Article from asia1.com
It's time for leadership change:
Durai
CEO says he believes in change; earlier, he had said he would not
quit
By Theresa Tan
July 15, 2005
The Straits Times
PUTTING up a brave front after resigning, besieged National Kidney
Foundation (NKF) chief T.T. Durai told reporters he 'strongly
believed in change'.
Barely an hour earlier, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan had announced
Mr Durai's resignation as chief executive officer of the NKF at a
hastily convened press conference.
Mr Durai, who initially avoided answering reporters' questions
after the press conference, was smiling as he said: 'I have been
running NKF for 37 years and I think it's time that a new
leadership takes over because I strongly believe in change... a new
style.'
Asked if quitting was a tough decision to make, Mr Durai, 57, said
37 years was a long time and the time had come for a leadership
change.
After dropping his defamation suit against The Straits Times on
Tuesday, he maintained that he had done nothing wrong and said he
would not resign 'unless people want me to'.
Overnight, thousands of outraged Singaporeans called for his
resignation through online petitions, letters to newspapers and
calls to the media.
As of last night, almost 40,000 people had signed an online
petition calling for his removal. By yesterday, more than 6,800 NKF
donors had cancelled their regular donations too.
On Wednesday morning, too, the walls of the NKF headquarters were
vandalised with graffiti attacking him.
Yesterday afternoon, Mr Durai and NKF chairman Richard Yong sought
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's views on how to go about restoring
public trust in the organisation.
Mr Durai offered to step down and asked the minister if that would
'be helpful'. Mr Khaw told him it would.
About three hours later at the press conference, a red-eyed and
drawn Mr Durai sat looking down most of the time. He looked to Mr
Khaw, seated beside him, almost every time reporters put a question
to him.
The minister did most of the talking during the press conference,
which was telecast live over Channel News Asia. After the hour-long
session, he left immediately, flanked by Mr Yong and vice-chairman
Alwyn Lim.
A former lawyer, Mr Durai started as an NKF volunteer when he was
an undergraduate in the 1960s. After 21 years as a volunteer, he
took on the top post in 1992.
In the past decade, the NKF grew to become Singapore's largest
charity, with an income of about $100 million in 2003 and about
1,000 employees.
It also expanded from helping kidney patients, to providing health
screening for the masses and starting a fund for cancer patients
this year.
After yesterday's press conference, Mr Durai refused to answer
reporters' questions until someone asked if he had anything to say
to the public.
He replied: 'I want to thank the donors of the NKF for helping me
in the past 37 years to build a great institution which has
achieved iconic status in the world.
'I pray that donors continue to support the NKF
henceforth.'
I watched the press conference and his response to reporters
outside the office. I couldn't help but notice a certain
smugness in him
while he answered questions.
Similarly, when quizzed on the difficult choice of stepping down
and the reasons why, he chose to focus on his achievements over the
last 37 years and that he believed in change. Hence the impression
he gave was that he felt the
reasons why he was stepping down was becoz he believed in fresh
faces to take over his 'glittering record', not becoz he was forced
out by public outrage.
Clearly TT Durai still thinks he has done nothing wrong, whether
ethically or morally. The arrogance in his smile seemed to
underline his defiance to public opinion. Not one shred of humility
was offered nor any form of apology from either him or the board
regarding the whole fiasco.
Makes me wonder whether he deserved any respect in the first
place.
