[h=2]Honour Tan Howe Liang suitably[/h]
September 22nd, 2012 |
Author: Editorial
Tan Howe Liang
Every now and then, a letter appears beseeching the government to give Mr Tan Howe Liang a just monetary reward for winning a silver medal at the 1960 Olympics in weightlifting.
As everyone knows, Mr Tan is, and shall always be, the winner of Singapore’s first Olympic medal of any colour. But to date, the government has not given him any sort of a monetary reward for that amazing achievement. In stark contrast, the government gives today’s winner of a silver Olympic medal the grand sum of $500,000.
On 20 September, in the Forum section of the Straits Times, a disgruntled Singaporean again asked for Tan to be accorded a just reward [Link]. The fact that after 52 years Singaporeans are still pleading on Tan’s behalf shows how dissatisfactory the unresolved matter is.
Tan has been employed by the Singapore Sports Council as a gym supervisor since 1982. He worked for many years at the Kallang Family ClubFitt gym on the ground floor of the National Stadium, before the stadium was closed to make way for the much-delayed Sports Hub. Then he was transferred to supervise a gym in Bedok. In 2008, Tan intimated that his salary fell just short of $1,000 a month.
It is well-known that Tan is not a rich man. He lives in a three-room HDB flat in Jalan Batu with his wife and daughter.
Tan, or Tiger as he was affectionately known in his weightlifting days, has never once asked for money, but he has also not refused gifts.
A Singaporean lady, exasperated at the government’s failure to reward Tan, approached the Straits Times to offer a gift out of her CPF savings once she was able to “touch it.” Tiger accepted the gift and said to the anonymous lady, “I don’t know who you are but I’ll remember you till the day I die.” He said he would spend the money on a holiday with his family.
Then in 2008, just after the Beijing Olympics ended, NTUC FairPrice gave Tan $10,000 and a hamper, perhaps overcome with guilt for his continued shoddy treatment.
The People’s Association gratuitously gives Tan $390 a month for his Olympic achievement.
In 2011, a mystery person gave an undisclosed sum to cover Mrs Tan’s successful breast cancer treatment costing $100,000.
Why is the government so parsimonious? Here is the likely answer. What appears to be a reward for gaining an Olympic medal is not actually a reward, but an incentive.
In its lust for Olympic glory, the Singapore government offers the largest amount of money in the world for an Olympic medal – $1 million for gold, $500,000 for silver, and $250,000 for bronze – so as to better woo “foreign talent”. It is all about trying to get second and third-rate sportsmen to come over to Singapore and “try their luck” so to speak, so that if they happen to succeed, the PAP can pat themselves on the back and say, “See how clever we are!” And hopefully Singaporeans will agree that the PAP are indeed very clever and elect them to another term in government.
That it is nothing about rewarding deserving athletes, we can see clearly by way of example. Suppose you have left your handphone in a taxi. You frantically dial your mobile number and to great relief, the taxi driver answers. Yes, he has your phone and he will return it to you. Soon, he returns with your phone and – depending on the value of your phone and its data, how rich or poor you are, and the trouble the taxi driver has taken – you reward him with $100, $50, $20 or $10. Chances are the two of you will never cross paths again, let alone him returning your phone a second time. Yet you offer him a reward because he has done well. You are not legally obliged but you want to do the right thing.
The likelihood of the honest taxi driver returning your handphone a second or third time is the same as the likelihood of Tan winning another Olympic medal – practically nil. You give a reward because you look back with gratitude and say to the taxi driver, “Well done!” But the PAP government does not give a reward because they only look forward and say, “If we do not reward Tan, Singapore still has the silver medal and besides, he will not be winning anything for us in future.” The PAP government is thus ungrateful, petty, materialistic, money-faced.
It is bad enough that the PAP government has never tapped Tiger’s talent, knowledge and experience by consulting him and paying him a consultant’s fee. They should at least do the right thing and honour Tiger with a monetary reward. $500,000 – the going rate for silver – is quite suitable and will provide for every necessity and desire in his golden years.
.
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Every now and then, a letter appears beseeching the government to give Mr Tan Howe Liang a just monetary reward for winning a silver medal at the 1960 Olympics in weightlifting.
As everyone knows, Mr Tan is, and shall always be, the winner of Singapore’s first Olympic medal of any colour. But to date, the government has not given him any sort of a monetary reward for that amazing achievement. In stark contrast, the government gives today’s winner of a silver Olympic medal the grand sum of $500,000.
On 20 September, in the Forum section of the Straits Times, a disgruntled Singaporean again asked for Tan to be accorded a just reward [Link]. The fact that after 52 years Singaporeans are still pleading on Tan’s behalf shows how dissatisfactory the unresolved matter is.
Tan has been employed by the Singapore Sports Council as a gym supervisor since 1982. He worked for many years at the Kallang Family ClubFitt gym on the ground floor of the National Stadium, before the stadium was closed to make way for the much-delayed Sports Hub. Then he was transferred to supervise a gym in Bedok. In 2008, Tan intimated that his salary fell just short of $1,000 a month.
It is well-known that Tan is not a rich man. He lives in a three-room HDB flat in Jalan Batu with his wife and daughter.
Tan, or Tiger as he was affectionately known in his weightlifting days, has never once asked for money, but he has also not refused gifts.
A Singaporean lady, exasperated at the government’s failure to reward Tan, approached the Straits Times to offer a gift out of her CPF savings once she was able to “touch it.” Tiger accepted the gift and said to the anonymous lady, “I don’t know who you are but I’ll remember you till the day I die.” He said he would spend the money on a holiday with his family.
Then in 2008, just after the Beijing Olympics ended, NTUC FairPrice gave Tan $10,000 and a hamper, perhaps overcome with guilt for his continued shoddy treatment.
The People’s Association gratuitously gives Tan $390 a month for his Olympic achievement.
In 2011, a mystery person gave an undisclosed sum to cover Mrs Tan’s successful breast cancer treatment costing $100,000.
Why is the government so parsimonious? Here is the likely answer. What appears to be a reward for gaining an Olympic medal is not actually a reward, but an incentive.
In its lust for Olympic glory, the Singapore government offers the largest amount of money in the world for an Olympic medal – $1 million for gold, $500,000 for silver, and $250,000 for bronze – so as to better woo “foreign talent”. It is all about trying to get second and third-rate sportsmen to come over to Singapore and “try their luck” so to speak, so that if they happen to succeed, the PAP can pat themselves on the back and say, “See how clever we are!” And hopefully Singaporeans will agree that the PAP are indeed very clever and elect them to another term in government.
That it is nothing about rewarding deserving athletes, we can see clearly by way of example. Suppose you have left your handphone in a taxi. You frantically dial your mobile number and to great relief, the taxi driver answers. Yes, he has your phone and he will return it to you. Soon, he returns with your phone and – depending on the value of your phone and its data, how rich or poor you are, and the trouble the taxi driver has taken – you reward him with $100, $50, $20 or $10. Chances are the two of you will never cross paths again, let alone him returning your phone a second time. Yet you offer him a reward because he has done well. You are not legally obliged but you want to do the right thing.
The likelihood of the honest taxi driver returning your handphone a second or third time is the same as the likelihood of Tan winning another Olympic medal – practically nil. You give a reward because you look back with gratitude and say to the taxi driver, “Well done!” But the PAP government does not give a reward because they only look forward and say, “If we do not reward Tan, Singapore still has the silver medal and besides, he will not be winning anything for us in future.” The PAP government is thus ungrateful, petty, materialistic, money-faced.
It is bad enough that the PAP government has never tapped Tiger’s talent, knowledge and experience by consulting him and paying him a consultant’s fee. They should at least do the right thing and honour Tiger with a monetary reward. $500,000 – the going rate for silver – is quite suitable and will provide for every necessity and desire in his golden years.
.
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