panel" discussion organized by his mentor, Dr George Crane, at Williams College, United States of America. The panel was set up in opposition to the college's decision to confer an honorary award to Goh Chok Tong, then prime minister of Singapore. As Singapore's model of governance had run afoul of the Human Rights lobby in the United States, sections of the US student body were unhappy that Mr Goh would receive the award.

To express their unhappiness, the alternative panel invited speakers who were critical of Singapore's political and judicial system, including the late dissident in exile Francis Seow. Mr Seow gave a speech accusing the judges of Singapore of being neither "independent nor free", but corrupt and pliant puppets to Lee Kuan Yew. Dr Chee, who was in attendance at Mr Seow's speech, also gave his own speech endorsing Mr Seow's views.

For this, he was roundly chastised by the Singapore parliament, which convened a special session to reaffirm the independence of the judiciary in Singapore. Ironically, it was left to Mr Chiam See Tong once again to point out the errors of his former protege. He had this to say of Dr Chee in his speech to parliament.

"It saddens me that the SDP is now run by a megalomaniac. This man wants centre-stage all the time. I think it is this character which sends him to Williamstown... Mr Speaker, Sir, but what is more important that has happened in Williamstown is that there are certain people there who would like to see Singapore being run down and attacked Singapore. The issue here is not just about people like Chee Soon Juan who come and go in any event but about the survival of Singapore. Singapore's survival is at stake because there is an attack on the basic institution of Singapore and on the system of Singapore. And it is the duty of loyal Opposition to defend Singapore."

4. Dr Chee Soon Juan submitted fabricated statistics to parliament to prove his claims that the government was not providing enough healthcare subsidies.

In August 1996, Dr Chee got himself into another round of trouble when he and three other SDP members were caught submitting false documents to the Parliament's Select Committee tasked with reviewing health care subsidies for public polyclinics and hospitals. Investigators discovered that Dr Chee and his team had put together fabricated data in an earlier report to the Select Committee with the aim of downplaying the amount of subsidies the Singapore government provided for public healthcare. For their actions, Dr Chee and team were censured in parliament and fined a total of US$35,000.

Despite Dr Chee's claims that he had simply misstated his data due to "typographical error", he was again caught out in his lie when the Parliamentary Committee of Privileges tasked with censuring Dr Chee found the same "error" being widely reused in various other publications by Dr Chee, including his book "Dare To Change".

Taken from Official Reports - Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 11 December 1996, "COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES REPORT"

5. Dr Chee Soon Juan was widely criticized for being disrespectful after heckling then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong at a walkabout.

In the 2001 Marine Parade by-election, Dr Chee was caught on video heckling then prime minister Goh Chok Tong when the two parties crossed paths while on a walkabout. The scene of Dr Chee shouting into a loud hailer while demanding that Mr Goh explain "Where is the money!?" left Singapore voters with a sour view of Dr Chee's confrontational tactics, which many viewed as gangsterish and a poor reflection of the opposition.

6. SDP revolves around one man: Dr Chee Soon Juan.

In a twist of fate, SDP in recent years has come under fire from former SDP members themselves for exactly the same things he has criticized the late Lee Kuan Yew and his former mentor Chiam See Tong for. In February 2012, a former SDP election candidate Jarrod Luo left the party acrimoniously, leaving a bitter note on his Facebook in which he accused Dr Chee of owing money, bullying a youngster and for being a failed "ideologue" and a "chairman who is not much different from a placeholder".

This was followed closely by the departure of another prominent SDP election candidate Vincent Wijeysingha, who is openly homosexual, in August 2013. In an interview over his departure, Vincent had hinted at the party's inability to push for greater civil liberties for sexual minorities such as himself as it was more focused on economic bread and butter issues.

Taken from Yahoo Singapore news, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/vincent-wijeysingha-resigns-from-singapore-democratic-party-100944974.html

Then in January 2015, yet another prominent SDP campaign strategist left the party, citing Dr Chee's intolerance of internal dissent. He also labelled Chee "stubborn, jealous and egotistical", and chastised Dr Chee for failing to be open minded enough for the SDP to thrive.

Taken from Jeremy Chen's Website, http://jeremy-chen.org/blog/201501/leaving-singapore-democratic-party

These enigmatic resignations of prominent SDP members suggest that ironically, the SDP may be suffering from the same autocratic problems that Dr Chee routinely criticizes the PAP for.


With these six things in mind, we can only conclude that Dr Chee is a deep one. As with all politicians, we will possibly never know if he is truly a changed man. We can only hope that we don't find out the truth only when it's too late.

RP's Darren Soh is an adulterer who refuses to pay for alimony and child support!

Talk about hell hath no fury than a woman scorned! Immediately after the media did a feature on RP candidate Darren Soh, his ex-wife gave him no face and exposed his dirty laundry on her Facebook page!  

So the scoop is that Darren Soh cheated on her with a PRC Chinese mistress whom he is now currently married to! But that's not all! He is not only a philandering husband, but an irresponsible father as well! Apparently, this stingy bastard has also stopped paying the alimony and child maintenance owed to his ex-wife and son. And it gets even worse. In order to get out of paying his wife, he went to the extent of fighting for custody of his son, and to that end, he terrorised the poor mother and son by turning up unannounced at their door and work place to harrass them!

This fella claimed that he has no money for alimony and child support but suddenly now he has the money to run for elections? Dude needs to get his priorities straight. No woman (or man) will give their vote to a person who doesn't take his marriage vows seriously, renegades on his duties and responsibilities as a husband and father and defaults on his financial obligations. This jerk can't even hold his family together, how does he expect voters to believe that he can be trusted to govern a country?

Think only a desperate leader like Kenneth Jeyababy would believe in him. After all, even though he was informed of Darren's despicable behaviour, he doesn't think it's a problem and brushed it aside by saying it is a personal family matter. Sorry Jeyababy, this is not just a personal family matter because Singaporeans should not have to vote for someone who might potentially fail in his duties as an MP and abandon them when he finds another country more attractive to toy with.

Chee & Chiam : Singapore Electoral History

1993 was a dark year for Singapore opposition politics. That year, a schismic split between powerful opposition leader Mr Chiam See Tong and his protege, Dr Chee Soon Juan, who Chiam personally brought into the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), shattered the party irrevocably. The split crippled the rising SDP, which held 3 seats in parliament, and set the opposition cause back many years.

The crux of the split was a farcical attempt in early 1993 by Dr Chee to hold a hunger strike to protest his dismissal from the National University of Singapore. Chee, then a psychology lecturer, was accused of wrongful use research funds. In April that year, Chee began his hunger strike, and by this he meant having one large meal early in the day and supplementing his diet for the rest of the day with glucose solution.

Concerned that Chee's actions would harm the party's image, Mr Chiam tabled a motion to the SDP executive committee on 17 May to censur Dr Chee. Unfortunately for Chiam, Chee's faction shot him down. Realizing that he had just lost control of the party he spent 13 years building up, Mr Chiam resigned the very same day as SDP secretary-general in May 1993.

The truth is that this unfortunate incident was motivated by a bitter power struggle between the veteran Chiam and the newly appointed SDP members of parliament Cheo Chai Chen and Ling How Doong. In the 1991 general election, Cheo had wrested away the Nee Soon Central seat from the incumbent People's Action Party (PAP), while Ling had won in Bukit Gombak. Chiam, as secretary-general of the party, had wanted to centralize control of all town councils under the SDP, but Ling and Cheo had other ideas and wanted to run the townships themselves. When Chiam tabled his motion against Chee, Cheo and Ling saw the opportunity to oust Mr Chiam from his own party. They prevailed, but Cheo and Ling's subsequent mismanagement of their town councils resulted in the return of Nee Soon Central and Bukit Gombak to the PAP.

Shortly after Chiam resigned as secretary-general, he was summoned to appear on 28 Jul 1993 before the SDP CEC, now led by Chee. In that session, he faced a barrage of attacks from the members, who unilaterally expelled him from the party at the end of the session. Chiam sued, arguing that their move was invalid. The High Court ruled in favour of Chiam, who returned to the party where an uneasy calm settled between the warring factions.

This peace was broken again in May 1995, shortly after Chee was elected SDP secretary-general. Mr Chiam spoke out in parliament against Chee for accepting a dubious offer from Williams College, Massachusetts, to attend an alternative panel discussion which opposed the conferring of an honorary degree on then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. Chiam opposed Chee's attendance at the event, which he felt was an American attempt to belittle Singapore's political and judicial system. Chiam believed that responsible politicians should not use the western press to unfairly attack Singapore.

Chiam famously said of Chee: "It saddens me that the SDP is now run by a megalomaniac. This man wants centre-stage all the time. I think it is this character which sends him to Williamstown... Mr Speaker, Sir, but what is more important that has happened in Williamstown is that there are certain people there who would like to see Singapore being run down and attacked Singapore. The issue here is not just about people like Chee Soon Juan who come and go in any event but about the survival of Singapore. Singapore's survival is at stake because there is an attack on the basic institution of Singapore and on the system of Singapore. And it is the duty of loyal Opposition to defend Singapore."

For this, Chee and the CEC publicly shamed Chiam in the press, accusing him of being a puppet to the PAP, acting as an authoritarian, and attempting to destroy the SDP because of his own jealousy and thirst for power. Chiam sued Chee and the CEC for libel and won $120,000 in damages. He later left the SDP to join the Singapore People's Party in 1996.

This sordid piece of history serves as a warning to our voters today. In general election 2015, Chee Soon Juan has returned to stand as secretary-general of the SDP in Holland-Bukit Timah, while his former ally, Mr Cheo Chai Chen is contesting under the National Solidarity Party ticket in MacPherson. 

While I am genuinely excited for the increased opposition presence against the PAP, I cannot help but feel uneasy about Chee and Cheo's past misdeeds. From Chee's ruthless treatment of former mentor Chiam to his history of maniacal outbursts, voters need to consider whether having Chee in parliament would truly enrich the level of debate for the benefit of all Singaporeans. Lest we forget, voters should likewise consider whether Cheo Chai Chen, whose reckless personal ambition cost Mr Chiam his position in the party, and whose bungling of his town council duties cost the opposition their hard won seat in parliament, has become a more capable man in the past decade.

PAP's Darryl David is a serial monogamist!

So funny how the media will play up any scandalous news about opposition politicians but when it comes to the PAP, they won't even touch it with a 10 foot pole. Well, this is not exactly a scandal, but it is somewhat tabloid-y and definately worthy of some attention because we wouldn't want another Yaw Shin Leong or Michael Palmer in Parliament do we?

Did you know that Darryl David is a skirt-chasing serial monogamist? It's not that much of a surprise, as anyone who knew him personally can attest, especially given his past as a media personality before his foray into politics.

But isnt it somewhat odd that no one mentioned his previous marriage to radio personality Georgina Chang, when their marriage was previously given quite a bit of media coverage at that time.

 Their wedding was covered by The New Paper and they were even featured on the cover of Women's Weekly!  

Even a recent article about his marriage to his current wife omitted the fact that this was his second marriage!

It seems as if everyone just wanted to erase poor Georgina out of his public life! But why would anyone want to do that? Unless he did something that he didn't want anyone to know....?

Fishy people in GE2015...

First on our list of fishy politicians is none other than serial party-hopper Hazel Poa! Did you know that she was a former civil servant in the administrative service before she started her political journey with the RP? But just 3 months before the 2011 GE, she quit RP to join NSP!

Barely a month after the elections and only 4 months as a NSP newbie, she was anomalously elected to become the secretary-general of the party! Talk about a quick ascension! Even Lee Hsien Loong had to wait 20 years before he was elected as sec-gen of the PAP! The next 4 years she was in a bit of a ding-dong for the post of NSP sec-gen until just before this GE, she unilaterally made the decision to pull NSP out from contesting in MacPherson SMC and Marine Parade GRC without even consulting the CEC! Then after she made NSP look like idiots for saying they will contest, then not contest, then contest again, she decided to quit NSP and join SDP!

One can't help but wonder if there's a trend of her jumping ship from one party to another just before a GE is held...Is she just someone who holds no loyalty to the parties she join, or is she something else....?

Second on our list of fishy politicians is another serial-party hopper Jeanette Chong-Aruldoss! Like our dear Hazelnut, she started her political career in RP before joining in the exodus to NSP and standing under their ticket to run in the 2011 GE. 

In 2013, she took over the position of sec-gen from Hazelnut when the latter resigned from the post. But being a sec-gen wasn't enough for our dear Jeanette so in 2015, she decided to challenge Sebastian Teo for his position as party president. Too bad she lost the fight and resigned from the party to join the SPP with her tail between her legs.

Seems like there's also some sort of crop pattern here where political noobs use RP and NSP as jumping boards before moving off to other unsuspecting parties...

Our third suspect is the shrilly CPF banshee Han Hui Hui! Everyone knows that in a GE, anything other than a 1 vs 1 fight with the PAP is only going to fragment the opposition votes. Yet, this former Malaysian decided to throw her hat into the ring to contest even though she does not have enough money or the backing of her activist friends who have managed to seek shelter under RP's roof (RP again?? It'll be interesting to see if Roy Ngerng, M Ravi, Gilbert Goh quits RP to join NSP). If even RP doesn't accept her under their wing, it must say alot about her doesn't it? 

Last but not least, we have Mr. random-independent-candidate-that-popped-out-of-nowhere Samir Salim Neji. Who the heck is he? No one seems to know. He is so unknown that he didn't even have the requisite number of assentors for his nomination! And here comes the twist - his PAP rivals actually offered him their supporters to act as his assentors so that he could put up his nomination successfully! If a rival offers to help you beat him means something is not really right with the situation. Doubt the PAP would help the WP if they messed up their nomination forms.

Did Kahar Hassan do something naughty for the PAP to turn their backs on him?

From potential PAP candidate in Aljunied GRC to a political nobody. Isn't it curious how the PAP suddenly decided to replace a PAP Branch Chairman who has walked the Kaki Bukit ground for the past 16 months without any explanation or reasons given for the decision? 

The poor chap wasn't even asked to help out with the new team, told about his next posting, or even invited to the launch of the party's manifesto!

It certainly doesn't help that Lim Boon Heng 'clarified' that the PAP's decision was "not because he's done anything criminal or there's a scandal". 

Oops, did someone just make a Fruedian slip? Maybe someone received too much warmth, love (and hugs)! from his residents huh? :P