Chee Soon Juan

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Chee Soon Juan : biography

20 July 1962 –

Chee Soon Juan ( born 20 July 1962) is a Singaporean politician and political activist. He is currently the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).

A controversial political figure, Chee has been arrested and jailed several times for his political activities, mainly for repeatedly breaking Singapore’s laws requiring organisers to obtain a police permit before staging political demonstrations or making public speeches on political issues. He has also been sued for defamation on multiple occasions as a result of comments he has made about members of Singapore’s governing People’s Action Party (PAP). He is currently barred from standing in parliamentary elections because he was declared bankrupt in 2006 after failing to pay damages from a lawsuit owed to two former Singaporean prime ministers, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong. However, on 24 September 2012, Chee announced that he had raised the sum of S$30,000 needed to pay Lee and Goh. His bankruptcy has been annulled, paving the way for him to contest the 2016 general election.

Chee joined the SDP in 1992, and became its Secretary-General following the resignation of the party’s founder, Chiam See Tong (with whom Chee and the rest of the party’s leadership have had a number of disagreements). The party had three Members of Parliament (MPs) at the time Chee took over as Secretary-General, but was reduced to no MPs at the 1997 general election and has not had any of its members elected to Parliament since then.

Chee is the Chairman of the Asian Alliance for Reforms and Democracy. He was a recipient of Parliamentarians for Global Action’s "Defender of Democracy" award in 2003 http://www.pgaction.org/about_defe.aspx as well as Liberal International’s "Prize for Freedom" award in 2011.http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/5031-a-ceremony-of-reflection-and-hope-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyDcevuubEI

Prior to entering politics, Chee was a psychology lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS). However, he was dismissed from this position in 1993 after being accused of misappropriating research funds. He has since served as a research fellow at the Monash Asia Institute (1997), the University of Chicago (2001), and the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Program at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C. (2004)., asiademocracy.org. Retrieved 4 April 2011.

Works

Chee has written the following books:

  • Dare to Change: An Alternative Vision for Singapore (Singapore Democratic Party: 1994)
  • Singapore, My Home Too (1995)
  • To Be Free: Stories from Asia’s Struggle Against Oppression (Monash Asia Institute: 1998)
  • Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom: A Democratic Blueprint for Singapore (Singapore Open Centre: 2001)
  • The Power of Courage: Effecting Political Change in Singapore Through Nonviolence (2005)
  • A Nation Cheated (2008)
  • Democratically Speaking (2012)

Documentary

In 2004, Martyn See directed a documentary on Chee called Singapore Rebel. It was supposed to be screened at the Singapore International Film Festival, but was withdrawn from the festival and later banned by the Singapore government because of its political content. Singapore’s Film Act forbids the production and distribution of "party political" films, which are defined as films "made by any person and directed towards any political ends in Singapore". The ban on the film was lifted on 11 September 2001.http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/2009/09/ban-on-singapore-rebel-lifted-rated-m18.html

Personal life

Chee is married to Huang Chih Mei. The couple have three children.Tan, Jeanette, , sg.news.yahoo.com, 27 February 2012.

Biography

Chee had his early education at Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore. He then trained as a neuropsychologist, earning a PhD from the University of Georgia in 1990. After completing his doctorate, he returned to Singapore to take up a teaching position in Department of Psychology at the National University of Singapore (NUS).