The Prime Minister’s lawsuit against blogger Roy Ngerng is certainly not new to Singapore’s political scene, but its effects will reverberate to result in negative consequences for the PAP. As news of his (allegedly political) sacking becomes widespread, this may very well be the tipping point for the PAP after citizens have had enough of the PAP’s nonsense.
Back in 2011 - before social media became as powerful as it is today - there was a particular lady by the name of Geraldine Soh Shin Lin whose case caused a minor political uproar. Geraldine worked for the Jurong Town Council and was suspended by her superior Ho Thian Poh on the 3rd May for allegedly ‘passing confidential information to the Opposition’.
Shortly after her suspension, she was abruptly sacked from her job even though had been working at the town council for more than 3 years without any warnings. What was so outrageous about this case was that for a body as large as a Town Council, Geraldine neither received proper explanation nor proper termination pay in accordance to MOM policies.
According to her boyfriend Joel, Geraldine was seen by a colleague selling political merchandise for National Solidarity Party 2 days before her suspension. He added that her colleagues were supposed to be at the PAP’s rally while she neither used office time or resources to support the NSP rally. As a result, he too believes that such a charge was purely politically-driven.
Just like in the case of Cherian George, some cases of employment disputes would be seen as having politically-motivated reasons especially when the reasons are not clearly given. In Singapore where the PAP itself has admitted that it has a strong control over everything, it is unlikely that the reasons can be made known unless the PAP gets voted out.
Ashton Pusumbal