Dear readers, 
We will be revamping this website in the course of this week.
The movement for democracy in Singapore has grown and so has our party. Because of this we have found that the present website, while having served us well for the past three years, has become inadequate for our expanding needs.
We will require a more sophisticated system to manage our work in cyberspace.
The SDP’s website began in 2001 when a Young Democrat wrote a little programme for us to upload announcements about our activities. Our top priority at that time was content, aesthetics was secondary.
But as we developed and gained experience in working in cyberspace, we felt that we could do much more with the website. Hence, the birth in its present form on 28 Jun 05.
As technology developed, so did the site. We jumped on the idea of podcasting in 2006 and were going to use it to help our campaign in the 2006 general elections.
The PAP saw the danger and promptly closed down our podcast for the duration of the elections.
Since then, another form of Internet communication has developed. Youtube came on the scene and quickly became a staple in the New Media.
We have since used it, and even relied on it, to get our messages across to the online community.
But more than just putting out videos and media releases, we have also endeavoured to post news reports and analyses that Singaporeans might not otherwise get to read in the mainstream press.
In addition, we have also used this site to organise our different campaigns. We have put out calls to join us for our various activities be they training workshops, public forums or protests.
Many of you have responded.
In this sense, our efforts to build capacity through the Internet have not been unfruitful.
Indeed, this website has been the first in reporting alternative news and views so much so that many, including students, policymakers, researchers and journalists both local and overseas, have come to use this website to learn more about the reality of Singapore’s politics.
As a result, this website – updated on a daily basis – has recently been given an award for its popularity among Singaporean Internet users. We will make a full announcement on this shortly.
But as much as this website has been a faithful servant to the party, and we will be sad to let it go, our needs and operations have expanded. We need a higher level of management system.
Our new website, while retaining the primary functions of providing political news and analysis on a timely basis, will have added features that will add to your reading, viewing, and communicating experience.
Of course as with all new systems, there will be glitches (fingers crossed they will not be in the Heathrow-T5 proportions). We hope that you will bear with us while we work them out.
And so as we say goodbye to the old and bring in the new, we want to thank all of you for making this website one of your cyber-homes over the last few years and we invite you to continue to do so for many more years to come.
All this for the sake of building a democratic society, based on justice and equality.