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Must Share News - Independent News For Singaporeans

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Here's what the Mainstream Media didn't highlight about the maid starvation incident

Most people's hearts have gone out to the maid after hearing her tragic abuse story.

For the uninitiated, a couple starved their maid, deprived her of food and did not allow her to speak to anyone. The trial has been going on since 14 Dec.

Thelma Oyasan Gawidan, the victim of this maid abuse case survived on bread and instant noodles throughout her torture period employment, causing her weight to plummet from 49kg to 29kg. The domestic worker claimed that her employers kept surveillance of her round the clock and she only managed to escape when they left her alone to clean the area outside their Orchard Road condominium.

With the help of a fellow Filipina, Gawidan managed to get to a shelter run by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home).

Her tormentors, Lim Choon Hong and his wife Chong Sui Foon, both 47, have claimed trial to one offence under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act - which is punishable to up to 12 months jail and/or $10 000 fine.

MustShareN ews also found out 10 things that this pair of cold-hearted employers has done.

1.They did the exact same thing to the previous maid

Before we begin, we have to ask this burning question: how did they manage to get another maid when the previous domestic helper complained about not having enough food and rest?

This fact was uncovered from the testimony of maid agent Toh Ah Choon as he testified yesterday (16 Dec).

Since the agency was already in the know about the first maid abuse case, why did they still allow the unrepentant pair to inflict suffering in another human being? Secondly, why didn't the agency do a house visit after losing contact with the maid for a total of 18 months?

For covering their rear, the award of #notmybusiness goes to...

2. The maid was only paid $500 for 18 months of work

Let's face it, you cannot survive in Singapore without any money.

Gawidan only received $500 "allowance" while working with the family, and she was made to stash the amount in a plastic bag to be hidden within her dirty clothes. Gawidan's salary was also withheld - her employers told her that they were saving the money for her. With almost no cash on her, Gawidan had little chances of making a successful escape.

The domestic worker was also not given the off days she was entitled to.

According to the Ministry Of Manpower:

Your [Foreign Domestic Worker] FDW is entitled to a weekly rest day if her Work Permit was issued or renewed after 1 January 2013.

However, when her employer Lim took the stand yesterday (16 Dec), he disputed withholding Gawidan's pay.

3. She worked longer than 24 hours consecutively and was forced to sleep at odd hours

It's hard to believe that these two people are not Satan's spawn. Note: domestic workers are not slaves and they should not be treated like one either.

According to Gawidan, she had to work longer than 24 hours in a day. Furthermore, due to the nature of Mr Lim's work as a trader, she had to stay up during the night, and was only allowed to sleep at strange timings such as 11am.

The domestic worker gave an example saying that she would wake at 7pm on a Monday and work till Wednesday.

She said:

I don't get enough sleep. I felt my body weaken.

According to the Singapore Neurology and Sleep Centre, adults require an average of 8 hours of sleep per day.

4. The ex-employers have 3 children

On a human to human level, we would expect the children of the accused to stop their parents from inflicting such harm on their maid.

Or were they also mistreated? Maybe not.

According to Gawidan, on their trip to Hong Kong, she had to eat instant noodles and bread, while the couple and their three kids ordered hotel meals for dinner.

They should testify on how it feels like to see someone nearly starve to death right in front of their eyes.

5. The maid claimed that her employers watched her every move

Okay, this might be an overstatement.

However, if she was unable to escape until recently, it is partially justified. Anyway, what does this remind you of? Doesn't their behaviour appear to be that of kidnappers?

Firstly, the errant couple kept their domestic worker captive and did not let her out. Secondly, they kept watch on her most of the time - even when she was taking a shower at the public toilet in their condo. Further, they gave her only bread and instant noodles. Lastly, they kept her in the storeroom and cut off her contact with the rest of the world by taking away her phone and forbidding her to talk to anybody.

Gawidan said:

I had no communication to my family, and I hadn't sent any money - as if I just disappeared from them.

This appears to be a classic case of kidnap.

6. The employers were only charged under one sentence

Yes, the Employment of Foreign Worker Act (EFWA) seems broad enough to cover what they did.

However, tragically, it shows that our foreign domestic workers only possess a meagre amount of rights limited to the EFWA.

7. The lawyer had the cheek to argue that the two employers were never violent to her

If society gauged crime on what suspects did not do, then we should have many criminals on the loose.

8. She survived on meagre rations and was treated like a slave

According to MOM, a female's daily intake should something like this:

Breakfast: 4 slices of bread with spread.

Lunch: 1 bowl of rice + three-quarter cup of cooked vegetables + palm-sized amount of meat (fish/poultry/beef/lamb) + fruit

Dinner: 1 bowl of rice + three-quarter cup of cooked vegetables + palm-sized amount of meat (fish/poultry/beef/lamb) + fruit

Let's compare it to what Gawidan claimed she was given.

She said she was given only 2 meals per day. Her first meal consists of two to three slices of bread and instant noodles, one slice of tomato and cucumber, and a miniscule piece of meat about the size of her little finger. Her second meal would be five to six slices of bread.

Well, that certainly sounds close enough to MOM's regulations.

Lim tried to argue that his wife Chong had bought her food from outside. However, Gawidan claimed that she was only occasionally given eggs.

9. Her malnutrition was largely caused by the lack of food rather than other illnesses

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital's Chief Dietician Ms Gladys Wong took the stand yesterday and came to the same conclusion as the doctors who examined her - that Gawidan was malnourished and suffered from food deprivation.

Ms Wong said that Gawidan was lacking 300 - 500 calories per day and most likely lacked important vitamins and minerals including Zinc and Iron.

10.Her employers were relatively well off

For God's sake, they stay at a condominium at Orchard Road. It would be foolish to suggest that they could not afford to feed her decent meals.

For starters, an Orchard Road condominium cost millions. Mr Lim and Ms Chong are well-to-do, and have no excuse to say that they could not pay for normal meals for their domestic worker.

#mindblown

The other side of the story

The accused have responded and are starting to make excuses for their actions.

The trial would enter its second tranche on 30 Dec.
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10 Shocking Facts About The Maid Abuse Case That You Should Know

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She was no different from a slave -- her employers even scrutinised her every move.

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She has a history of anorexia nervosa - an eating disorder.

Because of this, businessman Lim Choon Hong, 47, told the court yesterday that his wife of 25 years has always been conscious about her weight.

He said that when they first met, she was skinny and had been warded on a few occasions because of her condition.

Testifying for the first time on the third day of their trial, he added that housewife Chong Sui Foon, also 47, eats "very plain and bland food".

He told District Judge Low Wee Ping: "She takes bread and doesn't eat anything else, maybe a bit of rice."

And the kind of food Chong consumes is similar to what she had given Filipino maid Thelma Oyasan Gawidan when she worked for them.

The maid, now 40, testified on Tuesday that when she was working for the couple, she was given only instant noodles and sometimes bread, twice a day for meals.

The Singaporean couple are on trial for allegedly starving Madam Gawidan between Jan 23, 2013, and April 18 last year.

During that time, Madam Gawidan, a mother of three, lost 20kg, going from 49kg to a mere 29kg.

She eventually ran away on April 19 last year - 15 months after she had started work.

She told the court: "I couldn't take it any more."

Yesterday, Lim told the court that Chong was the one who decided what the maid ate when she was working for them at their Cuscaden Walk condominium in the Orchard Road area.

The court also heard that Madam Gawidan was not the first maid to be given such items during mealtimes while working for the household.

Mr Toh Ah Choon, owner of employment agency A C Toh Enterprises, testified yesterday that the family's first maid - an Indonesian known only as Sri - had also complained that she was given bread and instant noodles to eat.

She was later returned to the agency and is now working for another family here.

Lim told the court that after Sri, he had a temporary maid for 10 days.

And just before Madam Gawidan, he had another maid and she was the only one who completed her two-year contract.

He did not reveal any other details about his other former maids.

Lim also testified yesterday that his family members eat only two meals daily.
OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE
However, there were times when he and his wife would only have one meal a day.

He said: "(This was) not to look good, but (because) time doesn't allow."

When examined by the couple's lawyer, Mr Tan Hee Liang, Lim also said that Chong has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

He said: "She is obsessive (about) cleanliness and (her) lifestyle revolves around food and cleanliness... almost like a religion."

Her condition created "a lot of stress" among their household.

The father of four said that in 2010, their second son ran away because of Chong's tendencies.

He said: "He is still out but we are on good terms."

Lim added that Chong had seen a psychiatrist, whom he referred to only as Dr Tay, and that she is now on medication to treat her condition.

Citing an example of Chong's behaviour, he said that his wife is so particular about cleanliness that they have to thoroughly clean the whole bathroom every time after taking a shower.

Because of this, he said Madam Gawidan took her showers at the public toilet on the third storey to save time.

Lim said that if she took a shower at home, it would have taken her an hour to clean the bathroom.

He said: "So troublesome, every time use, have to disinfect. Better do it downstairs - faster. I also use the (public) toilet on (Level 3)."

Lim broke down in the witness stand when he told the court that Chong is a "simple person" who did not even "pass Primary 6".

Wiping away tears from his eyes, he said: "What she had done was not intentional. There's no evil in her heart.

"She didn't do this to hurt anyone. There's no point to deprive another human being of food."
She is obsessive (about) cleanliness and (her) lifestyle revolves around food and cleanliness...almost like a religion. - Businessman Lim Choon Hong, on his wife Chong Sui Foon

Lim: Maid was frail but didn't complain

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sellakumaran Sellamuthoo showed businessman Lim Choon Hong a face shot of a gaunt Thelma Oyasan Gawidan during his cross-examination yesterday.

It was taken after the Filipino maid had fled from Lim's Cuscaden Walk condominium on April 19 last year.

Lim, who admitted that she had lost weight, said she did not look like how she appeared in the picture when she started working for him on Jan 23, 2013.

He added: "I saw her like that in February or March (last year). (But) I didn't give it much thought. I didn't read too much into it."

For about 20 minutes, DPP Sellakumaran grilled Lim on why he did not probe her about her weight loss.

Even though Lim admitted that Madam Gawidan looked "frail" in the picture, he repeatedly said he did not ask her about her condition because she had made no complaints.

Lim also said that his wife was the one who took care of the maid's meals.

He said: "I prefer not to interfere."

Dietitian: Weight loss was 'drastic'

When Madam Thelma Oyasan Gawidan was working for the Lim family, she consumed only about half of what her body required.

Testifying in court yesterday, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital's chief dietitian Gladys Wong Hooi Chuan said that given the maid's age, height, weight and amount of physical activity, to function normally, Madam Gawidan should consume about 1,700 calories a day.

As a result, her weight dropped from 49kg to 29kg between Jan 23, 2013, and April 18 last year.

This was a "drastic" 40 per cent drop, said Ms Wong.

Standing at 1.42m tall and weighing only 29kg when she fled from her employers' home, Madam Gawidan had a body mass index (BMI) of 14.4.

On Tuesday, Dr Alan Ho, a general practitioner, had told the court that Asians with BMIs of between 18.5 and 23 are considered "normal".

Those with BMIs of between 15 and 16 are "grossly underweight".

Dr Ho had said that Madam Gawidan's BMI of 14.4 was "way below the scale" and "exceedingly abnormal".

Ms Wong said yesterday that she had seen patients with BMIs of 13.

The court heard that such patients were so weak that they had to be carried in.

She also said that if Madam Gawidan had lost more weight, she would have diminished body functions and be "skin and bones".

She could have died, Ms Wong added.

About the case

She weighed 49kg when she started working for the Singaporean couple in January 2013.

By April last year, Filipino maid Thelma Oyasan Gawidan, 40, had lost 20kg and weighed only 29kg.

Her former employer, businessman Lim Choon Hong, 47, faces one charge of contravening Condition 1 in Part 1 of the Fourth Schedule to the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations 2012.

He had allegedly deprived Madam Gawidan of adequate food, causing her weight loss.

His wife, Chong Sui Foon, also 47, is accused of one count of abetting him in committing the offence.

In court, Madam Gawidan had testified that while she was working for the couple, she was given only instant noodles and sometimes bread, twice a day for meals.

She also said that Chong would sometimes add some meat and vegetables - a slice of cucumber or tomato and a piece of meat the size of a finger - to her food.

Madam Gawidan had also testified that she was allowed to bathe only once or twice a week at a public toilet in her then-employer's Orchard Road condominium.

The petite woman, who is now working for another family in Singapore, told the court that the couple asked her to work odd hours.

She said they told her to sleep in a storeroom during the day and she was put to work overnight.

If convicted of the offence, Lim and Chong can each be jailed up to a year and fined up to $10,000.

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Maid abuse trial: Wife has anorexia and eats mostly bread herself

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Singapore News - She has a history of anorexia nervosa - an eating disorder. Because of this, businessman Lim Choon Hong, 47, told the court yesterday that his wife of 25 years has always... Read more at www.tnp.sg

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SINGAPORE - In a shocking case of alleged maid abuse, a Singaporean couple is accused of providing their Filipino domestic worker with two meals daily of only instant noodles and bread for more than a year, causing her weight to drop from 49kg to 29kg by the time she escaped to a shelter for help.

Lim Choon Hong and his wife Chong Sui Foon, both 47, claimed trial to one offence each under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, which is punishable with up to 12 months' jail and/or a S$10,000 fine.

Details of their alleged ill-treatment of their maid, Ms Thelma Oyasan Gawidan, 40, were revealed in court today (Dec 14). In her 15 months working for the couple, they are said to have made her work for more than 24 hours at a stretch, while providing her with only two meals a day. Lim, who is understood to be a trader formerly, and his homemaker wife also allegedly forbade her from brushing her teeth, and restricted her to showers just once or twice a week - at the public toilet in their Orchard condominium, where Chong would allegedly watch to make sure she did not take too long. The storeroom was where she slept, Ms Thelma told investigators.

Taking the stand today, she broke down twice as she recounted the experience.

"I became skinny. I don't recognize myself when I look in the mirror," she said, choking up with tears. "I felt my body shivering. I (didn't) have energy."

After one month of working for the couple, Ms Gawidan stopped having her period, the court heard. A few months later, she started losing her hair and she saw her clothes becoming looser.

Ms Gawidan said through an interpreter that her first meal would typically be two to three slices of bread and instant noodles, with one slice of tomato and cucumber, and a piece of meat the size of her little finger. Her second meal would be five to six slices of bread.

If she asked for more food, Chong would give in at times, but then give her less for her next meal, she added.

When Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Soo Tet asked if her former employers noticed her weight loss, Ms Gawidan said she tried pointing it out to Chong. "One time, I pleaded with her when she was in the bathroom with me: 'Look at my body, I am skin and bones already'," she said.

She broke down again when she was shown photos of herself when she weighed 29kg, right after she fled to a shelter run by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) on April 18 last year. Her case was referred to the Ministry of Manpower.

Ms Gawidan also recounted one occasion where Lim and Chong checked her and their three children into Raffles Hotel when they went on a holiday. The children - their ages were not revealed - ordered food from the hotel while she ate instant noodles and bread that the couple packed from home.

The court also heard that Ms Gawidan worked odd hours where she slept in the day and worked at night, an arrangement that was agreed upon earlier on as Lim followed the European market in his job as a trader.

Citing an example of her long working hours, Ms Gawidan said she would wake up at 7pm on a Monday and work till Wednesday morning. "I don't get enough sleep. I felt my body weaken," she said.

Today, Dr Lin Huiyu, a senior resident at Tan Tock Seng Hospital's Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology who examined Ms Gawidan after she had gone to HOME, also testified. Ms Thelma had suffered from significant weight loss due to the insufficient intake of food, said Dr Lim, who ruled out other medical and organic causes.

At a review at TTSH in June last year, Ms Gawidan's weight had returned to 43kg.

The trial continues tomorrow, with Ms Gawidan returning to the stand.

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Couple accused of starving maid, causing her weight to drop from 49kg to 29kg

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SINGAPORE - In a shocking case of alleged maid abuse, a Singaporean couple is accused of providing their Filipino domestic worker with two meals daily of only instant noodles and bread for more than a year, causing her weight to drop from 49kg to 29kg by the time she escaped to a shelter for help.

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In your CA1 groups: Each group is assigned to rewrite one part of the article "10 Shocking Facts About The Maid Abuse Case That You Should Know".

Scroll down to find your group's assigned part.

Step 1. Highlight phrases/words in your assigned part of the article that may be defamatory.
Step  2. Re-write in the GREEN BOXES the part assigned to your group. Highlight the phrase/words that you chose to reduce likelihood of defamation.
Step  3. At the end of your article, briefly write down in italics 2-3 reasons why your group made those re-writes, especially if there were any concerns about defamation.

Your group will present the re-write and reasons during Lesson 3B. Eg: "The original sentence could be potentially defamatory, because it lowered XX's reputation by... It was not fair comment because...."

Assume you are writing this article in Dec 2015, while the trial was ongoing, but before the verdict.

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Here's what the Mainstream Media didn't highlight about the maid starvation incident

Most people's hearts have gone out to the maid after hearing her tragic abuse story.

For the uninitiated, a couple starved their maid, deprived her of food and did not allow her to speak to anyone. The trial has been going on since 14 Dec.

Thelma Oyasan Gawidan, the victim of this maid abuse case survived on bread and instant noodles throughout her torture period employment, causing her weight to plummet from 49kg to 29kg. The domestic worker claimed that her employers kept surveillance of her round the clock and she only managed to escape when they left her alone to clean the area outside their Orchard Road condominium.

With the help of a fellow Filipina, Gawidan managed to get to a shelter run by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home).

Her tormentors, Lim Choon Hong and his wife Chong Sui Foon, both 47, have claimed trial to one offence under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act - which is punishable to up to 12 months jail and/or $10 000 fine.

MustShareNews also found out 10 things that this pair of cold-hearted employers has done.

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5. The maid claimed that her employers watched her every move

Okay, this might be an overstatement.

However, if she was unable to escape until recently, it is partially justified. Anyway, what does this remind you of? Doesn’t their behaviour appear to be that of kidnappers?

Firstly, the errant couple kept their domestic worker captive and did not let her out. Secondly, they kept watch on her most of the time — even when she was taking a shower at the public toilet in their condo. Further, they gave her only bread and instant noodles. Lastly, they kept her in the storeroom and cut off her contact with the rest of the world by taking away her phone and forbidding her to talk to anybody.

Gawidan said:

I had no communication to my family, and I hadn’t sent any money — as if I just disappeared from them.

This appears to be a classic case of kidnap.

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[Okay, this might be an exaggeration.

However, if she was unable to escape until recently, it is can be justified. Doesn't their behaviour seem extreme?

Firstly, the couple kept their domestic worker captive and did not let her out. Secondly, they kept watch on her most of the time — even when she was taking a shower at the public toilet in their condo. Further, they gave her only bread and instant noodles. Lastly, they kept her in the storeroom and cut off her contact with the rest of the world by taking away her phone and forbidding her to talk to anybody.

Gawidan said:

I had no communication to my family, and I hadn’t sent any money — as if I just disappeared from them.

This seems to be a case of ill-treatment.]

[Because in the original article, they are insinuating that the defendant kidnapped the domestic worker, which is false, as she was hired not kidnapped.

The "what does this reminds you of..." also insinuates that the defendants are kidnappers, which we are not able to prove. Hence, we edited that portion.

We removed the word "errant" as it is unnecessary.

In the end, we removed the word "kidnap" because similarly, we cannot accuse them of being kidnappers.]

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Group 4's Rewritten Fact No. 4 and Closing

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Group 4's Rewritten Fact No. 4 and Closing

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On a human to human level, we would expect the children of the accused to stop their parents from inflicting such harm on their maid.

But we have to consider how it may also be intimidating for the children to stand up against their parents.

According to Gawidan, on their trip to Hong Kong, she had to eat instant noodles and bread, while the couple and their three kids ordered hotel meals for dinner.

It would be best if the children could share their perspectives of the situation.

The other side of the story

The accused have responded and are defending themselves in court.

The trial would enter its second tranche on 30 Dec.

More objective and balanced, with no suggestive terms.

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Here’s what the Mainstream Media didn’t highlight about the alleged maid starvation incident. Most people’s hearts have gone out to the maid after hearing her story.

For the uninitiated, a couple allegedly deprived her of food and did not allow her to speak to anyone. The trial has been going on since 14 Dec.

Thelma Oyasan Gawidan, the victim of this maid abuse case was allegedly given only bread and instant noodles twice a day, throughout her employment, causing her weight to plummet from 49kg to 29kg. The domestic worker claimed that her employers observed her round the clock and she only managed to leave when they left her alone to clean the area outside their Orchard Road condominium.

With the help of a fellow Filipina, Gawidan managed to get to a shelter run by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home).

Her employers, Lim Choon Hong and his wife Chong Sui Foon, both 47, have claimed trial for one offence under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act — which is punishable by up to 12 months in jail and/or a $10 000 fine.

MustShareNews also found out 10 things that the couple has allegedly done.

We included the word allegedly so as to not objectively blame the couple stated

We removed the emotive words used to describe Gawidan's experience and replaced them with vague adjectives instead

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[1. The previous maid testified a similar experience

Before we begin, we have to ask this burning question: why were the previous allegations not reviewed - allowing for a similar situation to possibly reoccur.

The fact was uncovered from the testimony of maid agent Toh An Choon as he testified yesterday (16 Dec).

Since the agency was already in the know about the first maid abuse case, why did they still allow the couple to inflict alleged suffering in another human being? Secondly, why why was there no follow-up with the helper after losing contact with the maid for a total of 18 months?

For covering their rear, the award of #notmybusiness goes to…

]

[ The previous maid testified a similar experience - we do not know if they did the EXACT same thing
]

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Original Fact No. 4 and Closing (for Group 4)

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Original Fact No. 4 and Closing (for Group 4)

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4. The ex-employers have 3 children.

On a human to human level, we would expect the children of the accused to stop their parents from inflicting such harm on their maid.

Or were they also mistreated? Maybe not.

According to Gawidan, on their trip to Hong Kong, she had to eat instant noodles and bread, while the couple and their three kids ordered hotel meals for dinner.

They should testify on how it feels like to see someone nearly starve to death right in front of their eyes.

The other side of the story

The accused have responded and are starting to make excuses for their actions.

The trial would enter its second tranche on 30 Dec.

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1.They did the exact same thing to the previous maid

Before we begin, we have to ask this burning question: how did they manage to get another maid when the previous domestic helper complained about not having enough food and rest?

This fact was uncovered from the testimony of maid agent Toh Ah Choon as he testified yesterday (16 Dec).

Since the agency was already in the know about the first maid abuse case, why did they still allow the unrepentant pair to inflict suffering in another human being? Secondly, why didn’t the agency do a house visit after losing contact with the maid for a total of 18 months?

For covering their rear, the award of #notmybusiness goes to…