Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who is the current political leader of Singapore?
Desmond Lim Bak Chuan (; born 1968) is a Singaporean politician. He is the current leader of the political party Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) and current President of DL's Caring Community. During the Singaporean by-election, 2013, which he ultimately lost, Lim held the first online rally in Singapore.
Tan Wah Piow () is currently a lawyer and a former Singapore student leader, who since 1976 lives in political exile in London. In 1987, he was accused by the Singapore government of being the alleged mastermind behind the Marxist Conspiracy. The Government of Singapore arrested 16 people for their role in an alleged Marxist Conspiracy, which involved plans to overthrow the Government to form a Marxist state. According to the state media, Tan had been influenced by Marxist and ideas since the early 1970s. In response, the government revoked his citizenship in 1987.
President of the Republic: Martín Alberto Vizcarra Cornejo
Tan Sri Vigneswaran s/o Sanasee (; born 1965) is a Malaysian politician. He is currently the tenth President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a major component party of Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. He is also the incumbent President of the Dewan Negara, or Senate, of Malaysia. He was appointed as a Senator on 23 June 2014 for a three-year term. He took the office of the President of the Senate on 26 April 2016.
Since 1999, Indonesia has had a multi-party system. In all legislative elections since the fall of New Order, no political party has managed to win an overall majority of seats. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which secured the most votes in the 2014 elections, is the party of the current President, Joko Widodo. The Great Indonesia Movement Party ("Gerindra") is the third largest political party. Other notable parties include the Party of the Functional Groups ("Golkar"), the Democratic Party, and the National Awakening Party (PKB). Based on the 2014 elections, the DPR consists of 10 political parties, with a parliamentary threshold of 3.5% of the national vote. The first general election was held in 1955 to elect members of the DPR and the "Konstituante". At the national level, Indonesians did not elect a president until 2004. Since then, the president is elected for a five-year term, as are the party-aligned members of the DPR and the non-partisan DPD. Beginning with 2015 local elections, Indonesia starts to elect governors and mayors simultaneously on the same date.
Toh Chin Chye was the first deputy prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1968 and retired on 2 August 1968.
Singapore's foreign policy is aimed at maintaining security in Southeast Asia and surrounding territories. An underlying principle is political and economic stability in the region. It has diplomatic relations with more than 180 sovereign states. Singapore hosted the first ever 2018 North Korea–United States summit.
On 20 October 2014, Joko Widodo became the seventh and current president of Indonesia.
Malaysia's predominant political party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), held power in the coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (formerly the Alliance) with other parties since Malaya's independence in 1957 until 2018. In 1973, an alliance of communally based parties was replaced with a broader coalition – the Barisan Nasional — composed of fourteen parties. Today the Barisan Nasional coalition has three prominent members – the UMNO, MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) and MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress). The current Prime Minister of Malaysia is from Pakatan Harapan (PH) who is the ex-UMNO leader, marking the first time the post is occupied by a non-UMNO party member.
In 1971, South Korea and Singapore established consular relations by renaming the Korea Trade Centre to a consulate-general. The two countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1975. In 1979, Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister of Singapore visiting South Korea. The two countries started regular ministerial meetings in the same year. In 1981, Chun Doo-hwan, the President of South Korea paid a state visit to Singapore, making him the first President of South Korea to do so. In 2002, S. R. Nathan became the first President of Singapore visiting South Korea.
In 2016, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) became President of Taiwan. President Tsai called upon the international community to help Taiwan to preserve its democracy despite the threatening language used against Taiwan by PRC President Xi Jinping. President Tsai called upon the PRC to democratize, respect human rights, and renounce the use of military force against Taiwan.
To date, 62 people have served this position. The current Prime Minister is Shinzō Abe, who re-took office on December 26, 2012. He is the first former Prime Minister to return to office since 1948, and the 5th longest serving Prime Minister to date.
After being placed as the acting SDP leader in 1993, Chee began expressing his views on 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.
The Democratic Party leadership election was held on 2 October 1994 for the 30-member 1st Central Committee of the new Democratic Party in Hong Kong, including chairman and two vice-chairman posts. It was held at the first party congress on the establishment day of the Democratic Party. Well-known popular democrat activist, Chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong Martin Lee became the first Chairman, while Anthony Cheung, the Chairman of the Meeting Point, and Yeung Sum became the two Vice-Chairmen.
He is a former member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. Like his father, he left UMNO in 2016. Mukhriz is currently the Deputy President of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM, Malaysian United Indigenous Party) and the chairman of the Pakatan Harapan coalition in Kedah.
Chief Ajayi was the former National Coordinator of Goodluck Support Group (GSG) USA. She congratulated His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, who is now the current President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for his doggedness in winning the 2015 presidential election; and also praised the former President, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan for his extraordinary statesmanship, godliness and courage to become the first ever incumbent Head of State in Nigeria to lose an election and wholeheartedly accepted defeat peacefully to prevent post election violence and crisis in Nigeria As a Community Activist, Chief Ajai has been lobbying the Nigerian federal government on behalf of all the Nigerians living in the diaspora in such areas as granting voting rights and approving housing scheme project for the diasporas.
The politics of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (commonly known as Laos) takes place in the framework of a one-party socialist republic. The only legal political party is the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). The "de jure" head of state is President Bounnhang Vorachith, who also is LPRP general secretary making him the "de facto" leader of Laos.
The Prime Minister of Malaysia () is the head of government and the highest political office in Malaysia. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong appoints Prime Minister as a Member of Parliament (MP) who, in his opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of a majority of MPs. The Prime Minister chairs the Cabinet of Malaysia, the de facto executive branch of government. On 18 October 2018, 7th Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, announced a two-term limit (10 years Max) to all Cabinet Profolio.
The President of the Senate is created under Article 56 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The office is similar to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat: the president is elected by the members of the Senate and is expected to be politically impartial. If a member of the Dewan Negara is elected as the president and is a member of a state legislative assembly, he must resign from the assembly before exercising the functions of the office. As the president may hold different titles while in office, it also changes the style. The current president is Datuk SA. Vigneswaran. Therefore, while in session, the senators will call him as 'Datuk Yang di-Pertua' (Datuk President) or 'Tuan Yang di-Pertua' (Mr. President).
During World War 2, Singapore was conquered and occupied by the Japanese Empire from 1942 to 1945. When the war ended, Singapore reverted to British control, with increasing levels of self-government being granted, culminating in Singapore's merger with the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia in 1963. However, social unrest and disputes between Singapore's ruling People's Action Party and Malaysia's Alliance Party resulted in Singapore's expulsion from Malaysia. Singapore became an independent republic on 9 August 1965.
The Prime Minister of Australia is Scott Morrison, leader of the Cabinet and head of government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful political office in Australia. Despite being at the apex of executive government in the country, the office is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia specifically and exists through an unwritten political convention. Barring exceptional circumstances, the prime minister is always the leader of the political party or coalition with majority support in the House of Representatives. The only case where a senator was appointed prime minister was that of John Gorton, who subsequently resigned his Senate position and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives (Senator George Pearce was acting prime minister for seven months in 1916 while Billy Hughes was overseas).
Still, new parties continued to be established. Seven new parties were formed in the 1970s (including the Justice Party, Singapore and the United Front, the preprocessor of today's Democratic Progressive Party), two in the 1980s (the Singapore Democratic Party and the National Solidarity Party (NSP)), two in the 1990s (the Singapore National Front and the Singapore People's Party (SPP)), three in the 2000s, and as of now, three in the 2010s. The People's Voice Party was established on 31 October 2018 and Progress Singapore Party on 19 January 2019 , the latter is currently the newly registered political party. There are therefore a total of 31 registered political parties today, of which nine have never contested in an election.
One commonly cited reason for a lack of opposition in Singapore is the use defamation lawsuits by the PAP to bankrupt political opponents and disqualify them from running for office. Cases include former leader of the WP J. B. Jeyaretnam and leader of the SDP Chee Soon Juan, who were bankrupted in 2001 and 2011.
Another reason given is the pursuit of legal action against journalists and bloggers critical of the PAP and its policies. Reporters Without Borders cites such lawsuits, along with attempts at making critical journalists unemployable, among its concerns when ranking the country 151st in the world for press freedom in 2017.
The PAP has in the past threatened voters by saying that constituencies voting for opposition MPs would be put at the bottom of the list for public housing programs. In 1998, then PAP secretary-general, Goh Chok Tong said, "By linking the priority of upgrading to electoral support, we focus the minds of voters on the link between upgrading and the people whose policies make it possible. This has the desired result."
The Leader of the Opposition of Singapore is usually the leader of the second largest political party represented in the Parliament of Singapore. During the 1955 Legislative Assembly election, the late Lee Kuan Yew was the "de facto" Leader of the Opposition, as the People's Action Party was then the second largest political party represented in the Legislative Assembly.
The branch was led by Sun Yat-sen, who would become a leader of the Revolution of 1911 and the early Republic of China. But political activity in Singapore was not limited to republican revolution. During this period, Sun was associated with the Chinese anarchist Zhang Renjie, who provided a significant amount of Sun's funding (Zhang's daughter Helen would later marry a doctor from Singapore, Robert Lim). Zhang, a member of the so-called Paris group was active in the colony, where he purchased a printing press to be used in producing anarchist texts. Another member of the Paris anarchist group, Chu Minyi, joined the aforementioned Tongmenghui while stopping over in Singapore. Years later, in the wake of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, anarchist groups were formed throughout the overseas Chinese communities, in among other places Singapore. These radical societies published their own newsletters and periodicals, and spread anarchist literature. Some republican–influenced anarchists joined the General Labour Union of Guangzhou, which had formed in Singapore.