According to a report from The Straits Times, Zeng Guoyuan or “The Parrot Man” was found dead at Geylang Bahru block. He was 66 years old.
Reports said that people in the are heard a loud thud, and then found Zeng lying in a pool of blood at the foot of the Geylang Bahru block. While the cause of death is currently unknown, initial investigations indicate that he jumped.
The Parrot Man vs Ngee Ann City Mall was once a thing.
Who is Zeng Guoyuan?
One of the more colorful characters in Singaporean society and media before his luck took a dark turn, the Parrot Man lead a high-profile and very public life.
He has been many things (some of these things debunked and proven untrue) but he gained the moniker of “Parrot Man” when he claimed that his pet parrot had gotten him in trouble and jailed.
He started his career in the Singaporean public eye as a member of a political party in 1991, where he ran for the Bukit Timah Single Member Constituency. He got 22,000 votes but lost to PAP’s candidate at the time.
Since then he’s appeared in several cases and has popped up in the media for his odd marketing schemes as well. In 2009, when he was supposed to run again in the election, he allegedly did not push through despite having the pertinent documents in hand. He was reminded of a previous offense, and in a fit of pique, tore up the documents in public and declared to the media present that they knew what he was talking about.
The same thing happened again in 2012, where he expressed his intention to run in the Singapore by-election, but he said that he was notified that he could not thanks to an incident where he said vulgarities at some police officers. He then said that it was not him but his parrot who said the vulgarities.
Another time, he withdrew from the 2013 Singapore by-election, citing that he needed a pardon from the President as there was a conspiracy against him. He also said he wanted to give way for candidates of higher caliber than him.
Zeng Guoyuan Cases and offenses
Zeng Guoyuan is no stranger to the Singaporean court. He’s appeared as both a complainant and defendant in several cases.
When he had an acupuncture clinic, he was the defendant in a case where a woman said he touched her breast inapprorpiately. Zeng denied the charges, saying that she used him to make her boyfriend jealous. He was found guilty and fined $2000. The verdict was overturned in an appeal later.
His ads for his failed acupuncture clinic that first featured a then-Singaporean president were said to be almost-defamation since the president in question (S. R. Nathan) never used his services.
He tried to get himself out of jail when he was charged with molestation. A patient of his during his acupuncture years said that he outraged her modesty. His defence was that he could not have been able to do it, since he was a “Knight of St. John.” He was sentenced to caning and a fine. But since his grandstanding prolonged the trial and was difficult to tolerate, the sentence was increased.
He got into numerous altercations with the management of Ngee Ann City Mall, where signs were put up to tell people not to give him money. The police were called on him more than 30 times in the span of six months.
Nose cancer and disfigurement
According to reports, he closed his clinic and began peddling tissue paper at outside the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple at Waterloo Street. He had gotten cancer on his nose, which needed to be surgically removed. He suffered facial disfigurement, thanks to the surgery.
He also had to wear a colostomy bag, since the cancer had spread to his large intestine.
