Many Singaporean parents are focused on their children’s endless pursuit of degrees.

But Mr David Heng, 42, has a different set of expectations for 12-year-old Nicholas.

Rather than getting into a good school, Mr Heng just hopes for his son to be independent, tenacious and self-sufficient.

Nicholas has cerebral palsy, mild autism and slightly lower cognitive function than his peers.

Cerebral palsy is a condition that affects his motor skills, and he has to move around in a wheelchair. Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder inclusive of a spectrum of skills, symptoms and levels of disability.

Said Mr Heng, an education and career guidance counsellor: “Grades wise, it’s nice to have, but in the long run, being independent and finding purpose in life… that’s what we hope he can really achieve.”

Yesterday morning, before collecting his Primary School Leaving Examination results, the Xishan Primary pupil said: “I am 50 per cent nervous, but I think I can get into a Normal (Academic) stream.”

And he did.

While heartened, Mr Heng told The New Paper: “I won’t compare him with the other kids. But I want him to always try his best, and put in all his effort to do his part.”

It is a goal Mr Heng and his wife, Madam Yee Lai Peng, set for their son shortly after he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 18 months.

Mr Heng said: “Sometimes I don’t dare to think about it. Both of us will grow old.

“He has a (younger) brother but it’s very unfair on him too. Of course we hope he will eventually be independent, feed himself and take care of his daily routine.”

To better care for Nicholas, Madam Yee, 39, quit her accounting job after he was born.

She said in Mandarin: “When he was born premature, I knew his health would suffer. I wanted to be there every step of the way with him until he can be independent.”

Her relationship with Nicholas was initially fraught with misunderstandings.

“When we wanted him to wear his own clothes even though he found it difficult, he got angry. We insisted because we wanted him to learn to be independent, but he didn’t understand,” she said quietly.

Things only improved slightly when Nicholas grew older and began to understand his parents’ intentions.

Said Madam Yee: “As parents, we came to realise that we also have to explain why we are making him do certain things. Through helping him learn, we learnt to be patient ourselves as well.”

In school, teachers and Nicholas’ peers chipped in.

Xishan Primary’s allied educator Wilson Ting, for instance, spent time tailoring the Physical Education curriculum to make sure Nicholas could move his muscles as much as possible.

“I’ve seen many improvements in him over the years. He used to fall when using crutches and, sometimes, the walker… In Primary 6, not once did he fall while walking,” Mr Ting said.

MOVING UP

Now, even climbing up the stairs while holding the railing for support is no problem for Nicholas, said the allied educator in learning and behavioural science.

“He can basically do it himself. It’s just that someone needs to help him carry his crutches when he’s climbing the stairs,” Mr Ting said.

Only when the school day ends does Nicholas use his wheelchair for his daily commute home.

The progress Nicholas has made is clear, but there is still some way to go, Mr Heng said.

He added that it now takes a lot more persuasion and convincing in negotiating for Nicholas to complete his daily tasks.

Nicholas said he hopes to be a reporter when he grows up because he likes to talk – an area Mr Heng is hoping to help his son develop in.

“Maybe he can do something in journalism, or even be an inspirational speaker… Swimming is also something he likes so we try as much as possible to let him participate in that. Maybe another Paralympian?” he said with a smile.

For a boy aged just 12, Sri John Albert David has lived a hard life.

It is a life that has shaped him to be the focused, strong young man of the house.

His parents abandoned him to the care of his grandparents when he was six months old.

His grandfather has kidney failure, which was diagnosed about 13 years ago when he was hospitalised for a high fever.

Sri John was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was in Primary 5.

Yesterday, the Da Qiao Primary schoolboy had his breakthrough moment.

Sri John, who had failed all his subjects in Primary 4 and 5, scored two Grade 1s and two Grade 2s for his PSLE foundational, becoming the only one of eight pure foundational pupils in his class who can enter the Normal (Academic) stream in secondary school.

“My hard work has really paid off. I’m so happy I got a choice of Normal Academic and Normal Technical,” said Sri John, who has not met his parents since they left.

The boy and his elder sister, an ITE student, live in a one-room HDB flat in Ang Mo Kio with their grandparents.

The family lives on Sri John’s grandmother’s salary as a dishwasher at Marina Bay Sands, and financial assistance from the government.

His grandmother, Madam C. Vijayalatchmi, 59, who is diabetic, earns $1,500 a month.

She said: “It’s not enough, but we can’t do anything about it.”

She said that the $1,900 a month the family receives from the Community Development Council (CDC) helps a lot.

Her husband, Mr George John, 68, does not work because of his kidney failure caused by a history of drinking alcohol, which he said began when his daughter abandoned her first child with him.

“I was so stressed that I got addicted to drinking,” said Mr John, who stopped drinking after his kidneys failed.

The couple said that they still do not know why their daughter left her children.

They appreciate how the boy has grown to take on responsibilities at home.

Three times a week after school, Sri John helps his sick grandfather by walking him home after his dialysis treatments at the Pei Hwa Foundation-NKF Dialysis Centre in Ang Mo Kio.

His grandfather added that Sri John, who sometimes goes to sleep with him, will wake up no matter how late it is to make a sweet drink whenever the older man starts trembling from low blood sugar.

“I call him my right hand man. Anything I tell him to do, he will do it,” said Mr John.

However, Mr John regretted scolding Sri John when he was growing up and calling his grandson “lazy” whenever he did not do his homework.

Madam Vijayalatchmi said: “He would say that he doesn’t know how to do the homework and cry. We used to get very angry.”

TURNING POINT

The turning point came only in March, when Sri John’s Primary 6 form teacher, Mrs Chitra Devi Guna, alerted the family to the severity of the boy’s dyslexia, a learning difficulty that affects a person’s skills in reading and spelling.

Mrs Guna, 44, convinced the reluctant grandparents to allow him to drop to the foundational stream.

With the help of specialised teaching, Sri John’s studies improved dramatically and he started to grow in confidence.

Sri John, who previously spent his afternoons watching television, would meet his group of friends at a nearby resident’s corner for revision and would ask Mrs Guna for extra homework.

The teacher told TNP: “The students see him as a role model. He has brought so much positiveness in this class.”

Sri John also had tuition for all of his subjects and went to the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DSA) regularly because of his condition.

“He’s the young man of the family,” said Mr John.

“He’s bloomed already when before he was just a bud.”

This scaly wild creature found its way back to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, with the help of three men and a woman.

The crocodile got stuck after it ventured into the drain of a fish farm at Lim Chu Kang last Friday.

The full-grown crocodile, named Diley by its rescuers from animal welfare group Acres, was about 3m long and weighed about 70kg.

Its sex is unknown. The team did not have time to check because it wanted to release the reptile into the wild as fast as possible.

Mr Kalai Balakrishnan, 30, wildlife group director of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), told The New Paper that Diley was the first crocodile they have caught this year.

Workers of the fish farm had approached Acres for help after spotting the creature at about 8.30am.

It took four people nearly an hour to catch the reptile and release it back into its natural habitat.

Mr Kalai said most of the time taken was spent planning how to restrain it.

First, they threw a towel over the crocodile to cover its eyes and avoid giving it too much stress.

One of the rescue workers sat on the crocodile’s back as Mr Kalai tied a rope around its snout.

He said: “Securing the mouth was important as we couldn’t afford to get bitten.

“It is a strong creature and some force was needed to secure it.

“But we are trained to handle wild animals and we are aware that it can get aggressive if it feels threatened.

“We didn’t want it to feel too stressed as well because it could die from shock.”

After the crocodile was caught, it was passed through a gap in the fence and released back to the reserve.

Diley is an estuarine (saltwater) crocodile, a species which is known to swim in the Straits of Johor and to feed and rest in mangroves, freshwater ponds and lakes.

The species has been spotted at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and the northern coasts of Singapore.

Full-grown male estuarine crocodiles can grow up to 7m long and weigh 450kg, while females can grow up to 4m and weigh 80kg.

Mr Kalai, who has worked in Acres for six years, said it is the third crocodile he has rescued

He said: “These are endangered species that need to be protected. They will attack only if they are provoked.”

WARNING SIGNS

An advisory on the National Parks website states that the creatures are usually found in the water or at the mudflats away from visitor routes.

There are also warning signs and notices posted at areas where they are most often seen.

The public should to stay on visitor routes and not venture off the designated paths.

Mr Ben Lee, founder of conservation group Nature Trekker, estimates that the numbers of estuarine crocodiles in Sungei Buloh has increased three-fold over the past 10 years.

He declined to give exact figures.

The nature lover, who has been visiting the nature reserve at least once a week for the past 20 years, said he once spotted a 4m-long “monster”.

He said: “Sungei Buloh is a haven for bird watching, but some people have come here just to look out for crocodiles.

“There is a mix of shock and fascination whenever they spot a crocodile from the boardwalk.”

These are endangered species that need to be protected. They will attack only if 
they are provoked.


– Mr Kalai Balakrishnan, wildlife group director of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, on crocodiles

For some people, time heals.

Not so, for Madam Daliah Aim, 66.

Though more than 35 years have passed since her eldest child was murdered, the mother of three still cannot talk about him without crying.

In fact, she was so devastated that this is her first interview since the murder in 1981.

She broke down several times during her interview with The New Paper, still deep in grief.

On Feb 6, that year, her first-born, Ghazali Marzuki, 10, was brutally killed by one of Singapore’s most notorious murderers, Adrian Lim, 39, abetted by his wife Catherine Tan Mui Choo, 26, and his mistress Hoe Kah Hong, 25.

Ghazali was their second victim. He was drugged, choked, then drowned. There were also burn marks on his back and a puncture on his arm.

Just days before his murder, Lim,Tan and Hoe also tortured and killed Agnes Ng Siew Hock, nine.

The trio were executed exactly 28 years ago today.

Speaking to TNP in her Bukit Panjang flat last month, Madam Daliah said she was so consumed by grief she suffered fainting spells. She got better only about two years ago.

Dabbing tears from her eyes, the cleaner told TNP: “In the past, whenever I thought about him, my mind would suddenly go blank and I would feel everything turning darker.

“I’ve lost count of how many times I blacked out. I fainted at my workplace and on the bus. Luckily, there were always kind people around to help me.”

The widow said there were times when family members have tried to help her by advising her to let go of the past.

She told TNP: “I told them they would never understand what I’m going through.

‘BRUTALLY MURDERED’

“They’ve never had a son who died in such a terrible way. My poor Ghazali had been brutally murdered.”

Madam Daliah has two surviving children.

Ghazali’s sister is now 41 while his brother is 39.

Both are married with their own families.

Madam Daliah will never forget the day Ghazali went missing after visiting his grandmother in Clementi during the Chinese New Year holidays in 1981.

He had gone downstairs on Feb 6 to play with his two cousins.

But Ghazali was nowhere to be found when the two older boys came home later.

When asked where he was, they refused to answer.

The truth only emerged after their parents slapped them – demanding answers.

It turned out Ghazali had followed a woman – later revealed to be Hoe – who had asked him to help her with some errands.

The family searched frantically around the neighbourhood without success.

Madam Daliah told TNP: “I always warned him not to follow strangers, and he’s usually such an obedient boy. I don’t know why he did that.

“I even went to several mosques asking for divine help.

“After prayers were done, one man told me to prepare for the worst. I was devastated.”

The next day, police officers came to her home to say Ghazali’s body had been found in Toa Payoh.

She told TNP: “I totally lost it. I was so consumed by grief that I had to be sedated.”

She recalled falling in and out of consciousness several times over the next few days.

Her husband did not allow her to go to Ghazali’s funeral and from then on, tried to shield her from details of the gruesome way in which he was killed.

One of her four grandchildren, student Iskandar Rossali, 19, told TNP that he found out about his family’s link with the Adrian Lim case only when he was nine.

He said: “I was watching TV at home with my mother when a segment about the murders came on.

“She turned to me and said, ‘Do you know Ghazali was my brother? He was your uncle.’

“I couldn’t believe it and read up about the case.”

He said he was furious when he found out how his uncle had died.

He told TNP: “He was killed in an inhumane manner. Now, I try to cheer Nenek (grandmother in Malay) up whenever she gets sad. My uncle didn’t deserve to die that way.

“Adrian Lim and the two women were monsters.”

Madam Daliah still finds it hard to forgive the trio and visits Ghazali’s grave at Lim Chu Kang Cemetery several times a month.

She said: “He was such a good boy. Many years have passed and I still miss him. I can still hear his voice whenever I’m alone.

“But I know he’s in a better place now.”

In the past, whenever I thought about him, my mind would suddenly go blank and I would feel everything turning darker.

– Madam Daliah Aim, the mother of Ghazali Marzuki, one of Adrian Lim’s victims

This scaly wild creature found its way back to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, with the help of three men and a woman.

The crocodile got stuck after it ventured into the drain of a fish farm at Lim Chu Kang last Friday.

The full-grown crocodile, named Diley by its rescuers from animal welfare group Acres, was about 3m long and weighed about 70kg.

Its sex is unknown. The team did not have time to check because it wanted to release the reptile into the wild as fast as possible.

Mr Kalai Balakrishnan, 30, wildlife group director of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), told The New Paper that Diley was the first crocodile they have caught this year.

Workers of the fish farm had approached Acres for help after spotting the creature at about 8.30am.

It took four people nearly an hour to catch the reptile and release it back into its natural habitat.

Mr Kalai said most of the time taken was spent planning how to restrain it.

First, they threw a towel over the crocodile to cover its eyes and avoid giving it too much stress.

One of the rescue workers sat on the crocodile’s back as Mr Kalai tied a rope around its snout.

He said: “Securing the mouth was important as we couldn’t afford to get bitten.

“It is a strong creature and some force was needed to secure it.

“But we are trained to handle wild animals and we are aware that it can get aggressive if it feels threatened.

“We didn’t want it to feel too stressed as well because it could die from shock.”

After the crocodile was caught, it was passed through a gap in the fence and released back to the reserve.

Diley is an estuarine (saltwater) crocodile, a species which is known to swim in the Straits of Johor and to feed and rest in mangroves, freshwater ponds and lakes.

The species has been spotted at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and the northern coasts of Singapore.

Full-grown male estuarine crocodiles can grow up to 7m long and weigh 450kg, while females can grow up to 4m and weigh 80kg.

Mr Kalai, who has worked in Acres for six years, said it is the third crocodile he has rescued

He said: “These are endangered species that need to be protected. They will attack only if they are provoked.”

WARNING SIGNS

An advisory on the National Parks website states that the creatures are usually found in the water or at the mudflats away from visitor routes.

There are also warning signs and notices posted at areas where they are most often seen.

The public should to stay on visitor routes and not venture off the designated paths.

Mr Ben Lee, founder of conservation group Nature Trekker, estimates that the numbers of estuarine crocodiles in Sungei Buloh has increased three-fold over the past 10 years.

He declined to give exact figures.

The nature lover, who has been visiting the nature reserve at least once a week for the past 20 years, said he once spotted a 4m-long “monster”.

He said: “Sungei Buloh is a haven for bird watching, but some people have come here just to look out for crocodiles.

“There is a mix of shock and fascination whenever they spot a crocodile from the boardwalk.”

These are endangered species that need to be protected. They will attack only if 
they are provoked.


– Mr Kalai Balakrishnan, wildlife group director of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, on crocodiles

For some people, time heals.

Not so, for Madam Daliah Aim, 66.

Though more than 35 years have passed since her eldest child was murdered, the mother of three still cannot talk about him without crying.

In fact, she was so devastated that this is her first interview since the murder in 1981.

She broke down several times during her interview with The New Paper, still deep in grief.

On Feb 6, that year, her first-born, Ghazali Marzuki, 10, was brutally killed by one of Singapore’s most notorious murderers, Adrian Lim, 39, abetted by his wife Catherine Tan Mui Choo, 26, and his mistress Hoe Kah Hong, 25.

Ghazali was their second victim. He was drugged, choked, then drowned. There were also burn marks on his back and a puncture on his arm.

Just days before his murder, Lim,Tan and Hoe also tortured and killed Agnes Ng Siew Hock, nine.

The trio were executed exactly 28 years ago today. (See report)

Speaking to TNP in her Bukit Panjang flat last month, Madam Daliah said she was so consumed by grief she suffered fainting spells. She got better only about two years ago.

Dabbing tears from her eyes, the cleaner told TNP: “In the past, whenever I thought about him, my mind would suddenly go blank and I would feel everything turning darker.

“I’ve lost count of how many times I blacked out. I fainted at my workplace and on the bus. Luckily, there were always kind people around to help me.”

The widow said there were times when family members have tried to help her by advising her to let go of the past.

She told TNP: “I told them they would never understand what I’m going through.

‘BRUTALLY MURDERED’

“They’ve never had a son who died in such a terrible way. My poor Ghazali had been brutally murdered.”

Madam Daliah has two surviving children.

Ghazali’s sister is now 41 while his brother is 39.

Both are married with their own families.

Madam Daliah will never forget the day Ghazali went missing after visiting his grandmother in Clementi during the Chinese New Year holidays in 1981.

He had gone downstairs on Feb 6 to play with his two cousins.

But Ghazali was nowhere to be found when the two older boys came home later.

When asked where he was, they refused to answer.

The truth only emerged after their parents slapped them – demanding answers.

It turned out Ghazali had followed a woman – later revealed to be Hoe – who had asked him to help her with some errands.

The family searched frantically around the neighbourhood without success.

Madam Daliah told TNP: “I always warned him not to follow strangers, and he’s usually such an obedient boy. I don’t know why he did that.

“I even went to several mosques asking for divine help.

“After prayers were done, one man told me to prepare for the worst. I was devastated.”

The next day, police officers came to her home to say Ghazali’s body had been found in Toa Payoh.

She told TNP: “I totally lost it. I was so consumed by grief that I had to be sedated.”

She recalled falling in and out of consciousness several times over the next few days.

Her husband did not allow her to go to Ghazali’s funeral and from then on, tried to shield her from details of the gruesome way in which he was killed.

One of her four grandchildren, student Iskandar Rossali, 19, told TNP that he found out about his family’s link with the Adrian Lim case only when he was nine.

He said: “I was watching TV at home with my mother when a segment about the murders came on.

“She turned to me and said, ‘Do you know Ghazali was my brother? He was your uncle.’

“I couldn’t believe it and read up about the case.”

He said he was furious when he found out how his uncle had died.

He told TNP: “He was killed in an inhumane manner. Now, I try to cheer Nenek (grandmother in Malay) up whenever she gets sad. My uncle didn’t deserve to die that way.

“Adrian Lim and the two women were monsters.”

Madam Daliah still finds it hard to forgive the trio and visits Ghazali’s grave at Lim Chu Kang Cemetery several times a month.

She said: “He was such a good boy. Many years have passed and I still miss him. I can still hear his voice whenever I’m alone.

“But I know he’s in a better place now.”

In the past, whenever I thought about him, my mind would suddenly go blank and I would feel everything turning darker.

– Madam Daliah Aim, the mother of Ghazali Marzuki, one of Adrian Lim’s victims