The main political parties in Singapore are the People’s Action Party (PAP), Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), and the Worker’s Party (WP).
Petir is the main party organ of the People’s Action Party. Taking the format of a magazine, it is published once every two months.
The Singapore Democratic Alliance is an alliance, formed in 2001, of a number of political parties. These include the Singapore People’s Party (SPP), the Singapore Malay National Organisation (PKMS), and the Singapore Justice Party (SJP). The National Solidarity Party (NSP) decided, in January 2007, to separate from the alliance.
Currently, the SDA has one member in Parliament – Chiam See Tong, who is MP for Potong Pasir and who is also the leader of the Singapore People’s Party.
The Singapore Democratic Party was formed in 1980, and describes itself as the “vanguard for the democratic struggle in our nation”.
The SDP’s party newspaper is called The New Democrat. According to the SDP website, its newspaper and website are very much focused on “the bread-and-butter issues concerning the common folk”, such as minimum wage and retrenchment benefits. This, they say, stems from an acute awareness that “pocket-book issues are what drive political opinion in Singapore”. That said, the SDP website does not just house articles written by the SDP’s Central Executive Committee. It also contains articles from the foreign press which are pertinent to the state of Singapore. An example would be Scrutinizing Singapore, an article written by Garry Rodan for the Wall Street Journal, in which he discusses the opacity of Singapore's state-owned investment companies, like Temasek Holdings and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).
In February 2006, the SDP was sued for libel. The bone of contention was an article in The New Democrat titled “Govt’s role in the NKF scandal”, in which the NKF scandal was likened to the PAP’s governance. The court held that the article was defamatory; the defendants’ defences of justification, qualified privilege, and fair comment were rejected. (See Defamation Act.)
The Worker’s Party was formed in 1957. Its Secretary-General, Low Thia Khiang, is currently a Member of Parliament for Hougang Constituency, a position he has held since 1991. The WP’s chairman, Sylvia Lim, is currently a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament.
The WP’s party newspaper is called The Hammer. In 1995, an article in The Hammer was felt by some ministers and members of parliament to be libelous, who sued for defamation. Titled “The Tamil Language Week — A Drama Enacted to a Written Ruling”, the article was about how the plaintiffs’ participation in Tamil Language Week was a show to gloss over the lack of real action to promote Tamil. In the end, the WP had to publish an apology in The Hammer, Tamil Murasu and The Straits Times, pay damages, and pay the plaintiffs’ full legal costs. They appealed, but the appeal was eventually rejected. (See Defamation Act.)
Both opposition parties and foreign media have lambasted the law for working against freedom of speech in Singapore. Among the voices that are curtailed, they argue, are that of the political opposition. See Opposition Party Publications and the Law.