11/20/2005

right today wrong tomorrow

can anything be so right today and so wrong tomorrow? before the nkf fiasco, it was a shining example of what a well managed charitable organisation should be. it was the paragon of all virtues. every charitable organisations, national leaders and private citizens only have good things to say about it. efficient and professional management led by an extremely hardworking and committed ceo who even slept in the office. a team of emminent and well regarded board of directors that no one can fault. devoted and caring staff that were rewarded handsomely for their services to the people. and above all, a well oiled machinery that could raise fund for its needs and for the needs of other organisations. if things did not happened the way it was, today nkf could be the national institution that singapore may be marketing to the whole world. the pride of our nation. nkf show was the show where everyone feels so good to be a part of it. you could see it in the faces of mediacorp artistes and the faces of audience spuriously banging away at their handphones. but today, even the new auditors could dig out, not a can of worms, but a whole organisation full of worms. funny that no one knew or could see anything wrong before. and the previous auditors were doing such a fine job. and the new management could only shake their heads at every turn of a page or a corner. they could not believe what they are seeing. and every organisations that were once connected with nkf, ...singtel, mediacorp, the artistes, the fund raisers, etc etc, are now under public scrutiny for everything they did, things that were so right and now so wrong. how could such a perception of right and correctness be perpetuated for so long and believed for so long without anyone, inside nkf and outside nkf, knowing that it was all false, and that the problem is so pervasive and glaring? and people were sued and paid heavily for making remarks about wrongs in the nkf. and suing people seemed like a past time, a sure win case. are singaporeans so dull, so innocent, so naive, so deprived of information, so unable to think, that they could live with a myth? what are the contributing factors that could lead to such an unfortunate situation, when no one really know that things have gone so wrong and seen to be so right by everyone? yes by everyone...until a contractor was pricked by his conscience to spill the beans, and a young girl who bravely stood up to bring it down. or is it that we have become a blinkered society?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

kind of remind you of "the emperor's new clothes", isnt it?

Anonymous said...

Herd instinct sets in - we are human after all, fundamentally flawed and easily swayed

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

two areas that i am concerned about. how many nkfs are there to be discovered? several have been been exposed among public companies listed in the stock exchange. are there any in private and public companies not listed in the stock exchange?

the second point is the attitude and mindset of singaporeans. other than being apathetic and leaving everything to the authority, there is this 'not thinking' or 'unthink' ethos. no questioning and letting others to control their lives and thoughts and telling them what is right or wrong, what is good or bad.

this is not good for a cosmopolitan people who pride themselves with having the best education money can buy. what they are buying is just a piece of paper.

Anonymous said...

PAP is very happy the way NKF work because it follow what it is doing now.
Regardless of how we Singaporean suffer. The PAP keep on accumulate wealth.
Even in a bad year when so many of us have no job, The pay are low,The PAP still want to have a surpluse in the burget.
If it can happen At NKF it can happen with teh PAP.
The only diffrent is that no one will know what happen. Those who know and do not know how to keep their mouth shut will have die long ago.