Workers' Party Members of Parliament Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim & Pritam Singh received S$100,000 in public donations within six hours.

This was after a public call for donations to help them with their mounting legal fees and potential bankruptcy was made on the evening of Oct. 24.

The MPs revealed they have spent close to S$600,000 of their own personal money on their legal fees, with no funds coming from WP itself.

S$100,000

In response to Mothership.sg's queries, WP Media Chair Daniel Goh revealed that the public contributions have reached S$100,000 as of midnight on Oct. 25.

The blog post's first update of the amount of donations was at 10pm on Oct. 24.

The figure stood at S$65,196 then.

The figure is being revealed for transparency.

To put things in context, Low, Sylvia Lim and Singh have raised more money in six hours than CPF blogger Roy Ngerng previously did in six days.

In 2014, Ngerng raised some S$85,970 in six days when news broke that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was going to sue him.

Public appeal for donations

On Oct. 24 evening, the trio made a public call for donations to help them with their mounting legal fees and potential bankruptcy, as a result of the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) trial. 

The MPs said in their In Good Faith blog that if they lose the suits and are adjudged to pay large sums of money, but are unable to pay, they would face bankruptcy.

It is understood that being declared bankrupts would have a bearing on their chances of running in the next election.

The MPs and two other town councillors are facing two suits over S$33.7 million in alleged improper payments -- one brought by Aljunied-Hougang Town Council as directed by an independent panel, and the other by Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council.

Crowdfunding legit

Goh also verified that the appeal for donations is legitimate, and told Channel NewsAsia that "the website belongs to the three defendants" and is not linked to WP.

Roy Ngerng: Former political crowdfunding champion

What do the three WP MPs and CPF blogger Roy Ngerng have in common?

All four have come face-to-face with Senior Counsel Davinder Singh in court and all four have very successful starts to their crowdfunding efforts to pay their legal fees.

CPF blogger Ngerng was the pioneer of crowdfunding for legal defence.

In May 2014, Ngerng was sued by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for defamation.

Within four days, Ngerng managed to reach his target of S$70,000 for the legal fees for the court case.

Within 10 days, Ngerng raised more than S$110,000 from the public, before the donations slowed down.

Ngerng subsequently lost the case in 2016 and was ordered to repay S$150,000 in damages to PM Lee.

His second round of crowdfunding was less successful, with him raising S$420 of public donations on the first day.

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