Sutat Chew: A peek into the conscience of a constant wanderer

Chew having chai with soldiers along Pakistan’s Karakoram Highway. They offered him an AK47 and live targets as a “tourist tax”.

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Later, soldiers south of the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan offered him two AK47 magazines for US$10 (S$13) to shoot into the hills. Acquiescing, Chew was then invited to choose, as a “target”, either an old man for US$50 or a young boy for US$100. Should the bullet hit home, the family would receive the money in full. Otherwise, the amount would be split between the target and the soldiers.

“Some people call it extortion; others, paying for an experience. Back then, it was almost like a tourist tax,” says Chew. “Obviously, I didn’t pay for this privilege. But you start to think: what is a life worth?”

Jarring life inequities

Phyllicia Wang

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In subsequent travels, Chew continued to witness similarly jarring examples of life’s inequities. On one trip to India’s Golden Triangle, he encountered children who asked tourists for five rupees, less than 10 Singapore cents, to watch them jump off a three-storey fort into a small pool below — risking life and limb in the dive.

“It makes you ponder what people are willing to risk because they just do not have the opportunity to make other choices,” Chew reflects. These “Road to Damascus” incidents, as he terms them, gave him food for thought throughout his 25-year straight and narrow career in finance, which included stints at DBS, OCBC Securities and Standard Chartered Bank.

“My birth in Singapore has provided me with many opportunities. I would have had an entirely different opportunity set if I had been born 50km north in Johor or 50km south in Bintan,” he notes.

Because of this, he chooses to focus his charitable efforts on home ground. “Singapore may appear prosperous, but that does not mean that there aren’t kids who lack education and opportunities in life. There are also people who live in very challenging circumstances — perhaps their parents are uneducated or they are first-generation immigrants.

“We are a small country with limited land resources, so it is critically important for us to uplift those who are less well off to maintain what we are accustomed to, which is a stable, ‘boring’, safe Singapore.”

Trader with a conscience

Phyllicia Wang

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Chew’s foray into philanthropy began in the late 2000s, when he was making his mark at SGX. There, he noticed an evolution in the corporate world’s profit-driven mindset, with CSR (corporate social responsibility) becoming a buzzword. SGX had its Bull Charge, a corporate charity run, but he felt there was an element of “tokenism” in the fundraising efforts.

“The funds we raised were not sustainable and stable because the initiative was not programme-driven — it just gave money to the year’s favourite causes. Contributors to the platform were also expecting more,” he says.

So, in 2010, when the executive committee sought a volunteer among its ranks to become the CSR chairman and spearhead the transformation of the Bull Charge, Chew stepped up. “When I put my hand up, the team laughed,” he says. “They teased me: ‘Are you a trader with a conscience?’”

Chew, who had been a boy scout and a member of the Interact Club, a Rotary-sponsored service club in school, didn’t back down. “I felt it was important to think about the community in Singapore. I may not be experienced but I could rethink the model and play a different role,” he says.

By the time he retired from SGX in 2021, he had grown Bull Charge’s annual fundraising capabilities from $1 million to about $4 million. More essentially, he reshaped the model by supporting three to four social service agencies instead of 10 to 20 and for a three-year period.

He also partnered with Community Chest, a public philanthropy organisation that supports more than 100 social service agencies in Singapore, to define success metrics and outcomes, and ensure accountability.

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Futureproofing social service

Phyllicia Wang

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Chew joined the Community Chest committee in 2019 and last year succeeded chairman Phillip Tan. “My attempts to liberate myself from the corporate world somehow ended up with me becoming a committee chair,” the 51-year-old chuckles. “I am not a super philanthropist but I have been lucky in my career. So, before I have too many white hairs, I’d like to navigate the challenges that the committee and social service sector face with the skillset and network I have to future-proof it and make it more sustainable.”

Over the years in social service, Chew observed how volunteerism gave individuals a deeper sense of connection to the community. “The act of participating is very rewarding. It creates a culture of inclusion and of people willing to help address social ills.”

Then, in the next breath, he launches into another tale of an adventure to a remote village in Iran, where the schoolmaster dusted off his “fancy” English dictionary and the villagers welcomed him, a stranger, with a feast and a bottle of their prized pre-revolution whiskey.

“A common trait of humanity is generosity. The act of volunteering and giving, which creates a compassionate society, is actually quite important,” Chew notes.

Community Chest raised about $61 million in its 2021 financial year. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, it is rallying corporate and community partners along with ordinary individuals to give regularly and sustainably through Change for Charity. The initiative allows partners to incorporate a donation mechanism into their business that helps customers contribute to the organisation, such as rounding up their bills during payment.

According to Chew, this empowers ordinary citizens to embrace philanthropy. “Singaporeans are generally quite generous, almost to the point of being scammed all the time. If we make it easier for them to donate to a trusted organisation through this platform, we create a more inclusive society.
I stayed in a 1,000-star hotel where you can see the Milky Way when you look up and have the biggest ensuite bathroom because you have a bucket out in the open.

No Starbucks, thank you

Part of the mega elephant herd of Zakouma National Park In Chad.

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Meanwhile, Chew is already planning his next trip. He says he has wanderlust but prefers to explore places without a Starbucks or McDonald’s to experience a world different from his own.

He’s been to Africa three times in the past six months: Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro, Egypt for its ancient history, and most recently Chad, where he saw elephant conservation success in Zakouma National Park. Extensive poaching had reduced the elephant population here to 400 and the animals had banded together to form a mega herd out of stress. After 13 years of conservation efforts, the herd has grown to more than 700 and has begun to splinter into smaller groups again in a sign of normalisation.

For accommodation, Chew stayed in a “1,000-star hotel where you can see the Milky Way when you look up and have the biggest ensuite bathroom because you have a bucket out in the open”. He muses: “Maybe I like wide open spaces because I was born on a small island. I feel liberated in deserts and savannahs.”

Despite his wanderings, the little red dot remains close to his heart. “When I return, I always marvel at how lucky we are. In a generation and a half, Singapore has created so many advantages and wealth out of almost nothing. It comes down to good economics and governance. If we want to preserve this, we must make sure that every Singaporean matters.”