http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,160904,00.html?
Not quite Case closed for former chairman
In the continuing series in which we catch up with people who have
been affected by news events of the year, we find out how the
once-vocal former Case head is dealing with the quiet life.
By Ginnie Teo
READING the newspapers every morning gives lawyer Stephen Loke a
heavy heart.
Still on the consumers' cause, Mr Loke is writing two books on fair
trading and business excellence. -- JAMES HODSON
Stories of commuters left high and dry by what seems to be frequent
LRT breakdowns and of elderly consumers being given the wrong type
of medication indicate to him that the Average Singaporean is
getting a raw deal.
But he sees nothing being done for them.
Three months ago, as chairman of the Consumers Association of
Singapore (Case), he would take up the cudgels.
But since he quit Case in a huff, Mr Loke, a consumer advocate for
20 years, has lost the institutional clout to get things
done.
'I feel quite helpless. I want to help these people, but I can't.
And from what I can see, it appears not much is being done to help
them either,' he says, convinced that his departure, along with
that of 12 other volunteers, has set back the consumer cause.
WHAT HAPPENED THEN...
MARCH: Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, 41, a director of the NTUC, becomes
Case president.
May: Mr Seah Seng Choon, another NTUC man seconded to Case for
two years, is appointed executive director.
May/June: The rift in Case becomes public, when Mr Seah and Mr
Loke make contradictory press statements on whether Case should
investigate maid abuses in homes.
June: Mr Loke diverts journalists' calls to Mr Yeo, citing a new
directive that frowned on him speaking to reporters.
July: Big divide over CaseTrust. The new management wants to rope
in recently-privatised PSB Corporation, a government- linked
organisation, to help volunteers audit businesses which sought
accreditation. Volunteers prefer to stick to the academics who did
the job, who are seen to be more neutral.
Sept 24: Mr Loke and 12 volunteers walk out, citing unhappiness
with the leadership's top-down approach. This cripples the group's
22-member CaseTrust committee, leaving Case with about 40
volunteers. Mr Loke says he was leaving to 'pave way for the major
changes' that he 'totally disagreed with'.
They walked out in September, furious at what they say is the
'I-say-you-do' attitude of the new leaders.
Three months on, Mr Loke still feels a sense of betrayal, hurt and
disappointment over the way Mr Yeo Guat Kwang had imposed changes
without discussing or consulting them, all volunteers.
'We've not spoken,' he says, 'I've made a clean break.'
Mr Yeo, from the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), became Case
president in March.
He proposed, and the central committee agreed, that the volunteers
are to be placed under Mr Seah Seng Choon, another NTUC man, who
became Case's executive director. He would assign them
duties.
Before, volunteers had, by and large, decided among themselves how
to go about organising their activities.
Unaccustomed to being left out of what he sees as a critical
change, Mr Loke, who was the volunteers' leader, felt it was time
to go when the central committee took the vote in his
absence.
Mr Yeo, when he got wind earlier in the day of the possible
walk-out, sent numerous e-mail messages to Mr Loke at his law
office, asking for a meeting.
'It was too late,' says Mr Loke.
The quit notices were already on the way and reached Mr Yeo's desk
just after 3 pm on Sept 24.
Since then, Mr Loke has been fighting the good fight from his law
office in Shenton Way, where his firm of two partners has a general
practice.
Cynics may think he wants to get even but the 41-year-old bachelor
seems married to the consumer cause.
'For 20 years, I have been eating, sleeping and breathing this
cause. I can't give up.
'In any case, I'm a person who goes forward, and not look back,' he
says, listing his post-Case activities.
He wrote an article on consumers and the law for the Law Gazette,
the Law Society's monthly magazine.
Now, he is writing two books.
One is on fair trading laws, his hobby horse. The other is on
promoting business excellence, which he is co-authoring with some
international experts.
The fair trading book will deal with what businesses and consumers
need to know when they want to enforce their new rights, as
encapsulated in the proposed Fair Trading Act, likely to come into
effect by next June.
To educate businesses about the impending Act, Mr Loke says he,
with help from 'some like-minded friends', is organising a series
of forums, to start next April.
He hopes to imbue in companies a culture of business excellence
that avoids sending customers away unhappy.
Though he still spends the same number of hours promoting consumer
advocacy, life in his office, in particular, has changed
dramatically.
The fax machine is now quieter.
Where once a fax from the Case office in the Ulu Pandan community
centre would arrive every half hour for him to solve a case, the
faxes today are likely to consist only of legal documents.
He used to rush down to Ulu Pandan, often after work, at 5
pm.
Now, he stays in his office until 7 pm, when he leaves to dine at
home with his mother and sister at their River Valley
condominium.
Before, he would spend entire Saturdays at the Case office,
discussing game plans and holding meetings.
Now, he spends Saturdays with friends, discussing how to make
Singapore a better place for consumers.
While friends' support of his headline-grabbing resignation was
heartwarming, Mr Loke says he was most touched by the encouraging
calls of people who knew him only briefly and some who were
complete strangers.
'Strangers looked up the law directory for my number and called to
say 'hello'. Some asked me to start a new organisation, saying they
would help me run it.
'Even the very people we at Case were fighting against, like
direct-selling companies, called me to say they're behind
me.'
As he walked the streets, people would stop him to say: 'Good
job!'
Even hawkers would 'smile an extra big smile', he recalls.
Looking back, he says, almost wistfully: 'I never expected such a
tragic outcome to my 20 years at Case.
'It was a reality check. Nothing is forever, even if you are doing
something that is good, that is right.'
Then, as if remembering his credo never to live in regret, he says:
'I must find other areas where I can let my heart beat.'