Zeng Guoyuan — better known as “Parrot Man” for his pet white cockatoo that usually accompanies him — was caught on camera getting arrested along the busy Orchard Road shopping belt on Saturday afternoon.
The clip depicted the infamous beggar resisting arrest, yelling loudly as five cops tried to cart the handcuffed man into a police car. Along with his parrot and his wheelchair.
It was initially believed that the arrest was related to his troubles with the management of Ngee Ann City — the 65-year-old man has had the police called on him over 30 times last year for being a “security concern”. Zeng pretended (and still continues) to be a cripple and sits on his wheelchair at the center of a narrow underground pedestrian linkway between Ngee Ann City and Wisma Atria during peak evening periods. The man was so stubborn that Ngee Ann City’s management had to put up a notice along the walkway that discouraged folks from donating any money to him.
But the arrest last Saturday had nothing to do with Ngee Ann City, according to a report by The Straits Times. That afternoon, Zeng had been blaring music from a speaker while stationing himself along a busker’s designated area. When a busker confronted him and asked him to lower down the volume, Zeng verbally abused the busker with vulgar language.
The police confirmed to ST that the man continued to “cause a ruckus” when officers arrived and gave him several warnings. He was then arrested for disorderly behavior.
The Parrot Man
Prior to his arrest, many would have known about Zeng’s infamous reputation — the Singaporean businessman, philanthropist, politician and former acupuncturist has been a contentious personality since 1991.
His track record:
- Member of Workers’ Party and contested in the ’91 General Elections in the Bukit Timah SMC, but dropped out. Later on, he revealed that he only contested to gain publicity for his acupuncture business.
- Unsuccessfully ran for the Mountbatten SMC in the ’06 General Elections.
- Intended to contest in the ’12 by-election but could not contest due to an offense in 2008 — verbally abusing two police officers. He argued that it was his parrot that hurled all those vulgarities. Also, he didn’t file nomination papers anyway.
- Opened a shop at Toa Payoh. Annoyed/amused residents by singing loudly, watching television with the volume turned up, putting up a giant green banner with the letters ‘FCUK’, practices boxing with his punching bag daily.
- Decided not to contest in the ’13 by-election as he suspected a conspiracy against him, and wanted to give way to better candidates.
- Underwent surgery to remove his nose in 2014 due to nose cancer.
- Despite claiming to be homeless, it was revealed that he had a jumbo flat at Geylang Bahru, which went up in flames last year.
Reader Interactions