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108-547: The Singapore Democratic Party ( abbreviation : SDP ) is a social liberal political party in Singapore . Having peaked at three seats after the 1991 general election , the party currently has no seats in Parliament since 1997 . It was founded in 1980 by Chiam See Tong , who as Secretary-General became the party's first Member of Parliament (MP) in 1984 when he was elected in the constituency of Potong Pasir . At

216-560: A megaphone to ask Goh: "Where is the S$ 18 billion that you have lent to (Indonesian President) Suharto ?" PAP shortly demanded Chee to apologise for claiming a false accusation or face a defamation lawsuit. Despite apologising to PAP a day later due to the party's pressure, SDP further criticise the PAP's economic policies and urged for the minimum wage of S$ 5 per hour for the rest of the 2001 campaign. The SDP's economic alternatives were dismissed by

324-594: A Group Representation Constituency while leaving the Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency to a successor at the next general election. Two days later, Chiam announced that the party would be withdrawing from the SDA and that he would stand under the banner of the SPP instead of the SDA at the next general election. Due to the withdrawal, Chiam's chairman role was succeeded to Desmond Lim ,

432-695: A Shadow Budget in February 2011, as well as its campaign strategy, "The SDP Promise" in April 2011. Between September 2010 and April 2011, SDP also continued its groundwork in the constituencies of Bukit Panjang, Holland–Bukit Timah, Yuhua and Whampoa. The party unveiled its slate of 11 candidates just a few days prior to Nomination Day. The candidates were introduced during press conferences on 21 and 22 April 2011. Former senior civil servant Tan Jee Say , private school teacher Michelle Lee Juen, psychiatrist Ang Yong Guan and social activist Vincent Wijeysingha made up

540-399: A by-election was not held. On 14 September (the same day Yacob was sworn as president after the election went uncontested ), the party's assistant treasurer Wong Souk Yee filed a lawsuit for a by-election (intended to occur on 15 January 2018 as cited in a pre-trial conference) to be called. Justice Chua Lee Ming presided on the hearing, but on 9 April 2018, their bid was dismissed and Wong

648-618: A candidate for the forthcoming by-election for the ward of Bukit Batok SMC held on 7 May, after incumbent David Ong vacated his seat due to an extramarital affair involving another grassroots leader. During nomination day on 27 April, Chee was successfully nominated and faced the PAP's new candidate Murali Pillai (who previously contested the WP-held Aljunied GRC ). Former SDP member Kwan Yue Keng also stated his intention to contest as independent, but later withdrew upon Chee's successful nomination, as part of an agreement from

756-595: A combined vote share of 48.6%. All nine of the candidates put up extremely strong fights against the PAP during this election, with three candidates elected to the parliament (Leader Chiam, party Chairman Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen of Potong Pasir SMC , Bukit Gombak SMC and Nee Soon Central SMC , respectively); While Ling and Cheo were elected in tight margins, Chiam's 69.6% was both himself and any opposition's best performance hitherto. Along with Worker's Party would-be leader Low Thia Khiang electing in Hougang ,

864-465: A common grouping under which different opposition parties could stand as a political coalition in elections against the ruling People's Action Party (PAP). At the 2001 general election , Chiam See Tong was returned to Parliament as MP for Potong Pasir. Though Chiam was the only SDA member to win an elected seat in Parliament, he was joined in Parliament by SDA member Steve Chia (then-leader of

972-460: A confrontational style of politics in an attempt to soften his image. Whether this was successful is debatable though it is commonly argued that Chee's return was a significant asset to the party. Although SDP's combined vote of 31.2% was lower compared to the previous election, this was against the backdrop of a large swing away from opposition parties, of which SDP was one of the least affected. On 20 March 2016, SDP announced that Chee would stood as

1080-400: A few examples, there is Aldi , from Theo Albrecht , the name of its founder, followed by discount ; Haribo , from Hans Riegel , the name of its founder, followed by Bonn , the town of its head office; and Adidas , from Adolf "Adi" Dassler , the nickname of its founder followed by his surname. Singapore People%27s Party The Singapore People's Party ( abbreviation : SPP )

1188-502: A mild stroke in 2008, following which he had to cut back on some of his political activities. This led some CEC members to question whether he was able to properly fulfill his role of Chairman of the alliance. On 28 February 2011, the CEC voted to relieve Chiam of his role as chairman, however, the CEC stressed that they still hoped to field Chiam as a candidate at the next general election . Chiam had earlier announced his intention to stand in

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1296-480: A person's name, such as Migjeni —an abbreviation from his original name ( Millosh Gjergj Nikolla ) a famous Albanian poet and writer—or ASDRENI ( Aleksander Stavre Drenova ), another famous Albanian poet. Other such names which are used commonly in recent decades are GETOAR, composed from Gegeria + Tosks (representing the two main dialects of the Albanian language, Gegë and Toskë), and Arbanon —which

1404-555: A plural of an initialization without an apostrophe can also be used for a number, or a letter. Examples: For units of measure, the same form is used for both singular and plural. Examples: When an abbreviation contains more than one period, Hart's Rules recommends putting the s after the final one. Examples: However, the same plurals may be rendered less formally as: According to Hart's Rules , an apostrophe may be used in rare cases where clarity calls for it, for example when letters or symbols are referred to as objects. However,

1512-484: A post for the Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) as a result of being the best performing opposition candidate (amongst unelected candidates) after narrowly losing the election 49.64% to the PAP's Sitoh Yih Pin 's 50.36% (a margin of 114 votes). In overall terms, the SPP managed to clinch 41.42% (62,504 votes) of the total number of votes in the constituencies that it contested. Ahead of

1620-427: A shortened form of a word with a trailing period. For example: etcetera is usually abbreviated etc. and abbreviation is sometimes abbreviated abbr. , abbrv. , or abbrev. . But sometimes the trailing period is not used for such shortened forms. A contraction is an abbreviation formed by replacing letters with an apostrophe. Examples include I'm for I am and li'l for little . An initialism or acronym

1728-557: A single letter and was originally spelled with lower case letters then there is no need for capitalization. However, when abbreviating a phrase where only the first letter of each word is taken, then all letters should be capitalized, as in YTD for year-to-date , PCB for printed circuit board and FYI for for your information . However, see the following section regarding abbreviations that have become common vocabulary: these are no longer written with capital letters. A period (a.k.a. full stop)

1836-593: A small anti-PAP vote swing. Their party improved their party's overall vote to 33.83%, but their overall popular vote fell to 1.52%. On 22 December 2020, SPP Chairman Jose Raymond announced that he was retiring from politics, while revealing that the Assistant Secretary-General, Ariffin Sha, resigned from the party in August. Vice-Chairman Williiamson Lee became Acting Chairman, while Ariffin's position

1944-517: A symbol such as "km" for " kilometre ". In the International System of Units (SI) manual the word "symbol" is used consistently to define the shorthand used to represent the various SI units of measure. The manual also defines the way in which units should be written , the principal rules being: A syllabic abbreviation is usually formed from the initial syllables of several words, such as Interpol = International + police . It

2052-568: Is a syllabic abbreviation of Commonwealth and (Thomas) Edison . Sections of California are also often colloquially syllabically abbreviated, as in NorCal (Northern California), CenCal (Central California), and SoCal (Southern California). Additionally, in the context of Los Angeles, the syllabic abbreviation SoHo (Southern Hollywood) refers to the southern portion of the Hollywood neighborhood. Partially syllabic abbreviations are preferred by

2160-533: Is a variant of the acronym. Syllabic abbreviations are usually written using lower case , sometimes starting with a capital letter , and are always pronounced as words rather than letter by letter. Syllabic abbreviations should be distinguished from portmanteaus , which combine two words without necessarily taking whole syllables from each. Syllabic abbreviations are not widely used in English. Some UK government agencies such as Ofcom (Office of Communications) and

2268-602: Is an opposition political party in Singapore . SPP was founded on 21 November 1994 by Sin Kek Tong , who led a pro- Chiam See Tong faction out of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). Over two years, Sin stood as the pro-tem leader until Chiam joined the party and assumed leadership in December 1996, at the time the Parliament was dissolved ahead of the 1997 general election . Chiam then became

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2376-526: Is an abbreviation consisting of the initial letter of a sequence of words without other punctuation. For example, FBI ( /ˌɛf.biːˈaɪ/ ), USA ( /ˌjuː.ɛsˈeɪ/ ), IBM ( /ˌaɪ.biːˈɛm/ ), BBC ( /ˌbiː.biːˈsiː/ ). When initialism is used as the preferred term, acronym refers more specifically to when the abbreviation is pronounced as a word rather than as separate letters; examples include SWAT and NASA . Initialisms, contractions and crasis share some semantic and phonetic functions, and are connected by

2484-777: Is an alternative way used to describe all Albanian lands. Syllabic abbreviations were and are common in German ; much like acronyms in English, they have a distinctly modern connotation, although contrary to popular belief, many date back to before 1933 , if not the end of the Great War . Kriminalpolizei , literally criminal police but idiomatically the Criminal Investigation Department of any German police force, begat KriPo (variously capitalised), and likewise Schutzpolizei ( protection police or uniform department ) begat SchuPo . Along

2592-418: Is controversy as to which should be used. One generally accepted rule is to be consistent in a body of work. To this end, publishers may express their preferences in a style guide . Some controversies that arise are described below. If the original word was capitalized then the first letter of its abbreviation should retain the capital, for example Lev. for Leviticus . When a word is abbreviated to more than

2700-695: Is sometimes used to signify abbreviation, but opinion is divided as to when and if this convention is best practice. According to Hart's Rules , a word shortened by dropping letters from the end terminates with a period, whereas a word shorted by dropping letters from the middle does not. Fowler's Modern English Usage says a period is used for both of these shortened forms, but recommends against this practice: advising it only for end-shortened words and lower-case initialisms; not for middle-shortened words and upper-case initialisms. Some British style guides, such as for The Guardian and The Economist , disallow periods for all abbreviations. In American English ,

2808-584: Is typically US . There are multiple ways to pluralize an abbreviation. Sometimes this accomplished by adding an apostrophe and an s ( 's ), as in "two PC's have broken screens". But, some find this confusing since the notation can indicate possessive case . And, this style is deprecated by many style guides. For instance, Kate Turabian , writing about style in academic writings, allows for an apostrophe to form plural acronyms "only when an abbreviation contains internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters". For example, "DVDs" and "URLs" and "Ph.D.'s", while

2916-614: The 2006 general election , Chiam See Tong was again re-elected as MP for Potong Pasir. However, the SDA did not win any other seats. Steve Chia lost his position as a non-constituency MP. Though Chia increased his share of the vote in Chua Chu Kang to 39.63%, this was lower than the 43.9% gained by the Workers' Party in Aljunied GRC . The role of de facto leader of the opposition in Parliament therefore passed from Chiam to

3024-420: The 2006 general election , the party appeared to be cracking from within after Chee was jailed for not paying a fine for contempt of court . Then-SDP's chairman, Ling How Doong, was quoted as saying that the party "would be run even better" without Chee, citing that the party was not just a one-man show and could survive and even thrive without him. Chee's sister Chee Siok Chin. also a party member, confirmed that

3132-778: The 2015 elections (due to be held 11 September), Chiam announced that he would not stand as a candidate for the elections, for the first time since his debut in 1976. Another opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party , who led by Benjamin Pwee and Hamin Aliyas, joined SPP to strengthen its team contesting Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC. New candidate Ravi Philemon replaced Chairman Sin as candidate for Hong Kah North, while Lina Chiam contested again in Potong Pasir. Former NSP member Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss joined

3240-576: The Modern Language Association explicitly says, "do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation". Also, the American Psychological Association specifically says, "without an apostrophe". However, the 1999 style guide for The New York Times states that the addition of an apostrophe is necessary when pluralizing all abbreviations, preferring "PC's, TV's and VCR's". Forming

3348-690: The Old English poem Beowulf used many abbreviations, for example the Tironian et ( ⁊ ) or & for and , and y for since , so that "not much space is wasted". The standardisation of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included a growth in the use of such abbreviations. At first, abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not only periods. For example, sequences like ⟨er⟩ were replaced with ⟨ɔ⟩ , as in mastɔ for master and exacɔbate for exacerbate . While this may seem trivial, it

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3456-653: The People's Power Party to prevent a walkover. Despite the by-election defeat, an 11.78% swing towards SDP from the last election saw Chee's best performance score since 1997, at 38.79%. His best performance was widely attributed on his opinionated personality rather than introspective, and how his campaign drew notable attention to his supporters. On 7 August 2017, former Parliamentary Speaker Halimah Yacob vacated her seat in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC in order to contest that year's presidential election . While

3564-423: The presidential election held on the same year, as constitution states that candidates were required to be nonpartisan and cannot represent in any political party. Despite receiving endorsement from the oppositions, Tan only garnered 529,732 out of over two million valid votes (or 25.04%) and finished third in a rare four-cornered contest to Tony Tan (a former PAP member and Deputy Prime Minister ), where he won

3672-633: The "defendants claim that they're innocent by virtue of their right under the Singapore constitution to enjoy the guarantees of freedom of assembly and expression", and the trial has been described by the Washington Times as "a test about whether Singapore's judiciary is independent". In preparation for the impending elections in 2011 , the Singapore Democratic Party organized two pre-election rallies at Hong Lim Park on September and November 2010. The Party also unveiled

3780-459: The 1990s led to a marked rise in colloquial abbreviation. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual communication services such as instant and text messaging. The original SMS supported message lengths of 160 characters at most (using the GSM 03.38 character set), for instance. This brevity gave rise to an informal abbreviation scheme sometimes called Textese , with which 10% or more of

3888-426: The 1991 general election, SDP members Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen won their seats at Bukit Gombak and Nee Soon respectively, giving the party a total of three MPs. However, Chiam fell out with the party's Central Executive Committee in 1993 and subsequently left the party in 1996 for the splinter Singapore People's Party (SPP), destabilising the party. He was succeeded by Chee Soon Juan , who has remained

3996-411: The 2015 elections, but the latter declined their participation request, and did not turn up on the party's meeting. On 23 February 2019, at the time the impending election was yet to be announced, the party was the first to begin their election campaign despite a last-minute venue dropout, and announced that they would contest the same constituencies as they did in the 2015 election, and a goal to prevent

4104-661: The 20th century. The contractions in Newspeak are supposed to have a political function by virtue of their abbreviated structure itself: nice sounding and easily pronounceable, their purpose is to mask all ideological content from the speaker. A more recent syllabic abbreviation has emerged with the disease COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019) caused by the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (itself frequently abbreviated to SARS-CoV-2 , partly an initialism). In Albanian, syllabic acronyms are sometimes used for composing

4212-450: The 21st Ordinary Party Conference (OPC). The cadre members elected the CEC, which will serve a two-year term starting from February 2024. Dr. Paul Tambyah , Chairperson of the SDP, commented on the new CEC line-up, stating that it comprises a balanced mix of experienced party veterans and dynamic young members, all committed to fostering a more democratic Singapore. He expressed confidence that

4320-506: The CEC, such as sole power to appoint and dismiss CEC and cadre members, and the removal of Vice-Chairman Wong Hong Toy. These demands were against the party's democratic principles and constitution, leading to an impasse. Chiam later criticized the CEC publicly, prompting a disciplinary hearing. Although the CEC initially did not intend to expel him, the decision was made after a lengthy debate, with 11 out of 13 members voting for expulsion. The CEC continued attempts at reconciliation even after

4428-569: The Central Executive Committee. On 5 November 2019, Steve Chia was elected as the new Secretary-General of the Singapore People's Party, along with Jose Raymond as Chairman. On the election day on 10 July, the party failed to make headways for the third consecutive election as the party lost to the PAP on both of the two constituencies they contested (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC and Potong Pasir SMC ) despite seeing

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4536-646: The National Solidarity Party) who became a non-constituency MP after securing 34.6% of the votes in the constituency of Chua Chu Kang , which was the highest percentage of the vote secured by a losing opposition candidate at the election. The result made Chiam the de facto leader of the opposition in Parliament, as the SDA had two representatives (Chiam and Chia), whereas the only other opposition party represented in Parliament (the Workers' Party ) had only one ( Hougang MP Low Thia Khiang ). At

4644-487: The Opposition's national average with 30.14% of the popular vote. All the candidates who contested this ward in the 2011 elections such as Vincent Wijeysingha, Tan Jee Say and Ang Yong Guan, resigned from the party prior; Tan and Ang would later become members to lead Singaporeans First . On 22 August, their party had moved their headquarters to Ang Mo Kio. In this electoral contest, Chee was noted for shifting away from

4752-463: The PAP run town councils in Holland–Bukit Timah and Bukit Panjang. However, these issues were quickly overshadowed by Balakrishnan's attack on the SDP team over a video supposedly containing Wijeysingha's "gay agenda". The SDP quickly refuted these allegations on Wijeysingha, with the party's Secretary-General making his stance clear on a video released by the party on 25 April. On nomination day,

4860-464: The PAP which claimed that the SDP policies would lead Singapore to bankruptcy and inflation. The party's popular vote fell for the second consecutive election, down to 20.4%, in addition on failing to win a seat for the parliament. Due to bankruptcy set forth by the PAP in the following year (which barred candidates from running in elections), this was Chee's last stint in the political arena until three elections later in 2015. In March 2006, just before

4968-402: 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). The election results saw SDP best performance for an opposition in post-independence Singapore since Barisan Sosialis with

5076-448: The SDP leadership. Chiam saw his secondary school record being brought up by the then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew , who compared Chiam's intelligence with that of PAP's Mah Bow Tan (a candidate who later became a cabinet minister and then-MP of Tampines GRC ) who was standing against the SDP leader. Chiam won the single seat of Potong Pasir after three attempts in the constituency by a vote of 60.3% to Mah's 39.7%, making Chiam as only

5184-422: The SDP suffered significant electoral setbacks with SDP failing to win a single seat since 1984, including incumbents Cheo and Ling, as well as Chee. Their party's vote also dropped from 48.6% down to 33.1%, and no SDP members until now have been elected since. However, former SDP Member Chiam, now a SPP candidate, succeed in retaining his Potong Pasir seat, alongs WP's Low in his Hougang ward; Chiam and Low were also

5292-410: The SDP was unsuccessful in the by-election (the PAP won 72.9% of the votes, the SDP 24.5%, and other smaller parties 2.6%), the recruitment of Chee as a candidate generated considerable public interest. However differences between Chiam, Chee and the rest of the party's Central Executive Committee were soon to emerge. After being placed as the acting SDP leader in 1993, Chee began expressing his views on

5400-437: The SDP's team for Holland–Bukit Timah GRC. Also announced during this period of time was the party's intention to contest Sembawang GRC. The team fielded there consisted of academic and former WP member James Gomez , party Assistant-Secretary General John Tan, entrepreneur Jarrod Luo, former unionist Sadasivam Veriyah and businessman Mohd Isa. Former ISA detainee Teo Soh Lung and party treasurer Gerald Sng were also introduced to

5508-405: The SDP, the election saw the return to the politics for Secretary-General Chee since 2001 after Chee was discharged from bankruptcy , who led his team to contest Holland–Bukit Timah GRC (along with Paul Tambyah , a professor, Sidek Mallek, a compliance auditor, and Chong Wai Fung, a medical administrator). Despite failing to win any contested seat, Chee's team of Holland–Bukit Timah GRC polled above

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5616-492: The Secretary-General ever since. A centrist to centre-left political party, the SDP ideologically draw upon both liberalism and social democracy . The party has been led by different factions at various points, with Chiam and Chee's respective leaderships characterised by very divergent party objectives. Members of the party have its own ideological bent, many of which leaning towards the centre-left and others

5724-409: The Singapore Democratic Party team saw the nomination of all its candidates. In particular, the Holland–Bukit Timah team had also raised an objection to the nomination of the PAP's candidates. The PAP's Sim Ann had filed in her occupation as a former civil servant and this was disputed by the SDP team given the short time span between Sim Ann's resignation from the civil service and nomination day. On

5832-768: The US Navy, as they increase readability amidst the large number of initialisms that would otherwise have to fit into the same acronyms. Hence DESRON 6 is used (in the full capital form) to mean "Destroyer Squadron 6", while COMNAVAIRLANT would be "Commander, Naval Air Force (in the) Atlantic". Syllabic abbreviations are a prominent feature of Newspeak , the fictional language of George Orwell 's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four . The political contractions of Newspeak— Ingsoc (English Socialism), Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), Miniplenty ( Ministry of Plenty )—are described by Orwell as similar to real examples of German ( see below ) and Russian ( see below ) contractions in

5940-570: The Workers' Party leader Low. The NSP withdrew from the SDA in 2007, but the SPP remained in the alliance with the SJP and PKMS. In 2010, Chiam tried to bring the Reform Party into the SDA. He reportedly accepted the conditions the RRP set out for joining the alliance, but the terms of entry were opposed by other members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) who blocked the move. Chiam also suffered

6048-509: The Workers' Party's performances (of East Coast GRC , Fengshan SMC and Punggol East SMC ), this was not enough for Chiam to secure her NCMP seat for a second term, thus ending their party presence in Parliament since the party foundation. In terms of the party's overall vote, they garnered only 27.08% of the votes cast, a swing of -14.34% from the previous election. On 1 March 2017, the party reported that former party's chairman Sin died from prostate cancer two days ago. In January 2018, it

6156-460: The apostrophe can be dispensed with if the items are set in italics or quotes: In Latin, and continuing to the derivative forms in European languages as well as English, single-letter abbreviations had the plural being a doubling of the letter for note-taking. Most of these deal with writing and publishing. A few longer abbreviations use this as well. Publications based in the U.S. tend to follow

6264-511: The campaign. At Parliament House, the protesters were warned by police to stop their unlawful assembly . When the warning was ignored, the police dispersed the protest and arrested the demonstrators. The trial PP vs. Chee Soon Juan and 18 others began on October 23, 2008, with the defendants charged on two counts of violating Section 5(4)b Chapter 184 of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public and Nuisance) Act. In their defense,

6372-518: The centre and some even the centre-right. Since the 2000s, the party has since focused more on a liberal human rights agenda. The party has called for a few reforms to the Constitution . Among others, it emphasises stronger protections for civil liberties and promotes social liberal approaches to issues as well as changes to education, healthcare and housing policies. It also favours more social welfare spending for Singaporeans and decreasing

6480-505: The challenges of internal party dynamics and the commitment to maintaining democratic principles within the party structure. The SDP is governed by a twelve-member Central Executive Committee (CEC), who are elected by the party's cadre members at the Ordinary Party Conference held biennially. On 3 February 2024, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) announced the election of its Central Executive Committee (CEC) during

6588-428: The colour red (signifying courage and determination). The party was inaugurated on 21 September 1981, a full year after being registered as a political party. In 1993, internal conflicts within the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) came to a head. Tensions had been brewing between Chiam See Tong , the party's Secretary-General, and other members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) since before Chee Soon Juan joined

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6696-490: The decision was made, but these were unsuccessful. Following these events, supporters of Chiam left the SDP and formed the Singapore People's Party (SPP) in 1994, with Sin Kek Tong as its pro-tem leader. Chiam joined the SPP ahead of the 1997 general election, becoming its leader and continuing his political career under a new banner. This period marked a significant turning point for the SDP, highlighting both

6804-507: The election with 744,397 votes (or 35.20%). On 23 November 2012, secretary-general Chee was formally discharged from bankruptcy in court, allowing him to participate in future elections once more. Chee initially expressed his intention to contest the Punggol East SMC in the 2013 by-election (which was precipitated after the incumbent MP Michael Palmer resigned due to an extramarital affair), which could have marked his return to

6912-523: The election, among which three candidates made their election debut, and Tan Jee Say returning to the party after earlier dissolving Singaporean First ahead of the nominations. SDP chairman and Bukit Panjang candidate Paul Tambyah on 3 July had said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) had told "employers they were not allowed to bring their workers for testing", an allegation that Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong later denied on 5 July. When

7020-521: The entire CEC (except for the Chee Siblings) to apologise and pay damages by 26 April. Nevertheless, the party successfully nominate a combined seven candidates (Sembawang GRC and Bukit Panjang SMC) on nomination day, two days before being sued. The Sembawang team was led by Chee Siok Chin, along with businessmen Christopher Neo, Isa Abdul Aziz and Yong Chu Leong, marketing manager Gerald Sng Choon Guan and administrator Narayanasamy Gogelavany, while

7128-428: The former Oftel (Office of Telecommunications) use this style. New York City has various neighborhoods named by syllabic abbreviation, such as Tribeca (Triangle below Canal Street) and SoHo (South of Houston Street). This usage has spread into other American cities, giving SoMa , San Francisco (South of Market) and LoDo, Denver (Lower Downtown), amongst others. Chicago -based electric service provider ComEd

7236-456: The globally popular term OK generally credited as a remnant of its influence. Over the years, however, the lack of convention in some style guides has made it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated with periods and which should not. This question is considered below. Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the Internet during

7344-471: The lack of democracy in Singapore to the media. He published his second political book, Dare To Change: An Alternative Vision for Singapore , in 1996. This view had since led to the attention of the PAP's Organizing Secretary Matthias Yao ; ahead of the 1997 elections , Chee publicly issue a challenge to stand against Yao (who he accepted) in his constituency of MacPherson . At the 1997 general election,

7452-408: The later who would found Chiam's spin-off party of Singapore People's Party . The party chose to target the government on the plan to amend the constitution, and that the economic prosperity indicators it used were untrue 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

7560-544: The leader of SJP. At the elections, Chiam announced that he led his team to contest the Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency , leaving his Potong Pasir ward to his wife, Lina Loh Woon Lee (Lina Chiam). This was Loh's debut in politics, although she had tirelessly campaigned with her husband over the years in many general elections in Singapore, including Cairnhill and Potong Pasir constituencies. Chairman Sin

7668-537: The media and were fielded in the constituencies of Yuhua and Bukit Panjang respectively. The party later recruited Alec Tok, leaving Sng to make way for Tok in Bukit Panjang SMC. Among the issues brought up by the party prior to nomination day were: the heavy influx of foreigners into Singapore, Vivian Balakrishnan 's mismanagement of the Youth Olympic Games and the loss of sinking funds in

7776-490: The only opposition MPs returned to Parliament for two more elections (2001 and 2006). In 1999, Chee came to national attention when he gave a public speech in the financial district despite being denied a permit to speak publicly. During the campaigning, Chee's meeting with then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong sparked public's imagination during one of Goh's rallies where he, along with his followers, raised their fists and chanted slogans. Later, from his campaign vehicle, Chee used

7884-621: The opposition won a combined four parliament seats, then the largest representation since 1963. At the time, the result was viewed as being a notable setback to the ruling party and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong . In 1992, Chiam recruited Chee Soon Juan , a psychology lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS), to be an SDP candidate for a by-election in the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency . Although

7992-431: The party prior, and contested Mountbatten SMC just as Chong did in the 2011 elections. However, the absence of Chiam in the election saw their party suffered another major setback, not only did the party fail to win a parliamentary seat, their scores were overseen by large swings towards the PAP, one of which was Potong Pasir, where Lina Chiam managed to secure only 33.59% of the valid votes, down from 49.64%. Comparing to

8100-673: The party remained united. The party continued its preparations for the 2006 general election, choosing to target then- Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan in Sembawang GRC over the National Kidney Foundation Scandal and to ride on the public backlash at the time. The party subsequently published an editorial in the New Democrat questioning the PAP's credibility over the issue, but PAP went to sue SDP for defamation on 22 April, and PAP won, resulting in

8208-460: The party were declared to be the "elimination of colonialism and feudalism, the safeguarding of parliamentary democracy and upholding of the principles of democracy, socialism and the constitution." Two months later, on 19 October 1980, the party unveiled its emblem: a circle (which symbolises unity amongst Singapore's ethnic groups), behind an arrow (representing political progress in Singapore) in

8316-435: The party's chair, Ling How Doong, was fielded in Bukit Panjang SMC. The SDP's final vote share for Sembawang and Bukit Panjang was 23.3% and 22.8% respectively, marking a slight improvement in results as compared to 2001, but still far short of the national average of 33.3%. On 15 March 2008, Chee and 18 others held a demonstration at Parliament House , all wearing red Tak Boleh Tahan (Cannot Take It) T-shirts to kick-start

8424-777: The party's first Member of Parliament (MP) when he won the constituency of Potong Pasir at the election, where he also did under the SDP banner. In 2001, the SPP became a founding member of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), along with the National Solidarity Party (NSP), the Singapore Justice Party (SJP) and the Singapore Malay National Organisation (PKMS). Chiam became the founding Chairman of SDA, which aimed to provide

8532-413: The party. These disputes, which included disagreements over leadership style and party direction, were exacerbated by Chiam's attempt to censure Chee following a hunger strike. When the CEC did not support this censure, Chiam resigned from his position as Secretary-General. Despite Chiam's resignation, the CEC made efforts to persuade him to return. Chiam, however, demanded conditions deemed undemocratic by

8640-487: The period is usually included regardless of whether or not it is a contraction, e.g. Dr. or Mrs. . In some cases, periods are optional, as in either US or U.S. for United States , EU or E.U. for European Union , and UN or U.N. for United Nations . There are some house styles, however—American ones included—that remove the periods from almost all abbreviations. For example: Acronyms that were originally capitalized (with or without periods) but have since entered

8748-460: The political arena after a decade, but later pulled out from contest to avoid a multi-cornered contest and backed WP (whose candidate, Lee Li Lian , would later go on to win). Elections were called by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2015 commemorating after 50 years of independence. The SDP contested five electoral divisions, which were Bukit Batok SMC , Bukit Panjang SMC , Yuhua SMC , Holland-Bukit Timah GRC and Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC . For

8856-514: The polling day on 7 May, the SDP was defeated in all the seats they contested, with 36.1%, 33.73%, 33.14% for Sembawang GRC, Bukit Panjang SMC and Yuhua SMC, respectively; however, their team in Holland–Bukit Timah GRC scored its best result since 1997, with 39.92% (slightly above the national average of 39.86%), and the party's scored 36.76% of the party's popular vote. After the election, Tan Jee Say resigned from SDP to seek candidacy for

8964-564: The rates of immigration. The party is both a member of Liberal International and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats . The SDP was founded on 6 August 1980 by lawyer Chiam See Tong , who had contested several elections as an independent candidate in the 1970s, together with consultant engineer Fok Tai Loy and businessman Ernest Chew Tian Ern, who they took the roles of the party's founding Secretary-General , Chairman , and Assistant Secretary-General, respectively. The main objectives of

9072-442: The results was announced on 10 July, they were defeated in every seats contested, although Bukit Panjang came that close to winning the election with chairman Tambyah garnering 46.26% of the votes, while Chee came second with 45.20% of the votes while contesting Bukit Batok. Their vote share based on the constituencies contested was 37.04%, falling short from the national average of 38.76%. Abbreviation An abbreviation may be

9180-459: The ruling PAP from retaining a government with a supermajority (two-thirds of the total number of parliamentary seats) that the party attained since post-independence. Party's vice-chairman John Tan announced that SDP would also unveil policy papers on housing and the cost of living the following month, followed by healthcare and population issues in May. Former DPP secretary-leader Benjamin Pwee , on

9288-835: The same lines, the Swiss Federal Railways' Transit Police—the Transportpolizei —are abbreviated as the TraPo . With the National Socialist German Workers' Party gaining power came a frenzy of government reorganisation, and with it a series of entirely new syllabic abbreviations. The single national police force amalgamated from the Schutzpolizeien of the various states became the OrPo ( Ordnungspolizei , "order police");

9396-630: The same time, was revealed that he and a few others have submitted their applications to join the SDP, after Pwee left the party on 19 February. On 21 June, the party's leader confirmed Chee would settle a rematch in the Bukit Batok SMC against Murali in the election. Three days later on the 24th, the party confirmed their intentions to contest the same wards that they challenged in the last election, namely Bukit Panjang, Holland–Bukit Timah, Marsiling–Yew Tee and Yuhua. Their nominations were confirmed on 30 June, resulting in 11 candidates competing in

9504-451: The seat remain vacant, the grassroots advisor (which was linked to People's Association ) was replaced by Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad the day after. Despite Mohamad was a minority MP for the GRC and a grassroots advisor is not the same as having an MP elected by residents of the constituency, one of the original purposes of the GRC system was to ensure minority representation , and thus

9612-498: The second opposition politician ever to be elected to the Republic's Parliament after J.B. Jeyaretnam of the Workers' Party . The SDP garnered 45.2% of total votes cast in the constituencies they had contested in. 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

9720-401: The secret police) and VoPo for Volkspolizei . The phrase politisches Büro , which may be rendered literally as "office of politics" or idiomatically as "political party steering committee", became Politbüro . Syllabic abbreviations are not only used in politics, however. Many business names, trademarks, and service marks from across Germany are created on the same pattern: for

9828-428: The secretary-general post due to declining health and Lina Chiam would step down from the chairman post, while the party's Facebook page posted that they would electing a new leader by 16 October on a biennial Ordinary Party Conference, among which Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss would be stepping down from the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC). Chiam stepped down on 16 October 2019, with four new faces elected into

9936-556: The state KriPos together formed the "SiPo" ( Sicherheitspolizei , "security police"); and there was also the Gestapo ( Geheime Staatspolizei , "secret state police"). The new order of the German Democratic Republic in the east brought about a conscious denazification , but also a repudiation of earlier turns of phrase in favour of neologisms such as Stasi for Staatssicherheit ("state security",

10044-546: The style guides of The Chicago Manual of Style and the Associated Press . The U.S. government follows a style guide published by the U.S. Government Printing Office . The National Institute of Standards and Technology sets the style for abbreviations of units. Many British publications follow some of these guidelines in abbreviation: Writers often use shorthand to denote units of measure. Such shorthand can be an abbreviation, such as "in" for " inch " or can be

10152-421: The team would successfully manage town councils and address important issues in Parliament with innovative solutions. Secretary-General Dr. Chee Soon Juan emphasized the importance of a unified strategy for public engagement and planning as the party prepares for the upcoming General Election, expected in the latter half of 2024. He stressed the need for effective communication and groundwork to be established in

10260-971: The term abbreviation in loose parlance. In early times, abbreviations may have been common due to the effort involved in writing (many inscriptions were carved in stone) or to provide secrecy via obfuscation . Reduction of a word to a single letter was common in both Greek and Roman writing. In Roman inscriptions, "Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words, and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation". However, "some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context. (For example, ⟨A⟩ can be an abbreviation for many words, such as ager , amicus , annus , as , Aulus , Aurelius , aurum , and avus .)" Many frequent abbreviations consisted of more than one letter: for example COS for consul and COSS for its nominative etc. plural consules . Abbreviations were frequently used in early English . Manuscripts of copies of

10368-462: The total votes cast in all the constituencies it had contested in. 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,

10476-516: The vocabulary as generic words are no longer written with capital letters nor with any periods. Examples are sonar , radar , lidar , laser , snafu , and scuba . When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, only one period is used: The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. In the past, some initialisms were styled with a period after each letter and a space between each pair. For example, U. S. , but today this

10584-618: The weeks and months ahead to ensure a strong electoral campaign. The party entered the election campaign of that year under 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. It noticeably fielded only four candidates in that general election: Secretary-General Chiam See Tong, Chairman Ling How Doong (who

10692-464: The words in a typical SMS message are abbreviated. More recently Twitter, a popular social networking service , began driving abbreviation use with 140 character message limits. In HTML , abbreviations can be annotated using < abbr title = "Meaning of the abbreviation." > abbreviation </ abbr > to reveal its meaning by hovering the cursor . In modern English, there are multiple conventions for abbreviation, and there

10800-768: The wrong things which are not good for Singapore, then we will oppose fearlessly". The 1988 general elections saw the opposition's strongest challenge since 1963, with 71 out of 82 seats contested. This election also saw the PAP engage the SDP's Chiam and WP's Jeyaretnam in a television debate. 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, shipping manager Chia Ah Soon and director Sin Kek Tong ,

10908-470: Was also fielded to contest the newly-formed Hong Kah North SMC , a ward which was formerly part of the Hong Kah GRC (now Chua Chu Kang GRC ). After the polling day, the party was defeated in all the constituencies contested, including Potong Pasir which was reclaimed by the PAP for the first time since 1984; consequently, Chiam's defeat ended his 27-year tenure in Parliament. However, Loh was offered

11016-451: Was among the six other opposition parties (the others were Reform Party , Singaporeans First , People's Power Party, Democratic Progressive Party , National Solidarity Party , and a new party formed by former NSP chief Lim Tean , People's Voice Party ) present in a meeting led by former PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock , on the possibility of forming a collation for the next election with Tan as the party leader. SDP intend to side WP as stated after

11124-408: Was elected Chairman after the death of Fok Tai Loy), Vice-Chairman Soon Kia Seng and treasurer Peter Lim Ah Yong. During the campaigning, the party came under fire from the ruling's 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

11232-489: Was not filled. The SPP CEC accepted the resignations on 17 January 2021 and co-opted Khan Osman Sulaiman and Melvyn Chiu. Due to a merger with the Singapore Democratic Alliance in the 2001 and 2006 elections, the number of candidates represented by the Singapore People's Party was displayed in parentheses; the number of elected seats represented shown first was for the Singapore People's Party, and

11340-510: Was reported that Jose Raymond, a former Press Secretary to Vivian Balakrishnan (who also served as Chief Executive of the Singapore Environment Council and current Minister of Foreign Affairs ), had joined the SPP. Also in the same year, WP's Low Thia Khiang surpassed Chiam as the longest-serving opposition MP, having served in Parliament since 1991. On 4 September 2019, Chiam announced that he would step down from

11448-478: Was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing academic texts to reduce the copy time. Mastɔ subwardenɔ y ɔmēde me to you. And wherɔ y wrot to you the last wyke that y trouyde itt good to differrɔ thelectionɔ ovɔ to quīdenaɔ tinitatis y have be thougħt me synɔ that itt woll be thenɔ a bowte mydsomɔ. In the Early Modern English period, between the 15th and 17th centuries, the thorn Þ

11556-409: Was tasked to pay S$ 10,764.35; Chua told that a by-election should be called only when all seats in a GRC are vacated (which was did once on the 1992 Marine Parade by-election ), and there is no legal basis to ask the three remaining MPs to resign. On 16 January 2019, Wong called on the apex court to issue a mandatory order to compel its three MPs to step down for a two-hour hearing. In July 2018, SDP

11664-451: Was used for th , as in Þ ('the'). In modern times, ⟨Þ⟩ was often used (in the form ⟨y⟩ ) for promotional reasons, as in Y Olde Tea Shoppe . During the growth of philological linguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. Likewise, a century earlier in Boston , a fad of abbreviation started that swept the United States, with

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