Singapore Elders at It Again

Dec 2, 2007 Straits Times
No end yet to Hainan clan dispute

BARELY a month after they promised to make peace brokered by prominent elders, two squabbling factions of the Hainan clan here are at it again.

The usually quiet Kheng Chiu Building in Beach Road burst into life on Saturday when the two groups verbally jousted at the election of officials for the Kheng Chiu Tin Hou Kong Burial Ground, the financial arm of the Hainan Hwee Kuan here.

About 230 people, mainly men in their 50s and 60s, packed the meeting in the ground-floor hall.

In one corner were the incumbent office holders, led by Mr Wong Yeh Yuh, 72, chairman of the Tin Hou Kong council.

In the the other was challenger Foo Joo Peng, 55, president of the Hainan Hwee Kuan, which has a separate governing committee.

Mr Wong is an old-timer who has been in the council for about 20 years while Mr Foo represents the younger, reform-minded faction.

At stake was control over a company which has almost $40 million in assets, mainly three properties.

Controversy erupted when Mr Wong and his allies decided to call off the elections on the grounds that the meeting was turning unruly.

Mr Lee Ah Fong, who is in Mr Wong's camp, said that the meeting was called off as there were attempts to grab the microphone, with the situation teetering out of control.

Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.