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Ng Ling Ling, a PAP candidate for Ang Mo Kio GRC, responded to an accusation that she made a false claim at the unveiling of her candidacy.

Ng had been the subject of a June 29 Facebook post by Facebook user Richard Giam, which took issue with the 48-year-old's claim that she had "set up the Social Service Training Institute (SSTI)" during her time with the National Council of Social Service.

Giam stated that he'd worked under Ng from September 2004 to August 2006 when she was Assistant Director at the SSTI.

"She was not the one who set up Social Service Training Institute (SSTI), NCSS which she claimed to be in one of her PAP videos. It was Ms Tan Bee Heong, the founding director of SSTI," he claimed.

Offering clarification

At a press conference alongside Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and her fellow Ang Mo Kio GRC teammates, on June 29, Ng addressed the issue, and said:

"I have always done things as a team and I fully acknowledge that the founding director of SSTI is Ms Tan Bee Heong."

Ng added that she was in the key management team in the SSTI's pioneering years.

"We were a very small team but we were very hardworking and dedicated to increasing the training programmes for our social service organisations."

In her own Facebook post on the matter, Ng said that her role was to help operationalise the institute and ensure it’s financial sustainability.

A Freudian slip

Giam's post attracted a comment from Gerard Ee, a former president of the NCSS.

"(SSTI) was a start-up and with the efforts of Ling Ling and her team which supported Bee Heong, it grew rapidly," wrote Ee.

"We in the social service sector get very attached to what we do and often we see the projects we get involved with as our baby. It happens to me too. It is a mere Freudian slip on the part of Ling Ling."

Culture of trial by internet

Ng is the latest PAP candidate to come under scrutiny after a post on social media.

General Manager at Keppel Offshore and Marine Ivan Lim had previously withdrawn his candidacy, having become the subject of intense criticism online over allegations regarding his actions while serving in the military and in his workplace.

Addressing the criticisms against the PAP's candidates in the same press conference, PM Lee said that Singapore should not encourage a "culture of trial by internet".

"These criticisms can be circulated around and possibly gain currency whether or not they are founded," he said. PM Lee referenced the controversy surrounding Tin Pei Ling's entry in GE2011, and said that she was heavily criticised, but worked hard in her constituency and stood again in GE2015.

He added:

"We have confidence in our system and in our candidates, if problems come up we will look at them. You can never say that nothing is there. And if something turns up to be there, we have to deal with it. If nothing is there, well then we back our candidate."

"I'll be the first to confess that I'm not perfect," said Ng at the press conference.

"I'm very aware that I'll be subject to public scrutiny. I have walked my journey to help people and to care for people, and I'll continue to do that."

Top image via PAP.