Singapore bloggers turn to crowdfunding to pay defamation bills

A general view of Marina Bay Sands hotel and resort (left) and the ArtScience Museum in Singapore. The crowdfunding campaigns come after an election last year where the PAP won 89% of seats, which could be considered a landslide in most other countries but was its weakest parliamentary showing yet. — AFP

When Roy Ngerng’s friends urged him to ask the public to help fund his bill for defaming Singapore’s prime minister, he was dubious: Six years had passed since the verdict.

Ngerng had been paying S$100 (RM310) each month off the S$150,000 (RM465,318) that was subsequently awarded to Lee Hsien Loong for his accusation that Lee misappropriated Singapore’s state pension money. So it caught him off-guard last month when he raised the roughly S$144,000 (RM446,706) he still owed in just nine days of crowdfunding, via 2,132 people.