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ELECTRIC NEWS
IT IS LOVE, NOT SEX
April 23, 2007
THEIRS is an unlikely love fraught with heartache, despair and disappointment.
But it is, he insists, one that is destined to be sealed in happily-ever-after marriage - even if he has to leave Singapore and start his life all over again in Thailand.
Will love conquer adversity? Do they stand a chance?
The odds are overwhelmingly against them.
Singaporean Wai Keen Weng, 32, now lives in a rented room alone. Amue Athu, a Thai, is in a prison cell at Portsdown Centre.
Convicted of entering Singapore illegally, she is likely to be deported after serving a one-year jail sentence.
He works as a delivery man. Amue was a prostitute.
Today, the only way they can strengthen their bond is through love letters.
As Amue, 24, sits in her prison cell, she conveys her simple thoughts and yearnings in a series of love letters to the Singaporean waiting to marry her.
She is illiterate but manages to get a fellow inmate to help her pen her thoughts on how she misses her beau dearly.
In one of her letters, which she sent via the prison once a fortnight, she drew a simple sketch of two hearts interwined, to convey her message of love.
Ironically, it was their plan to legitimise their relationship on last Nov 13 that landed her in jail.
Amue had been banned from entering Singapore after being deported in 2004 for prostitution. When the authorities discovered she had returned, she was arrested and convicted in court.
But time and prison bars have not cooled their love.
In one of her letters, Amue writes: 'I very miss you so much darling. Are you always thinking of me. Like me here always thinking of you? Until cannot sleep well...Now is my birthday. I felt so lonely because I cannot spent my birthday celebrations together.
'I miss to eat cake. Please when go outside, you buy for me (sic).'
SIMPLE GIRL
In his reply, Mr Wai wrote: 'I will wait for you to come out and we can be together forever. I miss you too darling.' (See report on next page.)
It is her simple requests that both touches his heart and worsens his heartache.
He describes her as a simple village girl with no desire for material things.
Mr Wai, a divorcee whose 6-year-old son lives with his ex-wife, recalled the time he took her to try on a wedding gown at a bridal shop in Serangoon, after she arrived in Singapore on 27 Sep last year.
'I'd never seen a brighter smile on her face than that day she put on the gown,' he said. 'I knew she loved it, but she would not allow me to buy it for her.
'She just wanted to keep things simple and cheap.' Renting the wedding gown would have cost him about $1,000.
'I know that our wedding is very important to her because she was practising how to write her name correctly to prepare herself for the solemnisation ceremony.'
The wedding didn't happen.
When Amue's 14-day social visit pass expired, Mr Wai took her to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA). That was when her illegal status was exposed.
Mr Wai first met her at the red light district in Hatyai, on his 31st birthday in May last year.
He said he paid about 1,500 baht ($70) daily to go out on dates with her. He spent two weeks with her.
'Believe it or not, we did not have sex,' Mr Wai said.
'We spent our time in game arcades and bowling centres. We had fun and enjoyed each other's company. Even though she sells sex, I did not think of having sex with her. I guess this is what you call true love.'
Smittened by the beauty and simple nature of the demure northern Thai girl, Mr Wai couldn't stop thinking of her when he returned home.
A month later, he flew to Hatyai to meet her again.
It was then that they got intimate, he said.
Like before, he had to pay $70 for a day out with Amue.
He even tried to ask the brothel owner to let her leave with him.
'Instead, her mamasan slapped her and refused to let her go,' said Mr Wai, who returned then alone.
SENT MONEY
After he returned to Singapore, he sent between 5,000 and 8,000 baht ($230 and $375) every month.
He said Amue sent most of the money to her family in Chiang Rai and used the rest to buy new shirts and pants for him.
She is from the Akha tribe, a group of indigenous people in northern Thailand.
When she was 15, someone from the city gave her father 120,000 baht ($5,580) for her to work as a waitress in Hatyai.
But she ended up in a brothel, she told Mr Wai.
Mr Wai recalled how Amue was hopeful about starting her life afresh in Singapore when she finally got her passport from her mamasan last July.
'I don't know how she managed to persuade the mamasan to return her passport to her at no cost,' he said. 'She told me that she kept pestering the mamasan and in the end, their relationship soured. Maybe that's why the mamasan returned her passport to get rid of her.'
Mr Wai was moved. He decided he wanted to give her a better life in Singapore.
During the first two weeks that she was here, Mr Wai took her to Sentosa and for shopping at Orchard Road and Ikea.
'She did not allow me to buy anything for her even though she has few clothings. She came here with a small suitcase and it was half empty,' he said.
PERMISSION TO MARRY
After she landed in jail last year, Mr Wai wrote several letters to the prison authority, asking for permission to marry her in prison. But his requests were rejected.
Determined to clear her name, Mr Wai hired lawyer R S Bajwa to defend her.
Claiming that she was a victim of human trafficking, Mr Wai wanted to have her conviction quashed and stop her deportation.
But the High Court upheld the one-year sentence, but left it to the ICA to decide on whether to deport her.
But Mr Wai is not giving up. He is asking for help from non-governmental organisations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and the United World of Indigenous Peoples.
He also plans to appeal to President SR Nathan to pardon Amue.
He has used up his savings of $8,000 fighting for her and still owes his lawyer more than $10,000.
He had initially planned to use his savings for their wedding and for the deposit for a flat.
START LIFE AFRESH
Until her release, all Mr Wai has of Amue is a recent photograph of her which he keeps in his wallet, which also holds her letters to him.
He declined to allow The New Paper on Sunday to publish this photograph because he did not want her to be recognised back in Thailand.
He is even prepared to move to Thailand to start life afresh.
Mr Wai, who now lives alone in a rented room, said: 'No one can understand how much we love each other. Many people tell me that she is just a prostitute and I should not be wasting my time on her.
'But prostitutes are also human beings. They also have a heart. They also know how to love and they also need to be loved.'
