Chee Soon Juan is a politician and political activist from Singapore. He is the leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), and a vocal opponent of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) – which has held power since 1959. In 1992, the National University of Singapore sacked him as a lecturer when he joined the SDP and took part in an election.
Chee was a Research Associate at the Monash Asia Insitute (1997); a Human Rights Fellow at the University of Chicago (2001); a Reagan-Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (2004); and a visiting fellow of the Sydney Democracy Network (2014).
He is also a recipient of the Defender of Democracy Award (2003) awarded by the Parliamentarians for Global Action; and the Prize for Freedom (2011) by the Liberal International. He was also awarded the Hellman/Hammett Writers Grant by Human Rights Watch (2003).
Chee is currently the Secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)
Chee served as CALD Chair from 2008-2010.