SINGAPORE: Police officers will seek to observe traffic rules and regulations but there will be occasions when they may have to exercise their discretion and make exceptions, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Saturday (Dec 30). 

This was in response to a letter published in Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao about the lack of summons issued for cars belonging to President Halimah Yacob’s convoy that were waiting along double yellow lines earlier this month. 

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and SPF had earlier said in a joint statement that an LTA enforcement officer was conducting his routine patrol along Prinsep Street on Dec 20 when he noticed two vehicles waiting along a stretch marked with double yellow lines.

The officer approached the vehicle to ask the driver to drive off, and the driver informed the LTA enforcement officer that he was there to pick up the President who was leaving the place. In the midst of the conversation, the President arrived and the driver drove off. No summons were issued, the authorities said. 

The author of the letter in Lianhe Zaobao, Long Jidong, wrote that the officers did not abide by traffic regulations and said they should have been punished. 

“It is against the law to park double yellow lines to obstruct traffic. Drivers of public sector vehicles should set an example by not stopping on the double yellow line,” he wrote in the letter, which was published on Thursday. 

In their response on Saturday, SPF said official vehicles may need to be in close proximity to the event location for security reasons and to facilitate quick evacuation. 

“When responding to law enforcement situations, police vehicles often have to be parked in locations which enable swift, effective operations. And often, if there is no easily accessible car park (which fit the right security profile), then so as not to expose the person under protection, the vehicles will be driven near to the place where it is suitable to arrange a pick up, even if otherwise parking in such a place is not allowed,” the police said in the reply. 

“Police officers will assess the situation, including public safety, when making these decisions. They are trained to do so.”

SPF added that this is similar to what is being practised by police forces in many other countries.

SINGAPORE: For 36-year-old Benjamin Tan and his three friends, the trip from Singapore’s west will be worth the effort once they get their hands on Chakey’s Serangoon Salt Baked Chicken for the final time.

The four arrived outside the outlet on East Coast Road at about 6.30am on Sunday (Dec 31), had breakfast nearby, then proceeded to make themselves comfortable on foldable chairs they had brought with them.

They were third in line to buy the chicken.

“I came here on Friday and Saturday, but there were more than 20 people in the queue each time and by then, the chicken was sold out,” Mr Tan said.

“So this time, we came earlier, and we came prepared to wait.”

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Mr Tan heard about the famous salt baked chicken about five years ago, and along with his friends, wanted to have one final taste of nostalgia.

By 10.30am, half an hour before the shop was slated to open for the final time, more than 80 people had formed a queue, stretching along the entrance of five restaurants.

Among them was 21-year-old Ryan Chan, who had heard about the chicken on social media and had wanted to try it but never got the chance.

Another person in the queue, Linda Goh, said she was a regular customer, stopping by the shop after church to get the chicken for the family.

“It goes really well with pasta and chicken, so during exam time for my children, I’d also come and get it for them,” she said.

Ms Goh said this was the first time she has had to queue for the chicken.

“When I used to come after church, it was always quiet. I think we took it for granted that it would still be here but there was always a feeling it might one day close.”

For the shop’s owner, Richard Chak, opening for the final time came with mixed feelings.

“I’ve been stressed out about the crowd for the last few days, with making sure people get their chicken and don’t go home empty-handed.”

But he has had to disappoint many and apologise for not having enough, despite doubling the number of chickens he bakes.

Mr Chak said he has had to impose a quota of one chicken per customer to be fair to others in the queue.

Even as he opened the shop’s shutters this morning, he had to tell people to come back in the afternoon when he found there were more than 80 people waiting in line.

A REUNION OF OLD FRIENDS, FORMER STAFF

The final day of business was also an opportunity for Mr Chak to reconnect with familiar faces. 

Among them were old church friends and his grandfather’s former staff, Alice Pang. 

Ms Pang read about the business closing down and got in touch with Mr Chak a few days ago.

Ms Pang worked for the elder Mr Chak in the 1960s, when the business still out operated out of the family home in Mohamed Sultan. 

“During the old days, there were gangsters hanging around and it was unsafe, so my mother preferred us to work nearby,” Ms Pang recalled. She lived a few doors down from Mr Chak’s home. 

Ms Pang, who was 13-years-old then would work for the business during school holidays for extra pocket money. 

She would help with cleaning, baking and wrapping the chicken, and recalled the busy days especially when trade fairs were around the corner. 

But there were also fond memories.

“Richard’s family was among the few with a black and white television then, so after finishing work, we would sit around and watch TV together,” she said. 

“I’m sad and sentimental about it, ” the 64-year-old said about the closure. “I was telling Richard he should sell the recipe.”

When asked if he would, Mr Chak said he would wait for his son to finish university and decide if he wanted to carry on the family’s legacy. 

SINGAPORE: For 36-year-old Benjamin Tan and his three friends, the trip from Singapore’s west will be worth the effort once they get their hands on Chakey’s Serangoon Salt Baked Chicken for the final time.

The four arrived outside the outlet on East Coast Road at about 6.30am on Sunday (Dec 31), had breakfast nearby, then proceeded to make themselves comfortable on foldable chairs they had brought with them.

They were third in line to buy the chicken.

“I came here on Friday and Saturday, but there were more than 20 people in the queue each time and by then, the chicken was sold out,” Mr Tan said.

“So this time, we came earlier, and we came prepared to wait.”

Mr Tan heard about the famous salt baked chicken about five years ago, and along with his friends, wanted to have one final taste of nostalgia.

By 10.30am, half an hour before the shop was slated to open for the final time, more than 80 people had formed a queue, stretching along the entrance of five restaurants.

Among them was 21-year-old Ryan Chan, who had heard about the chicken on social media and had wanted to try it but never got the chance.

Another person in the queue, Linda Goh, said she was a regular customer, stopping by the shop after church to get the chicken for the family.

“It goes really well with pasta and chicken, so during exam time for my children, I’d also come and get it for them,” she said.

Ms Goh said this was the first time she has had to queue for the chicken.

“When I used to come after church, it was always quiet. I think we took it for granted that it would still be here but there was always a feeling it might one day close.”

For the shop’s owner, Richard Chak, opening for the final time came with mixed feelings.

“I’ve been stressed out about the crowd for the last few days, with making sure people get their chicken and don’t go home empty-handed.”

But he has had to disappoint many and apologise for not having enough, despite doubling the number of chickens he bakes.

Mr Chak said he has had to impose a quota of one chicken per customer to be fair to others in the queue.

Even as he opened the shop’s shutters this morning, he had to tell people to come back in the afternoon when he found there were more than 80 people waiting in line.

SINGAPORE: One by one, they said no. He approached about five different gyms, and while the responses were always “nice and encouraging”, the message to Logaraj Raju remained the same: “Martial arts isn’t suitable for you.”

Raj, as he prefers to be called, was born with a brachial plexus injury. Nerves in his left shoulder were damaged while he was being delivered, leaving him with extremely limited mobility in his entire arm. He can still move his fingers and hold things with them, but the limb cannot be extended and is permanently locked in a 90-degree position.

None of this, however, meant much to Darren de Silva when he accepted Raj into his Fight G Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Academy in 2002.

“Martial arts is not only for the able,” the head coach and owner declared.

“When Raj came to me and asked ‘With my condition, can I train?’, I told him: ‘In your mind, that’s a condition. Everybody has to develop power in two arms. You can focus on that one arm and make it the best arm ever, better than anybody else’s one arm’.”

So Raj, who’s in his 30s, began learning the kickboxing form of Muay Thai before venturing to Brazilian jiu-jitsu ground fighting and then MMA.

Now a “permanent fixture” at Fight G, he trains with everyone else – and is treated like everyone else – in regular classes. There is no “special treatment” for Raj, and even the gym’s competitive fighters are “welcoming” to him.

“Whatever happens, I go back to Fight G to seek salvation, because there’s always been a sense of belonging,” said Raj. “It’s the one place where nobody doubts me; nobody questions my abilities.”

“I DIDN’T HAVE A FANTASTIC CHILDHOOD”

Much of his life prior to discovering martial arts was filled with exactly those things – insecurity and uncertainty. And it stemmed from having to fend for himself as the youngest child to now-deceased parents who “were never there” for him, said Raj.

“There were a lot of factors. My disability was one – my parents were very elderly and came from a very old school of thought. So there was a lot of neglect.”

The otherwise chatty man was not keen to discuss the topic further, but did let on he was now completely cut off from his relatives.

“To me, they are the most irrelevant people in my life. Family is supposed to be one of the pillars for any individual. When that has failed, pretty much it’s going to be very difficult.”

The struggle started as early as in primary school – where Raj was severely bullied. “Without going into details, let’s just say I didn’t have a fantastic childhood,” he said quietly. “All my parents knew was to tell me to go to school, but what I was going through, how to solve those problems – there was never a solution.”

“There was nobody to help… I was too young to find an alternative. So I just refused to go. And when my parents couldn’t make me, they just left me as it is. I dropped out in Primary Six.”

“THEY WERE JUST TRYING TO EXPLOIT ME”

Raj’s teenage years were spent “not going anywhere” and he started working odd jobs as young as 15. But just stepping out of the house to go for an interview often seemed an insurmountable task.

“I had a huge lack of confidence. I would just be thinking – I have no education; I’m physically-challenged, and so on,” he recounted. “It was only at 20 that I really started to explore things to do, thanks to the Internet.”

As an avid cyclist, gym-goer and “outdoorsy” person, Raj resolved to start his career in the sports industry, and as a fitness instructor. He obtained the necessary qualifications and certificates, but it was not to be.

“Sadly, it’s quite hard to get a job as a trainer if you don’t look physically fit. The gyms look at you and don’t want you because you’re not the ideal image for selling a membership,” he said matter-of-factly.

“One gym employed me, but they were obviously just trying to exploit me by paying me less.”

So the bullying never really stopped for Raj – though on hindsight he sees this as “positive”.

“I wouldn’t be motivated to learn martial arts. Whatever these people did to me may be wrong, but it gave me the foundation to do something different,” he smiled.

During his fitness instructor course he struck up a friendship with one of de Silva’s students – and when the latter learned of how other gyms were rejecting Raj, he passed along the address to Fight G.

“WHY AM I EVEN DOUBTING MYSELF?”

De Silva now wryly admits it was a “risk” to take on Raj as a student – but has no regrets.

“It’s one thing to turn away somebody after they’ve tried out; it’s another thing to turn away a person without even a trial,” he said.

“I felt I’d try my best to teach him in a modified way, by mixing and matching different techniques to suit him, then see how it goes. He managed to cope, so why not keep him?”

This faith has reaped dividends for Raj. “The more I trained in martial arts, it sparked something in me – if I can do this, why am I even doubting myself in all the other areas in my life?” he said.

“My self-confidence went up and I wanted to upgrade myself, so I decided to make a big leap to a private IT diploma. I applied, gave it a shot and passed.”

He also picked up the sport of shooting in 2007. Despite having one good arm, Raj chose to begin with the air rifle, and had to learn to trigger off with his weaker left fingers while supporting the heavy weapon with his stronger, master right hand.

He later switched to the pistol and achieved a silver medal at the 2015 ASEAN Para Games held in Singapore. The same year, he became an accredited shooting coach and now trains a handful of private students.

Raj also runs his own one-person IT company, though business has been “slow” and “doesn’t quite pay the bills” for the single man living in a rented flat. To ease the economic strain, de Silva has been voluntarily training him for free the last few years.  

“He’s got a lot of financial issues, and his family is not around. For us to take money from him would be wrong,” said the Fight G boss. “Just because of these things, why stop him from pursuing his dreams? So we decided to sponsor him.”

“If I can help change Raj’s life, out there maybe somebody else in the same position will look at him and think he can do it too. Then I’ll be happy.”

“WE’VE A LONG WAY TO GO”

That his life has been altered for the better is of little doubt to Raj – even if he still has to contend with a public gaze that can be unforgiving at times.

“I still get stares. After all these years, I’m not really bothered and I’ve learned how to handle it, but as a society we’ve a long way to go to learn how to interact with different types of people,” he said plainly.

“For example, there’s this stigma that a person with a disability is unhealthy. It’s not true. When I was seeking employment, somehow people couldn’t get their head around my physical impairment. They were confused by it.”

Raj observed: “We’re a first-world society and we still lag behind in understanding what is really a simple thing like a disability.”

“It’s also about lifestyle. An individual who’s busy at work is not going to give a thought about all of this. They can’t give you that minute to learn about another individual who’s more challenged.”

“And because of that, the failure is often in letting a disability overwhelm a view of a person – rather than just exploring the individual and learning who he or she actually is.”

(Photos: Justin Ong)

SINGAPORE: The tiniest of movements brings him pure happiness – the flicker of an eye, a shift of her head, her chest heaving ever so slightly in time with the whooshing of the ventilator.

“Just two blinks, and it’s enough,” says Mr KY Lim. His hands move gently yet strongly across his daughter’s leg – a dancer’s slender leg, that once leapt and pirouetted across a stage – flexing and massaging to ease the stiff muscles and get the blood flowing.

The 68-year-old watches for the tiniest twitch or resistance that will tell him he’s pressed too hard and caused her pain.

Every day that his 24-year-old daughter lives, and shows some hint of response to her surroundings, is what some might call an improbability, others a minor miracle.

In 2015, shortly before Christmas, Sing Yu* underwent a last-ditch, desperate operation to remove most of her grade 4 brain tumour. She has glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) – the deadliest kind of brain cancer there is.

The surgery itself carried a high risk, but though she survived that, the university undergraduate was left an unresponsive shell, and given just three to six months to live by doctors.

One even suggested taking her off the life support machine as there was no hope of recovery, and every likelihood the tumour would grow back, her mother Madam Sue Goh recalled.

They chose to fight for their daughter’s survival instead – and brought her home.

Today, three Christmases later, she lies mostly unmoving in bed, with apparently limited awareness, unable to swallow, talk or blink normally – but still defying the odds, with the help of five machines that keep her alive, and the stubborn faith and love of her parents.

She requires 24-hour care from them, and that means Mdm Goh, 62, sleeps every night beside her daughter, holding her hand, waking up every two hours to check on her. She and her husband have practically given up any semblance of a normal lifestyle, to be on perpetual standby for her.

Every little sign is counted a blessing, a small victory, a vindication. Whether it’s a flash of her eyes when someone talks about something she loves, like travelling; or the fact that for the last two years, her condition has been stable, and the tumour hasn’t shown signs of growing again.

It’s what keeps the Lims, a retired couple, going.

“I just want her to have a normal life, as any girl of her age. Have good health,” says Mdm Goh. “But when she can, and how long more, I don’t know.”

MY FAIR LADY

In a bedroom crowded with life-support machines and boxes of medication, there are still telling signs of the young woman Sing Yu used to be. Like her clothes, including a favourite blue polka-dotted day dress, that hang in the wardrobe.

She so enjoyed dolling herself up and wearing pretty clothes, her mum recalls, that her two sisters quipped that she was very “xiao jie”, which means young lady in Chinese.

Family photos on the walls of their apartment show a lively, well-made-up girl who was a natural in front of the camera.

“When she was in secondary school, she was famous! Everybody knows her, especially the boys,” said Mr Lim, eyes wide, thinking of the guys who once courted his pretty daughter.

But she kept mostly to herself despite the attention, according to Mdm Goh, who described her as “bo chup” (nonchalant in Hokkien). “She is quite introverted. She doesn’t get attached to people easily, but once she gets to know them very well, she’d be very close.”

At the age of seven, she took up dancing. “I was the one who said girls should learn ballet and music. So I enrolled her,” Mdm Goh said with a laugh. 

Sing Yu also took piano, guzheng and violin classes along the way, but eventually gave them up; it was ballet that stayed with her as a true passion, right up to diploma level.

“She’s devoted. When she was dancing, I could see she really enjoyed it,” said Mdm Goh, who has preserved her daughter’s worn-out character shoes and pointe shoes carefully wrapped in plastic. One day, she hopes, she’ll use them again.

In August 2013, Sing Yu was training with the National University of Singapore Chinese dance group, when she started to get giddy spells. At first she simply attributed it to the strenuous practices.

But then she started vomiting frequently, and even had difficulty turning her head, which meant having to cancel her driving lessons. An MRI scan did not detect anything abnormal, and a doctor even suggested that she had bulimia, an eating disorder.

“She was very upset with the remarks,” said Mdm Goh, in disbelief herself.

Sing Yu suffered with the symptoms for a year. Doctors were unable to diagnose the problem and only prescribed medication to stop the vomiting, until one noticed that one of her eyeballs was not moving.

He ordered another MRI scan – one that showed a brain tumour which had developed to grade 2.

Cancer tumours are generally graded as 1, 2, 3, or 4, depending on the amount of abnormality. But Sing Yu’s parents had no idea what the implications were.

“I said, ‘What is brain tumour’? I didn’t even know how serious it was,” Mdm Goh recalled.

FALSE HOPE, AND HARD CHOICES

At stage 2, the tumour was still considered slow-growing and an operation was immediately arranged to remove it in November 2014.

Within a week, Sing Yu was discharged with an optimistic prognosis; most of the tumour had been removed. “We were very delighted. We thought she had gotten through it,” said Mr Lim.

The family went ahead with the year-end holiday to Japan that they had planned earlier. Sing Yu loved the trip. Everything seemed to be going well.

But two months into 2015, a routine MRI scan showed that the tumour had resurfaced and grown back to 30 per cent of its original size, with signs of grade 3 and grade 4 development. The family was shocked.

“How could it be? The surgeon also could not explain why,” said Mdm Goh helplessly.

Sing Yu went for radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments. But on her 22nd birthday, in October 2015, another MRI scan revealed an ominous sign: A lot of bright areas in the film. The tumour had progressed to grade 4, and she was diagnosed with the aggressive and deadly GBM which currently has no cure, doctors told the devastated family.

Doctors gave her one to three months to live if she didn’t go for an operation. With surgery, she could possibly survive for another six months – but as this would be her second brain operation, the risks were much higher: She could become bedridden, end up in a coma, or die.

 “The doctors didn’t offer anything else,” said Mdm Goh.

What choice did we have? Of course we fought for survival.

The operation succeeded in removing most of the tumour – not all, because it sat on her brain stem. But one side of her brain was affected, her mum said. Sing Yu remained in a near-vegetative state, and was transferred to the ICU where her breathing had to be supported by a ventilator.

The prognosis was poor: The GMB would likely manifest again soon, the couple was told, and so, they were advised to remove the ventilator.

“I said no,” said Mdm Goh, still upset at the memory.

Against the better judgement of the doctors, the couple brought their daughter home to celebrate Chinese New Year in 2016, after a nursing team taught them how to attend to her needs and to use the various medical equipment needed to keep her alive.

WATCH: The depth of their devotion and heartache (9:52)

DAY INTO NIGHT: THE BURDEN OF CARE

The Lims’ first task was to look for a caregiver skilled in home-care nursing. One took up the job but quit after a few days, saying that their daughter’s condition was too stressful to handle.

So the Lims took on the full-time role themselves. It means having to hold constant vigil at their daughter’s bedside and being attuned to her every need – a tough task when she can’t communicate.

During the times that CNA Insider visited, Sing Yu’s eyes were opened and unfocused. Lying on Hello Kitty bedsheets with her hair braided the way she likes, she barely moved except for slight twitches, awkward shifts of her shoulders, and her tongue darting in and out at times, a sign of discomfort.

“She doesn’t blink enough so her eyes can become dry and very, very red,” said Mdm Goh. “The nurses asked me to help her close her eyelids and blink her eyes.”

They also have to constantly monitor her respiratory rate and bowel movement, which they meticulously jot down on a clipboard, in the event of any abnormal behaviour that would require immediate attention.

They feed her by pouring milk formula through a tube into the stomach, and a cough assist machine is used to draw out phlegm from her lungs while a suction machine clears the phlegm.

For Mdm Goh, who formerly worked for an MNC at management level, doing all this meant having to overcome her phobia of needles, blood and wounds. “At first I didn’t even dare to see. I’m very scared but I just had to learn.”

While her husband helps where he can, she has assumed the role of main caregiver because duties like changing diapers and cleaning her daughter are less awkward for her. She’s fussy when it comes to washing the equipment after every tube feeding or suctioning; and tender when talking to her child, in a mother’s reassuring way.

Come night time, her work doesn’t stop. Mdm Goh pushes a bed on wheels next to Sing Yu’s bed, and lies down holding her daughter’s hand while she sleeps. Her daughter’s responding grip is weak, but definitely there.

The slightest movement from Sing Yu wakes Mdm Goh from her doze to find out what her child needs. The only time she gets full, uninterrupted sleep for four hours is between 7am and 11am – when her new helper steps in to help look after Sing Yu.

Her husband volunteered to take turns on the night shift, but Mdm Goh feels more reassured being there for her daughter. “So I said, ‘two people suffer for what? No no, you go and sleep’.”

‘TEARS FLOWING IN MY HEART’

Besides helping to carry Sing Yu around, Mr Lim’s main contribution is massaging his daughter every day – a task he takes very seriously.

“Her back will have bad blood circulation, so I have to massage there. In these two years, she has never had bed sores because we massage her every day,” he says, with no small amount of satisfaction.

Sweat forms on his T-shirt as he works on her leg, which is bent at an odd angle. He’s trying to get the muscles to relax so it will straighten. There’s obvious warm contentment in his eyes that he can do this for her – but there’s an underlying deep sadness as well.

“To be frank, in these two years when I see her every day, I feel helpless when doing the exercises with her,” the former businessman says in Mandarin.

“These times cannot be described with words – seeing her dull eyes, motionless mouth and facial expression.

The tears were flowing in my heart. But if I can help her with the exercises, my heart is content.

He also recognises the sacrifices his wife has made, even as he sometimes wishes he could do more. “I am most concerned about two people right now. One is my daughter, another is my wife,” he said.

“These two women are the persons at the moment I need to support the most.”

BIG TINY BREAKTHROUGHS

The Lims once again had to look outside the family for help, when their domestic helper returned home for two weeks.

They tried turning to various nursing agencies hoping to engage their short-term service for those four hours a day in the morning that Mdm Goh needed to catch up on sleep. But most of the agencies charged for a 12-hour block minimum.

“I remember that was a Deepavali. I paid S$330 for a 12-hour service,” said Mdm Goh. “If were 14 days, you can imagine how many thousands of dollars I would have had to pay.”

Through a friend, they found out about Homage, an in-home caregiving service that was more flexible with timings. “It can be as short as an hour, it can be as long as 24 hours,” co-founder and COO Lily Phang told CNA Insider. Ms Jayleen Toh, a 26-year-old trained nurse, was assigned to the family.

The first thing she noticed on meeting them was that both exhausted parents had “panda eyes”.

Mdm Goh offered her coffee and they sat down at the kitchen table. That’s when the older woman broke down, Ms Toh remembered. “She said it was a long and tiring journey, but I told her to not give up, and that she needed to be healthy and strong for her daughter.”

But even Ms Toh, with her eight years of experience nursing mostly elderly folks, found the task of looking after Sing Yu daunting. It especially struck home that the latter was only two years younger than she was.

Still, with the Lims’ help, she quickly learnt how to understand her ward through the small movements that signalled what she needed. 

One thing that struck her: When she started talking to Sing Yu about her travels, and showing her the photos and videos on her handphone, the younger girl would turn her head to follow the phone as it moved back and forth.

This delighted both Ms Toh and the Lims.

Ms Toh also learnt more about her charge from Sing Yu’s boyfriend. The two had been dating since junior college, and he came around every few days.

He would sometimes play some live hack videos for her to watch on Youtube … She would peep at him, flirting in her own way.

On days that he was unable to visit, the family could tell that Sing Yu was upset from the way she turned her head away, and her eyes which would tear when they broke the news to her.

HOW EVER MANY CHRISTMASES IT TAKES

Her parents take these are signs that their daughter is still conscious of what goes on around her, and it gives them hope every passing day.

For example, every time they talk about Japan, her eyes would “sparkle”. She is a fan of its culture. “She likes learning Japanese. She started off by watching anime and slowly she understood,” said Mr Lim.

Another huge step in her progress – she can now sit up in a wheelchair for two hours. Her parents are hoping to bring her outdoors next year.

“I was telling her when she gets well we will even bring her to Okinawa,” said Mr Lim, to which his wife added: “When she is well and can walk again, we will bring her to wherever she wants to go!”

Every six months, Sing Yu has been going for an MRI scan – the most recent being in early December, which shows no growth in the tumour.

Hope and optimism are what the Lims cling to, but they are aware that the road ahead is for Sing Yu is by no means certain or smooth – and that age is also catching up on the both of them.

Said Mdm Goh: “I have to keep myself healthy and fit so that I can accompany her throughout the journey.”

For now, they hope to find new technological means that will hopefully enable their daughter to communicate with them beyond the very little that she can now convey.

And after three Christmases in which her simply being alive has been a gift to them, they hope for another Christmas of more breakthroughs for their daughter. And another. And another.

“Be it a year, two years, however many years it takes, as long as both of us have this hope, this strength will keep us going,” said Mr Lim.

We keep telling her that there will be a day of victory.

* The spelling of Sing Yu’s name has been modified on her parents’ request. 

SINGAPORE: A trip to the Gardens by the Bay took an awful turn for a French family on Saturday (Dec 30) when an otter attacked their 5-year-old girl, leaving her with a bleeding foot. 

The father of the family, Mr Julien le Tourneur D’Ison, said they had arrived at the attraction at 12.15pm and were approaching a little bridge at Satay by the Bay when they saw a “bunch of tourists really excited by a bunch of otters swimming back and forth”.

“We saw a bunch of otters swimming towards us. We were about 1 metre away and an otter jumped out and bit my daughter’s foot,” said Mr Le Tourneur.

The 45-year-old, who was also there with his wife and two other children – a 6-year-old boy and 5-month-old baby – described the incident as “really unlucky”.

The little girl who was bitten, Tess, was left screaming and crying. Her foot “bled for about five minutes”, he said.

Mr Le Tourneur also said his daughter’s screams attracted the attention of scores of people who came forth to offer help. “A lot of people came from the food court with a first aid kit,” he said.

The family rushed Tess to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in a taxi.

“An X-ray showed that fortunately the teeth did not touch her bone but the wound is deep enough that they have to perform a little surgery,” Mr Le Tourneur told Channel NewsAsia.

Tess had local anaesthesia administered and doctors in the emergency room cleaned up her wound. 

Reflecting on the incident, Mr Le Tourneur said “it was too many people massing around” the animals. “The otters must have been scared or nervous with so many people pulling out their cameras.”

He suggested fencing up more of the area around the bridge, as otters known to inhabit the area are “wild animals” after all.

Mr Le Tourneur, who works in marketing for digital maps company HERE Technologies, was based in Singapore for two years, but has since relocated to Berlin. The otter attack was an “unfortunate start” to a two-week holiday, he said. 

“The Gardens by the Bay is such a lovely place. I would recommend anyone to visit,” stressed Mr Le Tourneur. 

“But if you see an otter swimming towards you, go the other way.” 

SINGAPORE: The Government has spent S$1.93 billion on improvement works for older flats since the launch of the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) in 2007 until Mar 31 this year, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) said on Saturday (Dec 30).

The HIP is for HDB flats built up to 1986 that have not undergone the Main Upgrading Programme.

A further S$40 million was spent under the Enhancement for Active Seniors (EASE) scheme, which retrofits flats with elderly-friendly fittings, HDB added. EASE is usually offered together with HIP to make it more convenient for home owners, as improvement works can be carried out at the same time.

Since the introduction of EASE in July 2012, close to 149,000 households have applied for the scheme as of end-November this year. About 97,000 households opted for the programme together with HIP, while 52,000 households applied for it under the Direct Application scheme.

HIP focuses on improvements within the flat and helps residents deal with common maintenance problems related to ageing flats. There are three main components of work under HIP – Essential, Optional and EASE improvements.

The essential improvements enhance public health and safety standards, and include the repair of spalling concrete or structural cracks and the replacement of pipe sockets with new clothes drying racks. These are fully paid for by the Government.

There are also optional components under the scheme – such as packages to upgrade existing toilets, and the replacement of main doors, gates and refuse chute hoppers. The EASE improvements comprise slip-resistant treatment for toilet floor tiles, and installation of grab bars and ramps. Home owners have to pay for the combination of improvement works they require depending on their needs, but these are heavily subsidised by up to 95 per cent, with more help given to smaller flats.

As of Nov 30, 101,000 flats from 113 projects have completed upgrading works. Another 139,400 flats from 139 projects are in various stages of progress. The remaining eligible flats will be selected by the end of next year.

According to HDB, HIP will only proceed when at least 75 per cent of a block’s eligible Singaporean households have voted in favour of the programme.

Mr Chew Ang Moh, 70, is one of those who upgraded their homes under the HIP and EASE programmes. Though able-bodied, Mr Chew, who lives with his 65-year-old wife, son and three grandchildren in a four-room flat, said he opted for the EASE improvements in anticipation of the day when getting around would become more challenging.

“Since we have the chance to do so, we have arranged for the improvement works to be done now. We know we’re not getting any younger, and we don’t know when our bodies may fail us. So it’s important that we arranged for this to be done early,” he said in Mandarin.

EASE improvements to his flat include slip-resistant treatment for the tiles in the common and master bedroom toilets, and the installation of a set of grab bars. The improvement works, which took about 10 days in August, cost S$69 after subsidies.

Mr Chew also had optional improvement works done under the HIP. These include upgrades to both toilets, the replacement of his main entrance gate and refuse chute hopper. The total cost was estimated to be S$860.

“We’ve been living here for over 30 years and have never done much to it, a lot of it is very old. The paint from the ceiling is falling, as well as other problems. If we wanted to do our own improvement works, it would be a little more difficult,” he said.