Singapore activist Roy Ngerng crowdfunds US$108,000 to pay defamation damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

Roy Ngerng had been paying the Singapore leader small instalments since a 2015 ruling against him in a libel case. Now he can pay it all

He says the support shown to him and blogger Leong Sze Hian is a sign the public are disenchanted with the litigious nature of the city state’s politicians

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Blogger Roy Ngerng, who was sued by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:41pm, 16 Apr 2021Updated: 4:04pm, 16 Apr 2021

A Singaporean activist who for years had been paying small instalments of the S$150,000 (US$112,000) damages awarded to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a defamation suit said on Friday he had raised the full amount through a crowdfunding campaign.

Taiwan-based Roy Ngerng told This Week in Asia he raised S$144,389.14 in nine days. Since the 2015 award against him, he has paid Lee S$6,000.

His crowdfunding campaign follows a similar effort by blogger and opposition figure Leong Sze Hian, who in April raised the S$133,000 awarded against him in a separate libel suit by the prime minister.

The prime minister and his predecessors from the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) have a track record of successfully suing opposition figures and foreign news outlets for libel.

Leong and Ngerng were the first to be sued by Lee over comments made online.

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