sunclouds.blogspot

7.12.2005

the NKF fiasco
Setting: the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is suing Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) for defamation when a certain article was published by SPH about its installation of pricey toilet hardware.
Cast: Senior Counsel Davinder Singh (lawyer of SPH), Mr T.T. Durai (CEO of NKF), Judge (well... the judge)

scene extracted from The Straits Times
(anything in italics is part of my commentary)

Davinder Singh: In your affidavit, you liken yourself to CEOs of companies and ministers in government, right? Would you agree with me that like ministers in the government, you are being paid out of people's money? Would you agree with me that ministers' salaries are transparent.

T.T. Durai: Yes.

Davinder Singh: Would you agree with me that CEOs of listed companies have their salaries published in the newspapers?

T.T. Durai: Yes.

Davinder Singh: And you have likened yourself to CEOs of public companies. Why are you not publishing your own information?

T.T. Durai: I like my salary to remain private. My board members know that. My senior colleagues know that.

Davinder Singh: We all like our salaries private. But if it's funded by the public, which takes precedence? The right of the public to know how much of their money goes to you, or your preference for privacy?

T.T. Durai: I think it is for the board to decide. The public doesn't control the organisation.

Davinder Singh: Exactly. Exactly. You see, Mr Durai, the public does not control, it doesn't have access to information. So doesn't that place on you a responsibility?

T.T. Durai: We comply with all the regulatory requirements. If the regulatory authorities imposed a condition that we have to disclose salaries, we would.

Davinder Singh: Mr Durai, can you tell this court what your salary and bonuses were for 2002?

T.T. Durai: I was earning a monthly salary of $25,000.

Davinder Singh: And your bonus?

T.T. Durai: Performance bonus was 10 months.

Davinder Singh: 10 months' bonus! $250,000 bonus. This is for 2002.

so melodramatic! you score! woot!

T.T Durai: I cannot recall the exact figure.

Davinder Singh: So, if its $25,000 a month , multiply that by 12, your total package was $550,000 in 2002.

T.T. Durai: I believe so.

Davinder Singh: 2003, please?

T.T. Durai: You have the numbers. I don't have the numbers offhand.

Davinder Singh: Tell us, please, so that we don't waste our time.

T.T. Durai: About the same I think. I cannot tell you off hand now.

Davinder Singh: About the same, meaning $550,000 or slightly higher?

T.T. Durai: About that.

Davinder Singh: How many months' bonus did you get in 2003?

T.T. Durai: 12 months.

Davinder Singh: In 2004, what was the bonus?

T.T. Durai: Same bonus.

Davinder Singh: Twelve months at $25,000 a month.

T.T. Durai: Yes.

Davinder Singh: So for the past 3 years you have earned about $1.8 million from the NKF.

T.T. Durai: Yes.

Davinder Singh: And the man who earns $1,000 a month who takes out $50 of his pay pocket every month thinking that it is going to save lives, should he not know that that is the kind of money you earn?

T.T. Durai: There is nothing wrong with the money I earn.

OF COURSE there's nothing wrong. there's nothing wrong with sapping on the hard-earned money of people who toil their hearts out day and night to earn miserable amounts of moolah. absolutely correct. mm-hmm.

Davinder Singh: $1.8 million, I wonder what is wrong. $1.8 million. Should the man who takes $50 out of his pay pocket of $1,000, leaving $950 for him, his wife and his children, with no savings, should he not know that some of that money is going or has gone into a $500,000 to $600,000 pay package for you?

T.T. Durai: Surely he knows.

Davinder Singh: Tell me, how does he know?

yes, how the f*** does he know? especially after you, Mr Durai, have attempted to conceal the amount twice until the appeal was made through the court. we poor people are not psychics.

T.T. Durai: Let me explain. People donate money to the NKF to run a dialysis programme that saves lives. We have built a dialysis programme. We run...

Judge: Please answer the question.
oooh i love mr Judge :)

Davinder Singh: You said: "Surely he knows."

T.T. Durai: No, I am saying a person who contributes to the foundation knows that there are people working in the institution.

Judge: No. The question is, should that person know that you are earning $500,000, $600,000 a year? It is a simple question.

T.T. Durai: No, your honour, I do not see a need for him to know.

Davinder Singh: Thank you. It has nothing to do with privacy. It is about embarassment, is it not?

T.T. Durai: No.

Davinder Singh: You would lose all authority, all moral authority to look at him in his eyes, isn't that true?

T.T. Durai: It is not true.

Davinder Singh: If he knew that his salary couldn't even buy the bathroom fittings in your private office suite, you couldn't look at him in his eyes.

T.T. Durai: That is not true.

perhaps Mr Durai is telling the truth here. maybe he does have no moral standing whatsoever.

Davinder Singh: We now understand why you say the $990 tap is not expensive. Well, coming from you at $600,000 a year, we now know why you say it is not expensive. But tell us, for that man with $1,000/$2,000, is it expensive?

T.T. Durai: Yes, he may find it expensive.

Davinder Singh: He may, or is it? Tell us the truth.

T.T. Durai: I cannot speak for him. It depends on the type of building, the use of the item.

and i would be pretty sure the $1,000 a month guy would be living in a bungalow and using the gold-plated tap to knock the juices out of a certain CEO. not too expensive. definitely.

Davinder Singh: The man in his HDB one-room, two-room, three-room flat, earning a salary of $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 - would he find that tap at $990 plus 10 per cent discount expensive?

T.T. Durai: He may consider that expensive, yes.

Davinder Singh: He may, or will he?

T.T. Durai: If he is an educated person, if he knows the use of the particular office, for what purpose, he may probably think it is something reasonable.

if he was an educated person, he would probably be earning more, and he wouldn't be contributing to your income this way, Mr Durai. and i doubt any logical reasoning would not find it reasonable for charitable organisations to splurge on ridiculously ostentatious goods such as a gold-plated tap instead of contributing it to the welfare of the community.

another good reason not to support the overly commercialised charity show. i plead that we should stop donating to NKF until this bugger resigns, although of course we can't bear to leave our fellow kidney dialysists in the lurch.

what makes this even better is that i remember Mr Durai's son from my BMT. and he's far from lovable- simply another loathable person from the anglochinese family.

20:35 / and blackened tears fell with mine //

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