Pain

I am aching all over right now. From my wrists, to my upper arms, to my butt muscle, I am hurting from the strain that my muscles have been unaccustomed to for the last 6 months.

I basically went on an exercise binge partly to appease my guilty conscience as I swam 20 laps and clocked an hour or two of badminton on Friday. And the effects of that binge is haunting me right now.

Covering sports for the last month or so also reminded me that I used to be so active physically. That my sedentry existence cannot continue if I do not want to die a painful, diseased death.

But just as my painful muscles were a result of being jolted out of their sedentry existence, I am sure the "pain" T.T Durai of NKF infamy is going through right now is also because his sedentry existence at the top was not "jolted" enough.

Just like my muscles, the extravagence of the ex-CEO of Singapore's largest charity, the National Kidney Foundation, was all hushed up until he was undone by an expose by a senior writer from the dominant local daily.

And all of a sudden, you see the backlash by the public that was unprecedented given how Michael Fay was caned and jailed for vandalism all those years ago.

The peripheral fence of the NKF headquarters in Toa Payoh was vandalised. And as if jumping onto the vadal bandwagon was a "cool" thing to do, I saw copycats vandals doing the same "NKF Liarss $$$" to the walls of the lifts in my apartment block.

But this whole incident did bring to mind a couple of issues.

Chiefly, Singaporeans' perception of CEO's of charities. We all want charities to be well-run, but are we prepared to pay top-dollar for full-time capable people to run these organisations?

What shocked me was not T.T Durai's salary, but his 12-month bonus. It's utterly unbecoming especially since NKF is a non-profit organisation. Come to think of it, they probably had to have those charity shows to raise funds just to pay their CEO.

Secondly, the moral authority that comes with being the head of a welfare organisation. T.T Durai's mistake was to over-corporatise NKF. It was arguably a victim of its own success, because it was way too efficient with its fund-raising and marketing. Mr Khaw, the Health Minister was right - NFK has to go back to examining the basics again.

But reconciling moral authority with astute business acumen involves putting in place a person of a high moral fibre and one who is able to remain acutely aware of the impact of his actions. Yet it is not humanly possible to expect a person to be aware of himself. We all need a mirror to see ourselves.

T.T Durai managed to install those golden taps because he lacked the necessary checks and balances, a trusted circle who can be dependable on to give constructive feedback - even if they are words that one does not want to hear.

And last but not least, the impact leadership has on the masses. Because of T.T Durai's apparent mismanagement, public trust has been immensely eroded. And when people pull the plug on their donations, the people who really need the subsidies for kidney dialysis suffers.

Definitely not the CEO, who still has millions in personal reserve to tap on.

My muscular pains will slowly dissipate with time. But if I don't follow up on this binge with a regular exercise regime, I will probably land myself in deeper trouble if I keep binge-ing on exercise like that. Fundamentally muscles will tear if I suddenly use them overtime after a period of inactivity. Besides, if I don't exercise now, my health will almost certainly suffer when I get much older.

In the same way, these trying pains that the NKF are going through at the moment will either decrease over time and come back to haunt them if nothing is done about it now; or go away and not come back because good practices are going to be put into place.

Only time will tell if either one of us procrastinate about "exercising" regularly.