I won’t forget the variety show that brought much laughter to my life when I was just a kid, Comedy Night. I’ve also been a faithful follower of Jack Neo’s movies ever since 1998 when I was just 11 years old. I’ve watched 13 of his movies - Money No Enough 钱不够用, I Not Stupid 小孩不笨, Just Follow Law 我在政府部门的日子 , Love Matters 幸福万岁, Where Got Ghost 吓到笑 , Being Human 做人 and more. You name it. :) Not only did I LMAOed, I also teared while watching several of them because the poignant scenes touched my heart. I particularly remember sobbing, and I really do mean sobbing, at some scenes in Homerun 跑吧,孩子 and I Not Stupid Too 小孩不笨2 because I found myself relating to the plight of the actors in the movies... there was a deep connection within my soul. I would even encourage my friends to go catch his movies, clearly, I had been impacted by them.
I was getting my hair styled at Chapter 2 on Sunday afternoon for Fashion In The Sky when I first saw the headlines off my Twitter via @stcom and my jaw dropped in disbelief. Is this for real?? Or is this just some publicity stunt for his new movie? I quickly opened the news link.
When I realized that the actress who played the character of Mark Lee’s sister-in-law in Being Human 做人 is the mistress in question, I was like… no wonder! I caught the movie just 4 days ago and couldn’t help but feel that the actress was out of place… I thought her looks really didn’t fit in with her character or the overall feel of the movie. What’s more, she’s 22 years old, only 1 year younger than me! I can hardly imagine myself having a relationship with someone who is as old as my father… and S’pore’s most well-known director at that!
I first saw Jack Neo in person at a church event at Singapore Indoor Stadium back in 2007... He came to know about us as he used City Harvest Church’s office in Suntec City to film an “explosion” scene for Just Follow Law, most other offices had turned him away. That fateful day, I vividly remember seeing Pastor Tan Ye Peng talking to him from the angle where I was standing. They were only a few rows away from the front of the stage. Straits Times didn’t mention names but I believe that the pastor mentioned in this article is none other than Pastor Tan himself. I think one of the reasons why Straits Times didn’t publicize which church Jack Neo is attending is due to the religious sensitivity we have in this country. If I were a non-Christian bitch ass journalist or a CHC hater, my 1st instinct would be to write this headline, “Jack Neo, a Member of Singapore’s Largest Church, Exposed for His Extra-marital Affairs, Pastor Stands by Him” and interview key church leaders and the members for their point of view. Will this be allowed in Straits Times? I guess not right? Especially when the government is stressing that we need to carefully maintain the religious harmony that we “enjoy”. Haha.
The second time I saw Jack Neo in person was at another church service at Expo Hall 8, and his family members were present as well. I was standing not more than 20 meters away from him… and I saw a smile on his face when one of his sons responded to the altar call.
Jack and his family with Senior Pastor, Kong Hee
Subsequently, I have only seen him on 2 separate occasions in 2008 and both times he was on stage sharing about his film-making experience, addressing thousands of us. Do I think that the church leadership had made a mistake by helping him promote his movies and getting him to talk to us? Definitely not, because our objective was and still is to help people, even imperfect ones.
That said, I believe that the church leadership was unaware of his extra-marital affairs previously. Had they known, would they still had given him a platform? If I can rightly discern my church leaders well…. I believe they would, after having counseled him and taught him what the bible says but would leave the ball in his court. We are unable to and we cannot and must not force our members to leave sin behind against their own free will anyway. Pastor Kong can preach his heart out to us every week but ultimately, it is still our choice as to the actions that we choose to take. If we choose to sin, then the consequences of it, we have to bear. I believe they wouldn’t give him no platform at all…I like to believe that my church leadership is not as narrow-minded as that... =) After all, we teach people to hate the sin but to love the sinner and to use our talents to benefit society.
However, I wished that Pastor Tan and his personal church friends had developed a deeper relationship with him such that his affairs would have been brought to light and dealt with BEFORE the media came to know of it. That could have saved him and the mistress from a lot of unwanted public scrutiny... Alas, I guess that was not possible with Jack’s tight schedule as a Director; filming must have stretched across many weekends or had taken place overseas or he could have simply kept a distance deliberately for fear of being discovered. As such, I believe Jack was not attending church services regularly in the last 3 years. Do correct me if I’m wrong.
As a new 3-year-old believer, I am not surprised that he still has skeletons in his closet. On a personal note, I have been attending CHC regularly every week for the last 7 years now and I could still remember those days when I was living in sin. Up till now, I still struggle with anger and a lack of patience, just to name a few. But thank heavens I am not a celebrity or I would have lived a life 10 times more horrible when my sins are being found out. The thing about sin is that it has it’s consequences whether you like it or not, a big time sinner like me would know, and Jack is paying his dues now. If you are reading this and you are in an extra-marital affair, please get out of it now before it’s too late, before you destroy yourself and your family with you...
What caught my attention isn’t the number of women that Jack was entangled with or how ugly, or how young they are. What surprised me was his wife’s response - according to the reports, she had apparently knew of the affair a year ago but chose to keep quiet and did not confront him about it! That to me, is… such a high level of Nirvana I don’t think I can ever attain!
I cannot fathom if my future husband commits adultery. I probably will go crazy and ignore him for the next 10 gazillion years. Or I might be so furious I would chop off his penis or something! Aaron Lee Kwang Siong, pls don’t ever do that to me in the future, I might not be able to forgive you! That said, if I ever commit adultery, you don’t have to forgive me either! Though I really don’t believe or think I will... But then again, even the great King Solomon in all his glory and wisdom fell prey. Oh God pls, NO! Help me, I don’t ever want to follow in my father’s footsteps or suffer the same plight that many wives had. :( I think 3 out of every 5 married man cheat on their wives, shit.
Yes, my father had a mistress when I was in Junior College. He came home one night and called her with our house phone. He was in our living room while I was studying in my room. He was talking to her in a very flirting manner in his usual loud voice and I could hear every single word he said. I was completely and utterly disgusted and disappointed… He didn’t even had the decency or the intelligence to speak softly or make the call elsewhere even though my brother and I were at home! What ensued was even more scary…
My mother had left work early to “catch” my father because she suspected that something was amiss. She was eavesdropping as she had been secretly standing outside our front door which my dad had left open. She charged in after they hanged up… My parents then screamed and fought with each other, and my mum even used the broomstick… I think it lasted for at least an hour. I was at a complete lost.
I felt a deep sense of betrayal by my father’s actions to say the least but I have since moved on from that incident… thanks to the support I received from those closest to me... You know who you are. :) I believe my father is no longer in contact with that woman now.
I can comprehend how Jack Neo’s children must feel now... Trust me when I say that adultery is a big deal… It’s not something that will be eradicated from the minds of his wife and children.
Yet,I believe there is still hope. His wife seems like a really strong and gracious woman who is able to forgive him of his misgivings. If Jack is truly sorry for his mistakes and will stop seeing any other women; and keep his eyes glued only to his wife of 20 over years for the rest of his life… I believe all is not lost, and that his children can also come to forgive their father if he is truly repentant.
I found what netizen,@dillyrious, proclaimed on Twitter yesterday somewhat disturbing. She said, “ It frustrates me when Jack Neo is referred as SG's most successful director which reflects how bad SG’s taste is.”
Hello, how many prominent directors are there in Singapore? If it’s not Jack Neo, not Royston Tan then who else can it be? If an artist commits crimes, does it mean that we must boycott his movies? Does it means his movies no longer have any value? We don’t give an artiste any room for errors, do we? Can we not separate an artiste from his art? Are we really that shallow, my fellow Singaporeans?
When Jack Neo bounces back from this saga and makes movies in the future which I believe he will… I will still continue to support them just like I have ever since I was a little girl. Not that I adore Jack Neo but simply because I’m a movie buff and find his films entertaining enough for local standards. Even though the actors in his company might leave, I believe there are many other actors out there who are just as competent, and he can start anew. The human spirit is tenacious. So don’t give up on yourself now Jack! Whatever that doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to downplay his mistakes here. Neither do I condone his actions. Yes, I understand the outrage that many must feel by his complete lack of morals, even though his movies reflect moral values, especially when my father himself had an extra-marital affair… However, what Jack and his family need now, is not another critical Singaporean OR another self-righteous Christian throwing stones or huge rocks at him; what they need now is some personal space and support from friends and church leaders as the fate of the Neo family is at stake and because he must be feeling like the most condemned and ashamed person in the entire world at this point in time and that is a horrible, horrible place to be in. I know it might be hard for you, oh holy ones, to imagine that but I felt a pinch of that in comparison when I had a saga with my relatives during the CNY period.
I think that Jack Neo should not wait till the dust is settled before speaking out, he should do it now and do it fast because the truth will set people free. Or else, the public will just keep speculating about the affairs and tian you jia chu or women that were linked to Jack Neo in the past would just keep spilling the beans. Am I right to think this way, Pastor Tan?
If I’m from City Harvest, why am I not keeping all these to myself you may ask? Surely there is nothing to be proud of by associating myself as a fellow church member of Jack Neo? Or, surely I should learn to protect the reputation of a fellow church member?
I chose to blog about this simply because I have many thoughts on the issue and believe that things happen for a reason - they need to be brought to light so that we can learn from them, and not just conveniently sweep dirty dust under the carpet. It really helps no one in the long run. I have swept too many things under the carpet for too many times so much so that the dust accumulates, seeps out of the carpet, chokes and eventually kills me. I hope City News Weekly will publish an article about it this weekend. This is what I call real news - no matter how ugly it may be, it is life in all it’s reality and there is really no point in hiding or keeping silent.
I’m also hoping to see that Singaporeans will prove me wrong. That we are not who I think we are - a bunch of highly educated, highly moralistic and highly critical people who are quick to judge another for their misgivings.
That said, Mistubishi just dropped Jack as an endorser of it’s air-cons… and I don’t like it. If our local reporters are as earnest as the paparazzi of the west, I bet more scandals would surface in the media and no less than 3 out of every 10 celebrities would be found to be living in some secret sin at some point in their life. I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again, human beings are fragile and imperfect, and anyone and everyone is capable of falling into sin, and that includes church pastors, monks, politicians, celebrities and myself. What is gonna happen then? Drop a celebrity every time his scandal breaks out? Leave a church every time the pastor commits a hideous crime? Life is too unstable if we were to base all our faith, destiny or even a brand upon the morality of a fellow human being. It would be like building your house on sand or straw and not on concrete.
If there is anything that I’ve learnt from this hullabaloo, it is that reputation is but fleeting. One minute you can be the world’s most applauded and loaded billionaire golfer or a highly appraised director and the next minute you can become the most disgraced person on planet earth. What’s the point of putting up a pretty front all the time when almost all of us have some skeletons or unglamorous things in our closet? Eventually, they will all surface one day one way or another. So with this blog, I attempt to “sabotage” myself first before someone else does. ;)
Btw, I’ve been following Jack Neo's Blog for more than a year now; his latest entry on the release of Being Human was posted just last Thursday. Jack, of course, does not talk about his extra-marital affairs on his blog but I wished he had did so openly or at least had shared his struggles in a subtle manner because if he had done that, I believe he wouldn’t be in such deep shit now... At least it didn’t have to take an
Man, it takes so much hard work to write an entry like that. To end off on a "lighter" note, check out this video produced by a 21-year-old “filmmaker”, it won a Nuffnang award. I thought it’s really entertaining, hahaha. With such talent around, there’s still hope for the entertainment scene in Singapore!
