SDP's Chee Soon Juan & CPF Board still at odds over S'poreans who allegedly can't withdraw savings

Email exchanges.

Sulaiman Daud | October 31, 2019, 07:17 PM

The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and the CPF Board do not appear to have reached an agreement over contacting two retirees who allegedly face difficulties in withdrawing their CPF funds.

The political party and statutory board recently embarked on an exchange over two retirees who claimed that they allegedly faced difficulties withdrawing their CPF funds.

This was revealed by SDP Secretary-General Chee Soon Juan in a Facebook post on Oct. 25.

CPF Board contacted Chee

Chee publicly revealed that the CPF Board contacted him to ask for the contact details of the two retirees he spoke to, so that they could look into the matter.

Chee said that he hoped this was a "genuine effort" on the part of the CPF Board, instead of a "public relations exercise" to "assuage people's anger" over the retention of their CPF savings, in light of the coming general election.

CPF Board: Disappointed by Chee's decision

The CPF Board informed Mothership that they contacted the SDP again after Chee's post on Oct. 25.

On Oct. 26, they sent an email, which said that they were "disappointed" by Chee's decision to "deride the intentions of public officers".

They asked for the SDP to be "specific" about the retirees' contact details if Chee wished to help them.

"Dear Dr Chee

We note your reply which was also posted at https://yoursdp.org/news/cpf-board-writes-to-sdp-to-seek-contacts-of-retirees;-sdp-responds:-we-hope-this-is-not-just-a-pr-exercise-because-of-impending-ge.

Our sole purpose in contacting you is to follow up on the two CPF members you cited in your Facebook post. We are therefore disappointed by your decision to deride the intentions of public officers instead. We reiterate that if you wish to help them, be specific about their contact details so that we may look into their cases."

Chee Soon Juan: If you are genuinely interested in helping, arrange a meeting

SDP informed Mothership that Chee replied to this email.

He repeated his call for the CPF Board to arrange for a meeting as suggested, if they were "genuinely interested" in helping them.

"Dear (name),

As stated in my previous email, if you are genuinely interested in helping the two retirees as well as the thousands more who are in a similar predicament, then please arrange for a meeting as I suggested.

Thank you."

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Top image from CPF Board and SDP's Facebook pages.