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The three Chow brothers, now embroiled in a bitter lawsuit, played together as children in this house. They talk to CRYSTAL CHAN about their past

For about half a century, this huge house on sprawling grounds in Tanglin was the home of a happy family.

The children - three boys and a girl - played together and helped one another with their studies.

Eventually, they all moved away.

But it was still home and they stayed there whenever they had areunion.

Until their parents died.

Ater that, everything changed.

The four siblings all ended up in court, fighting cases related to their inheritance.

There were at least six suits involving all ofthem.

Today, the house is silent and empty. They don’t go there atall.

The three brothers, who all live in Hong Kong, stay in hotels when they are in town. Each of them is not on speaking terms with the others.

They can’t even agree to get rid of the house, for all the millions it isworth.

It can be sold only when there is a settlement of the disputes about their parents’ estate.

Yet, the place is full of memories of a close-knit and boisterous past.

Said the youngest son, Dr Chow Kwok Ching, 62: ‘Our house was so big that you could play any game you wanted. We played basketball, table-tennis and badminton.’

Said the eldest, Dr Chow Kwok Chi, 69: ‘We never fought when we were children. In fact, we were close in our childhood. We were like any happy family.’

Kwok Ching said: ‘We also helped each other in our studies.’

The three brothers continued to be on good terms until they began to disagree about their inheritance.

Kwok Ching was even the best man at Kwok Chi’s wedding.

The New Paper met Kwok Ching and second brother Kwok Chuen, 65, over lunch on separate occasions, and memories of their life in the bungalow at 35 Ridout Road came pouring out.

Kwok Chi also spoke to us on the phone from Hong Kong.

The old family house is on primeland.

Their father, property tycoon Chow Cho Poon, bought it soon after he moved to Singapore from Hong Kong, with his wife Grace and their four children, in the ’50s.

He began investing in property here too.

Today, the Chows own more than 20 pieces of property in Singapore and Australia worth more than $100 million.

One of their cases went to trial at the HighCourt last week and has been adjourned to a later date.

The three brothers studied at Anglo-Chinese School while their sister studied in a convent school.

The family was rich, but Kwok Ching insisted they were not spoiltbrats.

‘We didn’t often have holidays because our parents worked very hard to keep the business going,’ he said.

They did get pocket money but ‘our parents wouldn’t buy us whatever we wanted’.

Kwok Ching added: ‘My father kept saying we had to study hard to have a good future. If you’re spoilt, you won’t want to work hard.’

Kwok Chi recalled: ‘The house was so big each of us had our own room.’

He declined to say how many rooms or servants the family had.

‘Our parents were strict but whenever we did something wrong, they would just have a good talk with us and tell us where we went wrong.

‘They didn’t believe in caning or hitting us,’ Kwok Chi said.

‘They wouldn’t pamper us too. Even when we studied for our exams, they wouldn’t do things like brewing chicken soup for us. We were very much left on our own.’

As the children grew up and went their separate ways, they drifted apart.

Their sister Betty married heart surgeon Joseph Sheares and became a daughter-in-law of former president Benjamin Sheares.

The brothers went to study abroad.

Kwok Chi and Kwok Ching studied medicine in the UK and became eyesurgeons.

Said Kwok Chuen, who studied architecture in the US: ‘I had been interested in buildings since childhood, and my father respected my independence.’

He joined a US firm after graduating and moved to Hong Kong to work.

Kwok Chi and Kwok Ching married Hong Kong women and moved there to practise medicine.

The brothers continued seeing each other for meals.

DRIFTED APART

But slowly, they began seeing less of one another.

Kwok Chuen said: ‘I had to travel frequently to Europe and America, so meeting up was hard.’

Kwok Ching said: ‘The only time I could get away from work was during Chinese New Year.’

The brothers continued visiting Singapore during Chinese New Year and their parents’ birthdays. Those were the only times that the whole family got together.

In the ’70s, the brothers became directors in the family’s three companies, but Kwok Chi and Kwok Chuen gave up their directorships as they were busy with their careers.

In August 1997, their father died.

Mrs Chow, Kwok Ching and Kwok Chi each got two-sevenths of his estate.

Kwok Chuen got the remaining share and their sister was given $1,000.

And that was when things really began to fall apart.

Mrs Chow’s final will gave each of her three sons 30 per cent of her estate and the rest to her daughter.

She had tried to tried to reconcile them before her death in 2002.

In August 1998, Mrs Chow again made all her three sons directors in the family’s companies.

But they would still meet only at board meetings, though all three were living in Hong Kong.

In 2004, their sister accused them of cheating her of her inheritance and sued them.

Last year, Justice VK Rajah ordered the brothers to settle their inheritance, but their disputes remain.

Their parents’ estate has not been divided because it has debts that are disputed.

Two weeks ago, the High Court heard Kwok Chi’s application to wind up the companies.

He wants to do this so his parents’ assets can be divided and the brothers can ‘go their separate ways’.

Last week, Kwok Ching sued his older brothers, claiming they denied him his rights as a shareholder in his parents’ companies. He wants them to buy over his stake, which is worth more than $5 million.

Kwok Chuen said: ‘I don’t have any hard feelings. I just feel sad.’

Kwok Ching wants to move on.

He said: ‘I really hope the court cases will end soon. There’s already no more brotherly love between us, and I don’t want any more acrimony.’

Meanwhile, the house has remained unoccupied since their mother died.

Two maids and a gardener look after the place.

Kwok Chi said: ‘I really don’t know what’s going to happen to the house now until the court case is over.’

When a photo of the house was featured in The New Paper last week, Kwok Ching asked this reporter if we had gone inside.

When I said we had photographed only the exterior of the house, Kwok Ching said: ‘Oh, I thought you went inside. The photo looks very close-up. The house hasn’t changed much since my mother’s death.’
 
Source : New Paper - 31 Jul 2007