‘Homeless’ couple still in website’s spotlight.
The Online Citizen gives more details on their housing situation.
By Rachel Chang
A PROMINENT local website has taken up the gauntlet thrown down by a Cabinet minister over the issue of a homeless couple living in a tent.
On Tuesday, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan lambasted a short programme by Arabic TV news network Al-Jazeera in Parliament.
The two-minute clip features a couple allegedly forced onto the streets by government bureaucracy.
Dr Balakrishnan questioned the accuracy of the report, saying that the couple were not as destitute as the Al-Jazeera report alleged, nor had they been left in the lurch by government agencies.
He said the man had made about $220,000 from the sale of three HDB flats, and the woman is still the co-owner of an HDB flat with her ex-husband.
This made her and her present partner ineligible for public rental housing.
Dr Balakrishnan also berated ‘irresponsible websites’ for circulating the clip.
‘Now that the facts are out, let’s see whether these people who’ve been propagating falsehoods have the courage and honesty to set the facts right,’ he said, referring both to the TV station and the website.
The socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC), which has carried a series of articles on the homeless camping out in parks, responded by approaching the couple. The website also revealed that it had been working with the couple since January to help find shelter for them.
The result was a lengthy two-part article on Wednesday and yesterday, which among other things gave details of the couple’s flat transactions. The article carried no byline.
Mr Andrew Loh, the website’s editor-in-chief, told The Straits Times yesterday that the article was a ‘team effort’ and that was why it carried no byline. He declined to provide more information about the couple or how they had come to know them.
The man was identified only by a fictitious name, Eddie, and the woman by her first name, Samiah.
After interviewing the couple, TOC provided its own approximation of how the sum of $220,000 might have been arrived at.
It said this was over a period of 20 years, and much of the profit from each sale went to paying off debts and loans.
Asked for its response to this information yesterday, Dr Balakrishnan’s press secretary Ho Moon Shin said ‘the profits made by selling the flats are a matter of record’.
TOC’s article on April 29 said it had spent ‘many hours’ with this couple ‘since January this year’.
‘We have approached various organisations, including MCYS, to try to help them find a home. We have done this in the belief that the Government would be able to assist the couple.’
Dr Balakrishnan said in Parliament on April 27 that the couple had been offered a place at a shelter run by New Hope Community Services, but they turned it down.
TOC said in its April 30 article that the shelter would not let the couple live together as they are not legally married.
In the meantime, MCYS also called into question Al-Jazeera’s journalistic tactics. It said that the woman had informed them that she ‘was not aware that Al-Jazeera had recorded her statement for the purpose of broadcasting’.
She had thought they were welfare volunteers.
‘If this is indeed the case, then Al-Jazeera… stands guilty of abusing the trust of the interviewee and unprofessional conduct.’
It also slammed as ‘illogical’ Al-Jazeera’s claim that its report was factually correct, and that the real point of it was to illustrate ‘how the safety net in Singapore sometimes fails to catch those who have fallen on hard times… because of the rules governing access to assistance’.
This is because the couple continue to receive financial and social assistance from various help outfits, for example the South West Community Development Council.
In fact, said MCYS, the episode ‘illustrates an accessible, flexible and responsive safety net for Singaporeans’.
‘Homelessness is a complex problem. It is not simply a matter of offering subsidies ad infinitum. The Government is committed to ensuring that every Singaporean has proper housing and will continue to provide appropriate assistance. Our approach is based on the time-tested values of hard work, thrift, self-reliance, family responsibility and community support for those in need,’ it added.
The Straits Times understands that both TOC and MCYS remain in contact with the couple.
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The art of reporting without really reporting, much that is.
Anyways, I find it strange that MCYS assertion that the lady claimed that she didn’t know she was being interviewed for tv, when it was clearly the case, as shown in her appearance in the video. Who’s distorting the facts, I wonder?
Please do not insult our intelligence, MCYS!
I like to read both traditional news and online news to get different perspectives of an issue.
And Singapore boast that we are a’world class’ country, with a ‘world class’ civil service.
‘WORLD CLASS’ INDEED.
‘WORLD CLASS’ AT IGNORING THE HANDICAP, NEEDY POOR, HOMELESS ETC.
AND WE HAVE MINISTER IN CHARGE OF SOCIAL WELFARE, WHO IMAGINES THAT
”……..If you were a poor person, anywhere on this planet,
Singapore is the one place ………, where you will have food on the table. Even if you can’t afford it, we will have meals delivered to you.”
Seems that Clementi area has lots of shake legs Ministers yeah.
I think TOC has done a good job here by providing an alternate view of the homeless situation.
Keep up the good work guys!
This is good publicity for TOC.
More Singaporeans will want to view TOC out of curiousity.
So, it will be in the best interest of TOC to start moderating the racist, bigoted, prejudiced and jaundiced views of some of the posters here, that we have seen for so long.
Singapore should be for ALL Singaporeans. And ALL Singaporeans (regardless of race, language and religion) should have EQUAL RIGHTS to good education and job opportunities.
Institutional/Racial Discriminatory organisations like CDC, Sinda and Mendaki should be dismantled and only ONE organisation should be established for ALL Singaporeans.
Another depressing whitewash from the Straits Times.
It pretends to be a report on TOC’s response to Balakrishnan, but actually spends most of the article parroting MCYS’s statement.
Did MCYS really contact the woman in question? And did she really say that she ‘was not aware that Al-Jazeera had recorded her statement for the purpose of broadcasting’. Who said this? MCYS or the woman?
There are 3 points here:
1. TOC contacted the woman in question yesterday (30 April) and she told them SHE HAD NOT HAD ANY CONTACT WITH MCYS OFFICIALS AT ALL.
2. Straits Times calls itself a “Newspaper”, the people who work there call themselves “journalists”. Shouldn’t they be interviewing the woman THEMSELVES and getting her quotes, rather than parroting MCYS’s claim to have spoken to her?
3. Look at the Al Jazeera Report again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjC_QLvgI6k&feature=related
A reporter arrives with cameraman in tow, camera, lights, sound equipment, then the reporter does an interview with the woman, films the couple putting up their tent, and does a “piece to camera” right in front of the couple’s tent. Do they really expect us to believe that the woman ‘was not aware that Al-Jazeera had recorded her statement for the purpose of broadcasting’. COME ON MCYS, DO YOU THINK WE’RE STUPID?
And now the Straits Times is even questioning if the couple is Homeless at all! Notice how they’ve put the word “homeless” in quotation marks in the title of their piece. What? Now Al Jazeera just pulled a couple off the street, bought them a tent, took them to a National Park and told them to ACT AS IF THEY ARE HOMELESS?
It makes you sick, all the distortions of the truth we are subjected to.
you just cannot trust those ministers from the papies anymore cos they are all so trained to tell lies aafter lies these days, even if those facts are already there, they can still continue lying without feeling any guilt themselves.
Stop press – you saw this here first.
This case is the perfect example of how the 1-day cooling off period is going to work. VB’s statement in parliament (or in the press will be issued during the cooling off period. And it will be the last salvo in the MSM. Any rebuttal by anyone or the opposition will be carried, if at all, until after the elections, by which time it will be too late.
/// Asked for its response to this information yesterday, Dr Balakrishnan’s press secretary Ho Moon Shin said ‘the profits made by selling the flats are a matter of record’. ///
What a lame excuse and cop out.
A matter of record – but is it a matter of PUBLIC record?
A huge portion of the “profits” went into the Minimum Sum. The pertinent questions are:
1) Can the minimum sum be used to pay for food, rental, etc?
2) The accrued interests have to be paid back to CPF.
“Our approach is based on the time-tested values of hard work, thrift, self-reliance, family responsibility and community support for those in need,’ it added.”
TOC kok. Are you sure you’re barking up the right issue and championing the right cause?
There again, if the “cause” you are championing fulfilled the values of MCYS’s, there wouldn’t be an issue would it?
I don’t even want to discuss the “AJ tricked her into an interview!” part because that is so OBVIOUSLY not true, as highlighted by james.
But what confuses me is this:
MCYS slammed AJ’s claim that the safety net fails to catch certain people as “illogical”, because the couple are receiving financial assistance from the SW CDC.
But as the TOC report has shown, the financial assistance is NOT ENOUGH for the couple to be able to afford an open market rental flat, much less to BUY a new home.
So how does this demonstrate the commitment of MCYS to make sure that everyone has “proper housing”?
So they think that if they just throw you a bone ALL your problems has to magically disappear?
The question at the end of the day needs to be this: WHY ARE THE COUPLE STILL HOMELESS AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Mcys cannot be trusted to do thier job well since VB himself has become a huge liability to the pap gov and just like ex transport minister’ mounting debt speculating in properties. VB is as rubbish as he gets. Vote him out!
in weighing the different topics to rebut/report from TOC, temasekreview etc, the authorities have targeted this homelessness topic because they think they have the highest chance of rebutting.
as for other topics, e.g. justifying high flat prices, they steer very clear because of the hopelessness of trying to defend themselves. by not giving attention to other topics, they hope to make them disappear, and harp on how 72% of people are “happy” (read: resigned) to live in flats mainly because of “housing cost” (i.e. they got priced out of the market, so they have no choice), whereas in the recent past, 60% odd were resigned because the rest (30+%) still had hope to better their lives because “housing cost” was not such an issue.
@James: calling those ST ‘journalists’ journalist is an insult to journalists.
And ST is only useful for packing nasi lemak (I’ll lose my appetite though)
IMH can conduct a survey on the papaya mental disorder. Recently, they seems to exhibit strong signs of:
* He or she has a grandiose sense of self-importance (exaggerates accomplishments and demands to be considered superior without real evidence of achievement).
* He or she lives in a dream world of exceptional success, power, beauty, genius, or “perfect” love.
* He or she thinks of him- or herself as “special” or privileged, and that he or she can only be understood by other special or high-status people.
* He or she demands excessive amounts of praise or admiration from others.
* He or she feels entitled to automatic deference, compliance , or favorable treatment from others.
* He or she is exploitative towards others and takes advantage of them.
* He or she lacks empathy and does not recognize or identify with others’ feelings.
* He or she is frequently envious of others or thinks that they are envious of him or her.
* He or she “has an attitude” or frequently acts in haughty or arrogant ways.
Clearly this is Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), we are paying for rotten papayas !
This is the truth, see
http://www.minddisorders.com/Kau-Nu/Narcissistic-personality-disorder.html
Quite disappointing effort from ST. Just parroting MCYS and TOC statements. One would think that with their resources, ST would conduct their own interview with the couple and give readers another opinion. Come up with a deeper scoop of this issue since it is within the geographical boundaries of Singapore. What, not within the political boundaries for ST to operate in?? Tsk, Tsk.. just waste another $1 today.
ST QUOTE: “Asked for its response to this information yesterday, Dr Balakrishnan’s press secretary Ho Moon Shin said ‘the profits made by selling the flats are a matter of record’.”
This is the perfect example of a non-statement.
TOC has already revealed the couple spent most of the profits paying debts. This point was deliberately left out by Vivian B when he highlighted the couple in Parliament.
Tell me who is being intellectually dishonest here.
DAY 5 since Bala’s Parliament humiliation of the couple in Parliament on 27 April.
DO YOU SEE OUR “DEPENDABLE” STRAITS TIMES “ASCERTAINING THE FACTS” BY TALKING TO THE COUPLE?????
All our mainstream media does is PARROT what the govt (MCYS) say and that is all?
My gosh. I don’t want to say bad things about reporters by come on, IT’S BEEN 5 DAYS since Bala’s humiliation of the couple!
Poor means no need to talk? Homeless means no right to talk?
I can imagine all our reporters sitting in their air-conditioned office waiting for MCYS to feed it “news” and “facts”.
What nonsense.
So funny. The picture of the ST report Vivian Bala say, “Tell me, if someone needs help.”
Now ST know got a homeless couple out there.
But ST sit on their a**? How come never go out find the couple and tell Bala whether they need help or not?
ST, you are funny – and sad.
Again so funny.
Vivian say couple got $220,000.
He character assassinate them in Parliament.
Then Vivian also say CDC give them money.
HUH????
If got $220,000, CDC still give money for what???
So simple. So funny.
Vivian, you’re FIRED for being stupid!
ST, you’re also FIRED for not “ascertaining the facts”!!
EEEEEEEeeeee !! Please don’t show me photos of VB anymore ! Can’t stand his face….Please no more pictures of VB. Pisses me off.
Politician and lies…
read it here:
http://www.perkel.com/politics/lies.htm
Well done ST…
TOC should be happy that it is getting publicity in the MSM.
Looks like Vivian is put out to dry.
I wonder how MCYS can solve these issues without HDB’s assistance.
QUOTE-
” ………let’s see whether these people who’ve been propagating falsehoods have the courage and honesty to set the facts right,’ he said, referring both to the TV station and the website.”
To – MCYS MINISTER, DR. VIVIVIAN BALAKRISHNAN
WHAT ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID BELOW?
NO FALSEHOODS?
“If you were a poor person, anywhere on this planet, Singapore is the one place ………, where you will have food on the table.
EVEN IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT WE WILL HAVE MEALS DELIVERED TO YOU.
[ http://zh.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/394784?page=1 ]
DR. VIVIVIAN BALAKRISHNAN, MCYS MINISTER, SO DO YOU,
”…… have the courage and honesty to set the facts right,….’’
What’s wrong with having a few odd homeless ones out of millions of owners?
abcd 1 May 2010 What’s wrong with having a few odd homeless ones out of millions of owners?
………………………
you meant just a few of of a few million$
you talked as though you are leehsienhloong the prime minister
machiam machiam..i earned $350,000/month out of a few thousands prime ministers
who actualLEE outperformed himself..
‘’ No child in S’pore will be left without a home, says Dr Balakrishnan ‘’
http://app.reach.gov.sg/reach/YourSay/YourDiscussionCorner/tabid/117/ptid/414/page/1/totrecs/15/threadid/3206/forumtype/posts/Default.aspx
” Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, said:
………..if you were a poor person, anywhere on this planet, Singapore is the one place where you will have a roof over your head, ……..”
http://zh.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/394784?page=1
In computing the homeless couple so called phantom “wealth” from sale of HDB flat over 20 years, Vivian Bala must have been thinking about his bank’s interest rate accumulating in his Swiss private bank account growing bigger every year from his million dollar salary.
Vivian thinks that interest rate can be accumulated easily on the Phantom $200,000 plus profit that the homeless couple “made”. Little does Vivian know that common people like us have to feed families & slog like mad to feed people like you Vivian so that you can earn your million bucks a year!
Happy now, Vivian Bala & PAP doggies!
myviewsareERECTED 1 May 2010,
No system can be perfect, buddy.
Incredulous: Well said!
But since TOC never acted on that one can suspect that they share the bigot, racist views posted here.
Some rules are there to check on abuses. You can’t have the cake and still eat it.
The girl can force a sale on her co-owned HDB. They can get married legally to stay together in the home, or they can just stay in separate rooms for the time being, while they sort their financial problems out.
What’s their fuss?
//abcd,
Of course there’s nothing wrong with a few homeless here and there!!
But didn’t you hear what our dear MCYS minister said??
Many posts here and elsewhere have repeatedly quoted his infamous boastful comment.
Here goes “There are no homeless in Singapore,everyone has a roof over his head.If you come across any, show me”
The problem here is,some people have discovered that there ARE homeless out there, and drew his attention to it, in accordance to what he had uttered.
Instead of addmitting that there are actually homeless people out there,he is trying to cover-up the twist the whole issue and blame others of ‘falsehood.’
Well, now the ball is in his court, let’s
see what stuff he’s made of!!
If Vivian Balakrishan is a good MCYS Minister, he would never ignore calls posted at the government ‘REACH’ Forum to help handicap people, frail/eldery folks.
Vivian Balkrishnan has TOTALLY LOST TOUCH with the common Sngaporeans.
http://app.reach.gov.sg/reach/YourSay/REACHsDiscussionCorner/tabid/116/ptid/404/page/2147483647/threadid/3261/forumtype/posts/Default.aspx
To – MINISTER MCYS, DO WHAT DUTY – IGNORING ……
Posted : 31/03/2010 6:19 PM
[ Extracted from -
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/04/tocs-response-part-two-a-tidy-sum/comment-page-1/#comment-143383 ]
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=2579980
Dr VB, what a tragic descent to filth. Used to be my hero, but now just a sychopant to his master dog, tsk tsk tsk…
Guess the million dollar salary must have got the better of him.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”-Upton Sinclair
“irony” is right.
If the couple has a “tidy sum” of $220,000, as Vivian said, why did the CDC still give them money?
Something not right. Someone not telling the whole story.
abcd 1 May 2010
myviewsareERECTED 1 May 2010,
No system can be perfect, buddy.
…………………..
no system can be perfect…
who says? your pap masters claimed they hav perfected the perfect systems from affordtable housin to food on the tables
which is why they perfected their owned monthLEE salaries of over $100,000/month.. are you implyin that leekuanyew didn’t perfect the system just as he planned 1 decade ago?
than what is he doin in instana? havin a free 24/7 meals?
Come on, ST, get to the blunt facts and published it with honour and candour. Plenty of homeless around Singapore!!. MBT admitted to 42,000 rental accomodation, building to 50,000 by 2012 – NOT ENOUGH, and the adding Q is counting!
MCYS’s response is in denial – own up to this fact, ST. Is the political correctness necessary because someone’s unsupportable public assertions cannot withstand critical evaluation? Or is the continued parroting MCYS’s position the usual diet of spin, propaganda and an odious brand of political correctness, to manipulate and control citizenry’s percenption away from the reality so obvious to all?
WAH SEI,
What ‘SAD SINGAPOREAN’ posted on 1 May 2010, is now at REACH forum and on every thread under ‘Latest Topics’ at below REACH website.
http://app.reach.gov.sg/reach/default.aspx
Is VB a lair? May b we can setup a polling page. Can some1 help? YOG is best time to create HAVOC since so many locally born Singaporeans are jobless. Is time to act when there r international media attention. When we have nothing to lose, we can show hand with those who has EVERYTHING.
Has anyone noticed today’s Sunday Times article in its Lifestyle section, page 16, by Fiona Chan? She wrote:
-
“Those people who still think food courts are cheap and good places to eat – (are) probably the same ones who insist that HDB flats are affordable …”
-
Wow! such comments coming from SPH’s own correspondent.
-
She should be encouraged to share her views over this, shoudn’t she?
-
Does it not reflect clearly that even in SPH, there are some who do not agree with the main news being circulated for public consumption.
-
Very siimilar to the article above.
-
The Shitty Times did not even persist in getting in touch with VB, since he was the one who threw down the gauntlet.
-
Instead, it depended on re-circulating what was already reported the previous day.
-
Talk about being credible.
TOC needs to find more facts.
why is the $200,000 “profits” use to pay debts? what sort of expensive debts did they indugle in. it can’t be HDB debts since they made a profit each time they sell their flat.
renovations, wedding feast? buying resale can’t be that bad that u need to renovate it, esp if u are not working much.
these 2 chaps are getting $500 by doing almost nothing.
how i am suppose to explain to the elderly cleaning lady i see sweeping the floor everyday in my estate or the 70+ yr old office lady washing toilet in my office 5 days a week earning a decent living?.
TOC should be more intelligent that just dig up any sob stories. if they prefer to live in tents, and choose to shape leg/be with nature, instead of working hard, so be it, its their choice. let them be.
“Those people who still think food courts are cheap and good places to eat – (are) probably the same ones who insist that HDB flats are affordable …”
gone are your $2 meals, and all this despite the wonderous foreign talent that are engaged to man these stalls.
$3 meals are a 50% inflation. $3.50 meals are 75% higher than $2.
and yes, there are $4+ meals.
Also, a can of soft drink which is 60c unrefrigerated in stores goes for double the price at these “food courts”. the “value added” is a foreign talent giving you a cup of ice and some refrigeration for the can. as a singaporean, i feel the pinch of buying that can from a food court. amazingly, i see even banglas buying them at these inflated prices when next door is a provision shop selling them for 60c.
I pity TOC, even after researching & putting out responses there are still people who do not read TOC’s response carefully and is now questioning the intelligence of the TOC’s staff.
To those people, allow me to summarise the couple’s plight.
Eddie’s “tidy sum”
Eddie was first married in the 1980s, and bought a three-room flat direct from the HDB for approximately S$12,000.
However, he was divorced ten years later.
The 3-room flat was sold for about S$30,000; after CPF deductions, he walked away with a profit of approximately S$6,000.
He then bought a five-room flat from the HDB upon his second marriage for S$129,000, using both his CPF and the money he had gained from the sale of the three-room flat.
In 1999/2000, financial problems forced him to sell his five-room flat and downgrade to a four-room (the cost of the 4 room flat is $140,000).
The five-room flat was sold for approximately S$290,000; after CPF deductions, the profit gained was S$112,000.
However, there were debts to pay:
1) His brother had applied for a personal loan with him as a guarantor. When his brother defaulted on the loan, Eddie was left to pay it off (with interest).
2) Other costs included the renovation and furnishing of his new four-room flat.
3) his children’s education
4) wedding of a daughter.
Eddie was again divorced in 2007, and the four-room flat, bought at S$140,000, was sold for S$170,000.
As he was already over 55 years old by then, after retaining about $70,000 in his CPF Retirement Account, from the flat sale proceeds to meet his CPF Minimum Sum requirement, he and his ex-wife were left with S$100,000 from his CPF withdrawal after 55, which was divided between them.
He used the money to open a food stall in Jurong West. Unfortunately, the business eventually folded, exhausting his $50,000 from his after-55 CPF withdrawal and saddling him with new debts.
[So I guess people is unhappy that he spent $112000 on his family]
[And finally his business venture failed that left him homeless]
[So i guess again that in Singapore if a person spent on his family and got his business failed then he or she is no longer eligible for help since he would have done things that many would have not done in his lifetime]
[the morale of this cynical group of people would be: you better don't spent on your family and don't invest in business or else you are not eligible for help as I will not be able to explain to the toilet cleaning lady]
@Michael, 2 May 2010
Your total profits don’t add up to 220K.
Nevertheless, this is the type of breakdown that Mr MCYS should have presented in order to paint the complete picture. Instead, he seems like hell-bent on a personal witch-hunt. Like his colleague LBW over the STTA coach issue.
Talk about double standards. Recall when MKS escaped, our PM said THERE WILL BE NO WITCH HUNT. And there was a top terrorist we are talking about. Now, a down-and-out Singaporean camping on the beach and a minister is talking like murder about the parties concerned. Such small minded Ministers!
@ more facts needed
“…these 2 chaps are getting $500 by doing almost nothing…”??
Is it every minute, every hour, every day or every year? WHERE AND WHEN??
“…. if they prefer to live in tents, and choose to shape leg/be with nature, instead of working hard, so be it, its their choice. let them be…..”
How do you know they want to shake leg, live in a tent etc etc? Since when did the law allow these two “allegedly shake leg” variety to be “let them be”? WHAT CONTRIBUTION OF CONSTRUCTIVE THOUGHTS FROM YOU IN THIS IDLE FICTION CONSTRUCTION?
@ inflation
“…amazingly, i see even banglas buying them at these inflated prices when next door is a provision shop selling them for 60c.”
Hot sweaty hard work, nothings beats an ice cold drink which their wages in Singapore can afford them and NOW and which they in their job in Blanga would be an ill-afford luxury THERE AND IN THEIR PREVIOUS STAGE OF LIFE as labourers in their home country.
The “NOW” thirst factor and “NOW” affordability “essential” needs override thriftyness. We have other big ticket survival and high costs living to hog our mind and lifestyle.
@ more facts needed
And if it is really $500 even if per month for shaking legs, I would be more than glad to lock up my apartment and live a tent and beach party lifestyle in Changi – free cool breeze, access to clean nice public toilet, food, no utilities bills. great fun-loving neighbours and I would happily share in rotation the privacy of my sleeping and excercise tent with even “eager willing and able” illegal foreigners of “suitable” gender.
if you got the relevant contact number to get this style – courtesy of MCYS, I did appreciate it very much. Let share it around the waiting joy available. Many thanks in advance!!
VB mention
now we want to know where did that couple spent 220k on? And do they deserve the help? If not stop the CDC payment to them. 220k is a lavish sum. Don’t tell me. Why is it used to pay debts? how much are the debts? And what debts are they? Yes, it cannot be for the mortgage but pointed out its used for the younger brother.Why younger brother didnt help out?
@ ridiculous singaporeans
It is life turbulence, the hardship circumstances of the homeless “couple” can be described in just 3 words. VB’s intelligent mind would admit these three words – “AFTER THE FACTS”.
Still ridiculous? Think again. life is ruled by circumstances or life rule circumstances – AFTER THE FACTS of misfortune hit, Sir!
Like they say shit floats to the top. And we have lots of them, from VB to MBT. It’s a distortion of the truth and manipulation of facts, if that’s what ST is about, the only thing useful I can get out of it is to use it to scoop my cat’s shit.
Don’t tell me. Why is it used to pay debts? how much are the debts? And what debts are they? Yes, it cannot be for the mortgage but pointed out its used for the younger brother.Why younger brother didnt help out?
………………….
if i remembered the original story lines correctly..the whatever sum of money was used in jb for his food buisness..how would drbalekampond know when he and his fellow ministers(some who are ^fired^ dared not even ventured such an enterpreneurship gamble)..if anybody who hav the experienced of runnin a self enterprenuership venture would hav known $200,000 to start a kachangputeh buisness is not a lavished amount..its the minimum BETs…so if venture failed..sums all gone..henceforth porkai lark…