With the hubub about the latest Ren Ci Hospital scandal (or should I say discrepancies?) I cannot help but feeling some sense of dramatic imbalance somehow.

Firstly, it just seems like the media is scandalising everything they set their hands on. After many countless previous experiences with NKF, Youth Challenge and blah blah, each story just seems to be growing bigger. There will be many problems as a result of this.

1) It is relatively obvious that by scandalising things, public trust in each welfare charity will decline exponentially. This will affect donations to each charity, and with the majority of charity relying on public donations, it is hard to see a charity surviving in such conditions.

2) However, I do not think that charities will be hardest hit. Guess what? It would be the patients who are relying on these charities and public donations to tide over the hard times. Without support and the necessary equipment, I see people sinking into new ebbs, with no one to help them, the situation would just be desperate.

I believe that the media could have handled things better. Do they not understand that even if you publicise such stories, do not sensationalise them. Keep them low key. This way, the public mistrust could be minimised, and a population that is already so disgruntled with public charites, will not be further disgruntled with the way charities are run in Singapore. Worse still, how will these patients trust all these charities anymore? These charities would need to help themselves first.

If only this situation was better handled, I see a better chance for these charities to regain public trust.