How 10 wives, 64 kids live together

[Siti Roha]

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Sent: Sunday, 27 May 2007 7:34:43
Subject: FW: How 10 wives, 64 kids live together (fwd)

How 10 wives, 64 kids live together

From using a minivan for transport to buying rice by the gunny sack, the family members of the man who was jailed for raping six of his daughters live an unusual but well organised life in two jumbo HDB flats. NUR DIANAH SUHAIMI and VINCENT LEOW report
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TAKING THE LAUNDRY OUT TO DRY can be a massive exercise for the huge family, but neighbours say the family members are like a well-oiled machine. Everything from buying and cooking food to allocating study and sleeping areas is planned meticulously by the 10 women who run the family now.
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"Initially, I thought the flat was a tuition centre. There are so many children all the time and so many shoes outside the flat." - A NEIGHBOUR, who moved into the block three months ago.
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They have a system for everything, which ones included taking turns to spend the night with their husband. Before he was jailed, one wife was told to prepare a 'sleeping roster' to ensure there was no favouritism.
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At least two wives will take the minivan to do grocery shopping on weekends. When they reach home, the children will troop downstairs to help carry the items home. A neighbour said: "They buy rice by the gunny sack and about four sacks each time." -- THE NEW PAPER

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"When the boys play soccer on weekends, among themselves, they can easily form two complete teams." - A NEIGHBOUR on the seventh floor.

WHEN they first moved in 10 years ago, they were the talk of the neighbourhood - a family so large they occupied three 'jumbo' seven-room HDB flats.
Whenever the head of this huge household wanted to address his 10 wives and 64 children, he stood on a platform and used a microphone.

Then last year, the family became the talk of the entire country for different reasons, when the 46-year-old patriarch was sentenced to 32 years in jail and 24 strokes of the cane for raping six of his teenage daughters.

Now three of his wives also face jail time for abetting him in the rape. They will be sentenced in 10 days' time. Two of them face a possible jail term of up to five years, while the third could be put away for up to 24 years.

Neither they nor the father can be named, to protect the identities of the children.

Although the head of the family is now in jail, life still has to go on for the 74 family members.

But how does a family of this size function? Through court papers and interviews with neighbours and shopkeepers, The Sunday Times pieced together a portrait of their life.

Of the 64 children - 33 boys and 31 girls - 21 are in secondary school, 28 in primary school and 12 in preschool. The other three children are under three years old.

Following the father's conviction, the family's transport business, which once boasted a fleet of 11 minibuses and vans, collapsed. There is now one bus left.

The wives were saddled with a $200,000 debt. Three of them, who acted as guarantors for the vehicle loans, have been made bankrupt.

Most of the wives are in their late 30s, the oldest being 42. They were all between 17 and 20 years old when they got married. All 10 marriages, which were registered in Thailand, took place within a two-year period between 1988 and 1989. They are not recognised under Singapore law.

Five wives work to support the family, pulling in a combined income of $6,700. Still, court papers said the family's expenses exceed their income by about $1,000.

To supplement their income, the family has rented out one of their jumbo flats and receives financial assistance from the Ministry of Education, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore and voluntary welfare group Care Corner, in the form of food vouchers, pocket money, free textbooks and school fees.

Despite the financial difficulties, neighbours said the family runs like a well-oiled machine.

Mr Richard Tan, a businessman, who lives in the same Marsiling block as the family, said: 'There may be so many people in the family but they are very systematic and well organised. The wives share the workload and the children are always kept occupied.'

The five non-working wives split the household chores.

They have a system for everything, which once included taking turns to spend the night with their husband.

Before he was jailed, one wife was told to prepare a 'sleeping roster' to ensure that there was no favouritism.

In fact, neighbours said they were struck by the fact that the 10 women were able to co-exist so peacefully. They said they have never heard them quarrelling.

One neighbour, who declined to be named, said: 'Even sisters will sometimes quarrel, but these women don't, even though they share the same husband.'

The sheer size of the household turns normal household activities into Herculean tasks. At least two wives will take the minivan to do grocery shopping on weekends. When they reach home, the children will troop downstairs to help carry the items home.

A neighbour, who once spotted the wives returning from the market, said: 'They buy rice by the gunny sack and about four sacks each time.'

Given that 74 people have to be squeezed into two seven-room flats on separate floors, the family has also worked out an efficient space-sharing arrangement.

The flat on the eighth floor is a study area for the schooling children while the third-floor flat functions as the communal kitchen.

The study flat is almost like a mini school, complete with at least three computers, two television sets and a photocopier. Notice boards adorn the walls, while files stuffed with papers line the shelves.

The third-floor flat is where breakfast, lunch and dinner are prepared, usually single-handedly by one wife - the appointed cook.

Each morning, she prepares 49 lunch boxes for the children going to school.

One wife told The Sunday Times: 'When we cook, it's like cooking for a wedding. Our pots are at least twice the size of normal pots.'

At night, the two flats, each with five bedrooms, are converted into dormitories. This includes the living rooms too, which contain minimal furniture so as to free up space for mattresses.

According to neighbours, the older boys sleep in the third-floor flat unit while the older girls sleep in the eighth-floor flat. The toddlers and infants most probably sleep wherever their natural mothers are, said a neighbour.

Before his arrest, the father had his own bedroom in the third-floor flat. This was where the five daughters were raped between December 2003 and June 2005. At that time, the youngest girl he raped was 12 years old. The oldest was 15.

Two of them got pregnant and went for abortions.

Although the family members tend to keep to themselves, they still draw a lot of attention. The children are never short of playmates.

One neighbour on the seventh floor said: 'When the boys play soccer on weekends, among themselves, they can easily form two complete teams.'

The only major grievance against the family among residents in the block is the noise they make.

Neighbours complain of not being able to sleep in at weekends because the children are up by dawn. Some residents said some families have moved out because of the din, while potential buyers are said to have been turned off by the noise when they came to view the flats.

A neighbour, who moved into the block three months ago, said: 'Initially, I thought the flat was a tuition centre. There are so many children all the time and so many shoes outside the flat.'

Another resident, who lives in a nearby block, said: 'They're our neighbourhood's open secret. Everybody knows about this family, but feigns ignorance. We don't want to embarrass them further. They're normal people and, like us, they need to stay somewhere.'

Rapist dad has twin? No, he's just a family friend
ABUSE OF TRUST: Three of the man's wives were also found guilty of abetting him in committing incest. PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

AFTER the father was jailed, neighbourhood provision shop owners reported seeing a man buying food with the mothers and children.
This led some, who had never seen the real father, to believe he was the one who had raped his daughters. Another shopkeeper, who declined to be named, said: 'Did the father have a twin?' In fact, the man they saw is a family friend and neighbour, who had stepped in to help them. The 41-year-old dispatch rider, who declined to be named, got to know the family five years ago when he, together with his two wives and seven children, moved into the same block. After work, he would drive a minibus for the family's transportation company to earn extra money. His family would also attend the father's religious talks at the eighth-floor unit from time to time. The two families also sometimes went out together to eat at places such as East Coast Park - something they still do. In fact, the two families are so close that neighbours have trouble telling them apart, especially now that the man has taken on the role of a father for both sets of children, disciplining the boys of the
other family and even slapping them. 'The boys know I only meant well, for if not, they would not have still come to me for any help or advice. My intention is to keep them on the right path and prevent them from misbehaving or mixing with the wrong company,' he said. Meanwhile, his wives are helping by keeping the other man's wives and daughters company, so they do not feel rejected by the community. 

 

 

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Carry a heart that never hates
Carry a smile that never fades
Carry a touch that never hurts
Carry a friendship that never fails
<<<<<<Siti Roha Mukhtar>>>>>>
~~~"""~~~"""~~~"""~~~"""~~~"""~~~

[Kurt Coe Cainn]

bleh caya ker.. ntah ntah propaganda...

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bentaraaaa!! tafsirkanlah mimpi ini....
singgahsana ku menanti di Qalha...

[ain ndz]

erm...nk tny sket lah....

apa hukum adik beradik dia tu?

muhrim ker x?

coz ayh dia kahwin camtu..

kira sah ker?

 

On 5/31/07, Siti Roha <siti...@gmail.com> wrote:

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~when sun go down..u go up..up is down..down is up<<jack sparrow>>~
~~ain_ndz~~