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SDP

Social Democratic Party sounds like Bernie Sanders or European mainstream, but in its history it has not really maintained a systematic manifesto. Its image at any time was that of its then leader: Chiam See Tong the friendly critic, or Chee Soon Juan the civil disobedience activist. 

After a momentary success in the 1991 election, when it won 3 seats (WP only one), it developed internal conflicts and came close to disintegration, but held on long enough to reach the digital age, when opposition politics suddenly became much easier. WWW allowed them to reach an audience without the help of the mainstream media, and to raise money, hence to run campaigns and cover expenses like roadside posters, rallies and candidate desposits at nomination.

However, despite being able to recruit sufficient candidates to run in multiple electorates in successive elections, (including in 2011 the ex-senior civil servant Tan Jee Say who later ran for president and performed well enough to keep his deposit)

SDP has yet to win a seat after 1991. In particular, it had a curious experience with LBGT activists: a number of them were participating then stopped, and it seems to have made a deliberate choice to distance itself from them. Maybe it too asked "Pinkdot is successful, but are there votes in it?" I am also unaware of any individual policy victory like that sored by NSP's Kevlyn Lim on behalf of single mothers

21/6/2020 Chee Soon Juan has decided to stand in Bukit Batok electorate, where he lost in 2016 in a by election. In the photo too was Jolavan Wham, hard to recognize with mask on, he deserves his own box on this page

28/6/2020 though SDP still has not announced its list of candidates and districts to contest, we know James Gomez, member of workers party 2006-10 and SDP after that, will stand in Marsiling-Yew Tee

Gomez in fact helped WP to win Aljunied in 2011 by an silly act performed in 2006, but I wont relate the story here - it is incomprehensible without a lot of background knowledge, which most would not have these days; I assume the other electorate SDP plans to contest is Sembawang; it says a total of 11 candidates will be fielded

Walk the Talk

police had rejected the party’s application for the event called “Walk The Talk”, during which Dr Chee would “traverse the island on foot” to raise funds for his party.He added that he had conducted a similar fundraiser in 2015, and provided the reasons given to him by the police. 

“Given the prevailing health situation and safe distancing measures in Phase 2 of post-circuit breaker, the police has not granted, and will not be granting, permits for any public assemblies or processions regardless of the cause, whether political or non-political in nature, and regardless of the size of the participating group,” Singapore Police Force spokesperson said. 

He added that “cause-based activities, even if carried out by one individual, might cause crowds to gather, and put the public and participants at higher risk of COVID-19 infection”.

The police spokesperson said that SDP had previously applied for a permit to conduct such an event from Apr 3 to 5 this year, and that the police had issued the permit to SDP on Mar 24. The prevailing COVID-19 safe distancing guideline at the time was that only events and gatherings with 250 or more participants in attendance at any one time had to be suspended. On Apr 1, 2020, SDP informed the Police that they had decided to postpone the event,”

Jolovan Wham

Currently member of SDP

though once with workers partyhe seems to be following CSJ's civil disobedience playbook; he organized a meeting in which Joshua Wong, the HK student leader, spoke via skype; this was regarded as foreign political influence & he was jailed; he then took a photo of himself holding sign before law court,

for which he was charged; then smile sign before police station

for which he is now under police investigation

Whether these activities advance freedom of expression in Singapore, or bring him sympathy votes, or move forward whatever other objective he wants to promote, we will know only at the next election.

Is it necessary to expend police and legal manpower on little pranks like this? The analogy is the case of Francis Soh Seng Chye, who met his cousin to hand over car and was invited home to dinner. Though this violates social distancing order at the time, it would hardly cause legal issues, but he took photos of the gathering and put them on Facebook. Even that would not have been serious, maybe getting a warning, but he wrote: “After a long long long long super long day … we are having a illegal gathering … so what? Enjoy the food to the max.”

If you put up a challenge "I dare you to make this illegal and punish me", the singapore system is likely to comply. Does this arouse sympathy? It depends on whom you want to reach. There were some nice words from a few foreigners and the usual anti government locals, but if the objective is to get elected, the tactic is unlikely to work, as it did not with Chee.

in the mean time, history like supporting Mahathir, Joshua Wong, Amos Yee is not exactly helpful; it brings you strange companies

Independents

It is rare for candidates to file for election as members of parliament without party affiliations. This time two individual went to the election department for nomination forms; it is uncertain whether they will actually file on 30 June though

Ooi Boon Ewe, who has tried to stand in several past general elections as well as presidential elections, told reporters that he intends to contest Bukit Panjang SMC

Victor Ronnie Lai, 65, nicknamed Mr Sunflower as he likes to carry the flower as he goes about, said climate change is an issue he would champion if he is elected. He identified Pioneer as the district he will stand in.

Because there are usually PAP and an opposition party in each district already, independents almost always mean a 3-corner fight, in which the one without party support will usually score least and lost deposit, which is currently $13,500, a considerable sum for any individual. It is a very personal decision to take such a loss for a brief stance.

from the nomination map, it does not appear the two independents mentioned earlier turned up to register as candidates, but someone else did; two of the electorates Pioneer and Pasir Ris have two opposition parties/individuals competing with PAP. On the other hand, Jurong will be the new party RDU against PAP - the competition foreshadowed by PVP did not turn up

Fun Events

In a somewhat dull election (no rallies, so Lee Hsien Yang joining PSP, Heng's bad speech, and Worker party not taking part in Chinese Debate - maybe only the old guard can speak fluent chinese, and the old guard have been retired - were the fun parts)

but these campaign posters from Singapore Democratic Alliance attracted some notice

10 Million 

I have no opinion on the issue itself, but find its becoming main argument rather bizaar: After being told that 10M is not gov policy, SDP happily claimed victory, that its campaign caused policy change. Gov then called SDP fake news maker. This is actually a weak claim: a past gov planner did bandy about the figure and gov did not exactly called it wrong, but during a 2 week campaign you can try to exploit a fleeting issue with temporary advantage

I my view here is actually another case of PAP overpushing an issue, like LKY/GeorgeYeo/WongKanSeng did in 2006 over james gomez, Teo Chee Hean in 2012 Hougang byelection over Yaw Shin Leong's personal conduct; they should move on after a couple of days; same goes for 38 Oxley (38 what?)