Calvin Cheng Ern Lee is a Singaporean businessman and former politician aligned with the People's Action Party. Cheng is known for expressing controversial views on socio-political issues in Singapore. He began his business career in the modeling industry and expanded into event hosting, publishing, and educational technology.
Cheng was the Asia-Pacific head of Elite Model Management from 2001-2004. During his tenure, he opened an Elite agency in India while developing other projects in the region. In 2004 Cheng set up the Elite Models Singapore Pte Ltd; the company was renamed Looque Models Singapore Pte Ltd in 2005. Through Looque he ran several franchising businesses in the fields of luxury events, media, and talent management in entertainment and business. Cheng ran Ford Models Supermodel of the World competitions under license from Ford in China in 2007 and in Malaysia in 2011. The World Economic Forum named Cheng a Young Global Leader in 2009. On 23 November 2011, several model agencies, including Looque Models, were fined for price fixing. Cheng profited from the higher agency commissions, claiming in defense that the goal was to raise wages for models. The CCS ruled that AMIP engaged in anticompetitive price-fixing, resulting in customers paying more and having a considerable and adverse impact on the market. The Competition Commission of Singapore noted in its decision that as president of the Association of Modelling Industry Professionals Singapore, Cheng played a central role by instructing AMIP members how to mask the collusion to evade detection and complaints. Cheng appealed, claiming that statements in the decision were damaging to his character; the appeal was dismissed because he had not been personally fined. In August 2015, Cheng merged one of his franchise businesses, Lumina Looque Knowledge Hubs Pte Ltd, with a Chinese firm called Retech that focused on educational technology. In June 2017 ReTech made an initial public offering of stock on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Government roles
In July 2009, Cheng was appointed to a year term as a Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore's 11th Parliament. NMPs were supposed to reflect nonpartisan views; the newspaper Today questioned his appointment in light of his membership in Young PAP. Cheng resigned from Young PAP shortly thereafter. His term as an NMP ended after 21 months when Parliament was dissolved due to elections being called. In 2012 Cheng was appointed to the newly formed Media Literacy Council of Singapore's Ministry of Communications and Information, which was created to "promote civility and responsibility on the Internet" He served two two-year terms on the MLC.
Political views
Cheng often posts his views on socio-political issues in Singapore on Facebook, and is known for attracting controversy at times for his outspoken views and for his personal attacks against people with whom he disagrees. In November 2015, while he was on the Media Literacy Council, Cheng wrote provocative comments about killing the children of terrorists on the Facebook page of entrepreneur and commentator Devadas Krishnadas. His comments led to a verbal chiding from Tan Cheng Han, the Chairman of the MLC. In addition, two reports calling for investigation were filed with police, including one by Augustin Lee Tze Shih, organising secretary of the People's Power Party. Cheng apologized to the MLC. Amos Yee, a teenager who had been previously jailed for comments offensive to the Singaporean government, was convicted and jailed in 2016 for "hurting religious feelings" in his online responses to Cheng's Facebook posts. In March 2017, a United States judge granted Yee political asylum, citing the different ways that Cheng and Yee had been treated, where Cheng was not charged, and Yee was charged and convicted. Controversial opinions have included advocating in 2017 that Singapore's arts should not be funded by the government, and supporting the Population White Paper in 2015.
