KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) has responded to a Stomp query regarding a viral Facebook post from a couple complaining that their daughter’s condition was downplayed by an on-duty doctor, attributing her subsequent deterioration to lapses in the doctor’s judgement.
In the Facebook posts of couple Tricia Ang and Warren Lim, the enraged parents recounted how they had to wait between three to four hours when they brought their daughter into KKH on the night of Nov 13.
When they finally met a doctor, Dr Peter Wong, they were told that their daughter’s condition wasn’t serious, and they had to wait a few more hours, as priority would be given to emergency cases.
However, the girl’s condition took a turn for the worse, and around 11am on Nov 14, she became motionless.
An ambulance was called and she was admitted to the hospital.
The post read:
“My poor little baby!!
“Yesterday night came into KKH, waited for three to four hours and the doctor says she’s not (in a) serious condition, called us to wait (for) another two to three hours, (as) emergency cases come first.
“Doctor still said that if we don’t want to wait, we can cancel and go (to) another place.
“And today morning at around 11am, this thing happened to my baby.
“Called the ambulance and (the hospital) admitted her.
“Thank god she (still) has a response.”
The post also showed Mr Lim administering Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on his daughter.
In an accompanying video, a family member could be heard telling emergency response officer that they were not able to ‘check the breathing’ of the girl.
The family member was then told to continue CPR on the girl until the ambulance arrives.
As Mr Lim continued administering CPR, the child’s legs started moving, and the member said that she had become ‘responsive’.
The Facebook posts and videos have since been removed.
In response to Stomp’s query, KKH issued an official statement on their Facebook page stating that there had been ‘no lapses in medical care or patient safety.’
on Facebook
A recent post circulating online mentions our hospital and doctor, Dr Peter Wong, with regard to the KKH Children’s…
Posted by KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital on Saturday, 18 November 2017
The post which was uploaded on Sunday (Nov 19) read:
“A recent post circulating online mentions our hospital and doctor, Dr Peter Wong, with regard to the KKH Children’s Emergency.
“We have investigated the matter and are in contact with the child and family.
“The facts are as follows: When the child was first assessed at the Children’s Emergency, she was found to have fever, but was otherwise stable. Our attending paediatric consultant, Dr Peter Wong, who is an experienced and well-regarded doctor, acknowledged the inconvenience caused to the family by the wait, and tried to explain to the parent that there were other patients who were more serious that needed to be attended more urgently and that the child would be attended to as soon as possible.
“The child’s condition was stable and she was not in danger. If her situation had changed or deteriorated, she would have been attended to promptly.
“We understand that the patient then left KKH Children’s Emergency before further medical examination could be conducted.
“About 12 hours later, the child was again brought to the Children’s Emergency and she was assessed to be stable.
“She was admitted to the general ward and provided with the necessary care. She was discharged the following day and is now at home.
“We have reviewed the case, and there were no lapses in medical care or patient safety.
“The hospital’s priority is to provide appropriate and timely care to our patients.
“As such, emergency cases have to be given priority. KKH is committed to improving our patients’ experience, but parents and caregivers have to also play their part to be responsible and considerate to enable our medical professionals to perform their tasks.
A woman was hit by an SBS Transit bus in Sengkang on Friday (Nov 17) and conveyed unconscious to a Khoo Teck Puat Hospital where she later died.
The accident occurred at the junction of Anchorvale Road and Sengkang East way, around 2.40pm.
The victim, Ms Huang Luyang, 38, is survived by a husband and two sons, aged one and three.
During the time of the accident, Ms Huang is believed to have been crossing the road on her way to work.
It is unclear, however, if she was using the pedestrian crossing.
According to The Straits Times, Ms Huang was trapped beneath the bus.
In an update by the police on Saturday, Ms Huang was pronounced dead, and investigations were ongoing.
The time of death was around 3.40am, reported The Straits Times.
Photos showing the bus parked along the side of the road have been circulating online.
In the photos, Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers and several other people were seen at the back of the bus.
In response to media queries, Ms Tammy Tan, senior vice-president of corporate communications at SBS Transit, said the company was very sorry and very sad about the accident.
She added: “Our top priority is to assist the family as best we can in this very difficult time.
“We are meanwhile assisting the police with their investigations.”
Speaking to activists at the annual PAP convention, Mr Lee said that Singapore will have to press on with plans to restructure the economy.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaking at the People’s Action Party convention. (Photo: Justin Ong)
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SINGAPORE: Singapore’s economic growth could exceed 3 per cent in 2017, higher than previous forecasts of 2 to 3 per cent.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this on Sunday (Nov 19) at the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) convention held at Big Box in Jurong.
However, he noted that while economic growth is up, the job is not done, and the Government will have to press on with plans to restructure the economy, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday (Nov 19).
Speaking to about 2,000 activists, he noted that the world economy is looking up, and Singapore has benefitted from that. He pointed out that unemployment remains low, wages have gone up, and more significantly, productivity has also picked up.
But he stressed that the current upswing is cyclical, and Singapore has to press on with plans to restructure the economy in order to sustain economic growth.
“Our workers must acquire the right skills and capabilities, know how to upgrade themselves, and be confident about their futures and livelihoods,” he said. “Our companies too must adapt, upgrade and compete in the global marketplace.”
He noted that the Future Economy Council is progressively implementing the recommendations from the Committee of the Future Economy (CFE), and this is a “major task”.
He added that there are also three major strategies to take care of workers: skills upgrading, job matching and job creation, and the Government has reorganised itself so that it can focus on each of them.
Mr Lee said that restructuring the economy will take effort, and will not be a “totally smooth journey.” But Singapore, he said, has done it before and can do it again.
“The Government will support and help workers and companies. As long as we stick together and make the effort, we will get there.”
Speaking to activists at the PAP convention on Sunday, the Prime Minister added that while Singapore is friends with many countries, it must also not inadvertently fall under foreign control, or influence.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaking at the PAP Awards and Convention on Nov 19. (Photo: Chan Luo Er)
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SINGAPORE: There will always be ups and downs in Singapore’s relations with other countries, but its fundamental approach should not change, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday (Nov 19).
Speaking at the PAP Awards and Convention, he noted that Singapore should take a long-term view, and work towards good relations that benefit both sides.
“Where relations are going well, we should not take them for granted,” he said. “More importantly, when relations are down, we must not get flustered or cower.”
But while Singapore is friends with many countries, he stressed that it must not inadvertently fall under foreign control, or influence.
“No foreign country should ever influence our domestic debate and politics, or divide and weaken us, either openly or covertly,” he said. “Singaporeans have to understand our core interests.”
“When we are put to the test, we must stay united and back the Government, so that we can stand our ground and defend Singapore’s interests as one country.”
Mr Lee noted that Singapore’s relations with Malaysia and Indonesia will always be complex, and issues will crop up from time to time. One example of this, he said, is Pedra Branca.
“I thought the issue was permanently settled long ago with the International Court of Justice ruling in 2008, which awarded Pedra Branca to Singapore. But almost a decade later, the Malaysians are going to the ICJ again, asking the Court to reinterpret and to revise the judgment.
“I’m not sure what Malaysia’s motive is, but their General Election is coming, which may have something to do with it,” he added.
And in Indonesia, he noted that politicians have been talking about taking back their airspace from Singapore. The issue, he said, is not about Indonesia’s airspace, but the Flight Information Region (FIR), which is for managing air traffic.
“Who controls the FIR is a technical matter of making the best arrangements for air safety, but it has been politicized and made into an issue of sovereignty and national pride,” he said. “That makes it much harder to solve.”
But he stressed that relations with Malaysia and Indonesia are good, with Singapore the largest foreign investor in both countries, and their top source of tourists.
Singapore’s relations with the big powers – the US and China – are also in good order.
“It is not always easy to be good friends with both the US and China at the same time,” he said. “But as a small nation, we have to make friends with as many countries as we can.
“So we have to work hard to tend our relationships with both the US and China, while upholding Singapore’s own interests.
It will take time to improve the train system, and there will be more hurdles to clear along the way, said PM Lee.
PAP Secretary-General Lee Hsien Loong at the 2016 PAP Conference on Dec 4, 2016. (File photo: Justin Ong)
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SINGAPORE: There are lessons to be learned from the recent problems on the MRT network and the causes need to be established so that things can be put right.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this on Sunday (Nov 19) at the People’s Action Party’s convention, which was held at Big Box in Jurong.
“We have made progress, but there have been setbacks,” said Mr Lee, pointing to the train collision last week at Joo Koon station which left 36 people injured, and October’s flooding in a tunnel from Bishan to Braddell MRT stations which resulted in the suspension of services for about 20 hours.
People are frustrated and worried by such incidents and “understandably so”, said Mr Lee.
He said that improving train reliability is a very complicated problem, but the organisations need to be strengthened to deliver consistent high performance.
Mr Lee said that Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan and his team in the Ministry of Transport and Land Transport Authority “are extremely disappointed with the recent incidents”, which is a sentiment shared by the train operators and their workers on the ground.
And while efforts to improve the train network are showing results, it doesn’t feel like that to the public, said Mr Lee. A key reason for that is that major incidents hurt public confidence a lot.
In his speech, Mr Lee said that Mr Khaw has one of the toughest jobs in Cabinet: “I want Boon Wan and his team to know that they have our full support and confidence,” he said, to applause from the PAP members.
It will take time to improve the train system, and there will be more hurdles to clear along the way. “The best thing we can do now is to give our transport team the time and space to fix the problems.”
Speaking at a PAP convention, he said it is the responsibility of every PAP member to put the people first and understand the ground.
People’s Action Party secretary-general Lee Hsien Loong. (File photo: Sarah Yang)
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SINGAPORE: Amidst an increasingly complex and uncertain environment, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) must be connected with the people, stressed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday (Nov 19).
Speaking in Mandarin to nearly 2,000 activists at the PAP Awards and Convention, he said MPs and activists should step up communication with their residents, and let them know that the PAP “will be with them in this journey”.
“Let our people understand why we are doing this and support our policies,” he said. “Only then can PAP unite the people, make Singapore’s interest our common starting point and achieve the greater good.”
He added that it is the responsibility of every PAP member to put the people first, understand the ground and win their support.
“We only have two to three years before the next GE,” he said. “If we want a strong mandate, we need every comrade to continue working hard.”
Mr Lee pointed out that for 62 years, the PAP has worked hard to meet the voters’ needs, and worked together with the Government to make policies that would improve people’s lives.
And the PAP has continued to win the voters’ trust and mandate because it always puts the people first, he added.
“Around the world, some ruling parties can only deal with the immediate issues during their term,” he said. “Singapore is different.”
“PAP has a strong mandate. Therefore, we are able to plan for the long-term our economic development, infrastructure, education, social safety nets and others that would benefit Singapore in the future.”
The “Steve Harvey” bug has bitten the Miss World pageant – specifically on social media.
On Saturday night, Miss World’s social media accounts incorrectly posted a photo of the 1st and 2nd runners up of the recently-concluded pageant.
At 10pm, the pageant’s Facebook page and Twitter account announced that Miss England Stephanie Hill had won as 1st runner up, while Miss Mexico’s Andrea Meza was 2nd runner up.
The posts stirred confusion among netizens as the announcement at the Miss World’s coronation said Mexico’s Meza won 1st runner up and England’s Hill was 2nd.
Hours later, the Miss World’s Facebook page posted an album with a caption with the correct winners.
As of 8:50 a.m. in Manila, the organisation had not corrected or taken down the erroneous Twitter post, which was still active as of this writing. The wrong Facebook announcement was still live as of posting.
SINGAPORE: For Mr Wong Liang Tai, owner of Ah Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice at Maxwell Food Centre, the idea of partnering a food delivery service had been something that was “unthinkable”.
“I’m just a small hawker,” the 58-year-old said in Mandarin. “These services usually require a commission. How can I afford it?”
But about three months ago, the hawker began teaming up with WhyQ – a new meal delivery start-up that does not require Mr Wong to pay commission for orders taken from its platform.
So far, there have been a few big orders ranging from 10 to 20 packets. On a good week, Mr Wong said he could receive an additional five orders a day.
While the partnership has not translated into a “significant boost” to his revenue, “every order counts” given that business at the once-popular hawker centre has slowed since the construction of the Thomson-East Coast MRT line two years ago.
“It’s not much now, but every little bit helps,” said Mr Wong.
Over the past years, willingness from consumers to pay for convenience has whetted a growing appetite for meal deliveries in Singapore. This has, in turn, spurred the growth of players such as foodpanda and Deliveroo.
But hawkers have been largely left off the menu, with these early movers fetching meals from mainly restaurants and cafes. The commission fees that these delivery providers charge, which may be around 30 per cent for each order, also serve as arefrain for small F&B owners.
WhyQ, the new kid on the block that began operations in February, is among the new crop of start-ups that has invaded the increasingly crowded space of food delivery but with a twist: Picking up meals from hawker centres or small eateries serving up local delights.
And at least three other delivery platforms with the same focus – Fastbee.sg, Yihawker and Porterfetch – have emerged this year.
Started in February, local start-up WhyQ delivers from hawker centres within the central business district. (Photo: Tang See Kit)
DELIVERY OF AFFORDABLE LOCAL FOOD AN UNDERSERVED MARKET
Still, these entrepreneurs told Channel NewsAsia that the delivery of humbler local fare, such as chicken rice, prawn noodles and even zi char dishes, remains an underserved market.
“We are not focusing on restaurant or café food that may go up to S$20 a meal. The segment we are in is local food that people can afford every day which still has a lot of market space,” said Fastbee founder Khoo Kar Kiat. “We are all in different geographies as well so I think we will co-exist.”
Fastbee, an online portal for people to make lunch orders and later pick up their food from designated vending machines, targets workers at various industrial and business parks in the West. The start-up recently expanded its footprint to eight machines at areas such as Mediapolis, Science Park and Block 71 in Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate.
For WhyQ, deliveries are made within the central business district (CBD) and Changi Business Park, while Yihawker is ramping up its presence in the east.
Only Porterfetch, which officially launched in August, delivers islandwide but it differentiates itself by making deliveries between 9pm and 3am daily. Describing that as a “niche market with no competition”, the founders – Singaporeans Daniel Chan and Kenneth Ho – are confident that the start-up isn’t too late to the game.
“We know it’ll be difficult for us to go head to head with the big boys so we need to find our niche,” said Mr Chan, 32. “It was clear to us that it was going to be delivery for supper. There is clearly demand but no one is doing it.”
The start-up, which is looking to roll out its mobile apps by end-2017, had taken 8,000 orders via its website by the end of last month. It expects to make its 10,000th delivery this month.
WhyQ and Fastbee are also doing a roaring trade, according to its founders. The former clocks on average 500 orders a day, while the latter delivers more than 700 packets of food on a weekly basis. Yihawker declined to reveal figures.
Fastbee’s vending machine at the Mediapolis. (Photo: Tang See Kit)
To accommodate small F&B owners, which tend to operate on lean manpower, some players like Fastbee have in place a pre-ordering system so that orders can be prepared before peak hours.
While the response has been encouraging thus far, the key to convincing small F&B owners to come on board is to be “complementary” and “non-disruptive”, start-ups said.
Madam Wong, who runs the New Hong Kong Congee stall at Amoy Street Food Centre, said she was initially worried about having deliverymen join the queue during busy lunch hours.
“There’s no reason for us to reject additional orders – it’s extra income for us,” she said in Mandarin. “But I don’t want my customers who come down personally to wait for too long so it’s good that they let us know early, like around 11am. We can start preparing too.”
KNIVES ARE OUT: KEEP COSTS LOW, BE EFFICIENT
But while most hawkers have welcomed these delivery services, what’s in it for these start-ups in the long run?
Three out of four of these new entrants do not take a cut from orders. WhyQ said it has various partnerships in place and charges a 10 per cent commission for a “small group” of hawkers.
Most of them also do not require a minimum order, except for Yihawker which has it at S$12.
Hence, delivery fees constitute the key source of revenue for most of these new delivery players. This varies from a flat fee of S$1.50 for WhyQ and Fastbee to a distance-based range starting from S$4.50 to S$5 for Yihawker and Porterfetch, respectively. Porterfetch also charges a 9 per cent service fee.
With its S$1.50 delivery fee being its main income, Fastbee relies on aggregating orders and eliminating point-to-point deliveries to stay lean and keep costs down.
“Other companies take food from many places and that makes operations unviable because it’s expensive to run around. For us, we only go to one hawker centre for one machine,” Mr Khoo explained, while adding that one to two deliverymen is all that’s needed to pick up the maximum load of 144 packets of food for one machine daily.
And as he moves toward his goal to install 10 machines by the end of this year, Mr Khoo said he has managed to halve the cost of each machine by tweaking the design, which is a significant cost saving.
A similar model to aggregate orders is also in place at WhyQ.
After collecting the orders from various hawker stalls, its delivery crew of 20 gathers at a meeting point to re-distribute the food according to pick-up points. Each delivery person then sets out to the assigned pick-up location.
Ex-bankers Rishabh Singhvi and Mr Varun Saraf started WhyQ to help time-strapped office workers to order affordable hawker food. (Photo: Tang See Kit)
“We are not Deliveroo or Foodpanda where one guy is assigned to one task,” said co-founder Varun Saraf. “For us, one delivery guy serves many customers at one pick-up point so we are able to get less delivery couriers to deliver more and that helps us to control costs.”
“We are working to make this more efficient to be about 35 to 40 orders per day for one delivery man,” Mr Saraf, who started WhyQ with his college mate Mr Rishabh Singhvi, added.
Yihawker also relies on aggregating orders and delivery within specific zones – lessons that founder Jonathan Faynop picked up from his previous venture Hawker.Today, a hawker food delivery firm that ended operations last year.
“Hawker.Today was delivering close to islandwide. It gave us traction but the business model was just not sustainable,” said the 27-year-old.
Noting that hawker food delivery still has massive potential, Mr Faynop decided to make his comeback with a refined business model. Apart from the CBD, Yihawker now focuses on the heartlands in the east, such as Bedok and Tampines, which are less penetrated by similar delivery services.
Still, even with burgeoning demand, founders told Channel NewsAsia that their entrepreneurial journeys have not been all smooth sailing.
Porterfetch, for one, had to survive technical glitches during its initial stage and a period of “getting caught up in the numbers game”.
Porterfetch was founded by Singaporeans Daniel Chan and Kenneth Ho, and aims to be the “concierge service in Singapore that can get anything delivered”.
Said co-founder Kenneth Ho: “When we first started, we took on a lot of orders even though sometimes we didn’t have enough riders. We thought the more deliveries we do means more happy customers, but that was clearly not the case.
“More often than not, our customer service colleague ended up issuing promo codes to unhappy customers and we realised that’s not right,” the 32-year-old added. Now, we only deliver what we can manage.”
Over at Fastbee, Mr Khoo has had to deal with “epic failure moments” on a monthly basis.
“There was once when I was going to launch a new machine at a new location but the third-party logistics provider I was partnering couldn’t deliver. I had no drivers to fulfil orders. It was such a stressful day that I nearly felt like throwing in the towel,” said the 34-year-old who left his job at the Economic Development Board (EDB) last year to be his own boss.
“But I guess you come out stronger every time you resolve a problem… If it was so easy, everyone would be a ‘towkay’ already,” Mr Khoo said with a laugh, referring to the Hokkien term which means “boss”.
Since leaving the Economic Development Board last year to start his own food delivery firm, Singaporean Khoo Kar Kiat said he has had to face “epic failure moments” every month. (Photo: Tang See Kit)
SERVING UP FUTURE PLANS
Moving forward, all four start-ups are gearing up for expansion, both in geography and product offerings.
After launching its services in the Changi Business Park two months ago, WhyQ is looking to venture into “underserved” business parks in the One North and Kent Ridge areas.
Yihawker, which dreams of becoming an e-hawker food directory, is adding new functions to its app. One of which will allow customers to track the queue situation at a particular hawker stall before placing orders.
Porterfetch aims to evolve into a “concierge service for everything” further down the road.
“We started off with food because for any delivery platform, it’s a numbers game and food is the easiest way to get the numbers,” said Mr Ho. “But eventually, we want to be more than just food delivery and be able to deliver anything that our customers want at any time of the day.”
Fastbee also has similar ambitions, said Mr Khoo, who hopes that his start-up can emulate Amazon to become an on-demand delivery platform for all things.
“My vending machines may have started off with food but what I can do is to reconfigure it into a POPstation or a locker for many other things,” he said. “You may have bought something online and would want to pick up these items at a convenient location at a low cost. My machines will fit the bill.”
“Technology has made it much easier for anyone to enter the delivery business and as long as you can keep costs low, you can survive. But what matters is the vision to sustain this over the long run,” Mr Khoo told Channel NewsAsia.
“I’m not making much money right now but I’m laying the foundations for a bigger network. I’m confident this is the way to go.”
SINGAPORE: Gurmit Singh arrives at the Mediacorp campus for our interview in a black T-shirt, jeans and a black cap that augments his boyish charm. The receptionist who greets him is warmer than she usually is. Who wouldn’t be in the presence of one of Singapore’s most iconic funnymen?
I give them some time to chat before I walk up to the counter to take him to our studio for the interview. Gurmit is the kind of artiste one needs to be prepared to share with all Singaporeans. The characters he’s played, especially the curly-haired, mole-bearing contractor in yellow boots in the 1990s TV sitcom “Phua Chu Kang (PCK) Pte Ltd”, have made him not just famous, but deeply adored.
The receptionist and Gurmit have a friendly exchange. He laughs when she says she’s sorry that she doesn’t have a VIP pass for him. Throughout, he is unassuming and polite.
As we walk to the studio, I remark that in spite of having left a full-time career in television about three years ago, the spotlight somehow still manages to find him.
“You guys are the ones who are keeping me in the spotlight. I should thank you!
“I didn’t think a few years after leaving show business and at my age, you’d still want to talk to me,” he adds.
At 52, he has a few more lines on his face than he’d like, he says, but while he might be conscious of his age, he says that those around him generally don’t notice.
He’s right. The lines fade into oblivion as there is so much more to notice about Gurmit Singh – a man whose interest in being an entertainer was stoked in the SAF Music & Drama Company, who started his career in the 80s as a performer in Haw Par Villa’s amphitheatre shows, then moved to television to host variety shows like Live on 5 and Gurmit’s World and eventually played the titular character in Phua Chu Kang (PCK) Pte Ltd.
He is facetious, yet mature. He is loquacious, yet often taciturn.
He is a contradiction and this comes across even in his autobiography, What Was I Thinking? released in June this year.
He has also admitted as much in previous interviews, often saying that while his job requires him to be an extrovert, his instincts lean towards introversion.
Actor, comedian, host Gurmit Singh retreated from full-time show-business three years ago. (Photo: Jason Ho)
Since leaving show business full-time, he’s been doing ad hoc TV and event-hosting gigs. PCK still makes appearances in Malaysia. His online business, GIV Global, a physical gold savings programme closed after two years because “the economy wasn’t right”.
Right now, he has “no concrete plans” to start a business. He is involved in a multi-level-marketing travel company, but claims he just enjoys the travel perks and doesn’t do any active recruitment, something these companies are notorious for. He claims he’s careful about the companies he associates with. After all, his reputation is at stake
I ask him about the lessons he’s learnt since he left.
“I’ve learnt I’m an idiot,” he says in all seriousness. “I should have made more time for my family. My daughter and I recently went on a driving trip across Europe and I realised how much I’ve missed. It’s little things like learning what they like to do, what they like to eat.”
IT’S NOT ABOUT MATERIALISM
With endorsement deals and gigs on the decline, he and his family have had to be frugal.
He has often said his family understood and welcomed the move because it meant more family time.
For him, the transition was bittersweet.
“But now I make full use of the time I have with my family and I don’t regret it one bit because it’s so much more valuable,” he says.
This is when I decide to discuss the Lambhorghini, a car he owned a few years ago when Mediacorp was still at Caldecott Hill. My newsroom used to be close to the open-air carpark and the roar of the engine signaling his comings and goings would penetrate the walls. Publicly, he was called a show-off.
When I raise this, I sense his struggle to hide how such talk perturbs him.
“I know you guys in the compound could hear the Lambhorghini. I didn’t do it on purpose. It’s just how the engine is. I wasn’t trying to show off. I wasn’t pressing the accelerator.”
So what was the point of buying the car if it wasn’t to show off?
“To me, it’s not about materialism. I understand what’s been put into it – the effort and the blood, sweat and all that. It’s not just superficial. It’s like driving the Batmobile,” he says with the innocent exuberance of an excited kid.
“It’s like people who buy handbags…I don’t get it. But I know they do. So I respect that,” he adds.
So was he was unfairly judged?
He shrugs.
“Some will straight away label a certain product with a certain kind of behaviour. They just can’t see beyond that. So maybe they are narrowminded.”
He doesn’t have the Lambhorghini anymore.
He drives a station wagon. His wife wanted it – a functional car.
“It’s ok. Good car,” he says with a grin.
Gurmit Singh with fellow comedian, Mark Lee. (Photo: Facebook / Gurmit Singh)
Does he wish he would one day be able to afford a car like that again?
“No, it’s really not important anymore. I realise I’m happy with less.”
A DESIRE FOR ICE-CREAM
How those who’ve been born into poor families deal with money once they come into it or make it as adults has always fascinated me. Each person does it differently. The story of Gurmit’s relationship with money starts with a desire for ice-cream.
“I thought my mother was the stingiest woman ever.”
“I was about eight years old and my mom and I were walking by an ice-cream shop. I asked her for one. Ice cream then was five cents only, but she said no. I thought to myself, “This woman is damn stingy! Five cents also cannot buy. What the heck is going on?”
It was only in teenhood that he realised how financially strapped his family was. His dad was working two jobs, one as a bank watchman. His mother was doing odd jobs and babysitting other people’s kids.
Now that money isn’t a struggle anymore, how does he feel?
“Even in my 20th year, I had to pinch myself. I couldn’t believe it.”
“CAN I PLEASE NOT BE A WATCHMAN?”
“My grandfather was a watchman at the bank and my father was a watchman at the bank, so I thought I was going to be a watchman at the bank too. But I remember praying as a 13-year-old boy, asking the universe, “Can I please not be a watchman?”
I point out that it’s a respectable job.
“Yes, it is, but I know how hard it is for a family to make ends meet on the salary. To be where I am still feels surreal.”
Could that be the reason behind his extravagances such as the car?
He doesn’t think so.
“I don’t deal too much with money because all our money goes to my wife. She is the CFO but she also knows I don’t have many weaknesses – just cars and a home maybe. I don’t buy expensive clothes or watches.”
It is his wife whom he credits with disciplining him. When they were courting, he admits sheepishly that he couldn’t “save for nuts.” Her idea to set up a joint savings account has ingrained in him a habit of saving that he hopes to pass on to his children.
He seems intent on proving he’s not plagued by avarice.
“This is going to sound boastful but the people who saw the house and the probably don’t think that maybe I donate to charity as well. I do. But if I say that, they’ll say I’m boastful, so I don’t say it.”
I point out that he’s obviously not afraid of saying it now. Does he think admitting that it sounds boastful negates his boastfulness? Or does he genuinely not care what people say about him anymore.
“I realised when I first came on air that I can’t make everybody happy. A complaint was sent to management. It said, “I don’t want to support Gurmit or his career. I’m because his hair parting is on the wrong side”.
We both laugh raucously.
But even as he laughs, I sense he wishes nobody disliked him.
“I think most people wish everybody would love them. But it’s just not possible. I’ve had to accept that.”
“I’VE FAILED MY PARENTS”
Something he says he still hasn’t quite accepted is the loss of his parents. His mother died in 2001 and his father, in 2003.
He has said in several interviews that losing his parents made him depressed for years.
So has he finally truly gotten over losing them?
“You never really get over it. I’ve learnt to cope with it.”
He has an enduring regret.
“I dreamt of buying them a big mansion because they had such a hard life, buying them a limo and hiring a driver for them. When they passed away, I hadn’t done any of those things. I still feel I’ve failed my parents.
“They were very happy in their own HDB flat. They didn’t want to move in with me. Maybe if they had been alive longer, I could have at least gotten them a driver and a limo.”
Amid the regret, he says fond memories enter his mind every day.
“They liked to watch Hindi movies together and check out new HDB developments. That was their Lamborghini.”
He pauses and stares pensively at the floor.
“My parents were so cute,” he says wistfully, the timbre of his voice disrupted by a cracking sadness.
“As they got older, they started holding hands in public. I thought that was so romantic. They were actually very conservative when young.”
His family commemorates his parents’ deaths in “happy” ways.
His father loved bak kut teh, so on his death anniversary, they go out for a bak kut teh meal.
“On my mum’s death anniversary, we drink Sinalco or Green Spot which are not easy to find these days. Or we eat wanton mee. These were her favourite things.”
He admits life was simpler then.
During his growing-up years, Gurmit slept on a mattress on the floor and had a little drawer for his possessions.
“It was difficult but it was simple. You either had it or you didn’t. And you didn’t have to have it just because someone else had it. I’m starting to move towards that now.”
“I WON’T GET WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS IF I’M NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE”
Gurmit Singh dressed up as Phua Chu Kang during Singapore Day 2017 in Melbourne. (Photo: Instagram/fitrianamango)
Gurmit has often said that the thought of not being famous anymore doesn’t bother him.
If stripped of fame what would he do? He originally wanted to be a computer programmer and in fact started on the path to getting a diploma in the field. It was the job offer from the TV station that made him abandon that plan.
I ask him why computers and he jokingly asks, “Why not? You think I stupid, is it?”
He then explains the machines excite him because of the sheer tasks they are capable of.
THE BUTTERFLIES IN HIS STOMACH ARE “MOTHS AND HORNETS”
Gurmit has mentioned his introverted nature several times over the years. So how did an introvert find his funny bone?
“Before Secondary One, I was very angry. I don’t know why. I would get into fights. One day I made my best friend cry and it made me think that if I kept doing this, I would have no friends. That scared me and I thought I better be more jovial and I started clowning around.”
But he adds, “It still takes a lot for me to get in front of the camera, in front of people to do what I do. I’m always scared. The butterflies in my stomach are more like moths and hornets.
“But once I step out on the stage, the camera, it’s not about me anymore. It’s about the audience. Performing and touching people with my work makes me really happy so I’m okay to put up with the discomfort I feel before.“
Many of the characters he has played are caricatures – a Chinese contractor and an Indian snack-seller among them. He declares his mixed parentage proudly. He’s half Indian, a quarter Chinese and a quarter Japanese, but could the roles he’s played be damaging people’s perceptions of the various racial groups in Singapore?
“Every culture has its stereotypes. We need to educate our children about racism in other ways. There are real-life examples of real people they need to be exposed to, but to take all these characters out of entertainment too would be going too far. There need to be more roles depicting minority races in various roles, not just in caricatures, but I think in the end, we are just one race: the human race.”
MORE DRAMATIC ROLES ON THE CARDS?
Gurmit Singh says he would like to play more serious roles. (Photo: Facebook / Gurmit Singh)
Today he wants to develop his craft in more dramatic roles. He speaks proudly about his role in the 2013 movie, “Taxi! Taxi!”. Performing in a particularly poignant scene gave him immense satisfaction.
“The aim is to impact the audience. It’s to make you cry, to make you laugh, to make you wonder. If I can, I’m happy.”
So is he actively looking for a more serious role?
“I always believe that if you force something, it won’t work. I’m just keeping my mind open, my channels open, talking to people, letting people talk to me.”
Having directed some episodes of PCK, he wants to explore his directorial talents further too, but he’s not actively seeking projects.
He goes on to lament how some in the industry become disillusioned quickly because they do it for the wrong reasons – the money, the perks, but don’t realise the hard work involved.
So what did he do it for? The money? The fame?
“No. I did it simply because I enjoyed it. It was fun in spite of my fear.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF FUN
“When people laugh, the inhibitions are gone. That’s when they become more creative,” says Gurmit Singh. (Photo: Facebook / Gurmit Singh)
He found out very early on that it was vital to have fun on the set.
“When people laugh, the inhibitions are gone. That’s when they become more creative.
Sometimes the props guy would get involved in directing and often their ideas are great.”
He feels this is lacking in the education system. His own children are 20, 16 and 4 years old.
“Our students don’t have fun in school. The education system isn’t changing fast enough to make our students expressive, creative and confident.”
Parents who hot-house their children make him angry.
“They want their children to do well in exams, but their children will actually benefit from more play.”
He claims he refuses to let his kids get drawn into the rat race, going as far as to take them out to watch movies during exam time.
In a world of instant fame, I wonder how Gurmit compares his experience and whether he’s concerned the medium that he was such a big part of might become irrelevant?
“We just have to make it interesting and exciting for people. Content is still the most important thing.”
What would he say to viewers who say the quality of Singapore-made TV programmes is questionable compared to imported shows?
“There are foreign shows out there that are good, but there are bad ones too. The bad ones are not acquired and therefore are never shown here. We only see the good ones. So is that a fair comparison?”
STILL STRUGGLING WITH AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX
While he speaks with conviction, he brings up the fact that he hasn’t managed to shrug off his inferiority complex. I’m curious to know what fuels it.
“I don’t know. I was always very bad in school, wasn’t very good at anything. So all these things subconsciously played out in my head. I would tell myself I’m ugly.”
He breaks eye contact for a moment.
“Sometimes I was so depressed that I thought of ending it. But I realised that if I took my own life, it would cause permanent depression to my parents, so I didn’t. Nowadays, I cope by telling myself that if I say that I’m ugly, I’m actually implying that my parents are ugly too. So how can I be ugly?”
His faces brightens again as he tells me that being funny has helped a lot. “Then people stop noticing my imperfections.”
Doesn’t he wish these insecurities would stop plaguing him?
“I do. But also I feel that they’ve kept me grounded.”
As we end our conversation, his parents come up again.
Asked what he would like to be remembered for, he says, “I think it will be a great homage to my parents if people remember me as a good person: a good father, husband, friend, colleague. I think that’s what my parents wanted me to be also. Just a good person. That’s what I want on my tombstone.”
With his weather-beaten tan and rugged, stocky frame, Mat Kry Ya resembles most of his fellow river-dwelling, free-diving Cham people. But something else rests in his eyes and the wrinkles creased around them: A placid, slightly weary air of a man who has seen it all.
“I’m known for diving and searching for bodies underwater, even at sea,” said the 52-year-old, speaking through a Khmer translator.
Without a trace of arrogance, he tells of his claim to fame in 2014, when he helped recover four soldiers killed when a chopper plunged into a deep quarry on the outskirts of his Phnom Penh home. Here in Cambodia’s capital, he lives and works by the Tonle Sap river, where over the years he’s aided in retrieving hundreds consumed by the immense waterway.
Local volunteer diver Kry Ya speaking to Channel NewsAsia in November 2017 (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
“After somebody’s drowned here, you can say 100 times out of 100, I’ll locate the body quickly.” Kry Ya paused. “But once, the current was flowing just too strongly.”
It was this time, this tide, which claimed the lives of five Singaporean national dragonboaters in 2007. Returning to their berthing point along Sisowath Quay after a race at Cambodia’s annual Water Festival, the boat carrying the crew of 22 collided with a nearby pontoon and capsized.
Of 10 paddlers dragged into the depths of the river, five were rescued shortly after – but the others remained missing that evening of Nov 23.
A rooftop view of the sprawling Tonle Sap river in November 2017 (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
FRIDAY: S.O.S.
Kry Ya was one of eight divers quickly dispatched to the accident site by his employer Min Ormax, who runs a speedboat workshop near the Chroy Changvar Bridge, some 2km upstream.
“I didn’t take orders from anyone. I got the information by listening in on police radio using my walkie-talkie,” said the boisterous, beer-guzzling Ormax. “After that, I sent out five boats, with two to three of my staff on each, to try to retrieve the paddlers.”
He frequently activates his boats and workers to voluntarily help with such rescue and recovery missions – a testament to the hazard posed by the Tonle Sap, particularly during the dry season from November to April.
“The river flows back out from the Tonle Sap Lake, because the (connecting) Mekong’s water level is lower, so the river will be pushing and moving down very fast,” Ormax explained.
A further 2km south from the Singapore team’s launching point, in the main gallery in front of the Royal Palace, Nhim Vanda was enjoying a vantage view of the boat races when word of the accident first filtered through.
As head of Cambodia’s disaster management agency, he was promptly ordered by Prime Minister Hun Sen – seated nearby – to call on all necessary resources to search for the missing. Vanda, an army general whose left arm was blown off by a grenade in the 70s, swung into action himself and headed out on a speedboat to coordinate efforts.
Vanda briefing divers assigned to the search mission (Photo courtesy of Nhim Vanda)
As men on military and local vessels scanned the waters, Cham and Cambodian naval divers fanned out to comb the 50m-long pontoon’s underside and surroundings.
“I suspected they were already dead because of the strong current,” said Vanda. “But even if not alive, we had to find the bodies.”
Touch Naroth, then-chief of Phnom Penh police, was more optimistic at first. “When we started our search, we felt hope they were going to be alive, because we thought they might have swam to the riverbank and got off among the crowds,” he said.
“One hour later, it began to feel hopeless.”
Cambodian divers plunging into the waters under and around the pontoon on Nov 23, 2007 (Photo courtesy of Nhim Vanda)
The Tonle Sap’s brown, muddied waters offer almost zero visibility even in daylight, much less under cover of night that was fast approaching. But Kry Ya, who was diving with only a snorkel and fins, decided to take a bold, risky approach: “I strapped a 3kg stone to my body, went down and searched by feel.
“I dived until midnight, spending 30 minutes to an hour in the water each time … It was difficult, because the current kept pushing me, and my head hit the rocks a few times, but we persevered.”
Local divers continuing to search into nighttime on Nov 23, 2007 (Photo: AFP / Tang Chhin Sothy)
SATURDAY: ALL AT SEA
By the next morning, Vanda had amassed a search party of some 400 personnel comprising Cambodian police, navy, fishermen and villagers living along the river banks, and more skilled divers like Kry Ya.
Cambodian divers searching the river on Nov 24, 2007 (Photo: AFP / Tang Chhin Sothy)
A 3 million riel (over S$1,000) reward was offered to locals to find each of the missing Singaporeans, and the search area was widened to the festival venue’s entire 6km stretch.
“We sent officers down along the river, as we expected the current would take them further from the accident site,” said Naroth.
Vanda and Ormax spent the day steering their boats up and down the sides of the river, eyes peeled for both floating bodies and racing dragonboats. Events were going ahead as scheduled, despite the misgivings of some of the other national teams invited to compete in Phnom Penh.
Cambodian rescue vessels patrolling the river waters on Nov 24, 2007 (Photo: Reuters / Chor Sokunthea)
“We were asked to continue racing, but we all wanted to back out due to fear, and we were deeply saddened and distraught,” said Filipino dragonboater Judith Pagsuyuin-Hakim. “We definitely had no drive or enthusiasm to win. We only wanted to participate and show respect.”
The Philippine (R) and Lao (L) teams wait at the start point for their race on Nov 24, 2007 (Photo: Reuters / Chor Sokunthea)
With no sign of the missing by midday, Vanda devised a plan to attach fishing nets to the underside of boats, to trawl through the river in hope of picking up the bodies. “It didn’t work well,” he said, frowning at the memory.
Reinforcements arrived around 3pm in the shape of Singapore’s own elite Naval Diving Unit (NDU). The eight-man team – a mission commander, a medic and six divers – were first mobilised in the morning and flew out in a C-130.
The NDU team being briefed by Cambodian officials on the pontoon where the accident took place (Photo: Reuters / Chor Sokunthea)
Sonar cameras were dropped into the waters to survey the riverbed, but even such advanced gear – which the Cambodians did not possess – failed to make the murky Tonle Sap any clearer. Once again, as nighttime fell, the search was called off.
SUNDAY: THE RIVER RELENTS
According to Vanda, other Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines extended offers to join the operation early on Sunday morning. But after another sleepless night, the veteran soldier had a new idea up his sleeve. Instead of nets, the search crafts would be affixed with homemade ropes and metal hooks to scrape the bottom of the river.
On shore, the Singaporean divers were preparing their equipment to tackle the river again, as they stepped up efforts to find the bodies of their missing countrymen.
Singapore navy divers setting up their sonar imaging gear (Photo courtesy of Nhim Vanda)
As they swept an area fronting Koh Pich – “Diamond Island” in Khmer, some 4km downstream from the accident site – the shrill blare of alarms sliced through, carried by gusty winds from nearby.
The first body had been found.
Chee Wei Cheng, 20, was retrieved at 8am, some 40 hours after the accident; Jeremy Goh, 24, and Stephen Loh, 31, followed soon after. All three had been lodged in the riverbed and blanketed in mud, only dredged up using Vanda’s improvised hooks.
Cambodian rescue boats hauling a body to the surface (Photo courtesy of Nhim Vanda)
In the next few hours leading to noon, the bodies of Poh Boon San, 27, and Reuben Kee, 23, would surface on their own, in that order.
Cambodian rescue team members carrying one of the bodies (Photo: AFP / Tang Chhin Sothy)
All five were recovered not far from each other – close to Koh Pich and at the confluence of the Tonle Sap, Tonle Bassac and Mekong rivers, said navy chief Pes Lim.
“We just cleaned them up as best we could and sent them to the hospital,” said Vanda. “Then we followed advice from the Singapore embassy on what to do with the bodies according to their traditions.”
10 YEARS ON: A HEAVY CONSCIENCE
For Cambodian officials who were involved in the recovery efforts, the decade-old operation still evokes much sadness and remorse.
Naroth, who recalls spending both nights sleeping near the pontoon, said Cambodian authorities had exhausted all means possible.
Rescue boats searching for the missing five on Nov 24, 2007 (Photo: Reuters / Chor Sokunthea)
“This case was very complicated,” said Vanda. “We tried very hard, but I’m not exactly proud that we found the bodies… I just had to try my best to find them. It’s simple for me. The important thing was to help the Singaporeans.”
Vanda accompanying then-Singapore ambassador to Cambodia Ms Tan Yee Woan to Calmette hospital, where the bodies were placed before being flown back to Singapore (Photo courtesy of Nhim Vanda)
It also remains the worst incident involving competitors at the Water Festival, which dates back to the 12th century.
“A big disaster,” said Bou Chumserey, organiser of the festival since 1999. “We’ve had one to two paddlers drowning, but never anything like this.
“That was the first time foreigners participated at our Water Festival. Since then, we haven’t invited any others, because we’re afraid.”
Local reporter Ly Menghour was filing stories for both Radio France International and a local Khmer newspaper at the time. “Some considered the incident an unexpected one,” he said. “But there were also some blaming the organisers for being careless.”
Chumserey sees some validity in the latter conclusion. The soft-spoken six-footer had already cut a contrite figure meeting this Singaporean journalist. When later told he was speaking to a member of the 2007 dragonboat team which competed in Cambodia, the self-reproach came in waves.
“Honestly, it was our mistake because we didn’t set up buoys to protect the area,” he said. “On this 10th anniversary, as the person-in-charge, I apologise for the lack of preparation that led to the deaths.
“I am very, very sorry for the loss of lives. To the families that sent their children to come here, I am very sorry. It is a lesson we have to learn.
“We will remember forever … and I ask for mercy and forgiveness from the Singaporean people.”
This is the second part of a series marking the 10th anniversary of an accident in Cambodia which left five Singaporean national dragonboaters dead. Read the first part here.
