A controversial honest discussion
on the CPF had a troubled beginning when Roy Ngerng, Kenneth Jeyaretnam and a
few others invited themselves to the party only to be disinvited. Kenneth somehow
still managed to gatecrash the party only to create more controversies arising
from his 8 point remarks on Hri Kumar’s ‘dishonest’ honest public conversation.
And Hri Kumar returned the compliments by making his own statements on what he
did not say as what Kenneth said he said. Now there is an ongoing big ding dong
battle between the two key contestants of the honest conversation.
The prelude to this battle was a
woman with an amazing cheongsam that was videoed while making some rude remarks
on a 76 year old aunty making a desperate cry for the return of her CPF money.
The whole social media was on fire with netizens throwing nasty things at the
cheongsam woman who was revealed as a PAP grassroot leader by the name of Jean
Ang. Netizens had a field day digging out everything they could find on Jean
Ang and calling her all kinds of unpleasant names. And before the furore died
out, the woman who took the video of the cheongsam woman that went viral was
knocked down by a car and landed in hospital. More rumours appeared about how
this accident could be linked to the video. In the meantime nothing was
reported in the main media despite the uproar in the net.
What was depressing is that the
poor 76 year old aunty was totally forgotten. Netizens were angry with the
cheongsam woman for her rude gestures. Hri Kumar and Kenneth were crossing
swords with each other over who said what. No one seems to bother about the
reason for the desperate plea of the aunty. She was inconsequential. There are
more important issues and scores to settle.
Irene Yap’s problem was that her
money was locked up in her CPF account. Under all circumstances, anyone of her
age should not have any more entanglements with the CPF. She should have
withdrawn all her money from the CPF and ended her relationship there and then.
Her fault was to choose to leave some of her money in the CPF to earn higher
interest. Her fault was not knowing that once the money was left in the CPF, it
would be subject to all the new regulations rolled out by the CPF. She cried in
vain for the return of her money. Hri Kumar’s best reply to her was that she
knew the law and regulations and that’s it. Her money will stay where it is and
nothing else can be done. And no one in the govt, so far, has said anything
about her case and it seems that there is nothing else she could do or no one
would be doing anything. Is there anyone listening to her plight? Or she only
has herself to blame as the law is the law?
Where is the empathy, where is the
kindness, where is the compassion for an old lady caught by the hard side of
the law? Is there anyone listening? Or everyone is deaf? Does anyone feel that
something could be done for her? Does anyone walking the corridors of power think
she deserves some assistance? Or is it a case of how much does she wants, $500,
$5,000 or to return her everything in the CPF? Is there merit to her grievance?
Irene Yap is not alone. There could
be many in the same situation as her. They are an anomaly in the system, or in
a system that took them for granted, and this should be rectified to let them
live in peace in their golden years. Why made them live in misery and anger for
the want of their money back?
Is Irene Yap’s grievance important
at all?
Kopi Level - Yellow