In 1992, Chee was recruited to join the
Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) by the party's founder and secretary-general,
Chiam See Tong. Chee was first introduced to the public as a member of the SDP's team to stand in the
1992 Marine Parade by-election in the
Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC). His candidacy attracted considerable public interest as it was the first time that an academic from a state-run university had stood against the governing People's Action Party in an election. The SDP team was unsuccessful in the election, with the PAP winning 72.94% of the votes, the SDP 24.50%, and other parties 2.56%. Shortly after the Marine Parade by-election, Chee became the SDP's assistant secretary-general.
Hunger strike In 1993, a few months after Chee joined the SDP, he was dismissed from NUS by the Head of the Psychology Department,
S. Vasoo, who was also a PAP MP at the time, for allegedly using research funds to send his wife's doctoral thesis to the United States and making false transport claims. Chee denied that he had misused university funds and claimed that he was the victim of a political vendetta. On 5 April, Chee staged a
hunger strike to protest his sacking. On the second day of his hunger strike, Chee was advised by a doctor, who was checking on his health daily, to consume glucose water instead of just water which Chee did. On 14 April, the tenth day of the hunger strike, Chee ended his hunger strike. Although Chiam initially backed Chee, he became critical of Chee's hunger strike and his public comments condemning the PAP for his dismissal from NUS. Chiam wanted to censure Chee for his comments, but the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) backed Chee. Chiam then resigned as secretary-general of the party. Chee, as the assistant secretary-general, then became the party's acting secretary-general and was subsequently elected as secretary-general in 1993. After Chiam publicly criticised the CEC, they attempted to expel him from the party—an act which would have forced him to vacate his seat in Parliament—but Chiam won a court case to prevent them from doing so on procedural grounds. Chiam remained an SDP member and MP until shortly before the 1997 general election, when he left to join the
Singapore People's Party, a party founded in 1994 by ex-SDP members who supported him.
Leadership of the Singapore Democratic Party After taking over as the SDP's secretary-general, Chee began regularly travelling abroad and to talk about his views on how "democracy is limited" in Singapore to foreign media, especially in
Western countries. He also published his second political book,
Dare to Change: An Alternative Vision for Singapore. In 1994, in response to criticisms of the book made by then Deputy Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong, Chee wrote a letter to
The Straits Times. The PAP's Second Organising Secretary,
Matthias Yao, then wrote to the newspaper to reply to Chee's comments. This led to a two-month-long exchange of letters between Chee and Yao in the newspaper that ended with Chee issuing a challenge to Yao to stand against him in a
single member constituency at the next general election. At Yao's request, Prime Minister
Goh Chok Tong agreed to separate Yao's MacPherson ward from the rest of
Marine Parade GRC at the next general election so that he could take up Chee's challenge. At the
1997 general election Chee lost the election, garnering only 34.86% of the vote to Yao's 65.14%. The SDP's first general election under Chee's leadership in 1997 proved to be a major setback for the party as they failed to win any seats in Parliament.
Ling How Doong and
Cheo Chai Chen were defeated in their bids to be re-elected as MPs.
Defamation suits and bankruptcy At the
2001 general election, Chee stood as one of the SDP's candidates in the
Jurong Group Representation Constituency. The SDP's team lost to the PAP team, winning only 20.25% of the votes while the PAP won 79.75%. The SDP's candidates were also unsuccessful in all the other constituencies in which they stood. During the run-up to the election, Chee attracted attention in the media when he encountered Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong while campaigning at a
hawker centre. He used a megaphone to ask the Prime Minister, "Where is the $18 billion that you have lent to
Indonesian President]
Suharto?" The PAP took Chee to task for this, claiming that any accusation that Parliament had been misled about an alleged loan to Suharto was untrue, and demanding that he either apologise or face a defamation lawsuit. Although Chee apologised a day later, he subsequently retracted his apology. After the election, Chee was sued for
defamation by Prime Minister
Goh Chok Tong and former Prime Minister
Lee Kuan Yew. Chee lost the lawsuits and was ordered to pay damages of $300,000 to Goh and $200,000 to Lee. On 10 February 2006, Chee was declared bankrupt by the
High Court after failing to pay the damages owed to Goh and Lee. In April, Chee was stopped at
Changi Airport as he was preparing to board a flight to
Istanbul as he had not obtained his Official Assignee's approval. At the
2011 general election, Chee led the SDP into the contest. Although he was barred from standing due to his undischarged bankruptcy, he assembled a team of individuals to stand as candidates. The party had envisioned its best team to stand in
Holland-Bukit Timah GRC. Its candidates included
Tan Jee Say,
Ang Yong Guan,
Vincent Wijeysingha, and Michelle Lee Juen. The team lost, attaining 39.92% of the vote.
Contesting elections Chee contested as a candidate of
Singapore Democratic Party along with
Paul Tambyah, Sidek Mallek, and Chong Wai Fung for the
Holland-Bukit Timah GRC in the
2015 general elections. He began his campaign by raising the issue of the high
cost of living in Singapore, stressing that there was a need for Singaporeans to have an alternative voice in Parliament. In subsequent election rallies, Chee unveiled the SDP's proposals, which included the raising of personal income taxes on the top 1% of taxpayers to the year-2000 level, the introduction of a minimum wage, as well as the creation of a national healthcare plan to be funded by cutting the defence budget by 40%. In response, the PAP team described the proposals as "unrealistic", saying that the SDP's policies involved "tax-and-spend" programmes that would set Singapore "on the road to (debt-stricken) Greece". Chee responded by saying the PAP had previously criticised the SDP's ideas, only to adopt them later. According to Chee, the SDP had in the past proposed pooling individual healthcare risks, an idea that has been adopted by the Government, through the implementation of the
MediShield Life universal healthcare insurance scheme, as well as the Government's Fair Consideration Framework, which he stated was an adoption of the SDP's proposal that employers must try hiring Singaporeans first before considering foreigners. At a PAP rally on 7 September 2015,
Vivian Balakrishnan also called to attention Chee's role in ousting Chiam as secretary-general of SDP in 1993, saying that the PAP "did not have a tradition of "backstabbing" its mentors". In response, Chee, as well as the SDP's Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC candidate Bryan Lim, provided an account of the incidents that led to Chiam's resignation on the party's website, saying that Chiam resigned on his own accord.
Lina Chiam, Chiam's wife and the chairperson of Singapore People's Party (SPP), confirmed that the two sides had held "friendly talk" on the issue. At the same PAP rally,
Sim Ann accused Chee of being adept at "chut pattern", a
Singlish phrase meaning being full of antics. Chee responded the following day at a SDP rally by stating that he would not respond to personal attacks and would stay focused on policy issues during the election season, saying, "If you attack, you attack the policy, not the person... In football terms, you play the ball, not the man." Chee also addressed the different target population figures cited by government officials in the past, including the much debated 6.9 million figure in the
Population White Paper, asking if the PAP would consider the SDP's proposal to base the optimal population on the happiness of residents, and a point system when bringing in foreigners for skilled jobs. At a rally at
UOB Plaza, Chee spoke about income inequality and said that the SDP was "not against wealth, but wealth inequality as the widening income gap harms the common good, erodes cohesiveness and corrodes the values that fosters
social cohesiveness." Chee also called for checks on the Government and raised what he described as "failed or questionable decisions" by sovereign wealth fund
GIC and investment company
Temasek Holdings, implying that the money would have been better used on healthcare as "our hospitals face repeated shortage of beds and have to put patients along hospital corridors and makeshift tents." Chee also explained his decision to stand in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, which includes wealthy private housing estates, saying that "the wealthy segment of our society cares - and cares deeply - about what is happening around them. I believe that compassion is innate in all of us." Local media reported the popularity Chee had garnered during the election, stating that Chee's "more moderate image" and "articulate speeches proved to be a big draw," adding that "If the buzz on social media and the queues of people that have formed after the Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) rallies to have their books signed are any indication, there is considerable interest in SDP chief Chee Soon Juan this General Election." Observers attributed Chee's improved public image to a greater level of transparency and accessibility to information than in the past, as a result of technology like social media. Despite expectations of a close result, Chee was unsuccessful with his team winning 33.38% of the votes, losing to the incumbent PAP team. Despite his participation, the SDP fared worse in the Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency (GRC) than in the 2011 election. Chee described the result in as "hugely disappointing", but also noted the swing against the Opposition in every other constituency. Chee also raised the possibility of his party "working closer together" with the Workers' Party at the next general election.
Contesting in Bukit Batok SMC In 2016, after
David Ong, MP for
Bukit Batok SMC, resigned from PAP citing "personal reasons", and having admitted on committing a "personal indiscretion", a
by-election was called to replace the empty seat. SDP had decided on 20 March that Chee, their party secretary-general, would run as their candidate. On 27 April, Chee pledged that if elected, he would be a "full-time MP"; making the comparison: "... every morning when Mr Murali wakes up, his first destination will be his office. When I wake up every morning, my first destination is Bukit Batok." Chee lost the by-election, garnering 38.77% against PAP's
Murali Pillai 61.23% of the votes. Despite the loss, Chee improved SDP's vote count by 12%. In the
2020 Singaporean general election, Chee continued to contest at Bukit Batok SMC. During the English-language debate, Chee and PAP representative
Vivian Balakrishnan sparred over the issue of a projected 10 million population in Singapore, citing a 2019 article from
The Straits Times. PAP candidate and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat later denied saying that Singapore should plan to increase its population to 10 million people. SDP later claimed victory for pressuring the PAP into declaring that it did not have a population target of 10 million, to which a PAP spokesman denounced as a "falsehood" which "renders the campaign pointless, and calls into question the integrity of the whole party". The National Population and Talent Division of the Prime Minister's Office also objected to the claim. Chee managed to garner 45.2% of the total votes cast, his best electoral result, an increase of 6.4% of votes compared to the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election results. In February 2025, Chee announced that he would still be contesting in Bukit Batok SMC. Due to Bukit Batok SMC merging into
Jurong East–Bukit Batok GRC after electoral boundary changes in March, Chee moved his candidacy to the newly formed
Sembawang West SMC.
Contesting in Sembawang West SMC In the 2025 general election, Chee contested in Sembawang West SMC against incumbent PAP MP
Poh Li San. Despite initially qualifying for an NCMP seat according to the sample count, he failed to receive it after the
Workers' Party (WP) outperformed him in Tampines GRC with 47.37% of the vote to his 46.81%. == Democracy protests and outcomes ==