Not many people had heard of Roy Ngerng before. All he had was a blog, one of many people who blog online about S'pore politics. How many people follow his blog every day? A few hundred, a few thousand? To tell you the truth, I never even heard of his blog and did not check it out until he was sued by Gay Loong. Prior to this, I only click on any link to his blog while I was on SBF. Now, I checked out blog in its entirety, as I am sure many other people have. Roy, I am sure will tell you that traffic to his blog must have gone up several fold since the nasty letter he got from Gay Loong's lawyer.
By threatening legal action on him, Gay Loong has put a relative nobody (I am unable to ascertain that Roy is the CEO of a large company, a self made billionaire, etc) up on the same national stage as the other people that he and his family have sued before. We are talking about the JBJ's, CSJs, etc. People like JBJ are nationally known figures. Everyone knows who they are. They play a high stakes game being a leader of the opposition. They were sued because they were somebody and as leaders of the opposition, a legitimate threat to the PAP. Roy is a leader of no party, and has no invested time and effort in the the forming of a political opposition party, and yet he is now been placed on the same pedestal of these other figures who have been in the national political scene for decades.
If Gay Loong had left Roy alone, the majority of ignorant and apathetic singaporeans would have just treated his blog as the rantings and ravings of a discontent. And indeed, the misappropriation of CPF funds by Gay Loong would have lend credence to this theory. But once you start reading his blog and you get beyond this point of the stolen CPF, than a lot of what he says makes sense and appeals to many singaporeans. When the PM of a country sues a relative nobody, it becomes not only national news its also international news. Reuters and Bloomberg carry this sort of news. Thousands of people every where will check out Roy's blog out of curiosity, and they will read his postings there. They can come to the decision themselves on whether what he says makes a lot of sense. To me it does, and I am sure it does to many people too. How can this be of any benefit to Gay Loong? To start an action that directs other people to check out Roy's blog and his opinions? And how much can gay loong expect to collect from Roy? He is not like JB who has been a practicing lawyer for many years and had some assets and actually managed to pay some of the judgement against him. How much can a young guy like Roy pay in damages? A few hundred $, a few thousand $. Gay Loong and his goons must have investigated Roy's net worth before starting this action.
Therefore, I see that the real reason for this legal action is to bankrupt Roy and hence prevent him from running for MP in the next election. But what a clumsy way to do it. Gay Loong will end up making a martyr out of Roy, and all the publicity that Roy is getting now is more than he could ever dream of getting with just his blog. Roy is way ahead of the game now. The legal action just makes Gay Loong look like the vindictive small minded dog shit that he is. Its even worse when other PAP cronies like Shanmugam chip in with CPF is a "pension fund". And not what it is, a mandatory retirement savings account. A big difference. For a Minister not to know what it is, its just stupid. Their pension has separated them from all reality, where the rest of the population has CPF. Unfortunately, Gay Loong and whoever advised the law suit for him is now stuck. To retract it now, and leave Roy alone will make them lose face. To proceed and win with the kangaroo court behind him will further diminish his stature as the leader of a great nation. either way, he loses. How stupid can you get?
By threatening legal action on him, Gay Loong has put a relative nobody (I am unable to ascertain that Roy is the CEO of a large company, a self made billionaire, etc) up on the same national stage as the other people that he and his family have sued before. We are talking about the JBJ's, CSJs, etc. People like JBJ are nationally known figures. Everyone knows who they are. They play a high stakes game being a leader of the opposition. They were sued because they were somebody and as leaders of the opposition, a legitimate threat to the PAP. Roy is a leader of no party, and has no invested time and effort in the the forming of a political opposition party, and yet he is now been placed on the same pedestal of these other figures who have been in the national political scene for decades.
If Gay Loong had left Roy alone, the majority of ignorant and apathetic singaporeans would have just treated his blog as the rantings and ravings of a discontent. And indeed, the misappropriation of CPF funds by Gay Loong would have lend credence to this theory. But once you start reading his blog and you get beyond this point of the stolen CPF, than a lot of what he says makes sense and appeals to many singaporeans. When the PM of a country sues a relative nobody, it becomes not only national news its also international news. Reuters and Bloomberg carry this sort of news. Thousands of people every where will check out Roy's blog out of curiosity, and they will read his postings there. They can come to the decision themselves on whether what he says makes a lot of sense. To me it does, and I am sure it does to many people too. How can this be of any benefit to Gay Loong? To start an action that directs other people to check out Roy's blog and his opinions? And how much can gay loong expect to collect from Roy? He is not like JB who has been a practicing lawyer for many years and had some assets and actually managed to pay some of the judgement against him. How much can a young guy like Roy pay in damages? A few hundred $, a few thousand $. Gay Loong and his goons must have investigated Roy's net worth before starting this action.
Therefore, I see that the real reason for this legal action is to bankrupt Roy and hence prevent him from running for MP in the next election. But what a clumsy way to do it. Gay Loong will end up making a martyr out of Roy, and all the publicity that Roy is getting now is more than he could ever dream of getting with just his blog. Roy is way ahead of the game now. The legal action just makes Gay Loong look like the vindictive small minded dog shit that he is. Its even worse when other PAP cronies like Shanmugam chip in with CPF is a "pension fund". And not what it is, a mandatory retirement savings account. A big difference. For a Minister not to know what it is, its just stupid. Their pension has separated them from all reality, where the rest of the population has CPF. Unfortunately, Gay Loong and whoever advised the law suit for him is now stuck. To retract it now, and leave Roy alone will make them lose face. To proceed and win with the kangaroo court behind him will further diminish his stature as the leader of a great nation. either way, he loses. How stupid can you get?
