I think some of you have forgotten several things:
1. $80,000 was a ALOT of money in 1979. You could still buy a bungalow in Changi, Sembawang, Serangoon Gardens. That property would be worth almost $2million dollars even 5 months ago now.
2. $80k was the tip of the iceberg. More would have come out in the court case.
3. Phey cut a powerful swathe in Singapore's political scene. He not only had alot of enemies in his own union - even Devan Nair once said in the ST I think that of all the unions, that one seemed to receive the most number of threats in the mail.
4. Phey was on the NWC. When some people in SIA didnt' want to donate money to schemes he supported e.g. lottery tickets, he actually HAD THEIR NWC wage increase and 13 month pay withheld!!!
5. Even in the NTUC he fought amongst some of his colleagues. He pulled the wool over Devan Nair's eyes and even Nair admitted this.
6. The issue of his fixing Tan Wah Piow will never go away. There's a school of thought that he was going to blurt the lot on the PAP/Government's role in assisting him to fix Tan.
7. The Straits Times/Government has been able to track down Francis Seow. LKY has said in his book that the man is believed to be in Thailand. If the place is so corrupt, you mean to say no one can offer a bigger bribe to locate him and do a story on him before he dies?
8. After Phey's downfall the NTUC even got letters from INDONESIA, believe it or not - people had actually left Singapore to live there because he made life so tough for them. It's incredible, he was a demi-god.
COME ON, spare us the bullshit!!!