Parents of special needs kids refuse meeting with Roy Ngerng

SINGAPORE - The parents of the special needs children whose performance at Hong Lim Park were disrupted by several hundred protestors on Sep 27, have refused to meet with the protestor's co-leader, blogger Roy Ngerng.

Mr Ngerng, 33, who had organised the rally to protest against Central Provident Fund (CPF) issues, said in a blog post on Sep 29 that he had written to the event's organiser, YMCA, to meet with and apologise to the children and their parents.

In an earlier blog post, he had acknowledged that the protestors' actions "could have caused the children stress" and that "this would also allow us to mend the bridges with YMCA".

However, according to The Straits Times, the manager of the special needs performers, Madam Regina Aun, had said that the parents were not agreeable to such a meeting.

"I've read his interpretation of the sequence of events on his blog, and I don't agree with some of his explanations," Madam Aun told The Straits Times, adding that the protestors did not move away when they saw the children on the stage.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry Teo Ser Luck, who was the guest-of-honour for the YMCA event and had allegedly also been heckled by protestors, had earlier also demanded that Mr Ngerng issue an apology in a Facebook post.

The "Return our CPF" protest at Hong Lim Park had been led by Mr Ngerng and another blogger, Ms Han Hui Hui, but also happening at the same time was YMCA's annual Proms @ the Park charity carnival.

Channel News Asia reported that the National Parks Board (NParks) had said that "until the incident on Saturday, no adverse or disorderly incidents have ever ensued" when there were multiple events at the vanue at the same time.

The two events had been allocated different spaces in the park, but the protestors had not kept the rally within their designated area and had reportedly encroached upon the space designated for the YMCA event.

Ms Han, 22, has not made a similar offer of apology to the children, but has alleged on Facebook that the emcee and volunteers at the YMCA event had provoked the protestors by shouting "We love our CPF" at the incident.

seanyap@sph.com.sg