After Megan Khung case, WP’s Andre Low to raise questions in Parliament on how SG children can be better protected

SINGAPORE: In the wake of the recently released findings of a review panel on how the case of Megan Khung was handled, the Workers’ Party will be raising questions regarding child protection services in Parliament sessions this week, from Nov 4 (Tuesday) to 6 (Wednesday).

After the findings were published on Oct 23, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli apologised, acknowledging that agencies could have done more to protect the little girl.

The agencies involved in the review are the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) child protective service (CPS); the Singapore Police Force (SPF); Beyond Social Services; Healthy Start Child Development Centre; the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA); and the HEART@Fei Yue child protection specialist centre.

In a social media post, the WP asked how children can be better protected. With reference to the four-year-old Meghan’s death in 2020, the WP wrote, “This tragedy is not just a number. It is a critical alarm bell revealing multiple gaps in resource allocation, supervision, and inter-agency coordination that put other children at risk.”

With regard to the apology from Mr Masagos, WP Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Andre Low will be raising the following questions:

What steps will be taken to proactively review past and current child protection cases to identify other children potentially overlooked due to the systemic gaps identified?

What measures does the ministry plan to introduce to foster the “safe reporting culture“ recommended for social service professionals?

Did SPF’s internal reviews indicate that the lapses were isolated, or were the lapses indicative of broad systemic issues in supervision, training, or adherence to protocols?

Megan Khung and Mr Masagos’ apology

The four-year-old girl died in February 2020, after more than a year of abuse from her mother, Foo Li Ping, and her then-boyfriend, Brian Wong.

“As the lead for the national child protection system, I would like to say that we are sorry for the outcome. We cannot eradicate every risk of a child loss. But our resolve is absolute. We will do everything possible to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies,” said Mr Masagos on Oct 23.

“We will make sure that every link in our child protection ecosystem, every professional and agency, does its very best and more, to protect our vulnerable children,” he added.

On April 3, 2025, Foo received a 19-year jail sentence for the incidents before, after, and leading to the death of her child. Meanwhile, Wong, who had delivered the blow to Megan’s stomach that caused her death, was sentenced to 17 strokes of the cane and 30 years’ jail for his part, as well as for drug trafficking and consumption. /TISG

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