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Charlene The Charlatan

‘I shouldn’t have told the joke’: David Neo on his quip in Parliament during Dear You exchange

SINGAPORE – Reflecting on a joke he told in Parliament that drew criticism, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo said he should not have made it.

“I shouldn’t have told the joke,” he said during an interview with the media on July 20 about his ministry’s wide-ranging plan for Singapore youth.

Neo had quipped in Mandarin that “ministers have no time to watch movies”, during an exchange on Singapore’s restrictions on dialect films at a July 7 Parliament sitting.

His remark had been in response to Workers’ Party MP Kenneth Tiong’s question about whether Neo had watched the film Dear You in its Mandarin-dubbed or Teochew version.

Neo’s response sparked criticism, with some in the arts community calling it dismissive.

Briefly addressing the incident during the hour-long interview on July 20, Neo said he took the criticism in his stride.

The point is to take all feedback positively, he said, “and then ask ourselves how we can improve”.

Neo was promoted to Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Education in the Cabinet reshuffle announced on July 22. His promotion to full minister takes effect from July 27.

Asked about the incident during the press conference on the reshuffle, the former chief of army responded similarly.

“I should just not tell any more jokes,” he said, adding: “But as with all things well-learnt, and every time there’s criticism, I take it positively as feedback.

“It’s just a matter of how things are experienced by different people. We look at it, and then...I ask myself, how can I be better going forward?”

The initial decision by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to limit screenings of Dear You, a Chinese movie that was filmed mostly in the Teochew dialect, had reignited debate over the Speak Mandarin Campaign that was launched in 1979 to encourage Mandarin as the main language among the Chinese community here, as opposed to dialects.

IMDA, which previously said in June that the Mandarin-dubbed version of Dear You would be screened for the general release in Singapore, later approved more screenings in Teochew in batches.

Neo told the House on July 7 that the use of dialects in Singapore has continued to decline. Dialect artistic materials are increasingly not seen as competing against the use of Mandarin, but as part of practices that deepen Singaporeans’ appreciation of cultural heritage, he added then.

During the July 20 interview, Neo was also asked if there was room to support youth who want to do more to promote the learning and preservation of dialects.

Replying, he said Singapore’s approach is to promote Mandarin while expanding space for the use of dialects, noting that the National Arts Council supports young practitioners who protect intangible cultural heritage.

He cited the Young ChangeMakers grant as one avenue through which young people can receive support for initiatives to preserve culture.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/i-shouldnt-have-told-the-joke-david-neo-on-his-quip-in-parliament-during-dear-you-exchange

Unmasked: Scam kingpin Chen Zhi’s top associates held significant cache of assets in Singapore

SINGAPORE – They were identified in a criminal indictment filed in New York on Oct 8, 2025, as the co-conspirators of scam kingpin Chen Zhi, with few clues about where they lived and operated.

Over the past six months, The Straits Times, working with investigative journalism group Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), combed through hundreds of pages of official records to unmask the second co-conspirator, a key figure in the multi-billion dollar scam syndicate.

The search uncovered a global web of shell companies, and revealed the sophisticated system used by Chen Zhi and his company Prince Holding Group to launder billions of dollars in funds obtained on the back of foreigners forced to work in scam compounds in Cambodia.

Co-conspirator 2 is Chen Xing. Born in Shanghai in 1986, he changed his name to Chen Sokly after obtaining Cambodian citizenship around the end of 2017, according to the Cambodian government gazette.

ST and OCCRP confirmed his identity by matching details of his corporate history across jurisdictions, his acquired citizenships in Cambodia and Cyprus, and his former places of residences in Singapore and the United States.

Like many others in the Prince Group network, Sokly created multiple identities across jurisdictions. In some circles in Singapore, he was known as the wealthy businessman Martin Chen.

The indictment, which led to the forfeiture of 127,271 bitcoins by the US government valued at around US$15 billion at the time, came six days before the US dropped sanctions against Chen Zhi, the Prince Holding Group and its affiliates in one of the largest financial fraud takedowns in history.

Three Singaporeans and 17 Singapore-registered entities were among those added to the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list.

Chen Zhi, who was born in China, was identified as the head of a global crime syndicate that engaged in investment fraud and money laundering.

The enforcer

According to the indictment, Chen Zhi had enlisted Sokly to preside over the syndicate’s risk control function.

Sokly once resided in Singapore, but is believed to be currently in the US.

He was tasked with monitoring any investigations by law enforcement agencies into the group’s activities, and to engage in corrupt bargaining with foreign officials to advance the group’s interests.

Prosecutors in the indictment alleged that sometime in May 2023, Sokly allegedly communicated with a government official in China who promised that he could get Prince Group associates “off the hook” for any trouble they run into.

In exchange, Sokly promised to take care of the official’s son.

Prosecutors said Sokly even directed a Chinese official to have local police officers extort businesses on behalf of the Prince Group.

He was so confident of his contact that he dismissed the scam compound crackdown in Cambodia, saying nothing would happen to the Prince Group.

The documents showed Chen Zhi and Sokly, a trusted lieutenant, would discuss at length about how many officials Sokly had in his pocket.

A ledger of bribes allegedly kept by Chen Zhi, and uncovered by US authorities, showed that in 2019, Sokly purchased a yacht valued at more than US$3 million for a foreign government official.

Sokly also allegedly used violence to maintain the group’s dominance over scam operators.

In July 2024, Chen Zhi told another associate to contact Sokly. The boss wanted his enforcer to handle a member of the group who had stolen money from them.

The indictment showed Sokly would sometimes brag about the network’s reach. He once boasted that the global syndicate was raking in US$30 million a day through illicit activities.

According to California property records obtained by ST and OCCRP, Sokly bought a home in the state in 2019 from Fang Zhizhen, a member of the Knight Attack Group, a cybercriminal syndicate in China which predated the Prince Group.

Fang was among nine individuals and 26 entities identified in the same OFAC sanctions over their alleged links to Prince Group.

Sokly sold that home in 2024 for around US$4.5 million.

Property records also showed that he transferred ownership of a separate US$4 million property to his wife on Nov 4, 2025, a few weeks after sweeping sanctions were meted out on Prince Group. That property was placed in a trust operated by his wife in December 2025.

In 2017, Sokly announced his arrival in Singapore with the purchase of an $11 million, 5,694 sq ft apartment at 10 Leedon Heights.

A few months later, he incorporated his first Singapore company, M Capital Global Holdings, and invested just over $5 million in equal parts with his wife.

The couple continue to be the company’s shareholders in Singapore today.

He then spent the next two years registering himself as a director of at least 16 firms in Singapore. His name was removed from most of the firms between 2020 and 2023.

The firms that listed Sokly as director shared an address in Shenton Way, which ST visited. An electronic building directory showed two companies occupying an office on the 12th floor, with no apparent links to Sokly.

Former employees, who declined to be named, said Sokly typically spent between two and three months in Singapore in a year, and liked to pass time in the evenings by drinking with his associates, including Chen Zhi.

He owned a fleet of cars, including a Bentley and a luxury seven-seater, which he kept at his Leedon Heights home.

One former employee said Sokly’s son was enrolled in an international school in Singapore at the time.

Employees also spoke of how Sokly would travel with his entourage when on holiday to destinations such as Europe for a month. The businessman would pay for everything, including the flights and accommodations.

Around the same time he was busy establishing himself in Singapore, Sokly started a network of companies overseas.

In 2018, he became the chairman of Awesome Global Investment Group in Cambodia, a company which Chen Zhi established a year earlier. Sokly subsequently used the Awesome brand and M Capital to expand his list of companies.

About two years later, he established several firms in the US, according to business records in California. They included multiple companies named Awesome and M Capital.

ST and OCCRP reached out to Sokly on various platforms but he did not respond to requests for comments.

The banker

Around the same time the US announced sweeping sanctions on the Prince Group, government agencies also severed financial links to Cambodia-based Huione Group.

The US authorities alleged that the financial services firm had served as a money laundering central for transnational criminal organisations.

On June 23, the US Justice Department announced it had seized a cloud computing account used by subsidiaries of Huione Group which allegedly hosted backend infrastructure for the network.

Huione Group is accused of laundering at least US$4 billion worth of illicit proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025.

According to the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Huione has significant exposure to suspected fraud activities, including convertible virtual currency (CVC) investment scams – also known as pig-butchering.

“FinCEN assesses that Huione Group’s extensive CVC services and its online marketplace, Haowang Guarantee, has made Huione Group a ‘one-stop shop’ for criminals to launder CVC obtained through illicit activities, and ultimately convert it to fiat currency,” said FinCEN in May 2025.

Huione Group is said to have received at least US$36 million in CVC investment scam proceeds since August 2021.

That number goes up to US$300 million if including other cyberscam variants, based on non-public information analysed by the US agency.

Broadly, FinCEN said illicit actors send CVC to Huione, who then converts the proceeds to fiat currency or a different virtual currency, before moving them to a different digital wallet as part of the money laundering process.

Like Chen Zhi, who was caught and extradited to China in January, the former chairman of Huione, Li Xiong, was similarly arrested and extradited to Beijing in April.

Checks by ST and OCCRP reveal that Sokly is directly linked to Huione. His Cambodian firm LM Car had in 2022 entered a joint venture with Huione Technology in Phnom Penh. He is also closely tied to two associates linked to the former Huione leader.

Corporate records in Cambodia show Li Xiong was part of a real estate firm, Cocosili Investment, together with two Chinese nationals Dai An and Xiong Huajun.

The Cambodian firm shares the same Phnom Penh address with Huione subsidiary, Huione Life Insurance.

Dai was on June 23 sanctioned by the OFAC for his alleged links to Prince Group. Described as a “high-level leader” in the organisation, he received his Cambodian citizenship in 2017 together with Sokly, changing his name legally from Dai Dewen to Dai An.

Singapore connection

ST visited two companies in Singapore that listed Dai as a director on June 17 – a family office and investment management firm – registered to Parkview Square, but found an unrelated finance firm at the unit.

On July 21, Dai responded to ST and OCCRP through an e-mail address he used to register a Cambodian firm.

“I am writing to tell you the plain truth regarding the matters you raised.

“The honest truth is that I have absolutely no involvement, connection or knowledge regarding this company’s activities,” he said in response to queries about his involvement in multiple companies linked to Sokly and Xiong Huajun.

Dai said he was registered as a director in the companies for “administrative credentials”. He said he did not participate in any of the companies’ activities and claimed that he did not receive any money.

“The matters, transactions or allegations you mentioned in your e-mail are completely foreign to me. I had zero knowledge that these things were happening,” he added.

But Dai may have been more than just an administrative convenience. In 2017, he became Sokly’s neighbour after he purchased the apartment directly above in Leedon Heights for $6.15 million.

Meanwhile, property records showed Xiong had purchased a luxury apartment in Nassim Road in 2019 for $18.8 million.

A 2018 Mauritius registration document showed Xiong had formerly used a 14 Leedon Heights address in Singapore.

That unit changed hands to another Chinese national in 2024. Xiong did not respond to requests for comments.

In 2023, Sokly, Dai and Xiong were all listed as the ultimate beneficiary owners of a Mauritius-based fund, the Oceanic Opportunity Fund PCC, that provided Prince Bank with millions of dollars in loans.

The same fund also invested in Chen Zhi’s Singapore investment vehicle, Skyline Investment Management, until at least 2021.

In 2018, all three were also found to be involved in a Mauritius-based firm, Meritwise Group Public, along with Singaporeans Karen Chen Xiuling and Cliff Teo Kang Yeow.

A warrant of arrest from the Singapore police remains out for Karen Chen, who is closely tied to Chen Zhi in Singapore and Taiwan. Cliff Teo is on the run from the authorities in Taiwan, who are probing his connection to Chen Zhi and Prince Group subsidiaries in Taipei.

Flight records obtained by OCCRP and seen by ST also revealed that on April 23, 2019, Sokly flew to Palau and stayed at the Palau Pacific Resort.

With him on the same flight were Dai and Xiong. All three had flown in on Hu Xiaowei’s private jet.

Hu Xiaowei, who goes by many monikers, was sanctioned by the US and UK in October 2025 for his alleged role in Prince Group, where he is described as second-in-command to Chen Zhi. He had flown into Palau just one day earlier.

On June 23, the OFAC formally sanctioned all of Hu Xiaowei’s known aliases, including Chen Xiao’er, Hu Shi and Wu An Ming.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/unmasked-scam-kingpin-chen-zhis-top-associates-held-significant-cache-of-assets-in-singapore

It's only a blunder when one lives under a totalitarian regime with no free press to speak of.

To properly articulate her ineptness, you need a vast potpourri of labels

GE2025: Stunning victory for PAP, winning 87 of 97 seats with higher national vote share in PM Wong's first electoral test

SINGAPORE: In an election held amid global economic uncertainties, the People’s Action Party (PAP) returned to government in a stunning victory, winning 87 out of 97 seats - or almost 90 per cent of the seats - and staving off challenges from the Workers’ Party (WP) without conceding any new ground to its rivals. 

Against the backdrop of party renewal and leadership transition, Singaporeans at the ballot box on Saturday (May 3) chose political stability and economic safety over the opposition’s calls for greater checks and balances.

In all, 65.57 per cent of the 2,386,452 valid votes cast went to the PAP – up from 61.24 per cent in the 2020 General Election - in what was Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's first electoral test leading the ruling party.  

In leading the PAP to an increased vote share, Mr Wong bucked a trend: Previous GEs in 1991 and 2006 saw dips in the PAP's vote share after a new prime minister took office. 

The ruling party also garnered over 75 per cent of the vote in 10 constituencies. The best performing PAP constituency was Queenstown Single Member Constituency (SMC), where Mr Eric Chua won 81.12 per cent of the votes. 

The last result - for Tampines GRC - of the elections was announced close to six hours after the polls closed - at nearly 2am on Sunday.  Speaking at the PAP’s post-election press conference held about an hour later, Mr Wong said that Singaporeans have given the party “a clear and strong mandate to govern”.

Reiterating that the bigger contest is not between political parties but between Singapore and the challenges it faces, Mr Wong noted that the election took place at a critical time for Singapore, as the world faces an economic slowdown as well as fundamental shifts in the international order.

“The results will put Singapore in a better position to face this turbulent world ... It's a clear signal of trust, stability and confidence in your government,” said Mr Wong. "Singaporeans, too, can draw strength from this and look ahead to our future with confidence."

He added that he was "deeply humbled and grateful" for the results, and that the PAP will work even harder with this mandate to ensure concrete progress for Singapore.

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who handed over power to Mr Wong in August last year, said on Facebook that he was "very happy and relieved with the results of GE2025". 

"This election took place at a crucial time – in the world, and in Singapore. It was vital that PM Lawrence Wong won a good mandate in this election, to show Singaporeans, and show the world, that he has the full support of a united nation. This election result achieves that," he said. 

The 4.33 percentage point swing towards the PAP meant that WP’s much vaunted push in eastern Singapore – Punggol, Tampines and East Coast Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs), as well as the single-member wards of Tampines Changkat and Jalan Kayu – failed to translate to seats.

In the four-member Tampines GRC, where WP fielded its party vice-chair Faisal Manap against PAP’s Social and Family Development Minister Masagos Zulkifli, the PAP came up on top, securing 52.02 per cent of votes.

In the hot seat of Jalan Kayu SMC, where former PAP Cabinet minister and labour chief Ng Chee Meng was pitted against WP new face Andre Low, it was ultimately Mr Ng who triumphed with 51.47 per cent of votes.

Over at Punggol GRC, where WP had focused its attacks on the PAP’s last-minute move to field Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong there, the opposition party's team led by senior counsel Harpreet Singh only managed to garner 44.83 per cent of the votes.

PAP STAVES OFF WP CHALLENGE 

Nevertheless, WP managed to retain its 10 parliamentary seats from Aljunied and Sengkang GRCs, as well as its stronghold of Hougang SMC. While it failed to make further inroads, WP was able to either match or improve its margins of victory in these three constituencies.

The opposition party will also be offered two Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) seats. Under the NCMP scheme, if there are fewer than 12 opposition MPs elected, the best-performing losing opposition candidates are offered NCMP seats to make up the shortfall.

The two NCMP seats will be offered to WP's Jalan Kayu SMC candidate Andre Low and a member of WP's Tampines GRC team. 

This would grow the WP’s overall parliamentary presence to 12 seats – the largest in its history – should the party accept the NCMP roles. 

For the constituencies it contested in, WP garnered a vote share of 50.04 per cent, a slight 0.45 percentage point drop from the previous election. 

At WP’s assembly point at Serangoon Stadium, WP chief Pritam Singh thanked supporters for helping to achieve a more balanced parliament and urged them to continue the work. “It was always going to be a difficult election. The slate is wiped clean, we start work again tomorrow, and we go again,” Mr Singh said.

HOW OTHER OPPOSITION PARTIES FARED 

It was a dismal night for the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) as the election results streamed in – the party lost in all of its contests and also its two NCMP seats from the previous polls.

In West Coast-Jurong West GRC, the party fielded a team of heavyweights consisting of founder Tan Cheng Bock, party chief Leong Mun Wai and vice-chair Hazel Poa, but the result ultimately went in the favour of the PAP team led by National Development Minister Desmond Lee, which got 60.01 per cent against PSP’s 39.99 per cent.

PSP’s other attempts in Chua Chu Kang GRC and the single-member wards of Bukit Gombak, Kebun Baru, Marymount and Pioneer performed worse, garnering less than 35 per cent of the vote in these wards.

Speaking to reporters outside PSP’s headquarters in Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Mr Leong thanked voters who had supported the party and accepted the results.

“The results are very shocking to us, but the people have spoken,” he said, adding that the party will study the results "seriously and humbly" and reconsider how it can gain further trust from Singaporeans.

“We need to regroup ourselves so that we can fight another day.” 

The Singapore Democratic Party, which embarked on a “northern strategy” by contesting Sembawang GRC and Sembawang West SMC, did not yield the results that party chief Chee Soon Juan had hoped for.

“Obviously, it’s really upsetting,” Dr Chee told reporters. “Across the board, with what happened in Bukit Panjang and our constituencies and the rest of the opposition as well, it’s quite a surprise.”

With WP winning 10 seats, Dr Chee was on track to be offered one of the NCMP seats - in what would have been his first entry into parliament after 33 years of politics - until the last result for Tampines GRC was announced at close to 2am. 

For Dr Chee, the 46.81 per cent he got in Sembawang West SMC against PAP’s Poh Li San would not qualify him for an NCMP seat as the WP performed better in Tampines GRC (47.37 per cent) and Jalan Kayu SMC (48.53 per cent).

SDP chair Paul Tambyah also lost his contest in Bukit Panjang SMC, with 38.59 per cent of the vote against PAP stalwart Liang Eng Hwa.

The May 3 poll returned the PAP to power with a super majority. Not all seats were contested, with the five-member Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC being declared a walkover on Nomination Day. 

A total of 2,429,281 votes, including rejected votes, were cast in the country’s 14th election since independence. 

This made up 92.47 per cent of the 2,627,026 registered electors in all contested divisions – a record low voter turnout. The previous record was in the 2011 General Election, in which 93.06 per cent of voters turned up to cast their ballot.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/ge2025-pap-secures-victory-seats-opposition-challenge-5107201

Confirm + chop tio swept under the carpet liao 🧹🧹🧹

I won't be surprised if the G covertly "massaged" the numbers, because remember, as far as PAP is concerned,

Dude inhaled one too many anuses whilst working as an asshole doctor and never fully recovered from his delirium since, which would explain why he's always spewing inane, foul-smelling garbage

Tin Tin wishes everyone an awesome 龙 (long) weekend and a prosperous lunar new year...

Aiyah, Emperor Loong probably decreed that all jiak liao bee MPs from the ruling party must show their faces to wayang gao gao mah, else imagine how embarrassing it would be if the Mudland King's presence was graced with the usual utter emptiness

LTA has just unequivocally demonstrated how fucking inefficient it really is under the hood. Cheers!

I was thinking the exact same thing lol

Scam alert lol

The reason is very simple.

Aiseh Zaidy Nurul is so considerate😁