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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Teen outburst: Lim Hwee Hua plays Taichi</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>May-7 6:52 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 27) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>12979.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD>Teen arrested for outburst at MP's office
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Sujin Thomas </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
A TEENAGER was arrested for creating a ruckus after meeting Member of Parliament Cynthia Phua at a Meet-The-People session on April 27.
The 17-year-old grabbed an aluminium chair along the corridor outside the interview room at Block 125, Serangoon North Avenue 1, and slammed it twice against a glass door.
Police were called in by grassroots leaders, and the boy was later arrested at his flat. He is now out on police bail, and is due to appear in court on May 12.
Police refused to disclose the boy's identity.
The incident took place about 10 minutes after the boy and his mother met Madam Phua, an MP for Aljunied GRC.
The boy was restrained by volunteers, who called the police.
Madam Phua, who was standing in for the ward's MP, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, was unhurt. Mrs Lim, who is also a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, was overseas at the time.
Madam Phua told The Straits Times that it was the first time she had met the pair. She said: 'I was asking the son about his employment. My intention was just to see how we could help him with work arrangements.'
At the time, the room was busy and filled with the chatter of other residents being interviewed by grassroots volunteers.
The boy's mother, 53, had asked the MP for help as the Housing Board was in the midst of repossessing her three-room flat and had given her a rental unit in a nearby housing estate.
However, she was unable to pay the rental deposit and administrative fees, which amounted to about $200.
Madam Phua said she signed an appeal letter addressed to the HDB. Two days later, a grassroots volunteer helped the teen's mother settle the bill.
According to volunteers, the pair were familiar faces at Meet-The-People sessions. They came by every few weeks, and sought financial help to pay utility bills, buy food or for medical expenses.
They had also been receiving financial help from members of the Serangoon North Merchants' Association for about two years. But People's Action Party branch secretary Poon Mun Wai, 56, said his volunteers recently stopped giving the family cash as they suspected it was not being used to ease their financial woes.
They would notice the teenager wearing trendy designer clothes and nail polish and sporting various dyed hairstyles.
He has since shaved his head.
The family now gets NTUC food vouchers instead.
The Straits Times understands that the boy's mother went to the Meet-The-People session on Monday with a handwritten letter of apology from her son. The letter was addressed to Mrs Lim but she did not accept it.
When asked why, Mrs Lim replied via e-mail: 'It is not a question of whether I accepted the apology, as the letter was addressed to me - I was not present - and not to Madam Cynthia Phua, in whose presence the incident had taken place.' She added: 'There is a clear line between being frustrated or disappointed and being violent. The thrown chair could have killed somebody.'
[email protected]
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- Author --></TD></TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Sujin Thomas </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
A TEENAGER was arrested for creating a ruckus after meeting Member of Parliament Cynthia Phua at a Meet-The-People session on April 27.
The 17-year-old grabbed an aluminium chair along the corridor outside the interview room at Block 125, Serangoon North Avenue 1, and slammed it twice against a glass door.
Police were called in by grassroots leaders, and the boy was later arrested at his flat. He is now out on police bail, and is due to appear in court on May 12.
Police refused to disclose the boy's identity.
The incident took place about 10 minutes after the boy and his mother met Madam Phua, an MP for Aljunied GRC.
The boy was restrained by volunteers, who called the police.
Madam Phua, who was standing in for the ward's MP, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, was unhurt. Mrs Lim, who is also a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, was overseas at the time.
Madam Phua told The Straits Times that it was the first time she had met the pair. She said: 'I was asking the son about his employment. My intention was just to see how we could help him with work arrangements.'
At the time, the room was busy and filled with the chatter of other residents being interviewed by grassroots volunteers.
The boy's mother, 53, had asked the MP for help as the Housing Board was in the midst of repossessing her three-room flat and had given her a rental unit in a nearby housing estate.
However, she was unable to pay the rental deposit and administrative fees, which amounted to about $200.
Madam Phua said she signed an appeal letter addressed to the HDB. Two days later, a grassroots volunteer helped the teen's mother settle the bill.
According to volunteers, the pair were familiar faces at Meet-The-People sessions. They came by every few weeks, and sought financial help to pay utility bills, buy food or for medical expenses.
They had also been receiving financial help from members of the Serangoon North Merchants' Association for about two years. But People's Action Party branch secretary Poon Mun Wai, 56, said his volunteers recently stopped giving the family cash as they suspected it was not being used to ease their financial woes.
They would notice the teenager wearing trendy designer clothes and nail polish and sporting various dyed hairstyles.
He has since shaved his head.
The family now gets NTUC food vouchers instead.
The Straits Times understands that the boy's mother went to the Meet-The-People session on Monday with a handwritten letter of apology from her son. The letter was addressed to Mrs Lim but she did not accept it.
When asked why, Mrs Lim replied via e-mail: 'It is not a question of whether I accepted the apology, as the letter was addressed to me - I was not present - and not to Madam Cynthia Phua, in whose presence the incident had taken place.' She added: 'There is a clear line between being frustrated or disappointed and being violent. The thrown chair could have killed somebody.'
[email protected]
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