Haha what the fuck has Dr Cheebye done for Singapore despite saying he's doing the politics full-time?
Flying around the world to other countries to say bad things about Singapore. That's what he does? Lol
Exactly.
Look
Leadership under Chiam See Tong (1980-1993)
1984 general elections
The Singapore Democratic Party entered the election campaign of that year with the slogan of "Singaporeans for Singapore", raising the need for elected opposition in parliament to bring democracy to Singapore. The party also raised other prominent issues of the time such as the need to reform the education and CPF system, and its opposition to the Elected Presidency.[5] It noticeably fielded only four candidates in that general election: Secretary-General Chiam See Tong, Chairman Ling How Doong (who was elected Chairman after the death of Fok Tai Loy), Vice-Chairman Soon Kia Seng and treasurer Peter Lim Ah Yong.[6]
Once the hustings got under way, the party came under sustained attack from the People's Action Party (PAP), with Ling and Chiam bearing the brunt of the attacks. The PAP chose to highlight Ling's dismissal from the police force and the record of his election agent, but these were quickly rebutted by the SDP leadership.[7] Chiam saw his secondary school record being brought up by Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who compared Chiam's intelligence with that of PAP's Mah Bow Tan who was standing against the SDP leader. Nevertheless, Chiam won the single seat of Potong Pasir, defeating Mah with 60% of the votes. Chiam was only the second opposition politician ever to be elected to the Republic's Parliament after J.B. Jeyaretnam of the Workers' Party. The SDP also did well as a whole, with the entire party garnering 45.2% of total votes cast in the constituencies they had contested in.[8]
After Jeyaretnam was expelled from Parliament in 1986, Chiam was Singapore's sole opposition MP. A moderate, Chiam claimed that he was not opposing for the sake of opposition. He also said: "But if they (the government) do the wrong things which are not good for Singapore, then we will oppose fearlessly".[9]
1988 general elections
The 1988 general elections saw the opposition's strongest challenge since 1963, with 71 candidates in total and only 11 walkovers. This election also saw the PAP engage the SDP's Chiam and WP's Jeyaretnam in a television debate.[10] Besides Chiam and Ling, the SDP also fielded Ashleigh Seow (the son of former Solicitor-General Francis Seow), businessmen Jufrie Mahmood, Cheo Chai Chen and Ng Teck Siong, sales manager Kwan Yue Keng, bank clerical assistant Mohd Shariff Yahya, teacher George Sita, financial futures trader Jimmy Tan, former PAP MP Low Yong Nguan, businesswoman Toh Kim Kiat, construction supervisor Francis Yong Chu Leong and shipping manager Chia Ah Soon. The party chose to target the government on the plan to amend the constitution, and that the economic prosperity indicators it used were untrue[11] When the results were declared, it emerged that the SDP was the only opposition party to win a seat, with Chiam re-elected as Potong Pasir MP for a second term. The SDP scored 39.5% of the total votes cast in all the constituencies it had contested in.[12]
1991 general elections
The PAP's announcement of a general election in 1991 came when the ruling party was barely in office for three years. The SDP chose to highlight its objections to some controversial government policies such as the sharp increase of ministers' salaries, the cost of healthcare, university education, transport and the GST. Most significantly, the SDP engineered an agreement with the other opposition parties to contest just under half the seats in Parliament, thus creating a "by-election effect" (reassuring voters that there would not be a change in government and encouraging them to elect more opposition voices).[13]
The election results saw the SDP winning three seats, its best performance so far. Party leader Chiam succeeded in retaining his Potong Pasir seat, while Party Chairman Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen won by slim margins in Bukit Gombak and Nee Soon Central respectively. Most of its losing candidates had put up extremely strong fights against the PAP during this election.[14] These include tight contests in 3 SMCs, including Nee Soon South SMC, Braddell Heights SMC and Bukit Batok SMC. One of the most notable candidates that year, Sin Kek Tong, was later the founder of the Singapore People's Party and contested Hong Kah North SMC in GE2011. The Worker's Party leader Low Thia Khiang was also elected in Hougang, giving the opposition a total of four parliamentary seats (still considerably less than the PAP's 77 seats). It was the best opposition electoral performance in Singapore since independence (and the most seats won by the opposition since 1963, when the Barisan Sosialis Party won 13 out of 51 seats in the pre-independence Legislative Assembly). At the time, the result was viewed as being a notable setback to the ruling party and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.[15]
