Daily Lesson from Life 05 January 2009

"Wed, Jul 16, 2008 The Straits Times - 10 Charges against Ming Yi

BUDDHIST monk Ming Yi, the flamboyant chief of the Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre, was accused yesterday of several offences concerning its financial affairs.

The 46-year-old, whose real name is Goh Kah Heng, was charged with defrauding the charity, forgery and helping to falsify its accounts, all offences under the Penal Code.


He was also accused of forging documents to cheat auditors and giving false information to the Commissioner of Charities, both before and after a probe was initiated last November by the Ministry of Health (MOH), which is in charge of medical charities. These are breaches of the Charities Act and Penal Code.

The sums involved totalled about $300,000. Ming Yi faces up to a year's jail for providing false information to the Commissioner, and up to seven years' jail for forgery.


Accompanied by a few friends and a team of three lawyers headed by Senior Counsel Andre Yeap, the saffron-robed monk had the 10 charges read to him in English in a district court.

Ren Ci is the second large charity involved in court proceedings following the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) scandal that ended with its former chief T.T. Durai going to jail.


Like the NKF, Ren Ci ran big annual fund-raising shows which reaped millions of dollars in donations, and the highlight every year was a stunt performed by Ming Yi.

Yesterday, a solemn Ming Yi found himself accused of fiddling with the charity's accounts by re-classifying personal loans he took from it. He is said to have moved those loans to the Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre, a business he had a share in, or categorised them as part of advances given to him to invest on behalf of Ren Ci.
He is also accused of trying to cover his tracks by showing investigators fake documents to back his claims.
He is said to have conspired with two others to produce the false documents to mislead the Commissioner of Charities."

The CEO of the 2nd largest charitable organization in Singapore is charged with frauds among other illegal acts taken by him. This is after the ex-CEO of the largest charitable organization in Singapore was sentenced to jail term for similar charges. This 2 incidents really shocked and shook complacent Singapore to the core! That supposedly trust worthy people held in high esteem by the authority and public were actually not so clear after all!

Lessons for me:

1. I do not know when the good intention went bad with both cases. But I do believe both started with good intention to do good. This highlighted the need to be vigilant against moving from being self-confident to being self-conceited. Self-conceited thinking that one is entitled to do whatever one's like since one has been very successful for a long period of time!;

2. in a balance system, even the most mighty and ablest need to be checked. Check not against deliberate abuses but against unconsciously falling into the trap of 'over-confidence' and complacent and falling in love with oneself and thought one is God! This check and balance has to be a deliberate process enshrined in the organization standard operating procedure manual and follow religiously! The people carrying out the check reports to a board or a group of leaders independent from the CEOs!;

3. the argument of non-trusting the CEOs should never come into the picture as CEOs are intelligent and ethically grounded to know that such check and balance mechanism is a sign of good leadership practice. Only when impartiality is established can the leaders promote real trust. Trust that the check and balance will reveal nothing untoward since nothing untoward were ever done!! This also keep everyone on their toes that no fear nor favor will be shown when check and balance mechanism kicks in!

In both cases, the leaders failed the high standard of ethical conducts expected of them. I hope, both leaders, felt guilty about it and that they truly repent and regret having done it. One has paid his price and move on with his life. The other will have to wait and get his fair trial and fair penalties if found guilty as charged!

Let that be a warning to all. If you want to do it, be prepared someday somehow someone will have to take responsibility for the results!