[SINGAPORE] Labour chief Ng Chee Meng – who will return to Parliament after being elected in the May 3 General Election – has asked Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to not assign him any position in government.
In a media statement on Tuesday (May 6), Ng addressed media queries about photos of him posing with convicted Fujian gang member Su Haijin, as well as an anecdote from his time as education minister.
“Over the next five years, I will focus on my duties as the MP in Jalan Kayu and my role as secretary-general of NTUC. The needs of my residents and all Singaporean workers are my priorities,” said Ng.
“Hence, I have asked the prime minister not to assign me any position in government. PM has agreed to consider this.”
Explaining the photo of him and Su, Ng said: “As the secretary-general of NTUC, it is part of my work to engage with different companies and private sector leaders.”
Such engagements help him to “better understand the concerns and challenges in different industries”, he added.
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“At these engagements, people would often approach me for photographs. This dinner was one such engagement. It took place some time back,” he said.
“I learnt later about the police investigations and subsequent criminal charges against Su. Thereafter, I had no further interactions with him.”
He also addressed online posts about what he said at a Ministry of Education (MOE) dialogue in 2017 when he was Minister for Education (Schools), saying he does not remember the exact words used that day “as close to a decade has passed since the dialogue”.
“I regret if any of my remarks came across as disrespectful, especially when the participants had raised questions in good faith,” he said. “I could have handled the situation better. I sincerely apologise.”
On May 1, a former MOE teacher wrote on Instagram that Ng questioned and lectured him in what he perceived as “an aggressive tone” at a dialogue session for trainee teachers.
This was after he asked a question about Special Assistance Plan schools, which he said he understood to be “somewhat a sensitive question”.
“It appeared to me that the minister reacted at once in anger to my question,” he wrote, adding that Ng had told him to stand up “when minister is talking to you”.
At the May 3 polls, Ng narrowly won his seat in Jalan Kayu SMC against Workers’ Party (WP) newcomer Andre Low with 51.47 per cent of the votes.
The victory marked his political comeback, having lost his Sengkang GRC seat against a WP team of fresh faces at GE2020. Ng made his political debut at GE2015 and took office right after.
Ong, Chee “do not know Su personally”
Separately, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung and Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat have also addressed similar photos of them with Su.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, their press secretaries said in a joint statement that the ministers do not personally know Su, even as they were pictured at dinners where the latter was present.
“The ministers do not know Su personally, and have had no contact or dealings with him, before or since these occasions,” said a statement by Lim Siok Peng, press secretary for Ong, and Izzah Amalina Zainudin, press secretary for Chee.
“As ministers, they meet a diverse range of people at various events and gatherings. They attended the dinners at the invitation of a friend, and Su happened to be there. Minister Ong recalls that months later, at another dinner, Su happened to be there too,” they added.
They noted that there are photos circulating in which Ong and Chee were pictured at dinners where Su was also present.
Su was later arrested for his illegal activities and his assets confiscated.
The statement added: “The PAP government upholds a high standard of integrity and the ministers are determined to uphold this, even though in the course of their work, they may inadvertently come into contact with people who are later established to be unsavoury. Maintaining this standard is non-negotiable.”
Largest money laundering case unearthed
Originally from Fujian, China, Su is one of 10 people linked to a S$3 billion money laundering bust that gripped Singapore in August 2023.
Su had made headlines for having leapt from a second-floor balcony in a bid to escape when the police turned up at his Good Class Bungalow in Ewart Park in Bukit Timah, in an islandwide anti-money laundering blitz.
In April 2024, he was sentenced to 14 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of resisting arrest and two counts of money laundering.
He agreed to have about 90 per cent of S$170 million worth of seized assets forfeited to the state as part of the plea bargain.
His 11 other changes that were taken into consideration for sentencing included offences for allegedly conspiring to cheat the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and Ministry of Manpower.
The two money laundering charges that Su pleaded guilty to were related to sums held in bank accounts by DBS and UOB under a shell company called Yihao Cyber Technologies, where he was the director and sole shareholder.
According to filings with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the company is a developer of software and applications incorporated on Jan 3, 2017. But investigations showed that it did not have legitimate business operations in Singapore and did not offer any products or services. Its office at 8 Marina View was only used to receive letters.
From October 2021 to June 2022, he was also a non-executive director of seafood restaurant chain No Signboard Holdings, where he held a 20 per cent stake in the company.
Last May, Su, a Cypriot, was deported to Cambodia after serving his jail sentence. He was barred from re-entering Singapore.
