Tan Tock Seng Hospital has fired Singaporean blogger and political activist Roy Ngerng. The sacking is reportedly in connection with his ongoing defamation lawsuit with Prime Minister Lee. Ngerng is alleged to have defamed the Prime Minister.
Ngerng had been contracted to work as a patient coordinator at the hospital’s Communicable Disease Centre.
Tan Tock Seng Hospital says Ngerng was dismissed for “conduct incompatible with the values and standards expected of employees, and for misusing working time, hospital computers and facilities for personal pursuits”.
TTSH also noted that his alleged defamation of the Prime Minister reflected conduct that was incompatible with company values and standards.
“While our staff are free to pursue their personal interests outside work, they must conduct themselves properly, honorably and with integrity.”
“In particular, they cannot defame someone else without basis, which essentially means knowingly stating a falsehood to the public,” the hospital said. “(Ngerng’s) continued disregard of the Hospital’s warnings and advice has rendered his employment with TTSH untenable.”
The hospital added that said Ngerng was issued a formal letter of warning in May when he was discovered to be misusing its resources “to pursue personal and non-job-related interests”.
Ngerng said he had been expecting the sack.
“All I did was to speak up for our rights and our protection… That’s all I ever wanted to do,” he wrote in a Facebook status update.
Ngerng explained that “the stress of the court case has made it difficult for (him) to concentrate on (his) job”. “My advocacy on the CPF has also taken a toil [sic] on my ability to do my job as well,” he wrote.
“I could have done a lot better over the past few months.”
Ngerng is embroiled in a defamation suit against Prime Minister Lee after posting an article that appeared to accuse the latter of embezzling and misusing CPF funds.
He has raised more than $90,000 from crowd-funding to pay his legal fees.
