Earlier this month, TOC wrote a post about how Mdm Ho Ching, who is married to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, posts upwards of 150 posts on Facebook in a single day.
Her consistent high volume-posting landed her in hot water recently when she shared an article by Taiwan News about the donation and she accompanied that with a caption that originally said, “Errr….”
This drew flak from Taiwan netizens who found her caption confusing and ask her to explain the meaning of the post, adding that if Singapore doesn’t want the masks, it can reject the offer.
As events unfolded, Singaporean netizens defended Mdm Ho’s ambiguous comment while Taiwanese netizens demanded a clarification, as a pro-People’s Action Party (PAP) fanpage referencing Mdm Ho’s post to insinuate that the Taiwan government was keeping these stocks of masks from Singapore.
Two days later on Monday, Mdm Ho decided to edit her post to clarify her original comment. In her clarification, she thanked “friends and friends of friends in Taiwan” and said she is “forever grateful” to them.
The thing is, this isn’t the first time Mdm Ho has made comments about certain things via her Facebook page which drew the attention of the public, and it likely won’t be the last either.
Looking at the data from CrowdTangle, Mdm Ho has posted 6,075 posts in March alone. That’s a staggering 195 posts a day or eight posts an hour. In the first week of March, Mdm Ho posted 1,672 posts on Facebook.
While the high-volume and timing of the posts suggests that Mdm Ho or her social media team is using a bot for this purpose, it is hard to miss the posts that have an accompanying caption or comment which were clearly penned by the woman herself.
In our earlier article, we wondered why the CEO of Temasek Holdings and wife of the country’s Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong, is so active online and why she even bothers cultivating this level of presence on social media at all.
Blogger Roy Ngerng dismissed for misusing working time
Back in 2014, activist and blogger Roy Ngerng was dismissed was from job at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) due to “conduct incompatible with the values and standards expected of employees, and for misusing working time, hospital computers and facilities for personal pursuits”
Mr Ngerng, who was employed as a patient coordinator at the Communicable Diseases Centre at TTSH for two year, was constantly in the news back then due to a defamation suit involving Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loon.
In the press statement, TTSH said that the dismissal was over the continued misuse of the hospital’s time and resources to persue personal and non-job related interests. It also said that Mr Ngerngs recent public actions and conduct caused the hospital “grave concern”.
It said, “Mr Ngerng’s conduct was incompatible with the values and standards we expect of our employees. While our staff are free to pursue their personal interests outside work, they must conduct themselves properly, honourably and with integrity. In particular, they cannot defame someone else without basis, which essentially means knowingly stating a falsehood to the public.”
Following that, the Ministry of Health (MOH) came out with a separate tatement in support of the hospital’s decision to terminate Mr Ngerng’s contract as his ““ctions show a lack of integrity and are incompatible with the values and standards of behaviour expected of hospital employees”.
What does board of Temasek think of Ho Ching’s social media posting during office hours?
Now, given the stance taken by MOH and TTSH—which is a public hospital run by the government—one wonders if the same standards apply to other employees of Government-linked companies such as Temasek.
Now, with reference to the reasons behind Mr Ngerng’s dismissal in 2014, one wonders whether board of Temasek would feel the same way about Mdm Ho who is paid in the millions, given her obvious obsession with social media, Facebook in particular.
Her posts include everything from links to various websites—local and international news, scientific studies, pseudoscience websites, and government articles and statements—to photos, other Facebook posts and videos, some of which she will also comment on.
As the CEO of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, what does the Temasek board think about Mdm Ho’s constant posting on Facebook during all hours of the day?
