Anger begets more Anger! Sigh!
March 18, 2009
MP THREAT CASE
Waited 4hrs for MP?
A RAG-AND-BONE man accused of criminal intimidation said yesterday that he was made to wait almost four hours to see his Member of Parliament at a Meet-the-People session.
When he got to see the MP, Jalan Besar GRC's Denise Phua, he ranted at her that the $200 he got from a government agency in financial aid was not enough, which spurred one of her grassroots helpers to shout at him just as he was leaving.
Ng Kim Ngweng, 49, was on the stand to defend himself for having allegedly threatened a few days later to cause Ms Phua hurt in a telephone conversation on a public hotline on Jan 12.
He is said to have told customer service officer Tan Chia Yong, 25, who took his call at Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry @ Home (Reach) that he could not take it any more and did not know what he would do to Ms Phua one day.
Ng allegedly said: 'How can you not hit her? I get angry when I see her so how can I not hit her?'
Speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, the father of two told District Judge Liew Thiam Leng yesterday that the day he waited four hours to see the MP, she was smiling and 'looked proud'.
After complaining to her that the aid he got was paltry, he told her: 'Don't forget, you just care that you have eaten enough and don't bother whether other people are alive or dead.'
He added that as he was leaving, a beefy residents' committee member shouted at him and looked like he was going to hit him, except that Ms Phua told him to leave things be.
The day before he made the call to the Reach hotline, Ng, a former tour coordinator, said he read about MP Seng Han Thong being torched by one of his constituents.
Ng said he wondered how someone would dare to attack an MP, and thought Mr Seng's assailant 'courageous' for doing that. He then decided to call the Prime Minister's Office to tell the Prime Minister - the 'boss of all MPs' - why people were treating their MP like that.
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of the Straits Times.
March 18, 2009
MP THREAT CASE
Waited 4hrs for MP?
A RAG-AND-BONE man accused of criminal intimidation said yesterday that he was made to wait almost four hours to see his Member of Parliament at a Meet-the-People session.
When he got to see the MP, Jalan Besar GRC's Denise Phua, he ranted at her that the $200 he got from a government agency in financial aid was not enough, which spurred one of her grassroots helpers to shout at him just as he was leaving.
Ng Kim Ngweng, 49, was on the stand to defend himself for having allegedly threatened a few days later to cause Ms Phua hurt in a telephone conversation on a public hotline on Jan 12.
He is said to have told customer service officer Tan Chia Yong, 25, who took his call at Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry @ Home (Reach) that he could not take it any more and did not know what he would do to Ms Phua one day.
Ng allegedly said: 'How can you not hit her? I get angry when I see her so how can I not hit her?'
Speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, the father of two told District Judge Liew Thiam Leng yesterday that the day he waited four hours to see the MP, she was smiling and 'looked proud'.
After complaining to her that the aid he got was paltry, he told her: 'Don't forget, you just care that you have eaten enough and don't bother whether other people are alive or dead.'
He added that as he was leaving, a beefy residents' committee member shouted at him and looked like he was going to hit him, except that Ms Phua told him to leave things be.
The day before he made the call to the Reach hotline, Ng, a former tour coordinator, said he read about MP Seng Han Thong being torched by one of his constituents.
Ng said he wondered how someone would dare to attack an MP, and thought Mr Seng's assailant 'courageous' for doing that. He then decided to call the Prime Minister's Office to tell the Prime Minister - the 'boss of all MPs' - why people were treating their MP like that.
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of the Straits Times.
