Ms Brenda Tan let her son out of her sight – and in a few seconds he was nowhere to be found near their Hougang home.

It took a nail-biting three hours or so before she received a call and learnt the boy, who has autism, had been found – at Changi Airport.

Last Friday, Ms Tan was about to leave her home at 7.30am with her son Calder Kam, 12, to wait for the school bus to take him to St Andrew’s Autism School.

He stepped out of their flat, but she went to get a book for him to read in case the bus was late. When she returned, he was not there.

She went to the void deck, then checked each of the 18 floors in her block.

She contacted a woman on the school bus, but learnt he had not boarded it.

She left her contact with a fruit stall vendor, a porridge stall owner and a neighbour.

She also related her situation through a Facebook post which was shared more than 1,000 times.

Her husband lodged a police report.

Ms Tan, a 42-year-old writer, told The Straits Times yesterday: “My son was lost twice before. Once, he wandered off when I was buying groceries at Hougang Green mall. Another time, he ran down the stairs and across the corridor to another part of the block.”

Each time, she had prayed, and “somehow walked towards the right direction until I saw him”.

But the latest incident was different.

“This is the first time he took public transport to somewhere so far that we couldn’t find him ourselves,” said Ms Tan, who also has a nine-year-old daughter.

Ms Tan believes Calder walked to a nearby bus stop, then took service 27.

The ride to the airport takes about an hour, so he could have been there for at least two hours before auxiliary police found him in the arrival area at Terminal One, she said.

They found Ms Tan’s name card – which has the line “This belongs to my son Calder who has autism” written on the back – in his bag and called her at around 11am.

“The name card saves the day,” she wrote later, in a blog post.

But she is considering getting a tracking device, after some parents of special needs children suggested she do so.

Such devices can be attached to an object which is located via a mobile app.

Ms Tan said it is not unusual for children with autism to get lost.

“Many cannot express themselves… so they just walk and walk while caregivers scout for them.

“It’s important for the public to help: When they come across these people who often cannot answer questions well, find contact particulars they (children with autism) may have with them and contact the caregivers.”

goyshiyi@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on February 6, 2017.
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Former leftist trade unionist and political detainee Fong Swee Suan, a founding member of the People’s Action Party (PAP), died last Saturday at the age of 85. He was suffering from liver cirrhosis and had been in and out of hospital for treatment over the past three months.

His death came just two days after the anniversary of Operation Coldstore, a security swoop in which more than 110 leftists were arrested on Feb 2, 1963. They included Mr Fong, who had two years earlier left the PAP with other leftists in the party to form the now-defunct opposition party, Barisan Sosialis.

As he was born in Johor, Mr Fong was sent back to Malaya, where he spent 4 1/2 years in jail, detained without trial under the Internal Security Act.

He went into business after his release and returned to Singapore much later in the late 1990s, to retire with his wife and their three children, a daughter and two sons, who had all grown up and were educated here.

Elder son Otto Fong, 48, an author and cartoonist, said yesterday that his father, who had been unable to walk since late last year, moved to his four-room flat in Bukit Purmei just before the Chinese New Year celebrations a week ago to be closer to the Singapore General Hospital.

He added: “I came home after a walk on Saturday afternoon and found my father unconscious. I called the ambulance right away. It arrived later and (medics) pronounced him dead at around 5pm.”

The late Mr Fong’s wife of 56 years, Madam Chen Poh Cheng, 80, said: “My husband lived a long and fulfilling life. He is now free from suffering in the afterlife.”

The third of seven children of a laundry man and his farmer wife in Senggarang near Batu Pahat in Johor, the late Mr Fong received his early Chinese education in his home town before persuading an elder brother to allow him to study at the former Chinese High School in Bukit Timah in 1949.

There, he met another student from Johor, Lim Chin Siong, who at 16 was two years his junior.

They became good friends and together were involved in anti-colonial activities that included boycotting examinations in protest against changes to the education system in Chinese schools then. That resulted in their expulsions from the school, along with 106 other students in 1951. Both continued their struggle against the British colonialists in the trade unions. Mr Fong worked briefly as a clerk and later as a bus conductor before becoming secretary-general of the Singapore Bus Workers’ Union in 1953.

The duo, who became prominent leftist union leaders, were later roped in by then lawyer Lee Kuan Yew, who needed Chinese-educated leaders like them to help him form the PAP in 1954 in order to get support from the majority Chinese- speaking population. Mr Fong became one of the 14 convenors of the party when it was inaugurated in November that year.

Mr Fong came into prominence during the Hock Lee Bus Company strike the following year that he led with Mr Lim.

The strike over the company’s sacking of more than 200 unionised workers ended in a riot that resulted in four people being killed.

Earlier official accounts of the incident had put the blame on the leftist union leaders till the publication of Mr Fong’s memoirs in 2007, when he clarified that it was Gurkha policemen who first used jets of high-pressure water to disperse the striking bus workers, injuring many of them and starting the clashes between policemen and the workers along with the middle-school students who came to support them.

The memoirs in Chinese were also packed with his recollections of events leading to the formation of the PAP and of why he and other leftist leaders left the party to form Barisan Sosialis, as well as stories of his childhood, his years in prison and his retirement in Singapore.

“Of course, I was responsible for the strike but it didn’t mean that I caused the riot,” he also told the authors of Men In White, the book of untold stories of the PAP published two years later in 2009.

For leading the strike and causing the 1955 Hock Lee Bus riot, Mr Fong, together with some union leaders and students, was arrested.

He was detained for about 45 days before his release due to public pressure.

But he was re-arrested a year later in an anti-leftist operation when the Lim Yew Hock government arrested more than 200 pro-communist and leftist union leaders, including several others from the PAP.

They were Lim Chin Siong, who was then PAP legislative asssemblyman for Bukit Timah, S. Woodhull, Devan Nair, James Puthucheary, Chen Say Jame, Chan Chiaw Thor and Tan Chong Kin.

The eight PAP leaders, including Mr Fong, were released only after the party won the 1959 general election in a landslide victory to form the government.

Mr Fong, like the other leftist leaders such as Mr Lim, were given posts as political secretaries in the new PAP government led by Mr Lee as prime minister and his other non-leftist members.

The leftist leaders and Mr Lee’s non-leftist group began to clash over many issues and their differences over Singapore’s merger to form Malaysia led to a split in the party.

Thirteen leftist PAP legislative assemblymen and other leaders, including Mr Fong and Mr Lim, left to form Barisan Sosialis in 1961.

Almost all of the eight PAP leftist leaders released in 1959, except for Mr Chan Chiaw Thor, have passed on with Mr Fong’s demise. His close friend and comrade, Mr Lim Chin Siong, died of a heart attack years ago in 1996, aged 63.

Several of Mr Fong’s leftist comrades from the PAP and Barisan contacted yesterday were not surprised by news of his death.

Mr Goh Boon Toh, 85, also a former trade unionist and PAP leader, said: “I had heard he was in poor health for some time and last visited him at his Bukit Panjang home a few years ago. I will remember him as a dedicated and committed union leader.”

Mr Lim Chin Joo, 80, a retired lawyer and former Chinese middle school student activist who is the younger brother of Mr Lim Chin Siong, said he met Mr Fong and his wife at Pei Chun Chinese Independent School in Johor last June when a building put up in memory of his elder brother was completed.

“He looked weak and his wife said it would be the last time he could travel to Johor,” he recalled.

He added: “To me, Mr Fong belongs to the pioneer generation of Singapore political leaders who were selfless and dedicated to their cause though they were not very highly educated. They contributed significantly to Singapore’s political development, especially in the 1950s and early 1960s.”

Mr Fong’s son, Otto, said he too was proud of his father’s role in Singapore’s politics during the period. He added: “I was born after he left politics in the early 1960s, and so I know him better as a great father and loving husband who doted on his four grandchildren.”

Mr Fong’s wake is being held at the Cherish Hall at Mount Vernon Sanctuary. The funeral will take place tomorrow.

wengkam@sph.com.sg

Read also:
PM Lee sends condolence letter to widow of former leftist union leader Fong Swee Suan
Fong Swee Suan: No reason to feel resentful about past

This article was first published on Feb 6, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

Ms Suzalinah Saidee had just stepped away from her glass-top gas stove while cooking lunch yesterday when she heard a loud sound.

It was her Turbo Italia kitchen hob shattering in her home at Block 420, Pasir Ris Drive 6.

She was boiling meat at around 12.45pm, and had walked five steps away when she had to rush back and turn off the gas.

“I was so shocked,” said the housewife.

“My husband was like: ‘What is happening?'”

Her husband was in the living room, and her three children and domestic helper were all out at the time.

The incident comes one month after Electrolux recalled four models of its glass gas cooker hobs, following reports from customers of glass tops shattering while in use.

Ms Suzalinah said her stove, which she purchased on Jan 11, 2014, had some issues previously.

On two separate occasions, she had to replace the ignition switch.

At 3pm, Ms Suzalinah called her gas supplier, who advised her to turn off the main supply.

At 5pm, she called Best Denki, where she had bought the stove, and was told somebody would be in touch with her.

Ms Suzalinah, 50, said she will not be touching the stove until it has been looked at by the manufacturer.

This article was first published on February 6, 2017.
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A Stomp contributor alerted the citizen journalism website to a video circulating online which shows a monitor lizard in the middle of a busy road in Buangkok.

A netizen recorded a live video of the large reptile on his Facebook page at around 6pm on Feb 3.

In the video, the lizard can be seen motionless on the second lane of the road.

There were several vehicles around it.

According to The Straits Times, the presence of the reptile caused a minor traffic jam.

Drivers had to slow down their vehicles to avoid running over the creature.

A driver said that the monitor lizard had moved to the side of the road when he left the area.

It was however killed later on after getting hit by a car, reported Roads.sg.

Said Deputy chief executive officer of Acres Mr Kalai Vanan: “Water monitor lizards are commonly found throughout the island. Unfortunately, because we are heavily urbanised, wild animals often get stranded, and in this case, fall victims to traffic accidents.”

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