Misusing the name of President

Wildlife Reserves S'pore apologises to President

Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) has apologised to President Tony Tan for using his comments when announcing the decision to cancel its award-winning Halloween event.

Chief executive Isabella Loh said in a statement on Saturday, "I would like re-emphasise that (the) President had nothing to do with Wildlife Reserves Singapore decision to cancel Halloween Horrors.

"I would like to apologise for bringing in his comments from the Mid Autumn Festival 'Moon Night' celebrations into this issue," she was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.

Reiterating that the decision was due to feedback and "not due to any religious beliefs", Loh added, "The decision to review and reset the calendar of events was discussed and decided even before Moon Night."
 
While previous media reports quoted sources saying she called the activity "devil worship" and online forums speculated that she cancelled the event because she was a Christian, Loh clarified to The Sunday Times she is a Buddhist.

She said when she took over from Fanny Lai in July, she already felt Hollaween Horrers did not fit in and there were not enough family activities.

After visiting the haunted house, which was part of the spook fest, she felt "uncomfortable with the idea because it was too scary".

While explaining to some members of the team why the event did not fit into a family theme, she said in an e-mail that it's "a lot of money spent on an infrastructure (Haunted House) of devil worship".

"That's the context of my remarks," she said, adding that she also alerted the team to controversies about the 31 October festival, where some U.S. schools even ban Halloween events.

Loh also issued a clarification on WRS' Facebook page on Saturday, repeating her apology to the Singapore Polytechnic students involved in the planning of the event.

Meanwhile Principal Private Secretary to the President Tan Eng Beng issued a statementon the president's Facebook page on Saturday evening.

"The president's comments were made in the context of a visit to the Zoo's Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations," the statement said.

"Wildlife Reserves Singapore is an independent company. Its operations and programming decisions rest with its management and board without external intervention."

In last week's announcement, Loh said WRS agreed with comments made by Tan that "WRS' parks should have more family-bonding and wholesome activities".

Tan made the comments last Sunday at the Singapore Zoo while celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Halloween Horrors, an annual Night Safari event since 2006, was supposed to be held on weekends between 30 September and 30 October.

Bring back Halloween Horrors: Not fair to cancel it when many fans have bought tix

You call this fun?

STOMPer Isaac is calling for the reinstatement of the Halloween Horrors event which has suddenly been cancelled after being held in the Night Safari for the last five years.

Said the STOMPer:

"Going by recent reports in the media, the new CEO of WRS is not a very popular person right now.

"She suddenly cancelled an event that had ran for the last five years at the Night Safari, upsetting many people in the process, particularly people who has purchased tickets for the event and people linked with the event in one form and another, some going back months.

"The apparent reason given by her was: 'The Halloween Horrors event is cancelled because of the negative feedback received from corporations, the public and the media about the event, especially over it relevance in relation to conservation.'

"If this is the case, what has the WRS board been doing for the past five years apparently endorsing this event under the previous CEO?

"Ms Loh was reported to have also to link President Tony Tan's comment made at the Singapore Zoo's Mid Autumn Festival 'Moon Night' celebrations to the decision to close Halloween Horrors but had to back down with an apology.

"In my view, Ms Loh has the right to change the direction of a corporation that is not moving in the 'right' direction but to do it a manner has caused some much consternation certainly leaves a bad taste in most people mouths.

"I would think the right thing to do under the present circumstances is for WRS to reverse the decision and re-instate the event and make an apology for Ms Loh 'mistake'.

"WRS could make a graceful exit by not holding the event next year without the negative publicity!"

Night Safari management cancels Halloween Horrors event last minute

Halloween Horrors, a highly successful event that has been running for six years, was to be held at the Night Safari on September 30th, but the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) management decided to to yank it 2 weeks before launch.

The event is run by students from Singapore Polytechnic's Diploma in Events and Project Management as their final year project.

Seven months of hard work, almost $1 million dollars spent, 1000 tickets sold, all down the tubes.

Apparently, the new CEO, Isabella Loh, said that there was negative feedback from "corporations, friends of the zoo, the public and the media about the event, especially over the relevance in relation to conservation".

CEO Isabella Loh also said that it would focus on more multi-cultural family bonding events, and that the Halloween event was canceled because it clashed with a Deepavali event in October.

What was particularly disturbing was a report from the SP team that someone in the senior management said, in response to why the event was canceled, 'We should not worship the devil. We can be creative and turn the bad for good."