Jufrie Mahmood
Mohamed Jufrie bin Mahmood is a Singaporean politician who served as Singapore Democratic Party chairman from 2011 to 2013.
Political career
At the 1984 general election, Jufrie stood as a candidate for the Workers' Party in the constituency of Kampong Kembangan. He was defeated by Yatiman Yusof of the governing People's Action Party by 8,210 votes to 10,326.At the 1988 general election, Jufrie stood as a candidate for the SDP in the Aljuined GRC. Jufrie and fellow SDP members Ashleigh Seow and Neo Choon Aik were defeated by the PAP's team by 26,375 votes to 34,020.
At the 1991 general election, Jufrie stood as a candidate for the Workers' Party in the Eunos GRC. Jufrie came to national prominence during this election campaign after Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong accused him of being a Malay chauvinist because of comments Jufrie made about the role of Malay community in Singapore and his use of the phrase "Insha'Allah" in a campaign speech. Goh urged people not to vote for Jufrie in order to help protect inter-racial harmony in Singapore. Jufrie strongly denied that he was a Malay chauvinist and said that he was merely raising important issues which he felt needed to be addressed. In the end, Jufrie and his fellow Workers' Party members Lee Siew Choh, Neo Choon Aik and Wee Han Kim were narrowly defeated by the PAP's team in Eunos by 41,673 votes to 45,833.
At the 1997 general election, Jufrie stood as a candidate for the SDP in the Jalan Besar GRC. He and his fellow SDP members David Chew, Gandhi Ambalam and Low Yong Nguan were defeated by the PAP's team by 21,537 votes to 44,840.
Jufrie was among a group of SDP members charged with participating in an unlawful political assembly on the driveway leading to Parliament House in 2008. He was fined after being found guilty of this offence.
Jufrie was elected the party chairman of the SDP in 2011 and served in this role until 2013.
On 12 March 2025, Minister for Law and Home Affairs, K. Shanmugam was confronted by two women from Monday of Palestine Solidarity group at his Meet-The-People session to address Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act. The confrontation was recorded on video and lasted seven minutes. On 13 March, Calvin Cheng, a former NMP, in a facebook post, offered to send the activist group to Gaza, provided they do not return to Singapore and also told their Facebook followers to leave Singapore for Gaza. On 28 March, Jufrie filed a police report against Cheng for being an Islamophobe describing his actions as a “danger to our precious racial and religious harmony”. On 2 April, Cheng posted on Facebook that he will take legal action over defamatory statements made against him, including Jufrie who had filed a police report against him, Reform Party secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaretnam who asked for a probe against Cheng, and sociopolitical platform The Online Citizen.
On 10 April, Cheng posted on Facebook again that he had met with Ustaz Mohamad Hasbi Hassan and Ustaz Pasuni Maulan at Yusof Ishak Mosque in Woodlands on 9 April. He said that he told them he did not intend any attack and had spoken to the Malay/Muslim community over the previous week and had realised he should be more sensitive and not said to send people to a conflict zone. Cheng also asserted that other had spoken untrue statements about him and he had to take legal actions.