Thursday, July 14, 2005
NKF SAGA...This entry is dedicated to the hot issue.
Many years ago, when I was in primary3, i first received my NKF donation card. I remembered I was quite excited and actively asked my parents and relatives to donate generously, for one main reason, to win the gifts as promised. Yep, I worked hard enough and won the alarm clock. Pretty naive me that time. ha ha. why did I even want an alarm clock, fancy waking up early in the morning.
I believe NKF has been part of many Singaporeans life. It has established itself as a cutting-edge chrity organisation under the leadership of Mr T.T Durai. It has accumulated huge amount of reserves over the years to help subsidise needy patients. No doubt it is very successful in collecting donations, the extravagence it had spent on unnecessary stuff has led to a backlash from the public.
I think one stupid thing NKF has done was to challenge SPH and sued them for false accusations. However, after cross-exmination by SPH lawyer Mr Davinder Singh, Mr T.T Durai has revealed and admitted that there were such things as stated in the article. And he was revealing too many info on his earnings and number of patients, NKF has resorted to backing out of the court case. It was a mistake at first to sue SPH.
I felt that NKF has cheated many people. They had not been transparent in their accounts and how they are aiding the needy people. In my memory, NKF has been a prestigious organisation. Early this year, NJC even invited Mr Durai for a forum during the J2 Gp period and it was quite an impressive talk by him. But this incident has shattered my image of NKF. I'm disappointed.
I'm more sad of this situation they had created. Mr Durai has resigned together with his board of directors and even patron member Mrs Goh Chok Tong has also stepped down to make way for a new group of people to rebuild the public confidence towards NKF.
Just because of this incident, it has led to many repercusions. I'm worried for the peopl who truly benefit under the scheme of NKF. And I'm even more scared that Singaporeans might give up donating money to charities because of this case. I would like to say that, do not stop helping the unfortunate ones. Just because NKF the bad apple is rotten, it doesn't mean that the rest of the apples in the basket are rotten too! We should display our care and concern for our fellow countrymen and help them whenever they are in need.
NKF has opted to change its board for an image makeover, and I think this saga should pretty much be over. I hope they can get back onto its track and do what it's best at --- to help Singaporeans!!
Jim popped a can of Jolly Shandy @ 8:28 PM
2 Comments:
At 2:48 PM,
Anonymous said…
Frankly, Mr Durai left a damn lousy impression when he came to our school and gave his speech - he spent all the time boasting his contributions to NKF lor!! The truth is, he did a great job, until he decided to sue SPH and get himself into all these problems.
At 7:04 PM,
Scott said…
Haha. Funny how his name is called T.T Durai. Guess his face must be looking like ---> (T.T ) now. Suing SPH and ended up losing his job, losing thousands and thousands of donors to the NKF, losing the trust they built with fellow Singaporeans.
He was a playded boy...
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