Scout leader cleared of charges but sacked
This is a photo of Mr Ang Lian Kwee, with hand outstretched, earlier this year.
By Esther Ng
The New Paper
Sunday, Jul 01, 2012
The Singapore Scout Association (SSA) has cleared a former volunteer scout leader at Bukit Panjang Government High School, Mr Ang Lian Kwee, of allegations of abusing his position in harassing female volunteer leaders.
However, the SSA found Mr Ang's conduct "unbecoming of a HQ volunteer leader" and "terminated" his membership in April this year, the SSA told The New Paper in an e-mail reply to queries.
"This means that Ang is henceforth barred from participating in any scout activity," said an SSA spokesman.
The SSA could not elaborate on Mr Ang's "unbecoming" conduct by press time on Thursday, June 28.
The organisation had set up a board of inquiry in February to investigate the allegations against Mr Ang, 24, after it had received a complaint against him from a parent of another volunteer leader on Jan 31.
The complainant alleged that Mr Ang had abused his position by harassing fellow volunteer leaders and claimed to have heard of three earlier incidents where he had been involved with other girls.
Mr Ang had identified the complainant as the father of another volunteer leader, who is his ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend.
It is believed that this ex-girlfriend, who's now 20, was a Venture scout, and attended the same polytechnic as Mr Ang. She was his junior in the polytechnic, reported Lianhe Zaobao in March.
In December last year, he found out that she was seeing another volunteer scout leader at the time.
He met the new boyfriend. But things got out of hand and the boyfriend punched him and dislodged four of his teeth, apparently because he was angry that Mr Ang had allegedly "harassed" his girlfriend for months, reported Shin Min Daily News in March.
Since the beginning of the investigation by the SSA in February, Mr Ang has "not been allowed to conduct scouting activities in any school", a Minister of Education spokesman told TNP.
When contacted yesterday, Mr Ang did not want to comment.
Strange
One parent, Mr L. W. Tan, 58, whose daughter is a Scout in Yuan Ching Secondary, told TNP that he had found it "strange" that the SSA had cleared Mr Ang of the allegations, but "sacked him from the association".
Said Mr Tan: "One wonders what this 'unbecoming conduct' was. It would be good if they could clarify (what constitutes such unbecoming conduct). "
He added: "As a parent of a 15-year-old daughter, I'm concerned - young people can be impressionable and be easily influenced by peer pressure into doing things that they shouldn't.
"Youth leaders need to set a good example and be mindful not to abuse their position of power," he said.
Mr Ang had been involved in scouting activities for about 12 years and was the leader of the Bukit Panjang district, a member of the SSA's communication and relations sub-committee, one of the editors-in-chief of the SSA's magazine and assistant national ICT commissioner.
He began scouting when he was a student in Bukit Panjang Government High School, where he held positions such as quarter master and senior patrol leader.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
