Why I hate Kong Hee?

It's a click-bait guys. I don't hate him. I don't even know him.

Never met or spoken to him. Not even seen him face to face except for one occasion from a distance, in one Saturday service three years ago with my son. He was preaching then and was undeniably charismatic on stage.

My point is that Kong Hee draws a lot of "Likes" for my post. And if I happen to (quite deliberately) put his face (or hers) on my blog or Facebook, I galvanise even more head-spinning attention. I guess that explains my post's image here. 

In other words, I become "famous" by riding on the infamous trails of Kong Hee. Like a parasite?

Here comes my point in sharper focus.

I hate myself for it. I don't think it is right. I think something is seriously wrong.

Why should Kong Hee's exploits or affairs attract so much attention, but the deeds of the unknown mee siam stall owner or the auntie who sells tissue paper at Bedok Food Court attract not even a pinch of it? 

On second thought, maybe this post would be better framed as "Why I hate myself for being parasitical when riding on the trials and travails of Kong Hee?"

But I guess that might be a bit too dramatic. And a title that long is tedious and distracting.

So, I thought of just sticking with the current title for a candid, heart-to-heart post to set the record straight (as some of late have been asking me whether I have an axe to grind with Kong Hee).

Alas, controversy always stirs the pot to an overflowing froth, and Kong Hee and his Crossover Project are controversy magnet for such attention deluge.

And don't even let me loose (since it is the Year of the dog, my year at 48) on the perennially incredulous antics of the crossover like China Wine and Kill Bill, and the millions spent on Sun Ho's delusionary singing career by the astonishingly large numbers of willing donors with an all-embracing heart.

That controversy will fill to overflow a vast estate of frothing pots.

Now, at this point, many will readily jump in to offer the most obvious reason for the massive interest in Kong Hee. It essentially boils down to his fame, his worldwide exploits and his charisma.

He is well known for many good and bad reasons. He was hot and in high demand in the evangelical and charismatic circles, and such recognition remains unabated even after he walked into Court last April to serve his time, which is now confirmed at 3.6 years. He has also touched many lives, as tens of thousands locally and abroad can readily testify.

And if he behaves and complies with prison rules, he may just be conditionally released for home detention around the time of our 54th National Day 2019 - give or take a few months. 

So, let's go back to the self-loathing part of my post here.

I think Kong Hee should just be left on his own. Recall that salvation belongs to the Lord, not man. That's the main point of this post.

I have been conscious since his surrender to the State Courts to avoid writing and mentioning even his name when I write on a few occasions about the City Harvest saga for the above reason; that is, to leave well alone well alone (not counting this post of course, which will be my final piece about him because I trust/hope he has learnt his lesson).

He is serving his prison term, and like he said, he is basically at peace with himself and was prepared to accept whatever the outcome of the appeal - even if it means an enhanced sentence of 8 years. I guess, God showed mercy after all.

Even if some of us are of the sincerest view that in his case, justice ought not to be tempered with mercy or compassion because he was let off too lightly, we should at the very least walk on by because last Thursday's appeal at the highest Court of five Justices puts an end to it all. It's like putting the dog to sleep, for good, for now and forever.

At this point, I recall this proverb: "If a dog chases two rabbits, he will never catch one." (too many Year of the dog references?)

I take that to mean that we cannot let go by holding on, or move forward by looking back. In other words, some goals are just mutually exclusive.

For example, in love, there is no hate. And in light, there is no darkness.

So, in forgiveness, there is no vengeance because it is His to exact. And in salvation, there is no perfection, for it is never done until we are done on earth.  

I can imagine a dog feverishly chasing love and hate, forgiveness and vengeance, salvation and perfection, wanting it all, but never catching either, or at all.

Sure, Kong Hee is a lot of things to a lot of people. The controversies of his past will dogged him for decades to come (pun unintended). He will have to live with his leadership flaws, his shortfalls, his failings.

But that will be exclusively his to deal with in the solitary confinement of his cell. He is paying the price for it, and he will be paying for it away from the distracting glare of stage lights, the deafening applause, and the adoring members fist-pumping his every sermon preached from the pulpit.

Gone are all that in the compelling quietude of his current regimented space.

There is surely a therapeutic advantage to earnest repentance when one is sequestered from the noise of mass and indiscriminate public endorsement and into forced hermitage for in-depth self-examination.

So, I wish him well, and I did just that when I wrote on his FB on the eve of his surrender these words: "Take care pastor."

As for believers on the other side of the divide, it is time to stop grinding the axe. Let's heal the rift, fill it with goodwill, close the gap, understand that no human leadership is perfect, open our hearts and embrace hope, redemption and repentance.

(That's why I chose that title as a clickbait to reach out to as many readers as possible; for what it's worth anyway).

Yes, the crossover has shown the ugly side of the ambition of man - good intention notwithstanding. But it is the redemption of Calvary that will always outdo, outshine and outlast all.

While I admit that the illegality of the crossover was overwhelming, it is the timeless legacy of Calvary that is and will always be overcoming. And while hate for what is evil or wrong is justified at times, at least for a season, it is love that ultimately conquers all, for all seasons.

For in light, there is no darkness. And as Proverbs 4:18 puts it, "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day."

As believers, united as one, regardless of church and creed, our evangelism at this pressing time is not so much the conversion of new hearts, but the transformation (or persuasion) of old.

Because, as Proverbs illumes it so well, the path of the righteous shines brighter to full light, and not shines dimly edging towards full night.

Thanks for reading. Have a blessed Sunday morning.

Unity in faith, courage in hope, and love in everything. Amen. Cheerz.

The flawed leadership of CHC 2.0.

When Sun Ho was ordained as the leader of CHC 2.0 in the end of 2015, right after the sentence of the six accused persons, I shook my head in disbelief. I still do. There and then, I whispered to myself this: Has the church learnt her lesson?

If the Crossover was the brainchild of Sun Ho, and was also the main cause for the fall of the church leadership, then isn’t ordaining her directly endorsing the theological legitimacy of the Crossover?

But what is the theological legitimacy of the Crossover then? Does the church still believe that it has any redeeming quality after the debacle? Is it really God who asked Sun Ho and her husband to pursue this unusual evangelization project, which later turned into a win-at-all-cost gambit, or is it merely a cover to develop one’s beloved music career with evangelism as a tag-along goal to lend it some sheen of legitimacy?

For we know that if you tell the church that you have God as your divine patronage for your personal dream, the funds will flood in like a tsunamis of unchecked generosity. (As an aside, the problem with the Crossover is not the evangelism aspect of it, but the convergence and concentration of all effort and funds on an individual that derailed it completely)

In a recent Court of Appeal case, namely, Chew Eng Han v.PP (2017), Andrew Phang JA delivered the judgment with a good summary of the history of this Crossover obsession. The first thirteen pages spell it all out and it gets more desperate as the deception burns deeper.

The start was innocent enough. The culprit was a whistle-blower named Roland Poon. He would not keep quiet about the misuse of the church building funds spent on buying up Sun Ho’s albums.

So, the CHC board was quick to react by issuing a written response to Roland Poon in The Straits Times, stating that “the church funds had not been used to purchase Sun Ho’s albums or to promote her career.” This was clearly not true.

To confound matters, the version that the executive members were told was that the funds came from the wealthy family of a church member, Mr Wahju Hanafi.

After the Roland Poon incident, CHC leadership knew that they had to be discreet with their Crossover financing. They didn't want any hiccup to derail the plan. 

This was where the sham companies came into being. They were sham for three reasons.

First, the main goal was to get the Building Funds ("BF") out of the church without raising any Roland-Poon type of suspicion. Second, the only way to do so was to set up these companies like Xtron Productions to receive the BF via loan or bond subscription. But the bonds were not genuine investments because the CHC leaders controlled both the church and Xtron with its directors as mere figureheads.

The point is that at that time, the church didn't know the details of what the bond investments were for as Xtron was not set up to pursue legitimate business objectives but individual goals (which turned into an obsession) called the Crossover. 

And third, the BF loaned out (via bond subscription) by the church was done so at a loss because CHC could have loaned out the people’s money at a higher interest rates. At that time, the Hong Kong Citic Ka Wah was offering a loan of $9m at an interest rate of 16% per annum.

However, the bonds that Xtron purchased from CHC only paid the church 7% per annum (and at subsequent bond issuance, the interest rates was adjusted to 5%).

In other words, the BF could have earned a higher interest rate but because of the Crossover obsession, the church had to settle for much less over time. There is thus wrongful loss suffered by the church contrary to what the church leadership wanted the church members to believe.

That is not all. The deception ran deeper.

When Xtron was set up in June 2003, the executive members of the church were not informed of Xtron’s existence. Neither were any of them informed of Xtron’s source of funds. They only knew of the whole truth in an EGM seven years later in 2010 when CAD started their investigation.

As such, during these seven years, millions of dollars from the BF were secretly transferred to Xtron (and other sham joint venture) via sham bonds to finance Sun Ho’s music career.

You would recall that the leaders vehemently denied that the BF was used for Sun Ho’s music career in response to Roland Poon’s probe in 2003. My god, they even published in the Straits Times to insist on it. Talk about lynching the truth to pursue an obsession!

In mid-2008, the auditors in a similar Roland-Poon-like probe inquired about the sham bonds and their expiry date, and the Crossover obsession compelled the leaders to hide the paper trail with an amended bond subscription to borrow more money from the BF to extend the first Xtron bond subscription from 2 years to 10 years. 

The goal was to delay the full redemption of the bonds. Alas, the lies just piled up to cover up more lies.

Again, that’s not all. The deception was needlessly perpetuated.

When Sun Ho wanted to expand her music in America, more funds were needed. Manufactured fame exacted a high worldly price.

So, in another bond subscription known as Firna bonds, money again flowed out of the BF into Firna; the latter was a glass factory business. But the money was not used to invest in Firna business. It was secretly channelled into Sun Ho’s music career in America. It should be noted that some of the money went not only into the Crossover project but they were also used to enable Sun Ho to live and travel lavishly like an international superstar.

And even up to this date (that is, 2008), the executive members were led to believe that the BF was used exclusively to invest in property like the Riverwalk and not in the Crossover. They were largely kept in the dark about the above transactions and the detailed source of financing (that is, from the forbidden BF - so much for Straits Times publication to project a false impression).

In 2009, the auditors again questioned about the transactions (Xtron and Firna bonds) and this was where the deception mutated into convoluted forms known in the trial as round tripping. You can read paragraph 23 of the CA Judgment to try to follow the convoluted process.

But one deception puzzled me most and it involved Xtron using the CHC’s BF to purchase a building for CHC’s benefit. And when Xtron became the owner of that building, CHC (the lender) was made to pay advance rental to Xtron (the borrower) to lease the building for CHC’s use…?

Mind you, the lease was for 8 years and the advance rental for those 8 years that CHC had paid to Xtron was a whopping $46.27m (excluding S$7m for security deposit). And you’ve guessed it, part of this money (S$21.5m) was used to fully redeem the bonds it had issued to CHC.

So, in one round-tripping manipulation, Xtron actually used CHC's money to purchase a building for CHC’s use in return for CHC’s payment of a one-off advance rental payment of S$42.27m to Xtron so that Xtron could use that money to pay off the bonds that Xtron owed to CHC. Just writing that confuses me already.

Well, it is all good if the bond/loan were genuinely invested in the building by Xtron and the lease was transacted at a profit for Xtron and proper market rate interest for the bonds was paid to the church.

But since it's all sham, the money was used to cover the CHC leadership's misappropriation scheme. This was done to perpetuate the Crossover obsession, keep the church, executive members, and auditors at bay and in the dark, and ensure Sun Ho attain stardom fame at all costs. So much for the theological legitimacy of the Crossover!

Alas, if the Crossover were ever the genuine mandate of God, it must have been both a highly convoluted and surreptitious enterprise that has effectively re-written the rules of evangelistic engagement and business investment in an entirely bewildering manner for me.

Mind you, there are other deceptive ways that the CHC leaders employed to further the Crossover project, but the end of it came on 1 August 2010. This was where the CAD commenced their investigation.

In desperation, CHC leaders convened an EGM in August 2010 “where the executive members retrospectively approved CHC’s use of the BF to (a) subscribe to the Xtron bonds; (b) subscribe to the Firna bonds; (c) pay the advance rental and security deposit to Xtron...The executive members also approved the continuation of the Crossover.” Underscore "retrospectively" - not Crossover, but Cover-over.

Among the many deception, the last deception was the sloppiest.

In the CA judgment, Andrew Phang JA wrote this about the EGM to cover up their tracks:-

“However, as the courts below found, the executive members were misled as to the true substance of the transactions. At the EGM, it was falsely represented to the executive members that: (a) CHC subscribed to the Xtron bonds because they offered a good interest rate (they did not); (b) the Firna bond proceeds were intended as a commercial investment to help Firna’s business (again untrue) and Wahju had made an independent decision to use part of the funds to support the Crossover...(another lie to cover other lies).” 

These were the words of Justice Phang that really bite:-

“The truth was that the Xtron bonds were entered into without any consideration as to their commercial viability for CHC, while the Firna bond proceeds were controlled entirely by Kong Hee and the other accused persons, and the decision to use the Firna bond proceeds to fund the Crossover was made by them.”

And mind you, this is supposed to be the "ultimate church" (as CEH once believed), "more than just a neighbourhood church", and the  City (harvest) on the hill...

Phew, I am done with the background here. Here comes my commentary. Strap up.

But first, Mike, why exhume desiccated charismatic bones from a 7-year legal graveyard since the parties involved are currently serving their time and paying the price, and the leader had apologised for his leadership flaws on the eve of his imprisonment term in April?

Well, for some it may well be long dead and buried. The church in fact said that the leadership is not perfect. It's only human to fall. (Somehow, I agree with that to a large extent with a caveat below for this case).

And some even said with spiritual conviction that if there were a Crossover 2.0, they would still support it 100%. Go figure.

But for many, it is still a haunting nightmare where faith, trust and families are destroyed.

And this brings me to the ordination in November 2015 (which I started this post with). It is a fact that the one who started it all is now leading the church where many have paid the price for her decade-long obsession.

I know we Christians are big hearted when it comes to forgiveness and we lead the world in ushering the lost down the aisle to a certain altar-call repentance. Even the modern spin on the doctrine of radical grace would have convinced us to forgive and possibly forget and move on. Healing of the soul supersedes all, doesn't it? (That's the problem with the church these days - they too readily "forgive" in order to get onto the good side of God. But the only good side of God is to abide by His truth...and that is a straight and narrow road).

In fact, I understand Roland Poon himself declined to comment, and according to his daughter, she said in end 2015 that her father had been waiting for this day of vindication. She added: "Now, he can sleep in peace."

Of course, I have never been a member of the church and I ought to be the last person here to comment since those directly affected - both spiritually, financially and existentially - have kept to themselves. Most of them would rather let dead dogs lie and walk away from the disappointment and disillusionment.

What's the point right?

What's more, todate, CHC 2.0 has firmed up accountability, corporate governance and responsibility, the six accused persons have received a lifetime ban (on top of sentences being served), and the church is bouncing back from it all with Sun Ho at the helm. You can say it's back to business as usual. So, let's move on?

Ultimately we should. The past leadership of CHC has dragged the church and faith for far too long, fighting to the end, even before the High Court of Three Judges, which is de facto Court of Appeal minus the broader powers of the CA, and incurred an obscene amount of legal fees in doing so.

Their incredulous insistence on their innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence demonstrated their guilt in all possible angle, whichever way you see it.

True, we are therefore all undeniably jaded, members or non-members.

Bearing all that in mind, I however started this post with this question: Has the church learnt her lesson? Alas, with the ordination, I seriously doubt it.

For me, learning one's lesson in this context requires the current leadership to confront her past - not sweep it under the rug.

Now, let me clarify that I am not saying that Sun Ho shouldn't lead CHC 2.0, but leadership does not exist in a vacuum either. Leadership calls for a higher standard of accountability, honesty and integrity.

CHC 2.0 has yet to give an account of the Crossover Project. All we know about it is that six accused persons were jailed for it, more than half of the congregation had left CHC after and during the course of the trial, which lasted for more than 140 days, and Sun Ho took over the helm of CHC 2.0 after the verdict without officially repudiating the Crossover as the work of a man's plan and not God's.

So, it bears repeating here, is the Crossover the handmaiden of God or the work of a very expensive delusion?

Next comes honesty. The current leadership of CHC 2.0 has avoided the subject altogether. Although the six accused persons are paying for their crimes, Sun Ho has not been truthful to her members. Many are still kept in the dark as to what the true cost of the Crossover is?

Apart from the legal costs and the bleeding membership, the question is, Did the church suffer wrongful loss? Were the use of the building funds even justified in pursuit of a personal dream that has neither benefited the church nor advanced the primary goal of evangelism? Was there really full restitution?

Is the church even interested to give an honest account of what went wrong not in the legal sense (as we have more than 570 pages of judicial decision to justify convicting the six accused persons beyond a reasonable doubt), but in a church leadership sense, that is, by reflecting on these questions:-

How has the church leadership failed her members, past and present? How can such unchecked obsession be prevented in the future besides setting up good corporate governance (for we all know it is the leaders that set the rules)? What are the hidden dangers of pursuing a worldly agenda under the auspices of the cultural mandate for an alleged purpose of evangelism tainted by blind faith, conflict of interests, abuse of power and one deceit after another?

And all this brings me to my final point, the issue of integrity. 

This integrity has got to do with a hole that Sun Ho has yet to fill with a standard of leadership that is benefitting of the most high God she claims to worship. This hole was referred to in a Blackberry message on 5 April 2010 about a contrived special audit, and it reads:-

“Sun (ie, Sun Ho), one of the main reasons why I proposed the Special Audit is to buy us time to fill up the hole. We don’t want all the issue to grow to the extend (sic) that the authorities step in BEFORE we fill up the hole. By appointing our auditors, it will be easier to talk and get things done. If the report turns out to be lacking in some areas, we will improve and change. They can help us. That’s why to me, it is important to let the relevant authorities know that we initiate a special audit. They will at least not do anything till the report comes out. By then, the hole is filled.”

Truth be told, the above is the main reason why I entitled this post “The flawed leadership of CHC 2.0”. It is flawed because it lacks integrity.

First, by appointing Sun Ho, they have put convenience above accountability. Second, by glossing over the Crossover as if it never happened, they have put personal image above standing by the truth. Third, by being silent on the immense costs incurred with the Crossover and its untold extravagance, they have put cowardice above moral courage. Fourth, by filling the hole created by their blind ambition with more lies and deception, they have put interest of self above interest of the church. And fifth, by refusing to confront their past mistakes, to formally apologise for them and to earnestly repent thereafter, they have put worldly values above God. 

So, I doubt the leadership of CHC 2.0 has learnt her lesson. By virtue of the ordination, it is more a denial of any wrongdoing than an admission of it. Cheerz.