I have been writing and alerting the public to the Looney Fringe of Singapore politics, in particular 'The 3 Stooges' - Roy Ngerng, Han Hui Hui and their mentor Leong Sze Hian. Some people have written to commend me for exposing their 'tricks' while others have condemned and questioned my posts regarding their exploits. Amongst the criticism are 2 very common labels aimed at me - a) I'm a PAP IB (Internet Brigade - yes there's actually a group of PAP members going round social media to attack those who criticise the PAP), or b) I am in reality a PAP supporter. If you've been reading my posts over the past 1 1/2 years, it's really quite tenuous to link me with either moniker. Yet still some question why am I being so vociferous against the afore-said 3 persons? After all they say, these people are just speaking up and raising issues. They should be encouraged and supported, not condemned and dismissed as the Looney Fringe.
In short, some question as to why I am attacking people who are speaking against the PAP, unless of course, I am a PAP supporter or IB? Shouldn't I throw my weight behind these people? I am afraid I can't agree with these lines of argument. I am aware that there are those who are hardcore anti-PAP and those who are pro-opposition. Anything and everything bad about the PAP must be supported. To oppose such things are anathema to them. Well that's of course their right and just like them, they are those who are hardcore PAP supporters, who will oppose anything and everything anti-PAP. However I am alarmed by the methods the 3 Stooges of the Looney Fringe are taking. I don't think Singapore politics has reached partisan status - 1 group pro- PAP and the other pro-opposition, there's a considerable number of swing voters - the silent majority who'll decide elections. Just because the Looney Fringe are creating a ruckus and you see a lot of comments from hardcore opposition supporters on social media and online sites, doesn't equate to a groundswell of support for the opposition as a whole.
In fact I believe the reverse is true, the antics and actions of the Looney Fringe, instead of solidifying the opposition cause, will instead harm it and cause many a swing voter to decide to remain a PAP voter. Even worse, I believe the reasoning behind the Looney Fringe while appearing altruistic and helpful, is far more sinister. They are in my view, making full use of the anti-PAP support especially amongst hardcore opposition supporters for their own selfish interests. They want sympathy, they want support, they want the easy route to Parliament and the $13.8k salaries, and most alarmingly, they want YOU to pay them for their antics. I have slammed Ms Han in a few posts and openly questioned Roy Ng (for brevity) in an earlier post. I found his behaviour and antics in the on-going lawsuit with the PM, very troubling.
Suffice to say, everything that I warned, exposed and wrote about, has been proven correct with their continuing actions since the beginning of May. If any further proof was needed about their sinister motives, it was confirmed with the following Facebook (FB) post on Ms Han's wall:
This is what I've been saying all along - The Looney Fringe are not interested in working, they are only interested in getting people to pay them for their 'efforts' in 'speaking up and raising issues.' I had also questioned the stupidity in Roy Ng wanting to be an NMP (Nominated MP), since he was never able to meet the requirements or criteria, which the Select Committee (also comprising 2 Workers Party MPs) will look into. I don't necessarily agree with the NMP scheme, but since it's in place, we have to live with it and use it in the best way possible. But perhaps I was wrong in pointing out his stupidity or that it was always just a gimmick or political stunt, Ms Han's FB post has now made clear the whole reason for his pointless nomination - they were going to use the failed effort to win sympathy and cry unfairness, but at the same time, use that to ask the public to pay them directly instead.
Power to the People proclaims Roy Ngerng, but please don't forget the money for me. $5300 a month is just about enough for me to survive and be your 'Nominated MP'
This was a pretty cunning trick they had up their sleeves. Ms Han had the temerity even to give a POSBank savings account number for people to donate $1 every month, so the figure of $5300 can be reached. Yes you read that right - Roy Ng wants $5300 a month in salary for 'acting like an NMP by 'speaking up and writing his blog.' Never mind that NMPs only get around $2800 a month. Roy Ng wants nearly double that! Never mind that there are thousands of jobless people, never mind that only a small percentage of people can earn over $5k a month, never mind that this salary is way beyond the earnings of the 'average worker' they've been supposedly speaking up for at their protest rallies. Never mind that $5k is the pay of a senior or upper management in the private or public sector. Never mind all this, just give us your money - hey it's only $1 after all right?
Ms Han says that Roy Ng is jobless and needs support. What has he been doing since losing his last job? Don't forget he admitted that he wasn't focussed on his job properly and was using company time and computers for his 'research' into the CPF. Surely you'd expect him to get down to finding another job pretty fast, after all he was given 1 month's extra pay to tide him over while he job hunted. Did he bother to find a job? How many interviews he went to? Why not help out/take over his father's hawker business in the mean time? Surely this is what all of us ordinary people will do, when we lose our jobs. We won't go around eating at fancy cafes, writing stuff and organising protests. We'd be 100% focussed on getting a job in the interim, until perhaps we can find the 1 job we hope to procure. No, this is not what the Looney Fringe does. They are too 'atas' (elitist) for all these low-class or low paying jobs. They want the good things in life - write stuff, organise protests, invoke sympathy and go abroad - in short: minimal effort for maximum pay.
But don't be surprised if there's a new 'statement' made by Roy Ng, clarifying matters. This is the usual 'song and dance' that the Looney Fringe employs. 1 member says or admits something, hoping it will succeed, but if it fails, the other will come out and deny requesting or saying it. This was the tactic used by Roy Ng to deny he was thinking of seeking asylum in Denmark, after Ms Han admitted it to me, not once but twice. This was the same tactic used to declare why he sought the 'NMPship', and the same tactic was again used in flaring up the 'lawsuit with the PM.' An admission, an apology next a denial and then a total claim of innocence, followed by playing the sympathy card to the maximum. And hey presto, at the end of it all - an all out effort to solicit donations from the public to pay a ludicrous legal fee of $80,000, when the matter could and should have been resolved far earlier at a much lower cost. He also failed to declare that M Ravi his lawyer, was also his personal friend. I am not saying Mr Ravi inflated his fees or got Roy Ng to help him draw a large legal fee for him from the public. However, people have the right to be cynical at Roy Ng's antics before, during and after this affair came to light. He claims to be open and transparent, but has refused to divulge his reasons for going the 'full monty 'with the lawsuit or answered the hard questions which I had written about. Moreover he has received well over $100,000 from his all out donation drive. He used the anger and anti-PAP feelings of an unsuspecting public to his benefit to the very maximum. And he's doing the same thing now, in order to get paid for doing practically nothing - other than write questionable articles that only state the obvious in some cases, quote unreliable sources and give his own inflated arguments in others.
I am aghast at these antics and that's the reason I have been continuously drumming the point home about the dangerous paths the Looney Fringe are taking. They're using the goodwill and sympathy of the public for their benefit. Even for their protests now, they solicit funds from the public and attendees. And not content with unnecessary protests every single month, they even had the cheek to do 2 this month - and on National Day itself. In order to continue being able to ensure they remain in the public eye, they will say and do anything to win sympathy and financial support. They will start off with some popular theme which many Singaporeans are concerned or unhappy about - immigration and the CPF for example, and then try to hijack the issue to say they are the only ones who are speaking about it. Never mind that the SDP, NSP, SPP and WP have also been speaking on this in proper forums and in Parliament (for the latter 2 parties). Never mind that these parties have raised more reasonable and properly researched views and positions on the matter, the Looney Fringe will attempt to claim credit for it - just because they held a protest, wrote some blog posts with their own versions (but no solutions) and the fact Roy Ng got sued (or rather insisted on getting sued if you had followed the timeline properly). Wanna make a bet? This coming Saturday, the Looney Fringe is organising another CPF protest at Hong Lim Park. The PM in his National Day Rally speech on Sunday announced that changes will be made to the CPF Minimum Sum Scheme, members will now be able to withdraw up to 20% of their funds, when they turn 65 and are still unable to meet the ever-growing Minimum Sum ($161,000 next year). I can bet you my bottom dollar, the 3 Stooges of the Looney Fringe, will claim it was changed because of their protests and that Roy Ng had spoken out and gotten sued for it!
This is the ploy they have used and will continue to use. Claim credit and demand support. It doesn't matter if they have no solutions or that their ideas are a mishmash of unworkable policies that only sound good on paper. For good measure they will up the ante, in order to a) show they are courageous for speaking up and b) cry foul should they get sued for pushing the envelope too far. Take July's protest for example, I wrote in this post, where Ms Han called Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) worse than a dog, a traitor and wished him death, and how unhelpful or damaging it was to the opposition cause, since many older Singaporeans and neutral voters still have a high regard for LKY. Instead of apologising, what did Ms Han do? Well, no surprises here - she upped the ante with the following FB post on her wall:
She accuses LKY of causing death to people because of political motives and his son, the current PM of causing debt to people for his own personal monetary benefit! Never mind, she has no shred of evidence, never mind that no opposition politician has ever made a similar allegation, not even JBJ, David Marshall, Chiam See Tong, Low Thia Khiang or even Dr Chee Soon Juan. Never mind that she's a new citizen who didn't live in Singapore until this century, never mind she's just a 23 year old with no political experience and never mind that she herself hasn't been working and is herself doing all these things for the same monetary benefits that she's accusing the PM of.
I suspect this approach is 2 pronged - 1) by making herself as popular as Roy, they can form their own party and stand for elections (or get a smaller party like the Reform Party to field them) and have a chance to win the $13,800 a month lottery that is an MP's allowance. Or 2) by making these outlandish allegations, she too might get sued like Roy and also then be able to solicit legal fees in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Thereafter with both having successfully played the victims' card to the fullest, they will be paid handsomely by hoodwinked sympathisers, be known as martyrs and get a chance to seek political asylum elsewhere.
Kenneth Jeyaretnam, the Reform Party chief has been speaking at the Looney Fringe's rallies. Does he not realise that when Ms Han says inflammatory things about LKY, his presence at such rallies implies that he supports such Looney stuff? Continue to do so, and he'll pay a very heavy price at elections because voters will assume he either endorses the Looney Fringe or is part of it.
I do realise that perhaps this analysis of mine might seem improbable, even outlandish or crazy. Who in the right mind, wants to up the ante and get sued, by the PAP of all persons or parties? It may appear I am wrong, but then how do you explain the illogical behaviour, the antics, the crazy shouting, wild allegations, the all-out effort to gain sympathy and most of all, the methods employed to gain donations from the public, especially the hardcore opposition supporters? It might appear crazy to swing voters and to every normal person, but all this are the patterns of the Looney Fringe, and as more time goes by, it's becoming painfully clear to those like me who worry about the damage it's doing to the opposition cause as the whole.
I don't care if I'm labelled as pro-PAP, an IB or whatever, by the Looney Fringe and those that they have thus far conned into supporting their methods. I'll take it as a badge of honour even, because in doing so, I am able to show more and more people, the Looney Fringe for what they truly are - a group of selfish individuals who are jumping on the anti-PAP bandwagon with ulterior motives, chief of which is to pry the hard earned cash of people who really have a problem because of certain PAP policies that have put them in a quandary. I am powerless to stop hardcore opposition supporters if they want to continue throwing good money after bad, whenever some Looney Fringe shouts anti-PAP rhetoric. But I want to continue to warn the former group - ordinary people who have some difficulties and have not benefitted or have suffered because of certain PAP policies, that this Looney Fringe have nothing to offer. They have no substance, they are all just talk, they don't work or have little work experience, they are young and immature, they don't know how to run a business or even a family, they spend money like no tomorrow eating in cafes or going abroad for holidays disguised as research. Instead of helping people like you, they are using monies received for donations on needless stuff like engaging in a losing lawsuit and organising monthly protests, and now they even want you to pay them in far excess to what you yourself will ever earn in a month.
Scraping the barrel - The Looney Fringe basically has no substance in its arguments except just blurt out the obvious. Take idiotic Ben Matchap (a) for instance. He speaks in a stupid accent, mutters silly lines and phrases and takes cartoonish videos of himself speaking on events in his bedroom. Yet he's the kind of speaker that the Looney Fringe fielded in the recent National Day protest. Opposition supporters who think the Looney Fringe are 'courageous' for speaking up, should ask themselves, are they and Ben Matchap the kind of people you want to represent you? No substance, no work experience, can't run a family and they will be your voice? Do you think it helps more people to vote opposition with people like Ben, Han, Roy or an 18 year old (Ariffin Sha) giving speeches on life and policies? Please think wisely.
I realise the PAP's policies have affected you and you're eager to hear voices that talk against these policies, but you must careful to distinguish between proper opposition voices and those who are just saying things that you want to hear and whose motives are suspect. To those that want to continue supporting and donating to the Looney Fringe, notably the 3 Stooges, have you ever stopped to think about their motives or actions thus far? Have you ever questioned them at length and demanded answers? By donating to them, you are 'spoiling the market' because these people's antics will not achieve anything tangible for you, but will fatten their wallets. And with 'cat coming out of the bag' eventually, the next time someone genuinely needs financial support through crowd funding or donations, they will find it very hard because people might think those requesting funds are not genuine or have other ulterior motives. It's time to use your brains and stop allowing the Looney Fringe to get away with their antics and in doing so, bring down the whole opposition cause.