| FOR Mr Rapan Maneh, home is a makeshift tent and he lives off the forest and the sea.  | | Mr Rapan and his wife do chores by their makeshift home (above) and sit by the tent they sleep in (below right). -- CHOO CHWEE HUA | The 57-year-old Singaporean is not a hermit by choice; he is a squatter at Sembawang Beach. And he has been told to pack up and go by the Singapore Land Authority. Officials were there again yesterday telling him he has to leave. But he denies ever hitting his wife. (See report at top of facing page.) For the last two months, Mr Rapan and his wife have been staying in the tent - and he blames his four grown-up children for his living arrangement. They, on the other hand, accuse him of being an abusive husband and father. They want nothing to do with him. (See report at bottom of facing page.) The unemployed man said he can't afford to buy or rent a home anymore. In September, he moved to the beach with his Indonesian wife, Madam Siti Aisah Bunasir, after giving up his rented flat in Marsiling. Mr Rapan married Madam Siti, 41, three years ago after his first wife died of lung cancer in 2001. All of Mr Rapan's children - three sons and a daughter - are by his late wife. They are all married. He said his children became estranged from him after his wife died. He said: 'They stopped calling or visiting. They would not pick up my call, and avoided me when I visit them.' LIVED ALONE
Mr Rapan and his family used to live in a four-room flat in Yishun before the children were married. After his first wife died, he lived alone. In 2002, he sold the flat and bought a three-room flat in the same estate. A year later, he met Madam Siti, a divorcee with three children, while on vacation in West Java in Indonesia. They got married there three months later. Her children are still living in Indonesia. Mr Rapan, who used to work odd jobs, said: 'I might not have married her if my children were still by my side. I wanted someone to take care of me.' Without his children's help, he said he had problems paying the $750 monthly instalments for his flat's mortgage. He used to earn about $800 a month at his last job as a part-time cleaner. However, his children claimed that he has savings after selling their family flat. Mr Rapan said that his and his late wife's medical bills had depleted his CPF savings. In the early 1990s, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which is now in remission, and he had gone for two operations over the years. Not wanting to be debt-ridden, Mr Rapan said he gave up his second Yishun flat in 2004 and rented a flat in Marsiling from a friend for $750 a month. But in September this year, he and Madam Siti moved out when he could not pay rent after skipping payments a few times. Mr Rapan had to quit his job as a cleaner in May this year because of an illness and a swollen leg. He claims he is unable to find other work. His wife can't work as she holds a social visit pass, which, she claimed, has to be renewed weekly. They had nowhere to go and no one to turn to, and with about $200 on them, the couple spent a few days at the void deck of Block 108 in Yishun before moving to Sembawang Beach.  | | -- CHOO CHWEE HUA | SWEET POTATO DIET At the beach, they get water from the public toilets at Sembawang Park, about a 30-minute walk away. They also bathe and do their laundry there. They survive on sweet potatoes from the forest nearby, fish and crabs they catch in the sea and food given to them by visitors to the beach. To cook food and boil water, they use a small barbecue pit. Sometimes, they sell the fish and crabs to visitors to make some money. A visitor, who wanted to be known only as Mr Zainudin, saw the couple when he was fishing at the beach and has been giving them food, blankets and lamps. The 41-year-old technical officer said he has informed a few welfare organisations about them, but no action has been taken. He said: 'I want them to at least have a shelter. The other night, it rained and the canvas was blown away. I found them sitting under the tree in the rain.' MEDICAL PROBLEMS Mr Rapan has 11 siblings, but only two elder sisters are alive and he does not want to trouble them. Apart from shelter, Mr Rapan said he needs money for his medical bills. He suffers from gastric pain and low blood pressure. When we saw him last Tuesday , the lower part of his left leg was bandaged and he walked with a slight limp. He goes to the Yishun polyclinic once a week, paying about $30 each time. Last Monday, Mr Rapan showed The New Paper his medical appointment cards and said beach-goers gave him money to see the doctor. He knows of the Maintenance of Parents Act, which allows neglected elderly persons to claim allowance from their children, but said he won't take his children to court. He is hoping his children will help him out. | | | | | | | SLA issues second warning YESTERDAY, Mr Rapan received his second notice from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) to remove his tent and belongings. He and his wife were seen to be encroaching on state land. The first time they received the notice on 17 Nov, they were told to remove their tent and belongings within seven days. An SLA spokesman said: 'When we were first alerted on 16 Nov of the presence of three tents by unknown persons at the site, we inspected it on 17 Nov. 'However, no one was present in the tents while we were there. Then, we issued a notice requiring the persons responsible for the tents to remove them and their personal belongings within seven days. When an SLA officer inspected the site yesterday, Mr Rapan and his wife had removed two of his tents. They were given another seven days to remove the remaining tent and their belongings. The SLA spokesman said: 'Our officer will contact the couple again, so that we can refer them to the relevant authorities or organisations if they need help.'
| | 
