NMPs are supposed to be non-partisan but after it had been announced on 7 July 2009 that Calvin Cheng would be one of the nine people nominated to be NMPs it was disclosed by "Today" newspaper that he was a member of Young PAP, the youth wing of the People's Action Party. The following day, Cheng wrote to the newspaper stating that he had formally resigned from Young PAP on 8 July, and that in any case he had been an inactive member, having never collected his membership card or attended any PAP branch activities. This led to a journalist commenting that his attitude had been "cavalier" and "whimsical", and a Young PAP member writing on the Forum page of "The Straits Times" that his remarks had raised doubts about the Young PAP's credibility. The Constitution does not explicitly bar NMPs from being members of political parties, and Gerard Ee was also a PAP member when he was an NMP. He did not feel he had to resign, as since he was not subject to the party whip he would not be prevented from expressing independent views in Parliament. Despite these initial criticisms, "The Straits Times" reported that Cheng "left the strongest impression on many elected Members of Parliament", following speeches he made during his maiden budget debate in Parliament in 2010. In his final speech during Budget 2011 before Parliament was dissolved for the general election that year, Cheng argued for the Government to educate the Internet generation instead of regulating the Internet to deal with threats such as "misinformation and disinformation", calling it "pointless". He went on to say that the Internet might be a "wild card" during the general election.