It was good to hear how well paramedics from the Singapore Civil Defence Force handled the situation when they attended to Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, who collapsed in the Cabinet room earlier this month.

According to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's account, they responded coolly and professionally, even with the added stress of having the entire Cabinet present, including three medically trained ministers.

That did not stop one of the paramedics, Staff Sergeant Janice Lee Yi Ping, from questioning Minister of State Janil Puthucheary, who was already resuscitating Mr Heng, about why he was not following the standard procedure.

"Janice observed that Dr Janil was deviating from the paramedic SOP and appropriately asked him if he was bagging the patient too fast," PM Lee wrote in a letter to SCDF Commissioner Eric Yap, which Mr Lee later posted on Facebook.

"Dr Janil shared his presumptive diagnosis and explained that he was hyper-ventilating the patient to relieve pressure on the brain and reduce the swelling... My colleagues and I observed how your team kept their cool and were in control throughout the incident, working as a team with Dr Janil."

You could, of course, say that it is what they were trained to do and you wouldn't expect anything less from professionals on the scene.

The team's response seemed particularly noteworthy because of the stereotype that Singapore is a top-down society with rules and regulations dictating every aspect of life here, and woe betide anyone who departs from them.

This perception is so strong, it might have been what prompted Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, in a Facebook post, to write: "We appreciated SSG Janice Lee's willingness to question Janil. It shows that we are a society that doesn't allow protocol or rank to get in the way of performance."

Is Singapore changing and becoming less hung up on rules, and more open to exceptions?

I hope so because as the society becomes more complex and differentiated, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work.

Singaporeans no longer fit into neat categories, drawn up by civil servants, defining who qualifies and who doesn't, for this or that scheme or benefit.

In education, especially, it has become critically important to take into account the different learning abilities and interests of students.

I was glad to read in this newspaper on Monday about how universities here now admit students not purely based on their academic results.

It is called aptitude testing, which Acting Education Minister Ong Ye Kung described as an approach that looks at the complete person, including his interests, experiences, strengths and weaknesses, and not just his academic grades.

Indeed, he raised this issue in his maiden speech in Parliament in January. According to him, it works better. In a study done by his ministry, polytechnic students admitted through aptitude testing performed significantly better than those who got in the traditional way.

This is not surprising because these students had shown a greater interest in their chosen field of study - that's how they were selected in the first place - and so, are more committed to it.

But it is harder to do, requiring someone to assess something as intangible as interest, and make a judgment on the candidate's suitability.

It is much easier to go by his O-level results.

Judgment is subjective, but when exercised correctly, it produces superior results, as the Ministry of Education study showed. The interesting question for Singapore is whether this applies to other areas besides education. Can public officers be given greater scope to exercise judgment instead of merely relying on a fixed set of criteria?

I believe they can, and that the system should progressively move to one where discretion and judgment play a bigger role.

There is one other important benefit from making this change.

When you have to exercise judgment, it forces you to be clearer about the objectives you want to achieve. You have to be, otherwise those who have to make the decision will not know how to decide.

For polytechnic admissions, they need to know what sort of students are best suited for which course.

It requires the people involved in the decision-making to drill deeper - what sort of aptitude to look for, and how to tell apart one candidate from another?

Over the years, as these admission officers gain experience, they should have a greater understanding about what makes for better students - and refine their methods accordingly.

A system based on just examination results has none of this richness, and offers no prospect for further refinement, except to tweak the grading up or down.

In the early days of Singapore's development, the use of simple quantitative criteria - incomes, examination grades, housing types, to name a few - might have worked in implementing policy. In fact, policymakers did not have a choice as they needed to act fast, and in a way the average person could understand.

But over time, as Singapore society became more complex, it gave rise to the criticism that the system here, while very efficient, was also unforgiving whenever there was the slightest deviation from the norm.

I hope what is being done in education can be applied in other areas - in public housing, healthcare or immigration, for example.

Here are some examples where such a move might be possible:

• When deciding on permanent residency or citizenship, move away from merely looking at income or educational qualifications and place greater emphasis on aptitude and attitude. It requires those in charge to be clearer about what they desire from foreigners wanting to become citizens, how to assess commitment to the country as a place to call home and not just an economic base.
• In helping local companies improve productivity with government grants, is it possible to exercise greater judgment, and give more help to those with the potential to do well because they are run by enlightened management able to motivate workers?
• In healthcare, some subsidies, such as for kidney dialysis, are tied to income and house types, leaving some retirees in private homes, which they bought decades ago, having to pay full fees on limited savings. How about some discretion to allow for these and other cases that fall outside the rules?

Making these changes means empowering public officers on the ground to exercise judgment.

As the polytechnic experience has shown, it can produce superior results. Singapore is well placed to do it because it has a highly competent service that is free of the corruption that plagues administrations elsewhere.

Dare the leadership take this leap of faith? That's a judgment call it has to make.

hanfk@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 22, 2016.
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Train operator SMRT has slightly reduced its evening peak train fleet on the North-South and East-West lines in the aftermath of last month's power incident that crippled the western half of four lines.

The incident was triggered by a trip at the Buona Vista power intake station. It affected as many as 100,000 commuters on the North- South, East-West, and Circle MRT lines, as well as the Bukit Panjang LRT for up to two hours on the evening of April 25.

It is understood that SMRT and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) have reduced the evening peak fleet to a maximum of 116 trains, from 118 previously. The two trains were taken from the East-West Line.

This is to reduce the electrical load on the system, until a full investigation into the unprecedented incident is completed.

The train reduction is estimated to have lengthened intervals between trains to about 2.4 to 3.4 minutes, an increase of up to 20 per cent.

This is consistent with train arrivals clocked by The Sunday Times on Monday and Tuesday, with the average interval hovering just below three minutes.

Commuters did not seem to notice the difference.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Wan Liyana, 18, who takes the train from Clementi to Tampines, said she did not detect any change in waiting time or crowd size.

Engineer Jason Lou, 46, who takes the train from Choa Chu Kang to Clementi, said: "I don't think there has been a change in the past two weeks. It's the same every day."

Tech consultant Frankie San, 35, who takes the train from Boon Lay to Buona Vista, said: "Basically everything is the same, unless a train breaks down."

National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der-Horng was not surprised that the train reduction went unnoticed.

He noted that a reduction of two trains translates to a mere 1.7 per cent. "I think the impact should be negligible.

"Passengers have their own threshold for waiting time, and an increase of 0.4 minute is something that is unlikely to cross this threshold," he said.

SIM University Adjunct Associate Professor Park Byung Joon concurred, saying the impact is "not big enough to be noticed", especially when waiting time can vary widely.

Meanwhile, the LTA said when a new intake station on the Tuas West Extension is ready by the end of next month, it will help the Buona Vista intake station support the power load in the western region.

christan@sph.com.sg

ckylin@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 22, 2016.
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From Singapore's first sea turtle hatchery to a floating pontoon with see-through panels, detailed plans to transform Sisters' Islands into the heart of the country's marine life conservation efforts were revealed yesterday.

Announcing these yesterday on St John's Island, Senior Minister of State for National Development Desmond Lee highlighted how, despite covering less than 1 per cent of the world's surface, Singapore's waters are home to over 250 species of hard corals, a third of the world's total.

"We may be small, but we are large in our marine richness," he said, as he highlighted the need to ramp up conservation efforts and to raise awareness among Singaporeans of the life in surrounding waters. "The marine park is meant for Singaporeans, and we hope our people will love it, grow it and take ownership of this park."

The 40ha Sisters' Islands Marine Park, first announced in 2014 and about the size of 50 football fields, comprises the two Sisters' Islands - which are a 40-minute boat ride from Marina South Pier - surrounding reefs and the western reefs of nearby St John's Island and Pulau Tekukor. Its ecosystem supports corals, anemones, seahorses, fish and other marine life.

With the help of a $500,000 donation from HSBC, a turtle hatchery will be set up on Small Sister's Island by the end of next year.

The island will be a dedicated site for marine conservation and research. It will have a coral nursery where rare corals can be grown before being transplanted onto Reef Enhancement Units (REU) on the reef. Yesterday, HSBC also donated $180,000 for nine REUs under the new Seed-A-Reef programme.

Open to the public, donations of at least $20,000 will pay for an REU - an artificial scaffolding to which corals attach and grow.

To encourage Singaporeans to take ownership of the marine park on the islands, they will be able to also "sponsor" a coral for $200 in the new Plant-A-Coral initiative.

Big Sister's Island meanwhile will serve as a "gateway to the marine park" for the public, said Mr Lee.

It will have facilities where people can get close to nature, such as a floating pontoon, intertidal pools, a boardwalk and forest trails.

Most of these new facilities will be built by the end of 2018.

Ms Karenne Tun, a director at NParks' National Biodiversity Centre, said each sponsored coral will be grown in aquariums or a coral nursery in the sea from small fragments before being transplanted.

"We will target key species in Singapore that we feel need a bit of help, (or) those that are rare in Singapore," she said, adding that it can take six months to two years for corals to be transplanted, depending on how fast the species grows.

If these programmes are done right, they could have an "add-on effect on the natural reef", said Mr Stephen Beng, who chairs the marine conservation group of the Nature Society (Singapore).

Professor Wong Sek Man, director of the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Tropical Marine Science Institute, said the upcoming plans on Sisters' Islands will help educate the young on how to protect the environment. "Kids are very curious... to know what kind of marine organisms can be found in the sea. If they can also touch them, it will be very nice," he said.

NUS first-year environmental science undergrad Lim Hong Yao, 22, who has been on a guided walk with NParks to the intertidal area on Sisters' Islands, said the zone is full of wildlife. "Everything is interesting... I've seen corals, hermit crabs, octopus and even stingrays."

Big plans for the two Sisters

ON BIG SISTER'S ISLAND

Early 2018

A floating pontoon will be built adjacent to the jetty. Visitors will also get to observe marine life such as sea fans, sponges and sea anemones through viewing panels on the base of the pontoons.

Mid-2018

Forest trails that cut through the island will allow visitors to explore the island and go bird-watching.

End-2018

A boardwalk along the lagoon will provide sweeping views of the coastline. Visitors can also get up close with coastal flora and fauna.

Intertidal pools will be built along the island's inner sea walls to create an environment similar to natural rock pools, where marine life can be viewed up close at low tide.

ON SMALL SISTER'S ISLAND

End-2017

The first turtle hatchery here and an outreach facility will be built. The hatchery will be a refuge for rescued turtle eggs, where they can hatch safely.

A coral nursery will be established to safeguard hard corals. The nursery will play an important role in the conservation of coral species, especially in view of rising sea temperatures. Corals undergo bleaching when the temperature of the water gets too high.

ON BOTH ISLANDS

Ongoing now

As part of the Plant-A-Coral and Seed-A-Reef programmes, corals will be transplanted onto reef enhancement units, which are artificial structures placed within the reef to encourage coral growth.

End-2018

Areas will be set aside for coastal plant conservation. These will feature around 30 coastal plant species including critically endangered ones.

The public can visit the coastal plant conservation area on Big Sister's Island. The area on Small Sister's Island will be a dedicated site for research and conservation.

• To sponsor a coral, visit www.gardencityfund.org/coral.

dansonc@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 22, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

Welcome to Dallas Fort Worth, where production of what has been labelled the world's most advanced fighter jet is continuing apace.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter can travel at nearly twice the speed of sound, has stealth features that make it tough to detect by enemy planes and radars, and high-tech systems which let it strike the enemy first before being spotted.

But the plane, which Lockheed Martin started developing in 2001, has also become a lightning rod for criticism. It has faced delays, ballooning production costs and a series of production flaws, such as a fuel tank prone to exploding, a vulnerability to lightning strikes and even a faulty ejection seat which could snap a pilot's neck during ejection.

But that has not stopped 11 countries, including the United States, Britain, Israel, South Korea and Japan, from buying the F-35, with Denmark possibly joining the list after its defence ministry made a pitch to Parliament two weeks ago to opt for fifth-generation aircraft.

Now, Lockheed is looking to sew up a multibillion-dollar deal with Singapore, which is in the final stages of considering if it will also go down the F-35 route and buy both the conventional F-35A and the F-35B, which takes off from shorter runways and can land like a helicopter.

A MATTER OF WHEN

Several sources told The Sunday Times that Singapore looks all but certain to say yes to the F-35s, explaining it is "not a matter of if but when" and that a decision may be expected as early as next year.

That will be when the Pentagon issues a notice to the United States Congress highlighting the possible deal. If Singapore does buy the plane, it will probably receive its first F-35 around 2021 when the warplane is considered "full matured", said one source.

The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) would only say that the F-35 "is still under evaluation", citing Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen's comments to Parliament in 2013 that fifth-generation jets, such as the F-35, are "potential options".

"As a small country with no strategic depth, Singapore will always need superior air capabilities to protect its interests and borders," said a Mindef spokesman.

Dr Ng has seen both the F-35A and F-35B jets up close as recently as last December. A Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) evaluation team has also been to Lockheed's aeronautics headquarters in Dallas Fort Worth at least twice in the last three years to go through their paces in F-35 simulators.

The Pentagon's F-35 programme chief, Lieutenant-General Christopher Bogdan, paid an unpublicised visit to Singapore in February during the Singapore Airshow, and was said to have made his closing pitch to the country's military leaders - two years before the F-35's development is scheduled for completion.

For Singapore to be mulling its options at this stage is unprecedented, said observers. It acquired its F-16s and F-15s years after they were built in the 1970s and battle-tested.

But this also means Singapore needs to be more careful that it will not be buying into a problematic platform. A source said: "This is the first time that we are buying a fighter jet that is fresh off its development phase. We need to make sure that the platform is ready."

TEETHING PROBLEMS

It has been a bumpy ride for the F-35. In the latest blow, engineers last year uncovered computer glitches that can shut down the plane's radar, requiring pilots to turn it off and on again.

Such issues have pushed the F-35's development seven years behind schedule and made it the world's costliest weapon programme in history. The initial estimate in 2001 had been around US$200 billion. Today, the Pentagon has already spent US$400 billion (S$553 billion).

The F-35 was also reportedly outclassed by a 40-year-old F-16 in a dogfight last year. Last month, US Senator John McCain, a former navy pilot, slammed the F-35's troubled history, saying it "has been both a scandal and a tragedy with respect to cost, schedule and performance".

PILOTS GIVE THUMBS UP

Yet, pilots who have flown the F-35 told The Sunday Times that it is a cut above the rest.

Lieutenant-Colonel Gregory J. Summa, who is the commanding officer at the VMFAT-501 squadron which trains the US Marine Corps' F-35 pilots, said: "The airplane has more power than others and the power is there immediately.

"Because of its low observable design, there is not a lot of drag, so the airplane accelerates very, very fast and does not decelerate. You have to force the airplane to slow down."

Major Michael Rountree, the squadron's executive officer, has clocked 400 hours on the F-35. The 38-year-old said the jet was much easier to fly, allowing him to pay more attention to threats.

The information collected by the plane's many sensors is also put together in one single display, which means the pilot can quickly have a complete picture of what is happening around him, he added.

Lockheed's F-35 chief test pilot Alan Norman, who has clocked 6,000 flying hours in more than 70 types of aircraft such as the F-22, said the plane is also more survivable and lethal than any other.

He said: "Nobody is going to sneak up behind an F-35 because you know where every adversary is in the battlespace well before they are on your tail."

Maintenance crew said F-35s take half the time to maintain, given its advanced computer system.

Lockheed's executives assure that all the glitches will be fixed by 2018.

Mr Steve Over, Lockheed's F-35 business development director, said the defence manufacturer has "a solution on hand for every one of the technical flaws pointed out".

"The flaws found are not unlike any weapons programme that is still under development", added the engineer, who worked on F-16s for 29 years before moving to the F-35.

Defence analyst Kelvin Wong said developmental challenges are par for the course for modern combat aircraft programmes, more so with the F-35 programme's scale and complexity. Pointing to the F-16 programme, which is one of the most successful with at least 25 countries flying over 4,500 jets, Mr Wong, who is IHS Jane's Asia-Pacific defence technology reporter and upgrades editor, said the F-16 suffered "subpar performance" for about 10 years.

Lockheed is also optimistic as it has been able to cut production costs by 60 per cent since the first plane rolled off its factory floor in 2010. It said it is on track to shave a further 20 per cent off the current price by 2019. By then, each F-35 will hopefully cost around US$80 million to US$85 million.

The optimism was palpable when The Sunday Times visited Lockheed's F-35 factory floor.

Visitors were not allowed to take photos or capture videos in the high-security production line, which is about 1.6km long.

The area was a hive of activity, with engineers and technicians working like clockwork to assemble the warplanes. To meet expected higher demand and ramp up production to hit full steam by 2019, Mr Over said Lockheed will increase the number of final assembly stations from 14 to 22. More hands will also be needed, with 1,000 people to be hired by 2020 to add to the current 5,000-strong team.

Mr Jack Crisler, Lockheed's vice-president of F-35 business development and strategy integration, said the "sweet spot" for countries to lock in their orders would be between next year and 2018, to gain economies of scale.

He expects interest from other countries to grow when Japan and Israel start to take delivery of their warplanes and fly them, putting paid to doubts of a sustainable worldwide F-35 fleet. Mr Crisler said countries will want to be in a growing shortlist that Lockheed and the Pentagon will pick from to set up maintenance and repair warehouses around the world.

DOES SINGAPORE NEED THE F-35?

Beyond the marketing spin, questions still swirl over the need of having the F-35s to protect Singapore's airspace. Currently, the country has fourth-generation fighters F-16s and F-15s. While the 60 F-16 jets are getting their midlife upgrades to extend their operational lives by another 20 years, the F-15s, which the Republic is believed to have as many as 40 of, are considered the best currently.

Defence observer David Boey, who sits on the Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence, believes existing fighters are "numerically and technologically superior to that of anyone in the immediate region who may want to pick a quarrel with us".

He said: "In the absence of the F-35, options include expanding this fighter force with latest variants of these or other warplanes."

He added that the hefty price of the F-35 is not the chief hurdle.

The F-15s were said to be about US$120 million each when Singapore bought them. He said: "The deal-breaker is convincing ourselves that the F-35 can perform as advertised and serve as a credible deterrent. With enough time and money, any bug can be fixed. We need to ask ourselves if the patience and money will always be there to bankroll this project."

Defence analyst Richard Bitzinger thinks Singapore is in no hurry as it already has an "overwhelming (air) superiority" over its regional neighbours, although several, including Indonesia and Malaysia, are also eyeing fifth-generation platforms. "I think that Singapore will eventually opt for the F-35, due to its overall technophilia, but it can afford to wait," said the senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Other observers said there is also a limit to how much the RSAF can upgrade its existing fourth-generation warplanes to outdo the enemy.

As one put it: "You can only do that much with a Toyota and Suzuki. Given the strategic challenges, we may need to get a sports car to stay ahead."

jermync@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 22, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

Tam Wai Jia says she felt like an oddball when she attended the Forbes' Under 30 Summit Asia held at The South Beach hotel last Thursday.

"Everyone was a CEO or founder or businessman. They were asking me what my product/company/out- put was. I told them I have no product and no company. I'm also bad at making money and better at giving it away," she adds with a laugh.

But a gatecrashing underachiever she is not. Instead she has crammed a lot of life into her 29 years.

Not only is she a promising young doctor, but also she has written four books, gone on at least 20 humanitarian trips around the world, as well as given time, effort and money to a myriad of causes.

She has also battled depression, survived anorexia and, oh, walked down the aisle with a guy she first met on the Internet.

Nursing a chai latte in a cafe at the National University of Singapore where she conducts classes on global health, she says with a grin that she was moulded by the Singapore system.

"I was expected to study hard, get good grades, have high goals and go even higher in life," she says.

The younger of two daughters of a fund manager father and a remisier mother dutifully fulfilled all those expectations, at least for the first half of her life.

At Tao Nan Primary, Dunman High Secondary and Victoria Junior College, she was a model student, aceing all her subjects and taking up leadership roles in various activities.

A turning point came when she led a team of 20 students on a Youth Expedition Project (YEP) to Cambodia in 2004. For about two weeks, they stayed and helped out in a children's home.

The poverty she saw made her realise how comfortable her life was.

The following year, her junior college selected her to attend a global young leaders' conference in New York. "I met student leaders from all over the world - Ghana, Nigeria and Latin America. These young people were my age but they were championing poverty and human rights and learning how to write policies. I felt that I didn't know anything."

On the recommendation of the Methodist Missions Society, she decided to head for a children's home in Nepal while waiting to get into university after finishing her A levels.

Persuading her father took some effort because of clashes at that time between Maoist rebels and Nepali forces in the country. She turned up in Kathmandu alone and stayed at Sophia's Home which housed about 30 children, aged between three and 12 years.

During her six weeks in the country, she also helped out at a shelter for victims of sex trafficking.

A sobering episode took place three weeks into her trip. The denizens of the children's home had to move.

"The kids were dismantling beds and packing. I asked the houseparents why. They said they had to move almost every year because as soon as landlords found out they were a children's home, they would jack up the rent.

"They said the problem could be solved only if they had a permanent home. I cried because it was so heartbreaking," says Ms Tam who then hit upon the idea of writing and painting a children's book to raise funds for the home.

Landmark Books liked the concept of Kitesong - a book about the importance of chasing dreams - but publisher Goh Eck Kheng was not too impressed with the initial paintings she showed him.

"I had no art training but he told me to learn water colour painting. So I went to the library, borrowed lots of books and just practised. I would paint from the moment I woke until I went to bed," she says.

Mr Goh tells The Sunday Times: "Within a very short time, she came back with a completely new set of pictures which were very good. It's amazing that she taught herself just by reading books."

He adds: "I just had to help her. She was only 18 and wanted so much to help others. When I was 18, those thoughts were far from my mind."

Kitesong raised about $125,000 for Sophia's Home and was released shortly after she became a medical student at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Her years in medical school, however, were tough ones.

"I didn't do very well. I was no longer a big fish in a small pond. The other students were brilliant," says Ms Tam, who started feeling pressure piling on her.

It was not her first encounter with stress and depression.

Trouble at home had led her to see a counsellor when she was in junior college. Her parents were then working through issues in their marriage, and her father's career was not going smoothly.

Her decision to move out from home and live in a university hostel made the situation worse.

"I developed anorexia. It was quite innocuous at first. I lost my appetite. To make me feel better, I started going for runs," she says.

Before she knew it, she became obsessed with exercising and eating very little.

"They were the only aspects of my life I could control. I didn't know what was happening with my family, home or my grades.

"I looked jaundiced. My hair fell out. I had amenorrhoea," she says, using the medical term to describe the absence of menstrual periods.

Her parents were extremely concerned but did not know what to do. Ms Tam finally sought help after being told to do so by Ms Anita Fam, her publisher's wife.

"She said I was not well and that I needed help. I was in total denial. But she said, 'If you are not afraid and there's really nothing wrong with you, why don't you just go for that first appointment?'"

Recovery took more than a year with help from professionals at Lifecentre, which treats patients with eating disorders, at the Singapore General Hospital.

"I had to see four therapists every week: a psychiatrist, a dietitian, a family therapist and a counsellor. The family therapist suggested that I should ask my parents along because a lot of anorexia issues are rooted in the family. To my surprise, they agreed to come along," she says, adding that her folks have worked out their issues and are doing well now.

Despite her problems, she continued to go on humanitarian trips to places including Sichuan in China, Uttar Pradesh in India and Myanmar during her term breaks.

After her recovery, Ms Tam decided to paint and write a second book, A Taste Of Rainbow, to chronicle her struggles with anorexia.

The decision met with stiff resistance from many people who told her that the book might jeopardise her career.

"They said that if people knew I was not well, they would see me differently and stigmatise me... But I felt that if there was a stigma to be removed and if no one was doing it, then I would," she says.

A Taste Of Rainbow was released in 2011, around the same time she was given the Young Outstanding Singaporean Award.

"The award was given based on my work with Kitesong. The interview panel asked what I had done since then and I told them I recovered from anorexia and had just written a book about it.

"I was thinking to myself: 'There goes your award.' But when I received the award, I knew it was validation and affirmation that I had to follow what my heart believes in."

Shortly after graduating with a medical degree in 2011, she went with Iris Ministries - a missionary NGO - on a three-week trip to Mozambique.

The trip moved her immeasurably because she came into contact with many people who had given up well-paying jobs to serve the poor.

"Day by day, they'd be driving lorries, picking up beans and feeding children and working with people who are in need but who are not necessarily grateful because of their tribal history and culture of hostility," she says.

"It shook me and made me ask myself: 'What do I stand for? Am I going out of my comfort zone?' Am I willing to give more?"

With a laugh, she lets on that finding a partner was not part of her plan then.

"I had resolved to be single. Who would be like me and do all these crazy things?"

Well, she found just such a person, on the Internet.

Having picked up triathlon to combat anorexia, she chanced upon the blog of Cliff Tam, a Canadian liver cancer survivor who went on to become a triathlete. Now 36, Mr Tam had a liver transplant at 10 and completed the gruelling Iron Man competition - which involves a 3.86km swim, a 180.25km bicycle ride and a 42.2km run - when he was 27.

"I left a note which said, 'Your life is very encouraging' on his blog," she says.

That, in turn, led to him discovering her blog. He started to write to her every day telling her how he was inspired by her work and her world view.

"He told me he wanted to marry me. I thought he was some cybersex stalker," she says with a laugh. "So I told him to stop, and he stopped. And I thought to myself: What a gentleman."

They started corresponding and Mr Tam, a former IT guy turned church worker, swung by Singapore not long after on his way back from a mission trip to Cambodia.

They tied the knot in October 2012, on the day she launched her third book, I Love You.

The couple donated the $50,000 collected from wedding hongbao to fund the start of a social enterprise in the Indian city of Kolkota, and a guest house in Cambodia, both of which employ rescued sex workers and equip them with livelihood skills.

In 2014, she applied for a year's leave and the couple left for Uganda on a mission trip.

"I was doing medical healthcare and working on socio-economic projects; he did IT training and Bible teaching," she says.

They returned to Singapore last June. Last year, she wrote her fourth book, Savour, which challenges conventional ideals of success.

Ms Tam, who will start a training and research stint with the Geriartric Education and Research Institute in July, gives a lot of time to local causes too. For several years now, she has been volunteering at Healthserve, an NGO which provides medical, legal and emotional help to migrant workers in Singapore.

She often gives talks in schools and organisations, including churches, inspiring young Singaporeans to follow their dreams and lead purpose-driven lives.

She and her husband have signed up to become foster parents for children in crisis under a scheme by the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

When she finishes her bond next year, she hopes to study for a Master's in Public Health and return to helping the poor and needy in developing countries.

She smiles when asked if what she does makes her happy.

"While I'm not happy every single day, there is joy in what I do and I thank God for that. It is painful at times, and there is suffering but ultimately, it is what gives us purpose."

kimhoh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 22, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This story was first published in July 2015 in an e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965. A collaboration between The Straits Times and the Singapore Police Force, the e-book appeared in The Straits Times Star E-books app. Read the other crime stories here. (Warning: Some content in these stories may be disturbing for some individuals.)

HUANG NA'S MURDER (2004)

When the eight-year-old went missing, Singaporeans from all walks of life helped in the search. But she was already dead - killed by a man she treated as an uncle

Like any other study mama from China, Huang Na's mother brought her to Singapore in early 2003 for a better education. The girl's dream was to be a doctor so she could in turn give her mother a better life. Huang Na also learnt to be streetsmart and independent, as her mother had to shuttle between Singapore and Fujian to care for her 11-month-old half-sister.

On Sept 27, 2004, a day before Huang Na's eighth birthday, her mother returned to their hometown for two weeks.

Huang Na, who once even took a flight back to China alone, was left in the care of friends, who lived with her and her mother in a small room on the upper floor of a fruit and vegetable company at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre.

The bubbly girl would go to school herself, take her meals at a nearby food court and sometimes even cook for her and her neighbours. She showered in a common toilet. The centre's auction hall was her playground.

On the afternoon of Oct 10, Huang Na called her mother from a phone booth and asked her to buy a computerised English dictionary and a pair of sandals. They spoke for about six minutes.

That was the last time Madam Huang Shuying heard her voice. And it was the last day Huang Na was seen alive - barefooted and wearing a blue denim jacket and bermudas.

On Oct 31, her badly-decomposed body was found stuffed inside a brown cardboard box less than half her size.

The box was found in dense undergrowth at Telok Blangah Hill Park, just hours after Penang-born Took Leng How was grilled by police.

The vegetable packer, who worked at the wholesale centre and had previously shared a flat with Huang Na and her mother, admitted to strangling the girl with his bare hands in a storeroom where he had lured her for a game of hide-and-seek.

The news left a nation shocked.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Huang Shuying, China Press, Guang Ming Daily, Shin Min Daily News, The Straits Times, The New Paper, Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore Police Force

NATIONWIDE SEARCH

Huang Na's disappearance was first made public in newspapers on Oct 14, four days after she was last seen at around 1pm at the food court less than 500m from her home. The Primary 2 pupil of Jin Tai Primary School was described as 1.2m tall, with a fair-complexion and straight dark hair.

Police urged anyone with information to come forward.

Coffeeshop assistant C.B. Lim, who described her as a familiar figure, was one of the last to see her alive. "As she passed by, I asked her why she had no slippers and she just smiled and went."

Madam Huang, who had returned to Singapore two days after the disappearance, combed the island for her girl, even searching construction sites and ditches.

She showed photographs of Huang Na to strangers, asking if they had seen her. She also scoured Bukit Timah Hill and Mount Faber after her niece dreamt she was being held on a mountain.

"I looked everywhere, from Clementi to Geylang, from Race Course Road to Woodlands. I've tried them all, but there is no news," she said.

She could not imagine why anyone would want to harm her daughter. "I work here to earn money for my daughter to study," said Madam Huang, who worked at a vegetable stall at the wholesale centre. "We lead a simple life. I didn't make any enemies or offend anyone."

Police searched Huang Na's favourite haunts, including West Coast Park and the IMM building. Hospitals and transport companies were roped in to keep a lookout for her.

A 60-year-old retired businessman offered a $10,000 reward to anyone with information. Another Singaporean added another $5,000.

Mr Joseph Tan, the founder of Crime Library, a voluntary group which looks for missing people, and employees of his recycling company handed out leaflets to passers-by near where Huang Na disappeared. The general manager of an online design company set up a website to gather tip-offs.

Taxi company ComfortDelGro asked its cabbies to join in the search effort.

In Malaysia, 30 cabbies placed posters of Huang Na on the rear windscreens and front seats of their vehicles. At least five coffee-shop owners in Johor Jaya, Taman Yew and Skudai put up posters.

Those who tried to help Madam Huang said it was heart-wrenching to watch news clips of the mother clutching her daughter's toys, clothes and pictures, walking through neighbourhoods with tears in her eyes, calling out her name.

SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOUR

On Oct 21, police released a picture of Took and asked for information on his whereabouts.

The Malaysian, who was 22 then, had disappeared after police twice interviewed him in connection to Huang Na's disappearance and he agreed to take a polygraph test. He had claimed to police that he had seen four gang members abduct the girl. Despite having surrendered his passport, he was able to sneak into Malaysia.

Those who worked at the wholesale centre said Took and Huang Na were close, and that he would give her rides on a motorcycle. He was also one of the last people seen with her.

But Madam Huang did not believe Took, whom her daughter called "shu shu" (uncle), could be involved in anything sinister.

"I don't believe he's the one who took my daughter. He has no reason to - we're just acquaintances," she told the media. "He was very fond of her. He always bought things for her to eat, but never took her outside of the market. I know he would never hurt her."

Took's 52-year-old father in Penang, who sold fried kway teow at the family's coffee shop, told the Malaysian press that his son, the second of four siblings, had phoned him and said that he had not kidnapped the girl.

He only ran from Singapore because he felt pressured by the police, the father added.

Took's Indonesian wife You Li, who was living with his father, also revealed that he had called her to say that he was in Johor, and that someone else had taken Huang Na.

He claimed that the last time he saw the girl, he gave her two mangoes and sent her on her way. Took's brother described his older sibling as a "timid" man, who did not have the courage to borrow money or get into fights - let alone kidnap a child.

Nine days after being on the run, Took surrendered to police in Penang and was brought back to Singapore on Oct 30.

He claimed that he secretly entered Malaysia because he wanted to see his 14-month-old son but failed to do so. The past nine days were "hell", he insisted. "How good can it be, hiding here and there?"

In the interview he gave to the Malaysian press, he also claimed that he sympathised with Madam Huang. "I want to tell her, I also love Huang Na because I have a child myself. I hope that people won't make wild allegations about me, because the truth can be dug out."

BODY FOUND

In the morning of Sunday, Oct 31, some three weeks after Huang Na went missing, a team of 20 police officers and trackers fanned out to search the slope at the Telok Blangah Hill Park. They were acting on information provided by Took.

After 30 minutes, at 10.30am, officers came across a box measuring 50cm by 40cm by 30cm in thick vegetation. The box, which resembled those used at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, was sealed with masking tape. Still, a foul smell emanated from it.

Inside was the naked body of a young girl, forced into a crouching position. It was so decomposed that forensic tests had to be done before it was confirmed that the body was Huang Na's. But the girl was also visually identified by her mother.

Took was arrested for murder and charged the following day.

The park was just minutes away from Took's Telok Blangah flat, and about a 15-minute drive from the wholesale centre where Huang Na was last seen.

Police also revealed for the first time that they had uncovered signs of a struggle in a storeroom at the wholesale centre.

The size of a three-room Housing Board flat's living room, it was rented by Took's boss for storing vegetables and dried goods. The shutters in the room were always drawn.

Police believed that was where Huang Na was attacked.

On Nov 5, Took, his hands bound, was led through the wholesale centre where he was questioned by investigators.

The news that the girl was found dead left many horrified.

Mr Tan, who had been organising the search through his website crime-library.org, said as he choked back tears: "I can't imagine what that little girl had to go through. How could anyone have done this?"

On Nov 8, more than a thousand people, many of them strangers, attended her funeral.

They followed the procession which went to the West Coast Market, a playground and Jin Tai Primary School - places which Huang Na frequented.

The lid of her coffin was covered with her favourite Hello Kitty soft toys, the sides plastered with Hello Kitty stickers and a Hello Kitty toy hung from each corner of the hearse. Mourners brought many of her favourite sweets and snacks. She was cremated at Mandai.

It was later revealed that Huang Na's stepfather, who had flown to Singapore for her funeral, her mother and natural father all had trouble with the authorities here previously.

Her stepfather Zheng Wenhai was jailed for two years and four months in 1999. Huang Na's natural father Huang Qingrong had also been jailed for working illegally in October 1999, when he was employed as a vegetable packer at the wholesale centre.

It was the second time Mr Huang had entered Singapore. In 1996 he had landed a job here, but was sent back in 1997 after it emerged he had lied about having a degree.

In 1999, Madam Huang had also been repatriated for overstaying her visa. After this revelation, she was put under investigation again for entering Singapore illegally, but was let off with a stern warning. By the end of November, she returned to Fujian carrying Huang Na's ashes.

THE TRIAL

Took, who was defended by famous criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan, was put on trial on July 11, 2005.

According to the prosecution's case, Took's colleagues last saw him at 1pm on Oct 10 walking side-by-side with the girl near the storeroom, with a bag of mangoes in his hand. Several workers were surprised to see Took hanging around the wholesale centre, as there was little work on Sundays.

At about 1.40pm, Took coaxed the girl to play hide-and-seek with him in the storeroom and offered her mangoes to eat. Remnants of the fruit were later found in her stomach during the autopsy.

Took stripped her, bound her limbs with raffia string and sexually assaulted her.

To make sure she could not report what he did to her, Took smothered her. He covered her mouth and nose for at least two minutes, until her body was limp.

To ensure she was dead, he stamped on her and kicked her before packing her body inside nine layers of plastic bags. He then put the bundle in a cardboard box and sealed it with adhesive tape.

It was still daytime, and so too risky to dispose of the box. So Took rested until 5.30pm at the wholesale centre. Then he borrowed a motorcycle from a friend who also worked at the centre. He went home to his Telok Blangah flat and watched TV.

At about 8pm, he returned to the storeroom to retrieve the box, tied it to the back of the motorcycle and drove up to Telok Blangah Hill Park, where he dumped it. At 9pm, he returned the motorcycle to his friend. An hour later, Huang Na's guardian, Madam Li Xiu Qin, told police the girl was missing.

"The accused was often Huang Na's playmate despite the age difference," said Deputy Public Prosecutor Lawrence Ang.

"How was she to know that the person whom she trusted most among all the people at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre would soon ravage her and snuff out her life, cruelly and mercilessly?"

Forensic evidence played a big role in the trial.

Analysis showed that the adhesive tape used to seal the carton came from the same roll of tape found in the storeroom.

Part of Took's fingerprints were also found on the roll.

The bags used to wrap Huang Na's body were found to be similar to ones in the Pasir Panjang shop where Took worked.

Hundreds of cloth fibres from both Took and Huang Na's clothes were also found in the storeroom.

The statement Took gave police after his arrest was also presented as evidence. He claimed that Huang Na knocked her head while they were playing a "special" game of hide-and-seek in the store room. It involved him tying her ankles with raffia string with the lights off. "If she was able to untie herself before I finished counting and switched on the lights, then she would be the winner," he said.

But he heard a loud thud and flew into a panic when he saw Huang Na on the floor having spasms, with her eyes wide open. Blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth.

He strangled her. Then using his hand, he "chopped" Huang Na on the back of the neck three times to "put her out of her misery". He also stamped on her neck three times. He then stripped her and molested her with his fingers "so that people will think she was being raped".

Next, he used scissors to cut her clothing to "make it real". A chilling video of him demonstrating these actions on a dummy of a child was played in court.

He also told police that he fled to Malaysia because he feared being hanged.

Took's colleagues who took the stand had seen him scolding the girl on several occasions, and said he had even hurt her at least once.

Took's employer Kelvin Eng Chow Meng recalled confronting him after seeing bruises on the girl's hand back in July 2003.

"The accused claimed that Huang Na was making too much noise and he was unable to sleep," he told the court.

Another witness, packer Tan Ban Tiong, recalled "one or two" occasions when Took tied the girl's hands with raffia string to "teach her a lesson not to disturb us".

Madam Huang, the murdered girl's mother, returned to Singapore to take the stand.

She said she had seen Took lose his temper and throw things when he was agitated. She recounted an incident in which she claimed Took had hit Huang Na when they all went on a crab-catching excursion.

"I told him that if he wanted to play with a young child, he should not lose his temper. If he was offended, then he shouldn't have been playing with her," she said.

She also told the court she first came to Singapore in 1999 on a social visit pass to visit her first husband. But after she found out he was cheating on her, she decided to stay on to look for a job.

She was jailed for overstaying in 2001, after immigration officers raided the Pasir Panjang shop where she worked. While she was in prison, she realised she would have problems returning here to work after she was repatriated to China, as the immigration authorities had a record of her fingerprints.

But her fellow inmates taught her how to "beat" the system.

After serving her sentence, she returned to China and "scarred all my fingers on the right hand and the left thumb on a hot iron plate". After the injuries healed, she paid a trafficker $8,000 to arrange for her and Huang Na to come to Singapore in May 2003. Shortly after they arrived, they met Took.

DIMINISHED RESPONSIBILITY

The accused never took the stand in his defence. Instead, Took relied on the testimony of defence psychiatrist Dr R. Nagulendran to claim diminished responsibility and escape the noose.

The psychiatrist told the court that Took's "irrational" and "inexplicable" strangling of Huang Na, whom he "considered as a daughter", and his reactions to her death indicated schizophrenia. That meant Took could not be fully accountable for his actions.

The accused's family, he said, also told him how Took had acted strangely whenever he returned to see them in Penang. His mother Loo Swee Heow said her son talked about "having spirits in him" and "often smiled to himself".

Dr Nagulendran added how Took looked to mediums for help on two occasions, once in Kulai, Malaysia, and another time in Geylang.

Prosecution psychiatrist G. Sathyadevan however argued that it was not possible that Took could have been suffering from delusions and hallucinations, much less schizophrenia, when he killed Huang Na.

He said: "I have never seen such a case in my entire years as a psychiatrist where a patient becomes mentally ill right at the time when the offence is committed. There are usually disturbances before that."

Took was not mentally dull either, he added, even though his IQ of 76 put him just above the mentally retarded bracket, which is usually considered 70 or below.

In its submissions, the prosecution also pointed out that he had no history of mental abnormality, and there was nothing disorganised about the way he went about killing Huang Na.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ang said: "He had calmly and systematically gone about killing the deceased. His every action during the killing was pregnant with reason."

On Aug 26, after a 13-day hearing, Took was found guilty and sentenced to hang.

Justice Lai Kew Chai noted the meticulous manner in which Took had planned the disposal of Huang Na's body and clothes. He chose a rubbish bin that was not monitored by a camera to dump her clothes.

He wrapped her in nine plastic bags, encased her in a box and used the cover of night to dump the body.

"His conduct after the killing was clearly the product of a cold and calculated mind."

In January 2006, Took's appeal was rejected in a rare split decision. Chief Justice Yong Pung How and Justice Chao Hick Tin both upheld the conviction, but Justice Kan Ting Chiu dissented.

Forensic pathologist Paul Chui testified that Huang Na had been smothered to death, most likely by Took pressing his hand over her mouth and nose, but he also said that signs on Huang Na's body - a bruised tongue, vomiting and loss of bowel control - were consistent with her having a seizure.

While the pathologist told the court that the seizure was part of the "dying process" and not the primary cause of death, Justice Kan was not satisfied that there was enough conclusive evidence.

A last ditch appeal to the President for clemency also failed.

Took was hanged in Changi Prison on Nov 3, 2006, but not before choosing his own obituary picture after a photo-taking session in prison, dressed in new clothes brought by his family.

HOW IT ALL UNFOLDED

Oct 10, 2004: Huang Na reported missing

Oct 13: Police appeal for information

Oct 17: Public put up posters at bus stops

Oct 20: Family friend Took Leng How, 22, disappears; Retired company director Yeo Aik Seng, 60, offers $10,000 reward

Oct 26: Missing person posters are up in Johor Baru; Mr Low Tiam Soon, 48, offers $5,000 as a reward

Oct 29: ComfortDelGro Corporation urges its taxi drivers to be on the lookout for the girl

Oct 30: Took surrenders to police in Penang, returns to Singapore

Oct 31: Police find body of a young girl at Telok Blangah Hill Park

Nov 1: Took is charged with murder

Nov 8: Huang Na is cremated

July 11, 2005: Took's trial begins

Aug 26: Took is found guilty and sentenced to hang

January 2006: His appeal is rejected in a rare split decision by the Court of Appeal

Nov 3: Took is hanged

This article was first published on May 17, 2016.
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A man has been put in a quandary after his purchase of a resale flat for $270,000 from a dementia-ridden owner was not legally recognised.

Mr Peter Nathan, 55, who failed to obtain legal ownership of the Tampines flat after the High Court turned down his application last month, told The Straits Times he had been paying the flat's annual property tax since the sale in 2010. He has also been paying its monthly town council conservancy charges since 2012, he added.

In 2010, Mr Nathan, an oil surveyor, bought the flat from Mr Arthur De Silva Petiyaga, 75, whose late daughter Millicent had acted on his behalf. She had applied to the court to act on his behalf in 2010 but did not actually have the authority to sell the flat on her father's behalf.

But Mr Nathan came to know of this only in 2014, after Ms De Silva died two years earlier and his relationship with her father soured. Mr Nathan's father and Mr De Silva had been childhood friends.

Mr Nathan then applied to take possession of the flat and the Singapore Land Authority refused to register the transfer. The High Court also rejected his bid.

Judicial Commissioner Aedit Abdullah said in judgment grounds last month that the case had shown up problems that can arise when a person appointed to act for someone lacking mental capacity dies and is not automatically replaced.

Mr Nathan, who is now lodging at his sister's Yishun flat, is appealing against the ruling.

A check with the Tampines Town Council showed that the council had billed the owner based on HDB-supplied records which had listed Mr Nathan as the owner of the three-room flat since 2010.

HDB told ST the transaction was completed by lawyers for the buyer and seller in September 2010.

"HDB had granted approval for the resale based on our assessment of the sellers' and buyer's eligibility, for instance, whether the sellers have fulfilled the Minimum Occupation Period and whether the buyer has met the requirements for purchase of the flat. As HDB did not act for both the sellers and buyer, we are unable to comment on their legal status," said a spokesman.

Meanwhile, the family of Mr De Silva has made clear that he had not received any money from the sale of the flat in 2010.

In court papers filed by their lawyer Noor Mohamed Marican for the case heard by Justice Abdullah, Mr De Silva's grandson Jordan Christopher said when his grandparents were divorced in the Syariah Court in 2008, it was decreed that their matrimonial flat in Tampines was to be sold on the open market.

The proceeds of the flat was to be used to settle the HDB loan and return the money used from the CPF account of his grandmother.

From the net proceeds after the above deductions, 60 per cent was to be given to his grandmother and 40 per cent to Mr De Silva.

Mr De Silva never received a cent of the proceeds after the purported sale, said his grandson in his testimony.

Since his daughter's death, Mr De Silva has been living alone in the flat, and the flat was regarded by all parties as his property, he added.

He alleged that Mr Nathan's application was done in bad faith to dispossess an elderly man without mental capacity of his own property. He added that family members are taking steps to apply for a court order to empower them to manage Mr De Silva's affairs.

vijayan@sph.com.sg

chiaytr@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 23, 2016.
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Persistent parents call him daily to ask for a place for their child in his A-level economics tuition class. Some try to reserve a spot three years ahead. A few well-heeled ones even offer two years' fees of $8,000 up front.

Meet economics tutor Anthony Fok, one of a small but growing group of "super tutors" with earnings of at least $1 million a year in fees.

There are at least 10 such private tutors, according to educators in the growing tuition industry. Private tutors like Mr Fok have to register their centres for GST when their annual revenue crosses the $1 million mark.

They are part of a tuition industry worth more than a billion dollars annually, nearly double the $650 million households here spent on tuition in 2004.

"Students look for me because they want their A grade... even those who are already doing well in school," said 32-year-old Mr Fok, who has about 200 students and 40 names on his waiting list. Some even come from Johor Baru.

According to him, two-thirds of his students have gone on to ace the A-level paper.

His fees range from $380 to $420 for four 1 ½ hour lessons a month. He takes home about $500,000 a year after deducting the rent of his two centres in Bukit Timah and Tampines and other expenses.

Already, the popular timeslots for his classes are fully booked. Each class comprises 30 to 40 students. However, Mr Fok does not intend to open more classes as "there is no way I can cope as a one-man show".

Mr Fok, who used to teach at a secondary school for about four years, said his achievement is the result of dedication and hard work.

For instance, he gives his mobile number to his students so they can message him whenever they need help. He also assists his students in "spotting" topics likely to appear in exams by analysing past papers, and provides them with concise notes, complete with key pointers.

"The tuition industry is growing rapidly with many tutors entering the industry, lured by the attractive income," he said. "Top tutors put in a lot of hard work to help students. It's not an easy industry to be in, fuelled by demanding parents and many competitive tutors."

Despite noting that good academic grades do not define success, Mr Fok said: "Tuition isn't a bad thing. I believe that parents' concerns with grades stem from the desire to give their children the best help they possibly can."

Second-year Anglo Chinese Junior College student Janine Ang has attended Mr Fok's classes since last year. She pays $420 per four lessons. From borderline passes, the tutoring has helped Janine, 18 - who will sit her A levels this year - to improve to As in her economics tests and exams.

"It's worth the fees in exchange for the results," she said.

Physics tutor Phang Yu Hon, a 49-year-old who collected $1.1 million in fees last year, said parents are willing to fork out for tutors known to deliver results. He has been hitting the million-dollar mark since 2011.

His fees for his O- and A-level classes range from $400 to as much as $700 for four two-hour lessons. Each of his classes averages about 25 students.

His students - he handles 200 a year - are mostly from the upper- middle income group, and include sons and daughters of business owners, medical professionals, senior civil servants and academics.

"Their parents are less concerned about cost and more focused on the tutor's track record," said the former research engineer, who has a first-class honours degree in electrical engineering.

Some of his students told The Straits Times that their results have seen marked improvement.

Former CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School student Ivana Ding, for instance, had been consistently doing poorly in physics before attending Mr Phang's classes in March last year.

At the O levels last year, the 17-year-old, now a first-year biomedical sciences student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, scored A2 for the subject with his help.

"Mr Phang makes the difficult concepts easier to digest through analogies as well as dances and songs he choreographed and composed. These all made physics not only fun but also easier to study," she said.

But not every tutor makes it into the top league. Mr Phang believes such tutors possess a charisma that others do not.

In recent years, a crop of new tutors are slowly making a name for themselves in the business.

Former teacher Wynn Khoo, who taught physics and principles of accounts for the past five years, made the switch to full-time tutoring this January. Already, the 31-year-old, who charges $280 to $320 per four lessons, has around 100 students.

Top tutors also insist that top marks is not a guarantee, as students have to put in hard work too.

Maths tutor Gary Ang, 37, who draws a five-figure monthly salary, said: "Parents sometimes think tutors are magicians who can turn a failing student into an A student overnight. If the student is willing to work hard, then yes, there will be results."

Another maths tutor, Ms Celine Loi, who is director of Joss Sticks Tuition Centre, said that students needed to take ownership of their studies, attend classes on time and work with the tutors.

The 40-year-old's centre, which employs 20 tutors, runs about 55 classes a week, for about 400 students.

But education experts such as National University of Singapore lecturer Kelvin Seah believes that sending students to star tutors may be counterproductive.

Dr Seah said engaging the services of such star tutors may not guarantee better academic grades.

"When students are forced into tuition lessons, they could grow to dislike the subject instead of taking a greater interest in it," he added.

calyang@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 23, 2016.
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A three-year-old programme to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds level up has reaped benefits, and is being expanded to include more children and families.

Piloted by Lien Foundation and Care Corner at two pre-schools in 2013, the Circle of Care programme has social workers and educational therapists working alongside pre-school teachers.

It led to higher rates of school attendance and gains in learning for the at-risk children at those two centres in Leng Kee and Admiralty.

The scheme is now being expanded to 15 pre-schools. Two primary schools - Lakeside and Gan Eng Seng - have also come under the programme to see how children can be helped with the transition to Primary 1.

Social workers will collaborate with the schools' counsellors, teachers and allied educators to follow the child until Primary 3.

With the expansion, it is estimated that 30 per cent of the 1,700 pre-schoolers enrolled at the 15 pre-schools will need further help through the programme.

The programme uses an integrated approach that weaves a "circle of care" around the child. Teachers, social workers, education therapists and community partners - who typically work apart - come together to identify the root causes of a child's difficulties and provide help on different fronts.

The model was shown to work for the 76 at-risk children at the two pilot centres, where 95 per cent of them came from families with household incomes of below $3,000 a month.

The Circle of Care team raised their average attendance from about 30 per cent to 70 per cent by working closely with their families.

Educational therapists working with pre-school teachers helped improve their literacy and numeracy skills.

Despite the encouraging results, Lien Foundation officials who went on a trip earlier this month to look at children's centres in Adelaide and Melbourne said they and their partners are looking at how the programme can be improved further.

They said they were struck by the comprehensive and high-quality programmes and services offered to disadvantaged children and their families in the two Australian cities.

Besides providing kindergarten and childcare services, centres offered antenatal care for mothers- to-be, health checks and play sessions for babies and toddlers where mothers learn about the importance of play, talk and reading.

Lien Foundation chief executive officer Lee Poh Wah said one of the take-aways for him was how the programmes focused on not just helping the child, but the families too.

"Good parenting is key to helping these children. We must ensure that these kids have a strong family and good home environment."

He also noted the emphasis placed on helping children develop traits such as grit and resilience.

Several of the children's centres had mindfulness programmes to help children develop concentration and self-awareness.

Said Mr Lee: "We shouldn't just focus on boosting their literacy and numeracy skills.

"Research shows that their socio-emotional skills such as impulse control and persistence and grit are as important for success."

He was also impressed with the leaders in the early childhood education sector in Australia, and said it was crucial as overseas research has shown that school leadership is second only to teaching in affecting learning outcomes.

It was the reason that Lien Foundation launched a leadership programme called "Principal Matters" to help principals become more effective leaders.

Dr Khoo Kim Choo, consultant for Circle of Care, noted that some of the centres in Australia place much effort on helping the child transition to formal schooling.

Pre-school heads and teachers visit the primary schools and share the learning portfolios of the children heading there, while primary school teachers and heads also visit the pre-schools to see how they can align their curriculum and teaching to suit the children.

"It is important for pre-schools and primary schools to collaborate, if not some of the hard-won progress made by these children can be lost," Dr Khoo said.

Mr Lee agreed, adding that the Education Ministry and Ministry of Social and Family Development should look into how pre-schools, primary schools and student-care centres located in schools can collaborate to better the outcomes for children who had lost out in the "lottery of life".

sandra@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 23, 2016.
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The cost of a university degree in Singapore is set to rise, according to a new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Released yesterday, the study projected that a four-year degree will cost 70.2 per cent of an individual's average yearly income in 2030, up from 53.1 per cent last year.

Since 2010, tuition fees at local universities have gone up every year for most undergraduate courses, mainly due to rising operating costs.

For instance, a local undergraduate entering the National University of Singapore's (NUS) faculty of arts and social sciences this academic year would pay $8,050 annually, up from $7,950 last year.

Another projection showed that Singapore's education spending will dip from 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year to 2.7 per cent in 2030, largely due to falling birth cohort sizes and a growing population aged over 60 years.

The study, known as the Yidan Prize Forecast, Education to 2030, was released yesterday at a press conference held at the Kowloon Shangri-La in Hong Kong.

It was commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation, a global education foundation based in Hong Kong and named after its founder Charles Chen Yidan, a Chinese Internet philanthropist.

The EIU study, conducted from January to March, looked at future trends in education across 25 economies including Hong Kong, the United States, Germany and Japan.

It focused on five indicators: public expenditure on education, youth unemployment, affordability of education, number of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) fields and the access to Internet in schools.

Historical data was collected from sources such as the Unesco Institute for Statistics, the World Economic Forum, EIU income data, as well as university rankings.

For each of the five metrics, the EIU derived results based on econometric models that would forecast how these trends would continue in the next 14 to 15 years.

For instance, the affordability of a university degree was based on factors such as inflation rates, analyst feedback and research.

According to projections, Singapore's proportion of Stem graduates in its labour force will grow slightly to 0.4 per cent in 2030, from 0.3 per cent last year.

Mr Chris Clague, editor of the EIU report, said this forecast could be worrying, depending on Singapore's priorities and if its job market will need Stem skills, as this might mean a skills mismatch.

The report also cited a separate 2015 study by the US National Science Foundation which noted that Stem knowledge and skills are used in more occupations than traditionally thought, including finance, and sales and marketing.

Such a trend is likely to intensify in the next 15 years and beyond as technology becomes more central to different jobs, it said.

Meanwhile, Singapore's youth unemployment rate is projected to remain low - from 10.9 per cent last year to 10.8 per cent in 2030.

The Republic is also among the top performers for having Internet access in schools in 2015, coming in joint second with Finland with a 6.4 on a scale of one to seven, with the latter being the best. This improves to 6.5 in 2030, although Hong Kong, Finland and Norway are expected to surpass that level by then.

Yesterday's event also saw the launch of the Yidan Prize - the largest education prize of its kind in terms of monetary value.

There will be two awards each year - one recognising education research and the other initiatives that promote development in education. Each winner will receive a cash prize of HK$15 million (S$2.7 million) and a fund of HK$15 million based on the principle of impact investment, to be distributed in three instalments over three years to fund research or projects.

Nominations for the prize will open next month. Individuals such as teachers, academics and policymakers, among others, from around the world, including Singapore, can apply. The first winners will be announced in September next year.

Speaking at the press conference yesterday, Mr Chen, who funded the prize, said education is close to his heart as he sees the potential of university education in helping people discover themselves.

"The prize recognises and supports agents of change whose work transforms education in a sustainable way, and encourages innovative approaches to education research and development," he said.

ateng@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 23, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This story was first published in July 2015 in an e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965. A collaboration between The Straits Times and the Singapore Police Force, the e-book appeared in The Straits Times Star E-books app. Read the other crime stories here. (Warning: Some content in these stories may be disturbing for some individuals.)

High-rolling hustler (2004)

"Unremarkable" family man, who led double life as the darling of offshore casinos, cheated banks of millions

Living in a Serangoon Road condominium with his wife and two teenage sons - Chia Teck Leng appeared to most as an unremarkable family man, with all the trappings of upper middle-class Singapore. But unbeknownst to his friends and family, Chia secretly led a double life as a high-rolling hustler, complete with flashy cars, luxury apartments and a girlfriend half his age.

He was the darling of offshore casinos - gambling operators would personally fly him in on private jets so he could have a flutter in their betting halls.

To feed and fund his gambling addiction, he swindled four foreign banks out of $117 million from 1999 to 2003, using his position as the financial manager of Asia Pacific Breweries (APB). The case at that time was Singapore's biggest involving commercial fraud.

In 2004, the then 44-year-old was sentenced to 42 years in jail by High Court Judge Tay Yong Kwang - the longest for a case of commercial fraud.

"Bankers knocking on his door were there to meet the man… to forge a business relationship, but the man they met was unfortunately in the business of forgery," said Judge Tay at the sentencing.

Chia had been a compulsive gambler since at least 1994, when he was a financial controller with Swire Pacific Offshore, a marine services company.

He had plunged deep into debt during 1995 to 1996 and owed several banks about $100,000 in the form of overdrafts and credit card dues. But fortune smiled on him the next year when he began visiting Star Cruise ships almost every fortnight, to try his luck at the gambling tables.

He won on several occasions and was offered a credit line of $75,000. In less than a year, his winnings grew to about $1 million.

However, the tides turned in August 1998. In a gambling spree that lasted a fortnight, he not only lost all his previous winnings, but racked up new debts as well.

By the time he joined APB in 1999, the debts had mounted sky-high, and he was a desperate man. He trained his sights on four foreign banks, one after the other - Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), the Mizuho Corporate Bank and the Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank Aktiengesellschaft (HVB).

Submitting forged documents, he was able to open accounts in APB's name, with himself as the sole signatory. With SEB he had a credit facility for $500,000 - which he intended to use for himself.

Meanwhile, APB had no idea of what its finance manager was doing behind its back. Chia remained in sole control of all these accounts by forging director board resolutions that authorised him to receive the credit and loan facilities provided, sign all transactions and operate the bank accounts on behalf of APB.

To forge the signatures of the various directors of APB, he obtained specimens from annual reports and internal documents. He practised the signatures till he was sure they would pass muster.

Chia's modus operandi was to draw money from SMBC, Mizuho and HVB, and transfer it to the SEB account. From there, the money was siphoned into his two personal accounts with DBS before it was remitted to casinos in Australia, Britain, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines.

He rolled over funds provided by the banks, making timely deposits to each account whenever repayments were due, thus creating the impression of a credit-worthy customer.

During a crunch situation in November 1999, he even withdrew $53 million from an APB account with OCBC. He managed to replace the entire amount by October 2002, escaping detection. As the amount of illegal money available increased, so did the stakes for which Chia gambled.

In 2002, he met his girlfriend, Chinese national Li Jin, 22, on one of his gambling trips onboard a cruise ship. Li was a croupier in the VVIP (Very Very Important Person) room.

He won $1 million from her and, from then on, she became his "good luck charm". To make sure his luck continued rolling in, he spared no expense. Chia purchased a $530,000 apartment in Grange Road for her and bought her branded goods and jewellery.

He also bought a $10,000 forged passport so Li could enter Singapore easily. She used it twice - in 2002 and 2003 - and was jailed six months for the offence.

But as the adage goes, the casino always wins and the Commercial Affairs Department got wind of Chia's activities. He was arrested on Sept 2, 2003. Before his four-year run ended, he had withdrawn $117.1 million. Of this, only $34.8 million was recovered. The authorities estimated that he lost $62 million feeding his gambling habit.

While he was in jail, Chia wrote a 13-page paper as a form of penance. Called "Taming the Casino Dragon", he shared his experience as an insider to the world of high rollers.

Self-deprecating at times, and hoping others would not make the same mistakes he did, he wrote that "like an inexperienced teenager succumbing to the lure of a newly discovered vice, I was soon hooked".

CHIA'S DOUBLE LIFE

Accountancy graduate Chia Teck Leng began his career at accounting firm Arthur Andersen before taking on a host of high-flying positions, including assistant vice-president at UOB, before becoming finance manager at Asia Pacific Breweries on Jan 20, 1999, with an annual salary of between $200,000 and $300,000.

To colleagues, his wife and two teenage children, he was a hard-working executive and an unassuming family man. But behind that veneer, was a high-rolling casino gambler with a mistress and a "hedonistic" lifestyle.

He had been gambling since 1994. Since July 2000, he had been flying in private chartered jets to Melbourne where he would gamble at the Crown Casino. He was given VIP treatment, staying in its most expensive room, complete with butler service. A night there cost A$25,000.

He was also a regular at London Ritz's Club, where he could gamble even higher stakes.

From $200 bets during his Star Cruise days, he went up to single bets of A$20,000 and 25,000 in British ones. He even played for A$400,000 a hand at the Crown Casino.

He met his mistress, Chinese national Li Jin, in April 2002 at the casino on board a cruise ship. She was then a croupier.

He won $1 million from her that night. From then on, he would ask to gamble against her - his "good luck" charm.

Such were the losses suffered that she was eventually given a day off whenever he came on board. The Nanjing University graduate later left her job to be with Chia in Singapore.

He got her a forged passport for $10,000, under the name Chu Chiao-Ling, to enter and leave the country. He spent lavishly. He bought a $150,000 Mercedes-Benz, a $530,000 apartment in Grange Road, and gave gifts totalling $300,000 to various people, including his girlfriend.

Chia owned two apartments at Grange Tower and St Francis Lodge. Photo: ST

BANK'S CLAIMS

Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank (HVB), Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Fuji Bank, now known as the Mizuho Bank, sued Asia Pacific Breweries seeking repayment for the fraud committed by its employee Chia Teck Leng.

First Mizuho withdrew its suit, then Sumitomo's was dismissed. This was followed by HVB and SEB's cases also being dismissed.

Justice Belinda Ang, in her judgment against HVB and SEB, said that the banks had made themselves "easy prey" by ignoring their own banking procedures and failing to notice discrepancies or irregularities in documents that were "staring bank officers in the face".

The banks were so eager to do business with APB that they willingly gave out loans of millions of dollars without doing due diligence to verify that Chia was authorised to act for the company, she said.

This article was first published on May 16, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This story was first published in July 2015 in an e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965. A collaboration between The Straits Times and the Singapore Police Force, the e-book appeared in The Straits Times Star E-books app.

ORCHARD TOWERS MURDERS (2002)

Michael McCrea tried to escape justice by fleeing Singapore but finally paid the price for killing a woman and his driver - a man he called his brother

On Jan 7, 2002, a security guard detected a fetid odour coming from a silver Daewoo Chairman parked on the seventh floor of the Orchard Towers carpark.

He alerted the police. The decomposed bodies of 46-year-old Kho Nai Guan and his girlfriend Lan Ya Ming, a 29-year-old from China, were inside the abandoned vehicle.

Mr Kho's body was stuffed in a wicker chest at the back. The chauffeur's legs were bent out of shape, his face was battered, and his corpse crawling with maggots.

The wicker basket containing the body of Mr Kho was placed in the back of McCrea's Daewoo. McCrea had removed the seat so that the basket could fit in the space. It was then covered with a piece of cloth. A dumbbell was placed in it by Ong to weigh the basket down if it was to be disposed of in water. Photo: ST

Audrey Ong Pei Ling was sentenced to 12 years' jail after she pleaded guilty to two charges of helping McCrea dispose of the two bodies. Photo: Police File Photo

Madam Lan was in the boot of the Daewoo, dressed only in a spaghetti-strap blouse. Her head was wrapped with blue plastic recycling bags, tied at the neck.

Her body was wrapped in blankets and bedsheets, and tied with wire.

Autopsies showed that both had been strangled.

The $146,000 car was bought and gifted to Mr Kho by his employer, former financial adviser Michael McCrea, after paying the initial deposit of between $20,000 and $30,000.

Three days before the grisly find, the Briton and his Singaporean girlfriend-cum-secretary Audrey Ong Pei Ling had already fled to London.

It was more than three years later that McCrea was back on Singapore soil to face charges of murder.

By then, details of what happened between him and his victims were already made clear.

The deaths were not, as McCrea initially claimed, a result of a fight because Mr Kho had stolen his money to buy drugs.

Yes, there was a fight, but it had started because of a Chinese phrase Mr Kho had called Ong. Translated, the phrase meant slut.

'BROTHERS'

McCrea and Mr Kho were as close as brothers - so close that they and their lovers lived together in a Pinewood Gardens apartment rented by the British man.

The 44-year-old McCrea, whose pregnant wife was in Australia, was with 22-year-old Ong.

Mr Kho, a father of three who was estranged from his wife, lived with Madam Lan. She too was married, with a husband and twin boys in Fujian.

Former financial adviser McCrea paid Mr Kho $6,000 a month to drive him around, but also took him out to business meals and all the parties he attended.

He even gave "Ah Guan" - his affectionate name for Mr Kho - a $20,000 bonus a month before their falling-out.

It all came apart just after New Year's Day of 2002, when, after some champagne, the chauffeur called the boss' girlfriend "jian huo" and spat at her.

This infuriated McCrea, who pounced on Mr Kho, pushed him against the wall and punched his face. He retaliated by breaking a vase on his employer's head, but this had little effect on McCrea who kicked him, fracturing his ribs.

The Briton, who was an amateur boxer, also punched Mr Kho repeatedly in the face, and held him in an arm-lock so tight that it fractured the small bones in his throat.

When Madam Lan came at McCrea with a knife, he knocked her unconscious.

At about 4.30am, McCrea and Ong realised Mr Kho was dead when they found that his body was cold and that his legs had turned purple.

In desperation, Ong attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while McCrea tried to jump start Mr Kho's heart with a massage machine. It was too late.

Ong saw Madam Lan moving slightly and took her to Mr Kho's bedroom.

The Pinewood Gardens apartment in Balmoral Park where the double killing took place just after New Year in 2002. Photo: ST

McCrea suggested they stow the body in a luggage bag, but Ong pointed to the large wicker basket which was used as a coffee table in the living room.

She emptied the basket and they put the body inside.

THE COVER-UP

What followed were frantic arrangements to hide the killing - as well as an attempt to get whatever money Mr Kho had, especially the bonus he had been given the month before.

So Madam Lan, lying dazed on Mr Kho's bed, was pressed for where it could be hidden.

Meanwhile, McCrea sought help from a friend, Englishwoman Gemma Louise Ramsbottom, who used to do his business paperwork. She had introduced McCrea to Ong about six months earlier, while the latter was working in a Boat Quay pub.

The three talked about what to do with Mr Kho's body.

Ong placed dumbbells in the basket in case they decided to throw it into the sea. The chest, also filled with Mr Kho's belongings, was sprayed with air freshener to mask any smell.

Through the day, Ong popped in and out of the apartment to help run errands for Ms Ramsbottom. She claimed Madam Lan was very much alive then.

But when she returned to the flat at about midnight on Jan 3, Madam Lan's body was on the floor and Ms Ramsbottom was being threatened with death by McCrea if she told anyone what had happened.

Investigations revealed that he had placed plastic bags over Madam Lan's head and secured them with ties when she appeared to be going into convulsions.

The trio wrapped her body in blankets and bedsheets, securing the bundle with wire. They took measurements of the wicker chest and the back seat of the Daewoo.

When the coast seemed clear at 4am on Jan 4, the chest was loaded onto a trolley and brought down in the lift. All three lifted the basket and placed it on the back seat. It was then back to the apartment to get Madam Lan's body, which McCrea carried on his shoulders and placed in the boot.

Then came the big question of where to dump the bodies.

The trio could not find a suitable place despite driving - Ms Ramsbottom and McCrea took turns at the wheel - from Jurong to Tuas. The sea off Punggol was no good as there were people on the jetty and it was getting bright.

At about 10am, Ms Ramsbottom was sent home as she needed to pick up her two young daughters from the babysitter.

Finally, McCrea and Ong settled on the top seventh floor of the Orchard Towers carpark.

The decomposing bodies of a man and a woman were found in a silver Daewoo Chairman left unattended for days in the carpark of Orchard Towers. The man's body was in a wicker basket left on the back seat, while the woman's body was discovered in the boot. Photo: ST

They took a taxi back to the apartment, and planned to dissolve the bodies with acid.

But Ong's friend, Mr Cheo Yi Tang, said he could not get his hands on so much acid.

He turned up at the apartment instead with bleach, rubber gloves, sponge and paint - to help remove bloodstains on the walls and floor.

The next day, Jan 5, McCrea booked two air-tickets and left for London with Ong. They later went to Melbourne, to stay with McCrea's pregnant wife.

In late May, Australian police went to the South Melbourne home to attend to a domestic dispute. McCrea was detained when they found irregularities in his passport and visa.

He was arrested formally on June 13 after it was discovered he was wanted in Singapore. Ong had been nabbed a week earlier.

On November 10, 2002, she landed in Changi Airport and was taken into custody by Singapore police, having agreed to surrender the month before.

She was jailed for 12 years. after pleading guilty to two charges of helping to dispose of the bodies and removing bloodstains from the apartment.

While the defence argued for leniency given that she had turned herself in and testified against McCrea, District Judge Richard Magnus pointed out that she made no attempt to contact authorities here after the duo first ran away.

"The accused's overall conduct was sordid, macabre, callous, shocking, reprehensible and grossly offensive to any right thinking member of the public," he said.

Meanwhile, McCrea was fighting tooth and nail to avoid facing justice, all the while being remanded at the maximum-security Port Phillip Prison in Melbourne.

EXTRADITION FIGHT

To bring him back to face trial, Singapore had agreed that he would not be hanged even if found guilty of murder.

Australian law forbids anyone from being extradited to a country where he could receive the death penalty.

A Law Ministry spokesman said at the time: "Without the undertaking, extraditing McCrea and bringing him to justice is not possible. We will then have a situation where an accused will completely escape trial in Singapore or elsewhere."

In November 2002, an Australian magistrate ordered his extradition. The next month, McCrea petitioned the country's Minister for Justice and Customs and failed.

Then he went to the country's Federal Court, and was turned down again.

By now it was August 2005, and McCrea had one last hope - Australia's High Court, which expedited the hearing given the many delays already.

In September, it took Australia's highest court less than an hour to turn him down.

McCrea was kept in a straitjacket for two weeks after the final rejection, to stop him from harming himself.

On Sept 27, the 46-year-old boarded Singapore Airlines flight SQ228 and was flanked throughout the seven-hour trip by plain-clothes officers. His hand was constantly cuffed to a detective. At about 9.30pm, a shackled McCrea finally set foot in Singapore.

Two days later he was formally charged with the murders of Mr Kho and Madam Lan.

THE TRIAL

In June 2006, he pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and of causing evidence to disappear.

He was given the maximum of 10 years in jail each for each person's death and another four for disposing of their bodies.

Justice Choo Han Teck ordered the terms to run one after another.

He also did not backdate McCrea's jail term to 2002, when he was first detained in Australia, ordering that the jail term start with effect from the day of sentencing.

McCrea was shocked to realise that he would spend the next 24 of years of his life in prison.

Justice Choo made it clear he did not buy McCrea's plea for a lighter sentence because he was remorseful. He pointed out that Mr Kho was extensively battered over a "relatively small matter".

As for the death of Madam Lan, also known as Suzie, the judge said: "He had not only prevented Suzie from leaving the flat, but had kicked her in the head before killing her, all because he wanted to find Ah Guan's money - right after he killed him."

He wanted the two sentences to run one after the other as there was "a sufficiently long break" between the two killings to warrant their treatment as two separate offences.

As for McCrea's request to backdate his sentence, Justice Choo pointed out that he chose to stay four years in an Australian jail to fight efforts to extradite him to face trial here.

"It would be invidious for him to ask that his jail sentence commence from the date of his initial remand on account of his own filibuster."

McCrea appealed, and almost got his 24-year jail term raised.

Before the three-judge Court of Appeal, his lawyer Kelvin Lim had argued that the judge who punished McCrea did not consider his client's remorse, and described how he had tried to resuscitate Mr Kho.

Justice Andrew Phang pressed Mr Lim on what he would have done if he was in McCrea's shoes.

"Your best friend, your brother, is dying. Put yourself in your client's position. What would you have done?"

Mr Lim replied: "I would call an ambulance."

Justice Phang shot back: "Yes. It's common humanity."

Allowing McCrea to serve the two 10-year jail terms concurrently would have meant he need serve only 14 years in all. Justice Phang told Mr Lim: "There are two deaths and you are asking for a concurrent sentence? Two lives were lost."

At one point, Justice V.K. Rajah raised the possibility of exercising his powers as a judge to increase the prison term. McCrea could have been jailed for up to an additional three years for disposing of evidence.

But the judges decided against this and kept the original sentence, after finding "the appeal wholly without merit".

THE KILLER: MICHAEL MCCREA

He left school without a single O level, but that did not stop the press back home to recognise his business savvy. A 1980 profile described McCrea as "Nottingham's Million Pound Man" after bringing in £1.2 million in nine months for a financial-services firm he worked for.

He first came to South-east Asia in the early 1990s and met his Australian wife Brunetta Stocco in Singapore.

For many years, he was a financial adviser who enticed expatriate clients with his "Expat Survival Kit" - a plan to grow an offshore nest egg that could not be detected by tax authorities.

It seems he once had a run-in with Singapore authorities and was fined for flouting financial regulations.

His $2,000-a-month apartment in the Pinewood Gardens Condominium at Balmoral Park. was decorated with designer pillows by Versace and there were candles all over. He had a punching bag attached to the living room ceiling since he had been an amateur boxer.

He threw noisy parties at the condo's poolside, which caused neighbours to complain on several occasions.

Mrs McCrea told a British newspaper that she left Singapore while pregnant with their first child as "she didn't like the lifestyle he was living".

Their marriage was over, she said, after he turned up unexpectedly on her Melbourne doorstep with his girlfriend and co-accused Audrey Ong.

THE VICTIMS

Mr Kho Nai Guan (left), McCrea's chauffeur and good friend; and Madam Lan Ya Ming, a married mother of two and Mr Kho's girlfriend. Photo: LianHe WanBao, Shinmin

VICTIM #1: MR KHO NAI GUAN

In the 1980s, his electronics dealership was lucrative enough for him to own four cars. But that collapsed in 1989. After working in his brother's a pet-food business, he decided to set up his own company in the same line. But that folded in 1992, and left him with over $18,000 in debts.

Still, friends knew him as well-spoken and friendly.

In 1997, he was one of 50 picked when Yellow-Top Cab needed cabbies for its new fleet of Mercedes-Benz E-250 taxis.

He even went on to receive a Singapore Courtesy Council award for his customer service.

In 1998, he met Michael McCrea and six months later became his personal driver.

But his relationships with foreign women caused a rift in his marriage to a postal worker, with whom he had a son and two daughters. In 1999, he moved out of his home. After his death, his family identified his body from the Thai tattoos on his back.

VICTIM #2: MADAM LAN YA MING

She was 30-year-old teacher from Fujian province.

According to her husband Lin Jia Song, who then worked in a telecommunications company in Fujian, they had been married for eight years.

She went to Singapore in October 2001 on a social visit pass, to apply for a teaching position and visit a friend here. She called home once every week since she left. The last he heard from her was on Dec 29.

The couple had eight-year-old twin boys.

It was only 10 months after her body was found that her 32-year-old husband identified and claimed her body.

This article was first published on May 16, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This story was first published in July 2015 in an e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965. A collaboration between The Straits Times and the Singapore Police Force, the e-book appeared in The Straits Times Star E-books app.

THE ONE-EYED DRAGON (2006)

Gangster Tan Chor Jin was so-called because he was blind in one eye. He repeatedly shot a nightclub owner, killing him, before conducting his own defence in court and failing miserably

He burst into the Serangoon flat on the dawn of Feb 15, 2006, armed with a knife and Beretta pistol. It was the home of his long-time friend and nightclub owner Lim Hock Soon. The gunman first ordered Mr Lim to tie up his wife, maid, and teenage daughter. He then aimed his pistol at 41-year-old Lim, firing five shots into his left thigh, left arm, back, right cheek and right temple before fleeing with accomplice Ho Yueh Keong, a Malaysian.

And so began an international manhunt for Tan Chor Jin, dubbed by the media as the One-eyed Dragon because he is blind in his right eye.

It took just 10 days before he was caught after police stormed a room at the five-star Grand Plaza Parkroyal hotel in Kuala Lumpur - launching a murder trial in which Tan conducted his own defence, before being found guilty. He was hanged in 2009 at the age of 42.

HIS CAPTURE

Tan Chor Jin (centre, facing camera) ran to Malaysia after killing nightclub owner Lim Hock Soon. But it was not long before the law caught up with him. Photo: The Straits Times

Tan, better known as Tony Kia to his associates, was part of the Ang Soon Tong gang which operated in both Malaysia and Singapore.

The gang, which had existed since the 1950s, was known for conducting criminal activities such as gun-smuggling, drugs, illegal moneylending and illegal gambling.

Malaysian police were on Tan's trail soon after he fled to Johor Baru with Ho in a Proton Wira.

Once the suspects got there, they split up.

Tan got a crew cut, presumably to change his appearance, before calling on a gang lord in the town.

That man was already being watched by Malaysian police. When the police spotted Tan, they started trailing him as well and soon realised that he was the one wanted by Singapore police.

Tan and his gang were clever enough to switch hotels at least once every two days.

But he made a wrong move when, instead of keeping a low profile, he chose to stay in expensive hotels before going into hiding in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

His craving for Hainanese chicken rice played a role in his capture. It was around midnight, when he ordered the dish through room service at the five-star Grand Plaza Parkroyal hotel in Kuala Lumpur, where he went to procure a fake passport.

An undercover Malaysian cop posed as a waiter and delivered the food to Tan's room on the 13th floor. He used the chance to gather intel, for instance the room's layout and how many were with Tan - his wife, and two other couples. A listening device was stuck on one of the dishes.

At 2am, the other two couples returned to their beds in adjoining rooms. Two hours later on Feb 25, when nothing but snores could be heard, 12 officers rushed into the three rooms.

Tan's room was clean. But in the others, police found six guns, 203 bullets, two pairs of handcuffs and 4kg of ketamine, with a street value of nearly $22,000.

Tan, despite his supposed fear of flying, was brought back on March 1 to Singapore on a Singapore Airlines flight, escorted by six Singapore detectives.

RETURN TO THE SCENE

An hour after he was charged on March 3, Tan was bought back to the scene of the crime. That was where he was seen by his victim's wife, who was next door in her mother-in-law's flat, for the first time since he pointed a gun at her and her family.

"Give me back my husband!" Madam Kok Pooi Leng, then 33, screamed at the killer. She had been married to Mr Lim for 14 years.

Mr Lim's elderly mother also yelled in Mandarin: "Go and die!"

Although Tan did not say anything, a slight grin crossed his face.

His original charge of murder was later amended to discharging a firearm, which also carries the death penalty.

Despite the serious nature of the crime, he insisted he did not want any lawyer to represent him even though he could have asked the court to assign him two, pro bono.

TAN DEFENDS HIMSELF

Lim Choon Chwee, or Ah Chwee, Tan Chor Jin's childhood buddy from the same Kim Keat kampung. Photo: The Straits Times

He was the first man in more than 16 years to conduct his own defence when facing the death penalty in Singapore.

Tan was full of confidence when he began, often seen laughing and joking with the guards, even giving the thumbs-up to his friends seated in the public gallery. When he got a satisfactory answer from a witness, he would wink and smile at his wife, Madam Siau Fang Fang.

But as he went on, he began to be filled with doubts.

He warned Mr Lim's daughter not to lie about him pointing a gun at her father.

He asked the maid how she could have remembered details of the shooting when she could not even remember which one was his bad eye.

He repeatedly asked Justice Tay Yong Kwang to allow him to smoke in prison, arguing that "a car without petrol cannot go; my mind without cigarettes cannot think".

He insisted that he had only wanted to scare Mr Lim, whom he believed was plotting to kill him.

He claimed that he and Mr Lim ran an illegal horse racing and football betting ring, in which he accepted bets placed by Mr Lim's runners.

By April 2004, he said, the runners had chalked up losses of $220,000 but Mr Lim refused to settle the debt. In 2005, he claimed he found out that Mr Lim had sent people to kill him.

He bought a semi-automatic Beretta .22-calibre pistol in Johor for defence.

He brought the gun with him to the showdown with Mr Lim to balance the scales since he was half-blind - the result of a 1999 traffic accident when glass pieces flew into his right eye.

He insisted it was Mr Lim who had first attacked him with a chair.

He claimed the gun misfired while he was warding off the blows.

"When I was talking to him, he suddenly grabbed hold of a chair to attack me. I panicked and opened fire," he had told police.

He added that he had been drinking from the evening before, and was in a blur about events.

But many of his arguments fell flat.

The prosecution noted that Mr Lim would not have been able to lift a bulky chair, since he had been tied up.

Tan asked weapons specialist David Loo from the police's Armament Branch if the gun, which was found in a canal a day after the shooting, could have gone off on its own.

The answer was a clear no said Mr Loo, since he was able to test-fire the gun without any malfunctions.

Tan urged for more tests be carried out.

The judge asked: "Even if the pistol was to misfire, would it fire more than one bullet?"

Mr Loo said it would not.

Tan had asked for a doctor to testify on how alcohol could have affected his mental state. But he decided not to call on Dr Lim Yun Chin, a consultant psychiatrist in private practice, when he realised the doctor was unable to support Tan's contention that alcohol had an "overriding effect" on his state of mind at the time.

Tan instead chose to call senior consultant psychiatrist R. Munidasa Winslow as his sole defence witness. But he testified that even though Tan was possibly drunk at the time, it did not affect his mental responsibility for the shooting.

In a surprise move one day, Tan also urged the court to hang him, since his death would protect his wife, whom he claimed was receiving threatening SMS messages.

He said: "I don't want to fight. I want to surrender. I don't want to get my wife into trouble."

Madam Seow even showed reporters the messages later that day. One said: "If your husband doesn't die, you'll have to die."

Deputy Public Prosecutor Chew Chin Yee described Tan's testimony untruthful, evasive and at times so ludicrous it only reinforced his guilt.

Close to the end of the trial, Tan seemed to realise he had made a foolhardy decision in rejecting proper representation.

When Justice Tay asked Tan if he needed anything to prepare for closing submissions, Tan replied: "If I say I need a lawyer now, how?"

GUILTY

The High Court rejected Tan's multi-pronged defence: that he had been drunk, that the shots were fired accidentally, and that he had acted in self-defence after Mr Lim threw a chair at him.

Labelling his actions as those of an "assured and accomplished assassin", he was sentenced to death. Justice Tay dismissed Tan's claims of an accidental shooting as a "laughable fantasy", because pulling the trigger required strength and a firm grip.

After the judge read out the sentence, Tan's first question was: "Will I be hanged tomorrow?" Again, he asked if he could smoke in prison. Veteran criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan represented Tan in his appeal, which was rejected in January 2008.

Before facing the noose on Jan 9, 2009, he requested that his kidneys, liver and cornea be donated.

It is believed that the 42-year-old asked for one of his kidneys to go to retail magnate Tang Wee Sung, the second son of Tangs' late founder Tang Choon Keng.

THE FUNERAL

Madam Kok, the 33-year-old widow, reaches out to touch Mr Lim's coffin. Photo: The Straits Times

On Feb 26, less than two days after the dramatic shooting, Mr Lim's wake was held at the void deck of the block where he was killed. It drew hundreds of curious onlookers - some of whom simply wanted to catch a glimpse of the hostesses and mamasans who had worked at his popular KTV lounge Las Vegas Nightclub in Havelock Road.

Others wanted to see if secret society members would turn up. During the final rites, Mr Lim's widow broke down, along with several hostesses.

At the cremation, Madam Kok was too distraught to go inside the viewing hall.

Outside, she fainted and laid on a bench. When she came to, she staggered towards the viewing hall, screaming "Ah Pui!", but was held back by relatives. She had affectionately called her husband "Fei Lo" or '"Ah Pui". The phrases mean fat man in Cantonese and Hokkien respectively.

WIDOW, DAUGHTER AND MAID'S TESTIMONY

At 6.55am, a man clad in a black short-sleeved round-necked T-shirt and black Armani pants barged into their four-room flat in Serangoon, holding a pistol in his left hand and a short knife in his right.

He had surprised Mr Lim Hock Soon's teenage daughter while she was at the doorstep putting on her shoes to get ready for school. He barged past the then 13-year-old and declared that he wanted to rob the family.

He kicked Mr Lim, known in secret society circles as "Guni Ter", or Milk Pig, who was sleeping on the mattress in the living room.

Mr Lim demanded to know what Tan wanted.

"I have a gun. Do you want me to shoot?" came the reply.

Madam Kok Pooi Leng, who was asleep in the master bedroom, was woken up by the family's Indonesian maid Risa Erawati Ning Tyas, then 22.

She was ordered by Tan to collect all her valuables from the master bedroom and put them in a bag.

The gunman then told Mr Lim to tie up the family members with towels.

He made all of them go into the study, where Mr Lim was forced to open the safe.

Jewellery and cash in five different currencies also went into the bag.

Madam Kok was told to tie up her husband's hands with TV cable wire. She used her teeth to tie the knots as her own hands were bound.

Then she and her daughter were told to go the the master bedroom.

In the study, Tan pointed his gun at the maid's forehead.

"Uncle, please don't kill me. I here working," she pleaded.

Mr Lim told the gunman not to do anything to her. According to the maid, this was when Tan pointed the gun at him.\

"Sir knelt down and begged the gunman not to kill him," she testified.

Ms Risa was then moved into the girl's bedroom, but she was able to peek into the study.

"The gunman fired one shot at Sir's face. Sir cried out in pain. I saw Sir fall backwards, I saw Sir's body hitting against the black chair behind him."

More shots followed.

Tan then went to the master bedroom where he told Madam Kok in Mandarin: "It is your husband who went too far." Before fleeing he warned Madam Kok: "I give you your life. Don't identify me or else I will kill your whole family."

HOW IT ALL UNFOLDED

Feb 15, 2006: Nightclub owner Lim Hock Soon, 41, is shot dead in his Serangoon Avenue 4 flat by a gunman. Mr Lim's daughter, wife and maid are tied up and put in the other rooms. The gunman, who was dressed in black, flees from the scene with cash and jewellery.

Feb 16,2006: Lim Choon Chwee, 38, the man believed to have driven the gunman to the flat, surrenders to the police. The police identify two other men in connection with the case: Tan Chor Jin and Malaysian Ho Yueh Keong. International police are put on alert. The gun used in the shooting is found in a canal in Sengkang.

Feb 21, 2006: Mr Lim, the victim, is cremated after a five-day wake.

Feb 25, 2006: Tan is arrested in Kuala Lumpur in the five-star Grand Plaza Parkroyal hotel. Tan's wife, Madam Siau Fang Fang, 25, is arrested with him.

March 1, 2006: Tan is extradited back to Singapore and charged with murder. In August, the charge is amended to discharging a firearm with intent to cause physical injury, which also carries the death penalty.

Jan 22, 2007: The first day of Tan's trial in High Court.

May 22, 2007: Tan is found guilty and sentenced to death.

Jan 30, 2008: His appeal fails.

Jan 5, 2009: It is revealed that his application for clemency was denied by the President.

Jan 9, 2009: He is hanged at dawn.

THE GANGSTER'S TWO "WIVES"

When he was in prison after being caught, he told his wife he had a mistress, with whom he had a daughter and was expecting a son.

"He told me to tell her to look after their two children well. I was angry and shocked. But at that time, I was too much at a loss to know what to do," said Madam Siau, who married Tan in 2001 before they settled in her parent's bungalow in Muar, during an interview with The Straits Times.

The "second wife", 28-year-old Yi Hua found out about his arrest from watching Malaysian television news.

He called her, urging her to contact Madam Siau.

Madam Yi, whom he set up in an apartment in Johor Baru, said: "There was a lot of tension when we first met.

"But we talked and conceded that being angry was also no use. We were both in the same boat."

He shuttled between his two homes, making time in between to run his business, a chain of four Chinese medicinal shops in Johor Baru, Muar and Skudai that also dabbled in the antique trade.

Both his women received an allowance of at least $2,000 a month.

AN ACCOMPLICE TURNS PROSECUTION WITNESS

At about 3am, childhood friend and his secret society underling Lim Choon Chwee drove Tan Chor Jin to Mr Lim Hock Soon's home at Block 223, Serangoon Avenue 4.

Lim did not know that the black leather clutch bag Tan had with him contained a loaded Beretta pistol, some spare rounds and a small knife.

Lim waited in the car.

Ten minutes later, Tan returned, and as they left, he asked Lim where he could steal a Rolex watch.

Tan confided in Lim that he was down on his luck and had money problems.

The two spent about two hours watching football at a friend's house.

At about 6am, Tan again asked Lim to drive him back to Mr Lim's place. Tan told him to wait in front of Peicai Secondary School.

About half an hour later, Tan returned appearing flustered. Lim saw that he was also carrying a white plastic bag which appeared to be full. It was later revealed that the bag contained about $170,000 in cash and property, including assorted jewellery, four Rolex watches and stacks of foreign currencies.

Tan then told Lim to drive to a canal in Sengkang, where Tan got rid of the pistol and the bullets.

They then returned to the friend's flat and called up a man called Ho Yuen Kong.

Tan, Ho and Lim returned to the carpark, where Lim saw Tan transfer the white bag to a Malaysian-registered car. Tan and Ho then left for Malaysia.

Lim was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal for abetment of murder, and was sentenced to six months' jail for failing to report a robbery.

This article was first published on May 17, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This story was first published in July 2015 in an e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965. A collaboration between The Straits Times and the Singapore Police Force, the e-book appeared in The Straits Times Star E-books app.

THE SUNSHINE EMPIRE (2006)

Self-styled entrepreneur James Phang Wah promised huge returns through his firm's "revolutionary" investment plan, but it was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme

Stepping into the plush Toa Payoh Central office of multi-level marketing firm Sunshine Empire, few investors would have thought that they would be duped by its charismatic founder, who saw himself as Asia's answer to Warren Buffett, lived in a luxurious three-storey landed property in Jurong West and drove a shiny black Mercedes.

For 15 months between August 2006 and November 2007, thousands of unwitting Singaporeans bought almost 26,000 "lifestyle packages" ranging from $240 to $12,000 from the company, which had an office featuring gold trimmings and lush carpeting.

In November 2007, the police's Commercial Affairs Department raided the fraudulent firm, owned by entrepreneur James Phang Wah, in what was to be the unravelling of Singapore's biggest Ponzi scheme.

Most investors would get back little or nothing, with the authorities recovering only $21 million out of more than the nearly $190 million swindled from ordinary Singaporeans, including retirees and students, lured by the promise of high returns.

Only a few who invested in the early months of the scheme made any money.

Photo: Sunshine Empire

In July 2010, the court which sentenced Phang to nine years' jail and a $60,000 fine for criminal breach of trust described his scheme as a "premeditated, sustained, sophisticated fraud on a large scale" which no "unsuspecting mind could have easily seen through".

Phang, the mastermind, came from humble beginnings.

He grew up on a Lim Chu Kang vegetable farm, and left school after his O levels.

To pay for his A-level classes which he attended at night, he worked in a shipyard and as a construction worker.

At 19, he went door-to-door selling stainless steel cooking utensils, health items and other products.

After graduating from the National University of Singapore with a degree in arts in 1983, he joined Shin Min Daily News as a feature writer from 1984 to 1990.

In 1990, he started multi-level marketing firm Number One Product, which sold magnetic mattresses.

He set up the Empire Group Alliance - an intricate network of different businesses from property to telecommunications, of which Sunshine is a part - in 2003.

He was its founder, director and international president, and boasted that its assets exceeded $300 million. He claimed that it took him five years to come up with a "revolutionary" business model for Sunshine.

First, people pay to become a Sunshine merchant, allowing them to buy thousands of items, from health supplements to lingerie, from its online platform.

(From left) James Phang Wah, founder of Sunshine Empire, his wife Neo Kuon Huay, and Jackie Hoo Choon Cheat, the company's former director. Photo: The Straits Times

They were then supposed to sell on these items. But that was not the lure. The bait were the so-called Consumer Rebate Privileges, which translated into monthly cash payouts.

Someone who bought a Gold package for $12,000 for instance could end up with total payouts of $19,200 after 15 months - an impressive return of 160 per cent.

Since the company was not earning real profit, the payouts for older investors came from the fees paid by new investors - the very definition of a Ponzi scheme.

Still that did not stop people from being fooled, pouring in tens of thousands to buy multiple packages, and then convincing friends and family members to join. Youth were a particular target for Sunshine.

After training sessions, Empire "managers" will take trainees out for supper. They would be dressed in black suits, carry expensive Montblanc pens and wallets, with some driving luxury cars such as BMWs.

This was the "lifestyle" the company was trying to sell.

But the only real winners were Phang and his accomplices.

Phang was paid over $7 million in "consultancy fees", Sunshine's director Jackie Hoo Choon Cheat and Phang's wife Neo Kuon Huay, who claimed that she was Sunshine's sales director, collected about $950,000 each.

Right till the end, the bespectacled Phang, who was called Lao Da or Big Brother by his supporters, kept up his air of confidence.

In a interview in 2008, after news broke that Sunshine was under investigation and as reports emerged that the projects boasted by his company never even existed, he compared himself to the United States investment guru, saying: "I'm a legend. I'm very good - better than Warren Buffett."

He also told The Straits Times: "We acquire companies like you go to the market buying beancurd."

What is a Ponzi scheme

It is a scam in which investors are promised high rates of return, but with little risk. The returns come from the funds put in by new investors. Earlier investors may see some returns, but the scheme collapses when the supply of new investors runs thin.

This article was first published on May 17, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.