During Mediaworks days, I remember Douglas being the Mr Nice Guy. Someone with no air and pretty much down to earth. He could talk on equal terms to young people like us and occasionally get disturbed by these juniors whom he has merely acquainted in like one or two productions.
I mean I am not that close to him, but across board, among the weirdo people in the MW, he probably one of the few decent fellow around.
RIP dude. My prayers goes out for you and your family.
P.S: I still have this photo among my collection.
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August 13, 2009
He drowned after being swept out to sea.
Two friends tried to save him but he swallowed too much water
By Ho Lian-yi
MERELY waist-deep in water and flanked by two other swimmers, danger seemed distant to Mr Douglas Lee and his two friends.
But an innocent post-meal splash on Bali's popular Seminyak Beach turned into a desperate struggle when the three were suddenly swept out to sea by a freak wave.
Mr Lee, 39, a Singaporean businessman so loved sun, sea and sand that he visited Bali with his wife every year.
On Sunday, he died there.
His two friends survived.
His body was flown back to Singapore yesterday at about 1pm.
Said Mr Michel Oosterhof, 42, a Dutch executive director: 'At first, I could see other people. Then, all of a sudden, we were alone.'
The 'strong waves' had swept them under and out an estimated 200 metres beyond the breaking waves into open sea.
They had only been in the water for about 10 minutes when it happened, and it took another five minutes before they realised what was happening, said Mr Oosterhof.
It was around 3.45pm, after a late lunch at a Seminyak beach restaurant, when the three friends decided to go for a swim at the beach in front of The Legian hotel.
The third man, Mr Arnaud Ferrand, 35, a French director of a sports complex, said that as soon as they surfaced, they could see that Mr Lee was struggling.
Both men swam to their friend.
They decided Mr Oosterhof would swim towards shore to get a lifeguard's attention, while Mr Ferrand would stay with Mr Lee.
'Twice, I went down into the water and pushed him up, because I could touch the ground with my feet,' said Mr Ferrand.
But when Mr Lee kept going under, Mr Ferrand tried to calm him down.
'I said, look, the lifeguard is coming. Everything will be okay. Try to swim, and relax,' he said.
Mr Lee was an 'average swimmer', according to his friends. But his head kept falling below the water and he drank a lot of water, said Mr Ferrand.
'He was not screaming. He was just saying, 'help, help',' said Mr Ferrand.
Meanwhile, Mr Oosterhof managed to catch the attention of a lifeguard, who swam out with a board measuring about 1m by 40cm.
He reached Mr Lee and helped him to shore. He would be the first to reach the beach, at 4.30pm.
'(Mr Lee) was still okay when the lifeguard arrived,' said Mr Ferrand.
Two more lifeguards followed with full-sized surfboards to help Mr Lee's two friends.
Struggling against the current, it took them nearly 20 minutes to make it back to the beach.
As he swam back, Mr Ferrand could see a man receiving CPR from a lifeguard.
'I couldn't believe it was (Mr Lee). I thought it was somebody else...'
Mr Lee and his friends were part of a group of 10 people who were in Bali for holiday.
One of them, marketing manager Kuek Wei Min, 29, was about to join his three friends in the water when he was called back by a lifeguard.
Strong undertow
'The water was only calf-level, and I could already feel the drag,' he said.
Five minutes later, he saw someone being pulled to shore. It was his friend, Mr Lee.
'I ran back to the ladies, about 150m away, shouting, 'Doug, Doug, Doug!' I couldn't find the words to express drowning,' he said.
Mr Lee's wife, Ms Vanessa Kwek, 28, a finance manager, was distraught when she found him on the beach. A lifeguard and a French doctor who happened to be there was giving Mr Lee CPR.
It was around 4.45pm when the other two men reached shore. But they faced further difficulties when they tried to get an ambulance from the only nearby clinic.
'There was only one doctor and he was attending to a patient,' said Mr Oosterhof.
As a doctor had to be on the ambulance, they couldn't send an ambulance immediately. The hotel manager at the Legian decided they could wait no longer, and drove Mr Lee to the clinic in a car.
There, they were transferred to an ambulance and taken to Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar. Mr Oosterhof said it was 5.40pm by then.
Mr Lee was declared dead on arrival.
Bali Police spokesman Budi Sugianyar said: 'He was swimming in a dangerous area where there were red flags up warning of strong currents and no swimming was allowed.'
He said Mr Lee was also overcome by strong waves.
Mr Ferrand said they did see a red flag when they first walked to the beach. That's why they walked about 250m, towards the The Legian, where there were about 30 people in the water.
That's where they saw red and yellow flags, which they believe meant it was an area protected by lifeguards.
'If it was really dangerous, the lifeguard would have called people to come back,' he said.
They also wondered why there was no proper safety equipment for the lifeguards, or a watch tower, or other facilities routinely found in beaches in the Netherlands and France.
Cinematographer David Lee, 47, one of Mr Lee's three brothers, said: 'If the lifeguards had jet skis or a speedboat, he would still be alive.'
Seminyak Beach is one the more popular beaches of Bali.
But there have been many deaths in the waters off the beach because of strong riptides and unpredictable currents.
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Tributes pour in from friends and celebs
MR DOUGLAS Lee had it all.
He had started a new business dealing in solar energy solutions. He had a beautiful wife of five years. Less than two years ago, she gave birth to their son, Ashton.
The couple was planning for another child.
Said his wife, Madam Vanessa Kwek: 'He was a great parent - better than me anyway. He was a great father.'
He loved music, and had been practising on a DJ set at home. For his 40th birthday next February he had wanted to debut his newly-acquired skills at a party.
Mr Lee was the youngest of four brothers. His mother is 76.
His brother, cinematographer David Lee, 47, said she would always cook something special for him when he came home.
He waited till Monday before breaking the bad news to their mother.
On Douglas' Facebook page, there were numerous messages of condolences from friends, some of them local celebrities.
He'd worked previously at SPH MediaWorks as a floor manager (before heading to MediaCorp).
Shaun Chen, 30, MediaCorp actor, said both he and his wife, actress Michelle Chia, were devastated by his death.
He said: 'Douglas and I were great brothers, we went through thick and thin together. During my darkest days, when I was retrenched by MediaWorks, he was there for me all the way. We'd hang out regularly, chill out over drinks.
'Michelle was close to him as well. Both of us attended his wedding two, three years ago and it was a really grand, fun affair.'
Evelyn Tan, 35, a former MediaCorp and Mediaworks actress, said he was 'everyone's favourite guy'.
She said: 'Douglas was one person who livened up any party because he was game to try anything.
'I remember years back, before my marriage to Darren (Lim, the actor), my friends threw a hen party for me and he was the only guy who had to 'sacrifice himself', you know, do something silly to entertain us gals.'
Actor Adrian Pang, 44, said: 'He's really one cool dude, with his semi-shaded glasses, tinted hair and stylish way of dressing; yet, it's not show-offy at all. The Douglas I know had always been very down-to-earth.'
