Singapore — Some of the wind has gone out of blogger Leong Sze Hian’s crowdfunding campaign and he has been getting hate messages too.
Mr Leong took only 11 days to raise the S$133,000 the High Court ordered him to pay as damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. But confronted with a nearly S$130,000 bill from the Prime Minister himself in legal costs and disbursements, Mr Leong’s second crowdfunding campaign has got off to a slower start. As of Tuesday (May 4), in 18 days of fundraising, he has collected S$55,141 from 803 donors.
Mr Leong was sued for sharing, on his Facebook page, an article from the Malaysian news site The Coverage that falsely linked PM Lee to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal in Malaysia.
He has been getting both bucks and brickbats on his crowdfunding campaigns.
Some of the hate messages he revealed on Facebook on Monday (May 3).
IBs have intensified their incessant attacks on me
(Warning: Some content may be disturbing to readers!)Here are some…
Posted by Leong Sze Hian on Monday, 3 May 2021
“Time to make protest on the return of my CPF as a full time job through crowd funding”
“So can continue to post smear articles?”
“Shameless Coward fool Leong trying to exploit ‘Nationalism’ to fleece $$ from the oppies crowd to pay for his own foolish mistake. LOL 😆”
But he has received encouragement, too, including from the Prime Minister’s brother.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang in his own words donated a “meaningful sum” to the blogger. He said: “I was happy to be one of the many donors who came forward to help Leong to pay off the damages awarded by the court. It is very significant so many Singaporeans came forward to express their support.”
Mr Leong on his Facebook page has also shared other words of encouragement, supporting the idea of freedom of speech.
“Our people should feel free to express diverse views, pursue unconventional ideas or simply be different.”
“Everybody has his place; everybody is equal. Treated equally, equal standing, equal rights and status.”
He seems to be taking both the well-wishes and the criticism in his stride like a true-blue believer in the freedom of speech.
Denise Teh is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG