Presidential candidate Ng Kok Song begins campaign trail at site of childhood kampung home
At 9.35am on Tuesday, presidential candidate Ng Kok Song left his condominium home in central Singapore and got into a Toyota Vellfire multi-purpose vehicle to submit his nomination papers.
At 3pm, the 75-year-old kicked off his campaign by getting on his knees and kissing the ground of the void deck at Block 475A Upper Serangoon Crescent, where he believes his attap-roofed kampung home used to stand.
Mr Ng told the media that he wished to pay homage to his roots and show young Singaporeans that they can succeed regardless of their background.
“This is the exact spot where I lived with my five brothers and five sisters and my parents in a hut with an attap roof, mud on the floor and no modern sanitation... Just now, I was filled with emotion. I knelt down to kiss the ground where I was born, and where I grew up,” he said.
Mr Ng grew visibly emotional when he recalled how his late mother cried when she told him she was not able to borrow more money from neighbours to afford his textbooks.
Asked what he would say to her if he could speak to her now, he said: “Thank you, mum. You are my hero.”
The former GIC chief investment officer said the Upper Serangoon area is also important to him as it was where he went to the then Montfort School, which gave him a good education and enabled him to lift his family out of poverty.
He also attended the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where the priests and religious brothers taught him the values of trustworthiness and having good character.
“Without my growing up in this place, I would not be standing in front of you hoping to be the president of Singapore,” he added.
Mr Ng called himself an underdog in the three-man race in which he faces former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, 66, and former NTUC Income chief Tan Kin Lian, 75.
He recalled being heckled while giving his two-minute speech at the People’s Association (PA) headquarters earlier on Tuesday.
“When I spoke, I was booed. That is the meaning of being an underdog, that is the meaning of being underrated... I overcome that by speaking from my heart, and by speaking to the hearts of Singaporeans,” he said.
“That is why I have come here this afternoon to show you all where I grew up and to show you that, yes, life has its challenges, sometimes we face certain disadvantages, but we must not despair. We can pick ourselves up, and we can overcome those disadvantages.”
Asked if he was expecting such a reception from the crowd at the nomination centre, Mr Ng said: “The people who were there booing and shouting, they are what I call the vocal minority. The silent majority was at home. It is the silent majority that matters to me.”
Mr Ng said that his campaign will largely be held online, without physical rallies or campaign posters.
“I want to reach Singaporeans in their times of silence when they are looking at their phones... That is what is going to help me in this campaign to overcome my disadvantage of not being a government-endorsed candidate.”
Mr Ng was accompanied by supporters and family, including his fiancee, Ms Sybil Lau, 45, his brother Charles Ng, 60, and his son Terence Ng, 50, on a walkabout on Tuesday afternoon at Kang Kar Mall in Hougang, where he bumped into his former neighbours.
He then laid flowers at the Blessed Virgin Mary statue at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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