Me. Myself & i

i woke up two mornings ago to see the headlines of NKF's suit against SPH. I thought to myself 'you must be kidding me man'. After reading the article and checking the date, ensuring myself it wasn't April, I laughed. HAhahah I couldn't believe NKF would have taken such a dumb step. Not only did they sue somebody for defamation, knowing damn well they have a gold plated tap in one of their washroom, they sued the newspaper! And not any paper, they were going against the major (and probably only one) newspaper publisher in Singapore. If this was a publicity stunt (albeit negative), NKF has definitely gotten it.

Anyway, the next day's (yesterday) report on the trial only reaffirmed my belief that NKF was going down and making a fool of itself on the way. The inaccurate assertion of how long the reserve could last them and the number of patients were so clearly fraudulent, intentional. Mr Durai actually maintain there was no intent to decieve, because they honestly believed that they should raise as much money to help the patient. FOR GOD'S SAKE, STOP USING THE PATIENTS AS AN EXCUSE!!!!!!! Out of the 62 million that they have raised, only 37 million went to the patients (as of their homepage). by this percentage, with more money that they raised, the amount being 'lost' will increase proportionately as well. Because our dear executive director recieves his bonus according to his performance, and most probably, he is not the only one.

He has made more than a few attempts to justify what he did, what he recieved because of his work for the organisation. 10 to 12months bonus, 8 cars to choose from with drivers included, maintenance fees and road tax for his Mercs, flying first class. Executive privileges that he claimed he is entitled to.
Who granted these privileges? Was he the only one in charged? Who are the board of directors and why are they there? What are they doing when all these happens?

Well, at least there are some really important people on his side, like Mrs Goh Chok Tong (i'd really love to use her maiden name, but i can't find it). She said, and i quote "For a person who runs a million-dollar charitable organisation, $600,000 is peanuts as it has a few hundred millions in reserves." With all due respect to Mr Goh (yes i mean Mr.), i was simply appalled by what she said. How can you justify Mr Durai's yearly income by comparing it with the reserves in the organisation, he is running a CHARITABLE organisation, not some MNCs with high turnover rate. These are the money that people scrimp and save, who donated despite the economic downturn, despite retrenchment. These money were donated with the belief that most of it will be put into good use, with compassion, with love. I cannot believe how irresponsible of her to say something like that. Statistics have also shown that in Singapore, the people who donate are mostly middle class and below. Middle class usually earn at most 3 to 4000 a month, a yearly income of 36 to 48 000. Even with a bonus of 5 months, we are only looking at 42 to 68000. So if 600,000 is peanuts, wat den is the people earning? Ikan Bilis? Or Hei Bi (hokkien for dried prawns)?

I am not advocating that the organisation should look tattered and run down, that the executive director should only take the minimum wages with a 8 year old car instead. I believe that the organisation has to look presentable because the place recieves important people. There is no need to strip to bare neccesities. But a $1000 toilet bowl and a $990 tap are too much, definitely. I also believe that a simple image can actually win u more donations, taking away the the prizes.

Of course, we cannot forget what NKF has done for the patients and what it was set up to do. However, if the organisation cannot admit that it has decieved the public (no reason can justify the deception) and promise transparency. It will definitely lose the majority of donations. Well, it can definitely depend on people donating for the condominium, cars and what not. But i'm sure it will not be enough to cover their expenses to buy the cars etc.

As my contract tutor once said
"It is a choice; either you choose to donate to an organisation which has transparency or you donate to one which doesn't but can actually help people."

Good job SPH