Chee Soon Juan

Chee Soon Juan (born 20 July 1962) is a Singaporean politician, activist, and former lecturer who has been appointed as Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party since 1993.

Prior to entering politics in 1992, upon Chiam See Tong's invitation to join the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), Chee was a lecturer at the National University of Singapore. Chee subsequently succeeded Chiam as the party's secretary-general after Chiam, whom Chee and the rest of the party's leadership have had a number of disagreements, left the party. The party had three Members of Parliament (MPs) at the time Chee took over as secretary-general, but lost all its seats at the 1997 general election and has not had any elected members since.

Chee was arrested and jailed several times for his unconventional political activities, mainly for making unauthorised public speeches as well as staging demonstrations without a police permit. He was also found guilty of defamation on multiple occasions for comments he has made about members of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP). He was previously barred from standing in parliamentary elections because he was declared bankrupt in 2006, after failing to pay damages from a lawsuit owed to Prime Ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong.

On 24 September 2012, Chee announced that he had raised the reduced sum of $30,000 which was accepted by Lee and Goh to annul his bankruptcy, which enabled him to contest in the 2015 and 2020 general elections. However, Chee has been considered to be a perennial candidate, and has never won an election ever since he first contested in 1992.