THE sudden cancellation of the Night Safari's Halloween event
has not only caused an uproar among members of the public, but has
also brought to the fore an apparent divide among the company's
employees.
Sources familiar with Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), the
parent company of the Night Safari, told The Straits Times that
some staff were already uncomfortable with the style of new chief
executive Isabella Loh, who came on board in July.
When she decided to can Halloween Horrors last week, just two
weeks before its Sept 30 launch, the divide became more obvious as
they disagreed not only with the cancellation, but also with how
she handled it and comments she made over the past week.
They said that initially, Ms Loh had wanted to cancel the event
only next year. It is unclear why the plug was eventually pulled on
this year's event.
Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said some of the
staff tried to get Ms Loh to change her mind.
They told her it would not make sense to cancel the event as
close to $1 million had been spent to organise it. This included
the cost of themed food supplies, retail items and decorations.
They argued that the event - launched in 2006 by then chief
executive Fanny Lai, who was replaced by Ms Loh - was a signature
event for the park.
The 2009 instalment also won an award for Most Innovative
Marketing Initiative at the Singapore Experience Awards last
year.
Organised by the Singapore Tourism Board, the awards recognise
organisations and individuals which have designed memorable
experiences for their customers.
On the involvement of 17 Singapore Polytechnic students who had
helped organise the event as part of their final-year project, Ms
Loh said on Saturday that she was 'not informed about the contract
for grading the... students' work'.
However, The Straits Times understands that a media release
which mentioned the collaboration had been sent out.
Last Tuesday, WRS said it was cancelling Halloween Horrors,
which was to have run on five weekends until Oct 30, although 1,000
tickets had been sold. Tickets had cost between $40 and $56 for
adults.
Ms Loh, 51, said this was 'because of negative feedback from
corporations, friends of the zoo, the public and the media,
especially over the event's relevance in relation to
conservation'.
She added that, going forward, WRS' three parks - it also runs
the Singapore Zoo and Jurong Bird Park - will have more
family-centric activities.
She also said at first that she agreed with comments made by
President Tony Tan Keng Yam, when he visited the zoo on Sept 11,
that it was important for Singapore to have family bonding
activities.
On Saturday, she apologised to the President for linking his
comments to the cancellation of the Halloween event, and stressed
that he had nothing to do with the decision.
She also clarified that the cancellation was not due to
religious reasons, although she admitted that she made references
to 'devil worship' when members of her team asked her why the event
did not fit the family theme.
She said she had visited the event's Haunted House on Monday and
'got upset' after that as she was 'uncomfortable with the idea
because it was too scary'.
'I explained in an e-mail that that is a lot of money spent on
an infrastructure (Haunted House) of devil worship,' she said.
According to sources, Ms Loh said she had heard that 'zebra
heads were chopped off as a scare tactic' as part of Halloween
Horrors.
Employees told her this was definitely not the case.
WRS is a private company set up in 2000.
It is chaired by Ms Claire Chiang, a former Nominated Member of
Parliament who is also senior vice-president of hospitality chain
Banyan Tree Holdings. Efforts to get Ms Chiang's comments on the
matter since last Friday have been unsuccessful.
Besides Ms Chiang and Ms Loh, WRS has five other board
directors: Mr Chia Ngiang Hong, Ms Aw Kah Peng, Mr Raymundo Yu, Mr
Philip Tan Yuen Fah and Mr Nihal Kaviratne.
Three of them were contacted, but they declined to comment.
Internet postings slam decision
The WRS Facebook account yesterday continued to see postings
slamming the decision as well as some calling for a boycott of its
parks.
Some wanted to know how many people had complained about the
event.
Others asked what WRS would be doing to 'repay' the polytechnic
students' months of work on the project.
Yet others felt that if WRS was against the event, it should
just allow this year's event to go on, but not have it from next
year.
There were also criticisms of Ms Loh, and a notice from WRS was
put up on the site urging users to 'please be civil and refrain
from making baseless accusations or personal attacks on
anyone'.
A user, known as Worldtrotter Angel, said he would 'boycott'
WRS.
Another post, by a Katherine Kang, applauded the decision to can
the event as she felt Halloween 'has no correlation to the Night
Safari theme'. But she acknowledged that there were people who were
looking forward to it.
Said another post, by Glenn Goh: 'I feel that the best decision
would be to let the event go ahead as planned, but inform everyone
that it would be the final year. Not only would WRS be able to
shift their focus, but they could also reinstate their reputation,
increase ticket sales, and not let the costs and efforts go to
waste.'
Meanwhile, it is understood that props related to the event have
been taken down
