SINGAPORE, June 29 — People’s Action Party (PAP) new face Ng Ling Ling came forward today to respond to comments made by a former colleague disputing her claim of starting the Social Service Training Institute (SSTI) and National Council of Social Service (NCSS).
Richard Giam, who said that he used to report to Ng directly when she was an assistant director at SSTI from September 2004 to August 2006, took to Facebook this morning to say that Ng had made a false claim in her PAP candidate introduction, and that she was not the person who had set up SSTI and NCSS, as she had said in her speech.
In her speech on Thursday after being introduced as a new PAP candidate, Ng had said she joined the social service sector after having looked after her family.
“I found a platform in the National Council of Social Service where I developed non profit boards, I set up the Social Service Training Institute and I allocated funds to assure that social service agencies can run critical programmes.”
Giam wrote in his Facebook post: “Choice of words (are) important. I cannot publicly claim that I set up a team when I was only one of the contributing members. It would be very misleading and deceptive.”
He then urged Tan Bee Heong, the founding director of SSTI, and Gerard Ee, the former president of NCSS, to come forward to provide clarity on the matter.
“What I understand is that she joined Bee Heong after SSTI was started,” he added.
Speaking at a media briefing today to unveil the PAP’s Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency team for the coming election, Ng said that she fully acknowledges that Tan was the founding director of SSTI, and that she was in the key management team in its early years.
“None of us are perfect and I’ll be the first to confess that I am not a perfect person,” she said.
She added: “I was in the key management team in the pioneering years and we were a very small team but we were very hardworking and dedicated to increasing the training programs for our social service organisations. So I just want to share that as I step up to this role, I am very aware that I will be subjected to public scrutiny.”
She also wrote about the matter on Facebook, reiterating the same points.
“Bee Heong was the director, and I was a member of her pioneer team. My role was to help operationalise the institute and ensure it’s financially sustainable. Work in the social services sector is a team effort. I had passionate colleagues who inspired me, and I am thankful for the mentorship of many during my journey in NCSS, SSTI and the Community Chest,” she said in the post.
Earlier today, Ee had also commented on Giam’s Facebook post and attributed Ng’s words to a “Freudian slip”, saying that as an assistant director, she had contributed much to build up SSTI.
He added that SSTI was a start up and “with the efforts of Ling Ling and her team, which supported Bee Heong, it grew rapidly”, adding that Ng “did start up initiatives within SSTI”.
“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,” he said. — TODAY
