Dare to Challenge, written by Mr Leong Chan Teik, chronicles the ongoing crusade for the rights of retail investors by Securities Investors Association (Singapore), better known as SIAS.
The organisation’s fight for justice began in the late 1990s, when Mr David Gerald founded SIAS to champion the rights of Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) investors in Singapore. To quote Mr Leong in his book:
“With billions of dollars at stake, relations between two coun- tries hanging in the balance, and more than 170,000 anxious investors in the CLOB saga growing angrier by the day, Mr David Gerald decided to step into the middle of the tempest to see if he could help sort things out. Suddenly, he became a
lightning rod, a figure at which hapless victims of the situation could lash out. But the former magistrate looked into the abyss and then helped bridge the gulf between the Malaysian and Singapore sides.”
Mr Gerald was a lightning rod in a separate sense as well. Metaphorically speaking, he was the proverbial bolt from the blue that gave the Malaysian authorities an unexpected shock – but delivered without ill intentions. Dare to Challenge recounts the details of how Mr Gerald galvanised ordinary investors in their quest for recourse during the CLOB saga.
