Chee Soon Juan 'not Aung San Suu Kyi of Singapore politics'

Claims that he has been silenced by local media false, Govt tells US website
By Charissa Yong, The Straits Times, 16 Jan 2015

THE Singapore Government, in its response to opposition politician Chee Soon Juan's recent commentaries in a foreign media website, said he is not the weighty political figure that he makes himself out to be.

His claims that he has been silenced by local media are also false, Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing said yesterday.

"Dr Chee's problem is not that he has not been heard by Singaporeans. His problem is that they have," Mr Chan wrote in his letter to Huffington Post, a news website based in the United States.

He pointed out that several socio-political websites in Singapore - "some with as wide a reach among Singaporeans as the Huffington Post has among Americans" - have run several of Dr Chee's articles. The local press has also carried several letters by Dr Chee.

"As he has done in the past, he has looked to the foreign media for redemption, chiefly because foreign journalists don't know him as well as Singaporeans and he believes he can beguile them into believing he is the Aung San Suu Kyi of Singapore politics," said Mr Chan.

The minister's official letter was in response to two commentaries by Dr Chee that the Huffington Post published last November and December.

Dr Chee argued in the articles that Singaporeans had not all benefited equally from the country's free trade agreement with the US, and criticised the system of media controls in Singapore.

In a separate letter sent to The Straits Times yesterday, Mr Chan also rebutted the points Dr Chee made in a letter the newspaper had published in its Forum pages on Dec 18.

Dr Chee had argued that it was not possible for poor Singaporeans to live on $1,000 a month.

But Mr Chan countered that these families, with the help of housing grants, can afford to buy their own flats.

They also benefit from aid schemes for health care, transport, utilities and education.

The minister, in his letter to the Huffington Post, also noted that Dr Chee had contested unsuccessfully in three elections. They were in 1992, 1997 and 2001.

Mr Chan said the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), of which Dr Chee is the secretary-general, had once been "the leading opposition party in the country".

"But that was when it was led by Mr Chiam See Tong, a man everyone in Singapore, political friend and foe alike, regards as an honourable man," he said.

See what Mr. Chiam See Tong says about what the opposition should be like. This is a man so respected even by the PAP he had a special place during LKY's funeral procession. Mr. Chiam was speaking in parliament about Chee Soon Juan. Hear it from Mr. Chiam himself. (He isn't a PAP member or supporter by the way ;) )
Posted by Calvin Cheng on Monday, September 7, 2015

Mr Chiam had brought Dr Chee into the SDP in 1992, mentoring and promoting him, said Mr Chan. "Dr Chee then proceeded to betray Mr Chiam, isolate him and force him out of the SDP, a party that he had founded in 1980 and had nurtured over 14 years," he added.

The SDP has failed to win a seat in Parliament since then, although Mr Chiam himself went on to win elections repeatedly, noted Mr Chan.

He also highlighted how Dr Chee had been dismissed from the National University of Singapore in 1993 for misappropriating research funds.

"(Dr Chee) has been sued for defamation not only by ruling party politicians, a fact that he likes to trumpet in the foreign media, but also by the doyen of the opposition in Singapore, Mr Chiam, a fact that he doesn't mention because it is embarrassing," said Mr Chan.

"It is because of these and other failings that Dr Chee is a political failure - not because he was persecuted, as he likes to pretend," he added.

Chan Chun Sing rebuffs Huffington Post for running articles by Chee Soon Juan
Channel NewsAsia, 15 Jan 2015

Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing has issued a response to the Huffington Post for its publication of the articles “Without Freedom There is No Free Trade” and “Free the Singapore Media and Let the People Go”, by opposition politician Dr Chee Soon Juan late last year.


His response is reproduced below:

Your website has given Dr Chee Soon Juan considerable but undeserved attention and space. You perhaps believe that he is a weighty political figure in Singapore. He is nothing of the kind.

Dr Chee has stood for elections thrice – and lost badly all three times, once receiving just 20 per cent of the vote. 

The party he now leads, the Singapore Democratic Party, was once the leading opposition party in the country. But that was when it was led by Mr Chiam See Tong, a man everyone in Singapore, political friend and foe alike, regards as an honourable man.

Indeed, it was Mr Chiam who brought Dr Chee into the SDP in 1992. He mentored the younger man and promoted him. Dr Chee then proceeded to betray Mr Chiam, isolate him and force him out of the SDP, a party that he had founded in 1980 and had nurtured over 14 years. Since then the SDP hasn’t won a single seat in Parliament, though Mr Chiam himself went on to win elections repeatedly.

In 1993, Dr Chee was dismissed from the National University of Singapore for misappropriating research funds and for other serious misconduct, including surreptitiously recording conversations with university staff.

He has been sued for defamation not only by ruling party politicians, a fact that he likes to trumpet in the foreign media, but also by the doyen of the opposition in Singapore, Mr Chiam, a fact that he doesn’t mention because it is embarrassing.

And in 1996, Dr Chee and three of his associates were convicted of perjury by Parliament tor submitting false statements to a Special Parliamentary Committee. This is the equivalent of Congress convicting someone of perjury, a most serious offence.

It is because of these and other failings that Dr Chee is a political failure - not because he was persecuted, as he likes to pretend. His party is now one of the weakest political parties in Singapore principally because voters do not regard its leader as an honourable man.

Dr Chee was disqualified from contesting the last two General Elections because he was declared a bankrupt in 2006 for failing to pay damages for libel to former Prime Ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong. He was discharged from bankruptcy in 2012 after the former Prime Ministers agreed to accept a reduced sum in damages. Since then Dr Chee has been campaigning to redeem himself in the public eye in preparation for the next General Election.

As he has done in the past, he has looked to the foreign media for redemption, chiefly because foreign journalists don’t know him as well as Singaporeans and he believes he can beguile them into believing he is the Aung San Suu Kyi of Singapore politics. Dr Chee, however, claims he is forced to publish in the foreign media because he has been silenced in the Singapore media.

But this is false. There are several socio-political websites in Singapore, some with as wide a reach among Singaporeans as the Huffington Post has among Americans. They have run several articles by Dr Chee. The local press also has carried several of Dr Chee’s letters.

Dr Chee’s problem is not that he has not been heard by Singaporeans. His problem is that they have.

Sincerely,
Chan Chun Sing
Minister for Social and Family Development, Singapore

Chee sacrifices Singapore to win points overseas: Chan Chun Sing

DR CHEE Soon Juan is disingenuous ("Not possible for poor S'poreans to live on $1,000 a month"; Dec 18).

Singaporean families earning $1,000 a month can indeed afford their own flats because of various housing grants. As a result, the lowest 20th percentile of households have an average net home equity of $200,000. That is an achievement no other nation in the world can boast of.

And that is not all. In recent years, we have enhanced our social safety nets. Lower-income households have benefited from, among other things, Workfare and various assistance schemes for medical, transport, utilities and education.

We will soon strengthen our social safety net further with the Silver Support Scheme to help Singaporeans with low Central Provident Fund balances.

Dr Chee claimed that he published in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) because he could not publish his article in Singapore. But he has been published here before in both mainstream and online media.

The truth is, Dr Chee has always preferred to play to foreign galleries. For instance, when then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong was conferred an honorary degree by Williams College in the United States,

Dr Chee turned up to protest and embarrass his own prime minister overseas.

He has continued to play to the foreign gallery in writing in its media.

For instance, when he writes in the right-leaning WSJ, he attacks our government-linked companies - never mind the many Singaporean jobs at stake if foreigners do not do business with our companies.

And when he writes in the left-leaning Huffington Post, he attacks the US-Singapore free trade agreement - never mind that this FTA allows our companies to compete in the US market and creates jobs for Singaporeans.

Dr Chee has always been ready to sacrifice Singaporeans and Singapore if he can win points overseas.

He is right now busy prettying himself in preparation for the next general election, trusting younger voters will not remember his past.

But older Singaporeans will remember that he was once dismissed from the National University of Singapore for misappropriating research funds and then staged a dramatic glucose-fortified "fast" in protest. They will also remember that he once heckled Mr Goh at a hawker centre.

Above all, they will remember that Dr Chee betrayed his own mentor, Mr Chiam See Tong. Mr Chiam had brought Dr Chee into the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), but Dr Chee plotted against Mr Chiam and pushed him out of the party he had founded.

The SDP under Mr Chiam was Singapore's strongest opposition party. The SDP under Dr Chee has become a shadow of its old self.

Singaporeans know who are honourable political leaders, like Mr Chiam, and who are not.

Chan Chun Sing
Minister for Social and Family Development
ST Forum, 16 Jan 2015

Move beyond name-calling to debate: Chee
By Charissa Yong, The Straits Times, 17 Jan 2015

OPPOSITION politician Chee Soon Juan, who was criticised by the Government on Thursday, called on the People's Action Party (PAP) yesterday to move beyond name-calling and mud-slinging to mature debate.

The criticism of him is a case of the PAP's "habit of engaging in the politics of name-calling and personal destruction", said Dr Chee, who is the secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).

He urged the PAP to "go beyond such an un- constructive form of politics which Singaporeans detest and graduate to a more mature level of contestation of ideas which the people deserve".

He was replying to a letter Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing had sent on Thursday to The Huffington Post, a United States-based news website.

In the letter, Mr Chan described Dr Chee as a "political failure" because of his own failings, and not because of any persecution by the authorities here.

The minister also noted that Dr Chee had been dismissed from the National University of Singapore in 1993 for misappropriating research funds, and that he had been sued for defamation by PAP politicians and opposition veteran Chiam See Tong.

The letter was in response to two commentaries by Dr Chee that The Huffington Post published last November and December.

In the articles, Dr Chee criticised Singapore's media controls and human rights record.

Yesterday, Dr Chee said in his reply posted on the SDP's website and his Facebook page: "How does calling me a failure help to solve the problems that Singaporeans face?"

He invited Mr Chan to instead debate with him on issues such as the Central Provident Fund, health care, housing, population and education.

Dr Chee also urged the PAP not to stigmatise failure and encouraged Singaporeans not to be afraid to fail. "It is from our failures that we learn and become better persons and go on to achieve great things," he wrote.

Dr Chee also said that he was proud of what he had done.

He commended Mr Chan for his achievements, but said he chose a different path for himself.

"It is, admittedly, not a conventional path and, certainly, not one that leads to power, privilege and a high salary. In this respect Mr Chan is right, I have not succeeded," Dr Chee said.

"I have instead undertaken to speak up for the people of Singapore in what was, to put it mildly, a very difficult political terrain. Nevertheless, I am proud of my achievements, as I am sure Mr Chan is of his," he added.

Not credible for minister to say I plotted against Chiam, says Chee

WHENEVER the elections draw near, the People's Action Party (PAP) never fails to resurrect Mr Chiam See Tong's departure from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and run the story that I had ousted him and usurped his post.

Predictably, the PAP has done it again, this time through Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing's letter ("Chee sacrifices S'pore to win points overseas: Chan Chun Sing"; last Friday), saying that: "Dr Chee plotted against Mr Chiam and pushed him out of the party he had founded."

I would like to set the record straight.

Mr Chiam resigned as secretary-general of the SDP. No one kicked him out. In fact, after he resigned, a few central executive committee (CEC) members and I visited him on a few occasions over a month to persuade him to come back.

Court documents show that Mr Chiam's relationship with his CEC colleagues was already strained prior to my joining the SDP. Mr Ashleigh Seow, then a CEC member, testified in court: "Most people have had a difficult time with (Mr Chiam) at one time or another."

But even when the CEC took the decision to expel Mr Chiam over his open criticism of the party at an event organised by the Singapore Press Club in 1993, we still wanted to reconcile with him.

A few members of the CEC visited Mr Chiam, faxed him a letter requesting a meeting, and telephoned him several times to see if there was any chance of reconciliation before his expulsion was announced.

Tellingly, Justice Warren Khoo, who presided over the trial, acknowledged that he could find no bias or malicious behaviour on the part of the CEC in taking the action against Mr Chiam.

Given the above, is it credible for Mr Chan to say that I "plotted against Mr Chiam and pushed him out of the party he had founded"?

The PAP has spared no effort to paint me as the villain in this episode and to get Singaporeans to turn against me. I write this letter not to criticise Mr Chiam but only to set the record straight and to head off the PAP if it resurrects the issue close to elections.

The SDP has repeatedly sought goodwill with Mr Chiam through the years and we will continue to do so.

The SDP has moved on and we have grown. We have been a constructive party, drawing up alternative policies for Singapore. We want to focus on the real issues that Singaporeans are interested in, such as the cost of living, Central Provident Fund, housing, population and health care.

We hope that, for the sake of our nation and her people, the PAP will do the same.

Chee Soon Juan (Dr)
Secretary-General
Singapore Democratic Party
ST Forum, 20 Jan 2015

Post by Jeremy Chen.

SDP member quits party over 'irreconciliable differences'
By Lim Yan Liang, The Straits Times, 28 Jan 2015

A party member who helped draw up some of the Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) policies has left the party, citing irreconcilable differences with party boss Chee Soon Juan.

Mr Jeremy Chen, a PhD student at the National University of Singapore Business School, said in his resignation letter to the party that he was unhappy with certain actions taken by Dr Chee. He posted the letter dated Tuesday on his blog the same day.

One such action was his removal from the mailing list of the SDP's organising division, an internal group for party members, the 32-year-old said in his letter.

Post by The Straits Times.

He also wrote it was not clear to him why it was done, although he said Dr Chee had told him that his social media activity was the reason for his removal from the list.

"Before I even left the party, communication from me to the party mailing list was swiftly cut off soon after I replied to someone who wrote to the mailing list about 'a (party) member'" (me) criticising CSJ (Dr Chee) and asking, 'What is being done about this?'," wrote Mr Chen.

"That was extremely annoying (and) an act seemingly directed at preventing party members from knowing more about misconduct by a party leader."

Mr Chen also refuted Dr Chee's recent comments to the media that SDP has a "good slate" of new candidates for the coming general election.

"Who are the new people coming in? Because in all seriousness, I really don't know," he said. "Even people who are currently close to the action can't name these "new people" who might be candidates."

In an online response on Wednesday, SDP assistant secretary-general Christopher Ang said the party had repeatedly cautioned Mr Chen against making offensive posts on Facebook, but to no avail.

Mr Ang cited disparaging posts Mr Chen had made about both People's Action Party and opposition politicians, including former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim.

"The party then conveyed to Jeremy that if he continued with such Facebook posts, he cannot play a prominent role in the party," said Mr Ang. "This is the only point of contention the party has with him."

Mr Chen had helped launch some of SDP's policy proposals, including a public housing policy paper and an alternative population 'White Paper'. He also detailed in his blog his work on a Central Provident Fund position paper and an election strategy brief for the party.

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