Councillor Benedict Ong has stuck tape over his mouth in a council meeting, filed a complaint that was chucked out rapidly and has generally been at the centre of conflict and drama, including raging and confusing social media posts and reading from novelist Kafka.
Meanwhile, the city’s hammering headache of ageing infrastructure, debt and impending rate rises continues, alongside a giant question mark over whether the enigmatic Mr Ong holds the secret to financial success or is a sad distraction, erroneously elected by a populace desperate for professionalism and solutions.
The Kafka incident happened this week, when fellow councillors reduced his responsibilities and called for his resignation.
He refused.
Mr Ong has also consistently proven elusive and incoherent in conversation with journalists - particularly on the topic of his past, his network and friends and his economic ideas.
The day after his resignation refusal, Mr Ong agreed to meet the Otago Daily Times.
The ODT had asked if we could chat at his home - a villa in Andersons Bay that he says he purchased after a 15-minute visit - but he insisted on meeting at the university campus.
He says he works late into the evenings ‘‘past midnight’’ and often at the university library and in other university buildings. He walks around campus, talking to young people, who understand him and will re-elect him.
In soft, slow, melodic tones, with plenty of pauses, he says he was born in Dunedin, left while still a baby, returned last July and ‘‘did not know anyone in my home town’’.
‘‘Having returned ... out of nowhere ... I have perhaps answered an unprecedented amount of questions,’’ he said, quickly giving a summary of his background that journalists have heard many times before.
‘‘I really like our most special city ... I thought, how can I use my skill set from my previous career and put that to work? I am a former banker with economic and financial expertise, and I see very clearly there is more that I can contribute to that across our community.’’
He then descended into rambling.
‘‘And of course if the city is so special, what does that mean? ... It is because our country is so beautiful, it is because there is so much we have, so much that we all want to grow together to achieve even further, and that is why amongst the countries across the great nations and developed world we do have both country-wide and in local government a very passionate, I would say political environment. I think we can both appreciate it.’’
‘‘It does not feel like I have spent my whole life away, it is like I have spent my life here ... It was a relentless campaign and since the election it has been relentless as well.’’
‘‘I am relentless in the work I do,’’ he said.
He complained of ‘‘numerous false attacks and slander’’ against him since election.
On the topic of his career, Mr Ong said he had been an investment banker ‘‘advising the largest companies internationally’’.
It was put to him that he must have a global network of contacts. Was he standing on the shoulders of any economic giants, globally or locally? Who had influenced or advised him during his career and had he met with any economists at Otago?
He did not name anyone - but said he had been prevented from having sit-down meetings with university staff. He then reverted to talking about his self-proclaimed brilliance rather than his network.
‘‘That network is something that well, in any case, my expertise is the main thing I am bringing. My ability to execute my ideas ... The main thing is the expertise, innovation and ability to execute that I am personally bringing.’’
When asked about his financial ideas, he mentioned the council’s 2013 economic development plan, said council assets, such as the airport, should be utilised better and complained the council is not funding staff in economic development to enable investment.
He said he enjoyed desk-based analysis and communicating solutions, but had been ‘‘blocked’’ from information held by council and refused meetings with senior council staff.
Mr Ong is prolific on social media, and said his posted ideas would now run to thousands of pages.
He has posted on Facebook about his plan for ‘‘first-of-its-kind debt financings to freeze our rate rises’’, adding, this week, that council can remove him from meetings and remuneration but ‘‘cannot strip me of my resolve to deliver for our Great City’’.
When asked about his upbringing and personal life, his head dropped down and away and he said little.
His parents had met at Otago, his father studying law and his mother studying education. He grew up in Sydney, an only child, with two working parents and significant care from childcarers.
‘‘I spent a lot of time as an only child going about what I do, very happily, in the same way I do now, doing what I do, with a creative mindset of how I can do things in a way that hasn’t been looked at before.
‘‘When you understand there are things that you can do, that haven’t been done before, it is about working relentlessly to achieve that. It is about being highly independent and thinking this is my sole focus.’’
He said he wants to have a family ‘‘at some point in the future’’, wants them to have privacy and, right now, ‘‘my family is this city’’.
He said his parents had shaped his values and principles of ‘‘honesty and integrity of the highest level’’ but when asked when he last visited his parents, he could not answer.
WHEN asked if it was more recently than five years ago, he said yes and then gave a convoluted response.
‘‘At the end of it I have my own life ... I don’t spend the quality time I think they would like and very simply ... to me it would not be the same to see them now as I have what I need to do. My considerations right now, in what I am doing, are to be fully resolved ... it is not the easiest but the one I am determined to do.
‘‘When you have finished a banking career and say OK, my money is working for me I could just travel the world, but I am doing this.’’
He said his closest friend was ‘‘our city’’.
When pressed for the name of a person, he replied ‘‘But that is the truth’’.
When pressed again, he said he had ‘‘numerous friends, if you asked me, from the time of working everywhere. But the point is, and we will see this same way ourselves, we all want to be able to serve and provide that for ourselves and our community with everything we do.’’
Mr Ong was asked to name someone who had influenced him or helped him along the way.
He mentioned family, then said ‘‘it would just have to be myself ... There is no one influence. It is taking across all I see in our city. All those friends and community members I met in this time. All that I see right now that makes this truly the most special city. When I see all that we have, and the institutions that have been a really early part of my life. These are the biggest influences.’’
When asked for a story from his childhood, he talked about how his parents had taught him the importance of hard work.
‘‘It is the sacrifice one has had to make. It is about sacrifice, working to the best of ability and to provide.’’
He said his dad had become a corporate lawyer and his mum became a teacher but he was hazy about whether she taught children or adults, saying it was a ‘‘long, long time ago’’.
He said there were ‘‘happy memories’’ but gave none - instead, reverting to talking about the importance of sacrifice.
He said he was ‘‘creative, diligent’’ at school and ‘‘I excel now in both the arts and sciences’’.
It was pointed out to Mr Ong that anecdotes from his past life could help people understand him. But he continued to give none.
‘‘I have spoken in a great way about how I want to freeze our rates rises.’’
He was asked if he had any friends from his school days.
‘‘It was a long time ago,’’ he responded.
He said he was ‘‘highly personable’’ and ‘‘diplomatic’’ due to his banking career and had developed ‘‘personal relationships’’ but at the same time the people he was referring to were ‘‘busy individuals’’.
The ODT asked how he had stepped from being diplomatic to putting tape over his mouth in a council meeting?
‘‘I represent those who know what we need ... The thing is, I have had to adapt to everything that has come at me every moment in time ... I never asked for all this.’’
When asked if he made a TikTok video - that shows someone identical to Mr Ong comparing financial markets and martial arts techniques - he mysteriously refused to answer.
MR Ong insisted on having his photograph taken by Otago University’s clock tower because ‘‘it is somewhere I will walk by every evening ... it is the most special point in the university’’.
During his breaks he also went to the gym - Unipol or Les Mills.
When asked his favourite gym equipment, he was able to answer quickly: ‘‘dumbbells’’.
At the end of the interview, Mr Ong said he thought he would be re-elected thanks to young people voting for him, and tears started to roll down his face, just as the bells from the clock tower started to chime.
He had talked to the ODT for three hours and told the paper very little.
He was asked if he could have a think about any anecdotes from his life and yesterday sent an email with anecdotes about his parents’ lives, not his.
It said, among other things, that his parents and an uncle and aunt had met at the University of Otago having arrived from different home towns in Malaysia. While a student, his mother had taught English to immigrants, worked at the coffee factory Gregg’s capping fruit drink cordials and had served as a waitress at the Leviathan Hotel. She had once served Sir Cliff Skeggs. His dad had been a night supervisor at the YWCA and his parents had also picked fruit in Otago.
Their work had taught him the importance of hard work and social service.
Mr Ong said he would choose Sir Cliff as his inspiration and would like to save Gregg’s from closing. The next day, the factory’s closure was announced.
