Silent Heroes Awards Night 2017

Some of you who known me for quite some time would have known that I was a Silent Hero Award winner in 2015, as my friend had nominated me for the award  for my contributions to the IRAS Volunteer E-Filing Exercise from 2005 to 2015 & my grassroots work .

The organization who gave out the award, Hillview Civilians Sports Club had been looking to form an alumni for the past winners to guide the new winners as an inspiration. I thought this was a brilliant gesture by them as most of the past silent heroes will know what one another are doing and contribute or share ideas to make each hero’s idea better.

Little did I expect to be asked to try to gather the group at the last minute for the Awards dinner and prepare a speech about what I have done in the 2 years after I have won the award. It was fortunate that I managed to gather 6 out of the 11 heroes in the WhatsApp Group Chat and the speech went well, despite the short time I was given to prepare for it and it is definitely my 1st time on stage speaking to large crowd. I would like to thank the fellow heroes for their encouragement and support and my friend, Xiuling for helping me to edit the grammar errors.

Below is the full text of the speech that I have made.

Good evening to our Guest of Honour, Mr Chan Chun Sing, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

My name is Paul, The Silent Hero Award Winner for 2015, Champions of Challenges
Category Winner. Two years on, I still feel deeply humbled and honoured to have received the award for assisting taxpayers, comprising mainly of taxi drivers and hawkers at the Serangoon Community Club since I was 24. The volunteer program was put to a stop by IRAS in 2016, but I continued the programme, with the help of various community groups and several friends whom I have known during the 11 years when I volunteered for the programme. In the 2 years, we have assisted about 500 people to e-file their taxes. In fact, we are looking to continue the programme next year, if we are able to secure a low-cost location for this. I am deeply grateful to these people and organisations from the bottom of my heart.

The reasons that are fueling this passion of mine, is because, I want to help these people who are disadvantaged by their lack of knowledge in IT and command of the English language, to skip the long queues at IRAS during the tax filing period, thus taking away their precious time to earn their income as they have families to feed. The second reason is till today, I am still receiving help in one way or another from people from all walks of life. For example, bus captains who would wait for me when they see me walking towards the bus, knowing that my condition, cerebral palsy will slow me down. Being able to volunteer my services to the people who need it, I feel is the best way to pay it forward for all the help I have received. The final reason is although I work in the tax industry, I have been dealing with corporate taxation matters for companies. In order not to lose the knowledge that I have learnt in school as well as the personal touch of interacting with people, I decided that this is a good and innovative way. Besides this, I am also a Pioneer Generation Ambassador, where together with another ambassador, we will visit the seniors to explain the various government schemes to them. Moreover, I am also serving as a grassroots leader.

These volunteer works that I am involved in have certainly enriched my life experiences, and helped me to look at life in a more positive manner. Now I always tell myself, what else I can contribute to make our city a better place. The award has certainly opened up my horizons to make our city a better place to live in, a city filled with people with a heart of gold. I also hope to inspire people who has similar medical condition as me to look at life positively and live it to the fullest and to the best of our ability. Life is always filled with trials and tribulations.

Thank you.

 Hopefully, the alumni will receive the support of fellow heroes to go ahead. However, if it does not go ahead, I would not be upset as I believe that most people would want to do their good deeds quietly and do not wish to be in the limelight.