two on forbes' list of s'pore richest people




of the 40 on the list, i know two of them personally. one is my former classmate and the other is my former student.

my former classmate attends the same church as my wife. his daughter, also from rgs and rjc, is one year older than my elder girl ivy. his other child is a boy who is younger than my younger girl ida. he does not appear to recognise me, even though my physical appearance has not changed very much over the years. he seems to make me feel that i am not worthy of being in his church. so, i do not have much regard or respect for this man although he may be very wealthy.

on the other hand, my former student - who is ranked much higher than my former classmate - was the one who approached me when he saw me at the raffles marina one day. not long after that he extended an offer to me to buy shares in his listed company. he offered this to five of us, his former teachers and also to a number of his school mates.

i believe one of my former colleagues is holding on to at least s$400 000 worth of shares in his company. i have only a fraction of that because i have been trading the shares; still i am grateful to him for the tidy sum of profit i have made.

when he won the entrepreneur of the year award, he invited a number of us - teachers and former school mates - to his wife's fine dining restaurant for a french dinner. he also offered us the use of his work place when we held a gathering of old pupils and former teachers. his work place has a roof-top swimming pool, a gym, a billiard table, a table tennis table, carrom boards and a karaoke lounge. when he was guest of honour at his alma mater, he requested that we, his former teachers, sat at the main table with him.

each time, when we have a gathering and, if he is around, he will make the effort to join us in spite of his very busy schedule. a few times, when i called him he would respond even when he was on business trips in china or the usa.