“Should I run for election?” says the title of a blog post by blogger Roy Ngerng.
Mr Ngerng is, of course, the blogger who was in the spotlight for two incidents – a blog post on the CPF which had him sued for defamation by Lee Hsien Loong, the prim minister of Singapore; and for the CPF protest at Hong Lim Park where he is currently facing legal actions for allegedly being a public nuisance.
Mr Ngerng, 34, posed the question of whether he should run for elections on 4 August. The elections are expected to be held next month,
“[If] I do run for election,” he said, “it is because I want to be able to enter government, to debate about these issues and allow policies to be passed to protect Singaporeans. This is all I want.”
On Wednesday, he was reported to have submitted an application to join the Reform Party, led by secretary general Kenneth Jeyaretnam.
Mr Jeyaretnam later said that he expected the application to be approved by the party shortly, and added that there is a possibility that Mr Ngerng could be fielded as a candidate in the RP GRC team to contest Ang Mo Kio GRC, which is headed by Mr Lee.
“I know Roy personally because he stayed with us in London,” Mr Jeyaretnam said. “I know him to be a caring person. He was a healthcare worker. I think he has got a very good rapport with the people and I think he can provide valuable input to the healthcare policy and social policy.”
In recent days, Mr Ngerng, who used to work in the healthcare sector, has also been participating in the house visits conducted by the RP.
As at 4pm on Thursday, 6 August, the poll on his blog on whether he should contest the upcoming elections has more than 65 per cent of those who voted saying yes, with about 32 per cent saying no.
You can vote on The Online Citizen’s poll below as well:
[total-poll id=70986]