On one of my visits then, while I was clearing immigration, I was told to step into [...]]]>

Reading about the Singaporean who was allegedly hit and punched when he confronted an alleged corrupt immigration officer in Batam last week1 brought back memories of my visits to Medan, Indonesia in the the 1980′s during the Suharto era.

On one of my visits then, while I was clearing immigration, I was told to step into a room at the Immigration checkpoint at Polonia Airport. An immigration officer said I was visiting Indonesia too frequently – my passport showed I went there once every two months in the past six months. I pointed to my relatives who were standing outside the immigration area, waiting for me.

In less than ten minutes, I was let out of the room and my passport was returned to me, duly stamped. The official merely said I could go; he did not tell me more. But, I found out later from my uncle that he had to pay S$30 to the official to secure my release from the immigration room. That amount was about one-third of an immigration officer’s monthly salary in Indonesia then.

I was to learn more about this strange Indonesian custom during my frequent stays in Medan. It was an accepted part of life there, according to my uncle who had been living there for the past few decades. In my accompanied forays into town, I was to learn not to look at police officers while I was in the family car. That’s because, if you caught the chap’s eyes, and he signalled you to pull over, it meant he wanted money. If I recall correctly, there is a market rate, based on the type of vehicle you are in. For lorries, you had to shell out S$30, and for cars S$20. So, I tried very hard to keep my eyes out of harm’s way.

The Singaporean who wrote in to the Forum Page of The Straits Times1 had said, “a higher-ranking official then took me to a room and questioned my attire. He said that wearing sandals was ‘wrong’ and, because of it, he would not allow me into Batam”.
To me, that bore the hallmarks of the Polonia Airport incident I was a party to in the 1980′s, except, this Singaporean was accosted in Batam, Indonesia in March 2005. It might seem, in the past twenty-odd years, not much has changed at the immigration checkpoints in Indonesia.

In Singapore, we take our corrupt-free civil service for granted, so much so that we are affronted when confronted by corrupt officials in other countries. These are indeed eye-opening experiences for us Singaporeans. Such experiences make me glad my home is Singapore.

Forgive me for sounding cruel, but I would say — jolly well have more such experiences while we are overseas, either on short-work assignments or holiday trips. These experiences will help us appreciate things we take for granted in Singapore, as one such experience helped enlighten the Singaporean visitor to Batam, that “it is only now that I appreciate the orientation towards excellence in public service. A similar incident would not be allowed to happen in Singapore and, even if it did, the victim would be ensured a proper channel for redress”.

To be fair to the Indonesians, we need to hear their side of the story in the Batam incident. The Straits Times has reported2 that the Batam immigration officer alleged to have assaulted the Singaporean has been reassigned while investigations continue. The Indonesian island’s immigration chief was reported as having told The Straits Times he had apologised to the Singaporean’s parents who are based in Indonesia.

The immigration chief was quoted as saying, “All complaints will be investigated. We have nothing to hide.” Kudos to the Indonesians for taking prompt action.

1 The Straits Times 29 Mar 2005 (H6)
2 The Straits Times 5 Apr 2005 (H5)

It seems that [...]]]>

By October this year, more public places will be declared non-smoking zones. The ban will then cover bus shelters, bus interchanges and public toilets. That’s also the time when the ban on smoking in public swimming complexes, open air stadia and community clubs – currently enforced as a house rule – becomes official.

It seems that the number of public places in which a smoker can take a puff is slowly but surely dwindling in Singapore. As a non-smoker, I cannot appreciate the toll that the ban on smoking is taking on smokers. All I know is that there will be more public places where I do not have to force myself to breathe in air that is polluted by second-hand smoke. 
Already, although the smoking ban is in place in many public places, I suffer the threat of second-hand smoke as I traverse such areas. Some smokers openly flout the law by partaking in their habit, oblivious to the inconvenience they are causing to non-smokers like me.

In many toilets of shopping centres, people indulge in this habit, albeit in the locked cubicles. Of course, one could argue that since they have enclosed themselves in the cubicles, they are actually being considerate to others frequenting the toilet. But, I become frustrated every time I enter a cubicle and have to suffer the second-hand smoke for the minutes that I spend in that enclosed space. It’s worse than having someone smoke near me in the open area of a shopping centre.

I know of one shopping centre in Selegie Road where, on more than one occasion recently, I have seen groups of men smoking as they converse with one another in the wash area of the toilet. In the same shopping centre, on a different occasion, I even saw some youngsters openly flouting the smoking ban by smoking outside a lan-gaming shop in the air-conditioned basement shopping area, just next to a fast-food restaurant.

Should I have asserted my rights as a member of the public and approached them to remind them they were violating the law? No way! I would have risked a broken nose in the process. Just last month, in a small shopping centre in Hougang, I saw someone approaching a teenager who was puffing away in the air-conditioned lobby of the place, just outside a lan-gaming shop. When he told the young man not to smoke there, the boy retorted, “I like it, leh!”

Making it an offence to smoke in certain public places is one thing, but policing the ban effectively is quite another. As the number of non-smoking public places increases, the job of policing becomes more difficult. There are only so many public health inspectors around. They certainly cannot watch every single toilet or shopping centre on the island.
We can only count on our public health inspectors catching a few culprits every now and then and making an example of them. But, will this deter the bulk of the smokers? I think those who have not been caught before will continue to play a cat-and-mouse game with the public health inspectors.
The price of a stick of cigarette has gone up from S$0.20 in the mid 1980′s to S$0.50 today. This, together with other governmental efforts at stubbing the problem, has led to a reduction of the number of smokers here, from 18%1 of the population in 1992 to 14% presently. The decrease is particularly significant for males aged 18-69 whose proportion has decreased from 33% to 24%.

But, there will always be teenagers willing to pick up the habit to boost their image in the presence of friends. To these teenagers, being able to smoke is akin to reaching adulthood, even though many of them are just entering adolescence. Then, there are those who succumb to peer pressure to become smokers.

Add to these, the boys who have entered national service and need to puff away their problems. Also, add to these, the growing proportion of female smokers aged 18-24, which almost tripled from 2.8% to 8.2%1, in contrast to a reduction from 29% to 24% for males in the same age group.

So, it’s welcome news that the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources is considering imposing a smoking ban on youngsters’ popular hangouts such as pubs, bars, discos, nightclubs and KTV lounges.

Even as I am preparing this column in my bedroom at 6am, second-hand smoke is wafting in from the flat just below mine. You see, my neighbour likes to puff away at his bedroom window. Every morning I have to close the bedroom window as soon as I get a whiff of the smoke. What can I say? That the Ministry of Health should also extend the smoking ban to cover HDB flats as well?

There are some areas where we should practise the ‘live and let live’ principle.

1 Smoking ban to cover more public places from 1 Oct 2005

For the past few years, Indian and Chinese nationals were a common sight in Hougang, but now, it also appears [...]]]>

Where I live, in Hougang, I have been seeing more foreigners nowadays, sometimes during my routine walks to the neighbourhood shopping centre and the MRT station, and often while I am on the bus within Hougang.

For the past few years, Indian and Chinese nationals were a common sight in Hougang, but now, it also appears there are Caucasians and Africans in the town.  

If this is representative of a trend happening in HDB towns, it points to Singapore becoming truly more cosmopolitan as people of other nationalities integrate into the heartlands of our city state. 
Should Singaporeans have reason to complain about the perceived demographic change taking place? I see no basis for any complaints.

Let’s face it. We were never a homogeneous population. Our parents and grandparents came from China, India, Malaysia and other countries. They settled down as total strangers in a new land. But, they quickly became friends with people of different races out of a common need for security and mutual help. In time, communities grew out of this motley group of settlers. 

I was reminded of this ease in which older Singaporeans of different races blended with each other recently when I was on the bus back to Hougang.

I was standing on the lower level of a double-decker bus, taking notice of the passing people and vehicles on the road when my ears picked up a conversation between two elderly people. Both were using Malay as a lingua franca, for one of them — a woman — was Indian, and the other — a man — was Chinese. 

I realised that they were total strangers when I paid attention to the content of their conversation – the woman was asking the man where he lived and what he was doing for a living. Here were two perfect strangers, who happened to be seated next to each other on the bus, exchanging their views on a myriad of topics. Yet, they were engaged in an animated conversation that could only have taken place between two persons who had known each other for ages.

Are our younger Singaporeans — those in their forties and younger — as forthcoming as our older Singaporeans when it comes to mixing around with people of other races? Personally, I have yet to see positive signs. 

I have to admit that I am guilty of not being friendly. If you were to put me in the same situation the two elderly passengers were in, I daresay I would have kept mum and remained unapproachable. 

So, what’s wrong with people like me — the younger generation of Singaporeans? Have we not inherited the ‘blending’ skills that our parents and grandparents tried so hard to acquire in order to make living in a new land palatable? 

I remember when I was in primary school in the early 70′s, my neighbours were Indians. I remember I used to visit them every day. On their festive occasions, I would join them and their relatives, seated on the floor in a circle and eating their delicacies. I even followed them when they were doing the Thaipusam walk all the way up to Mount Faber. 

Yet, today, I have difficulty bringing myself to talk to strangers, whether they be people of other races or my own race, in public areas. I hope my behaviour is not representative of a trend taking place in Singapore. If it is, it begs the question: Why are younger Singaporeans withdrawing into their own cocoons nowadays?

I cannot answer for others. For myself, I would say that I have become reticent, unwilling to take the first step. Unlike in the past, there are no disincentives for not taking the first step. Our parents and grandparents would have found Singapore inhospitable if they had not mixed around. Today’s Singapore presents too much of a good life for us Singaporeans. Inhospitable conditions do not exist so we need not take the first step in becoming neighbourly. We are in danger of becoming strangers in our own land.

Alas, what our parents and grandparents tried so hard to build may be lost to future generations through our complacency. But, all’s not lost. Though I don’t mix well with strangers, I don’t look down on them. I treat them as equals. It’s just that I rather not come out of my cocoon. But, rest assured that in times of trouble, I will not fail to help other neighbours, just as I did last month when I alerted my Malay neighbours living downstairs of a fire in their kitchen – the whole family was sleeping in their air-conditioned bedroom though the flat was blanketed in smoke. 

So how do we ensure that our younger Singaporeans do not become withdrawn socially? By actively imbuing in them, when they are in school, racial integration skills and appreciation for other cultures. By actively encouraging neighbourliness among residents in housing estates. Already these are things being done, but needing to be improved upon.

But then, there’s only so much the Government can do. We Singaporeans need to break out of our self-induced reticence too. With Caucasians, Africans and other nationalities assimilating into our community of four races; and with mixed marriages become more common, we don’t have a choice. Singaporeans have to get used to a new Singapore – cosmopolitan and vibrant.

Though there was school on Friday, attendance [...]]]>

Did you enjoy your Chinese New Year holidays? Well, the Chinese here have been merry-making the past week. With the first day of Chinese New Year falling on a Wednesday, it meant that the rest of the week till Sunday was a super-long weekend for much of Singapore’s population.

Though there was school on Friday, attendance was less than half in many classes, whether they be in the primary, secondary or junior college levels.

It is said that the Chinese have a propensity for gambling. Chinese New Year is that festive season when everyone, whether gambler or non-gambler, partakes in a tradition that transcends generations. Children and adults put moral rulebooks at the back of their minds as they gamely sit in a circle on the floor of the living room, indulging in games of Blackjack or some other games. 

That’s when the gambling streak in everyone shows up, albeit for a fortnight till Chap Goh Meh*. That’s also when parents tolerate gambling among their young. In fact, many parents, grandparents, and their children join the gambling sessions that go on in almost every Chinese household across the island, and the world.

With the current TOTO jackpot standing at S$3,888,000, long queues have begun forming at the local betting outlets in town. The annual TOTO Hongbao draw on Thursday, 17 Feb 2005, with its jackpot prize of S$10 million, has resulted in queues at betting outlets snaking out of the outlets into the surrounding areas.
What am I saying? That we are a nation of gamblers? No. Not that, certainly. It’s just that we, Chinese, are in a celebratory spirit during the Chinese New Year. It’s that time of the year when tradition takes hold and we all put aside our anti-gambling principles and indulge in merry-making to our hearts’ content.

Once the fifteen days of the Chinese New Year are over, we will return to our old reserved, closeted selves. So, in the meantime, we are all just having fun! 

Chap Goh Meh falls on 23 Feb 2005. That means another weekend of gaming sessions for many, many Singaporeans. Most Chinese will not want to be left out of the fun, for it will mean waiting till the next Chinese New Year before they can let go of their self-imposed moral restraints.

In a rat-race society such as ours, being able to set ourselves free of our inhibitions, albeit for two weeks, does wonders for our stressed-out minds. Don’t you agree?

* 15th day of Chinese New Year

Yes! Giant, Shop-N-Save and G’Value are offering a free tray of fresh eggs today and tomorrow for the first 100* customers each day spending S$30 and above in a single receipt.

A line in red reads, “Hurry, [...]]]>

The advertisement in The Straits Times today reads:
“Today & Tomorrow only, 7 & 8 Feb – Free Fresh Eggs 30′s”

Yes! Giant, Shop-N-Save and G’Value are offering a free tray of fresh eggs today and tomorrow for the first 100* customers each day spending S$30 and above in a single receipt.

A line in red reads, “Hurry, When It’s Gone! It’s Gone.”

Giving away free eggs is a good way of rewarding the customer for his patronage. The tray of eggs featured in the advertisement jolted my memory. I found myself staring blankly at it, for in an instant, my mind had been transported back to the Singapore of the early 70′s. 

I remember I was in secondary school then, and living in a three-room flat in Toa Payoh. Back then, with every new Chinese New Year, each household, whether in an HDB flat or a private residence, would receive free eggs. Some received a tray, others were given more trays of eggs. It was the pig farmers’ way of thanking the households for contributing swill to the pigs the farmers were rearing. 

You see, each day, my mother would pour the leftover food into a small bin which she would then leave outside the flat, in the common corridor, for the pig farmers to collect. It was the same thing happening with every household in our block, and in other blocks in the neighbourhood.

At the end of each year, usually just before Chinese New Year, the farmers would pile tray upon tray of eggs in the lift landings and then go from flat to flat to distribute the trays of eggs to the flat occupants. Some received two trays. My family was given one. The number of trays of eggs given depended on the amount of swill contributed during the previous year. We received less because ours was a small family and had not much swill for the farmer to collect each day.

There are no farmers going around HDB flats nowadays to distribute free fresh eggs to HDB dwellers. This is because the pig farming industry was phased out of Singapore in the 70′s. The only thing left are my memories of the whole affair. In fact, I had plain forgotten about the whole thing, till, that is, I saw the advertisement in today’s newspaper.

I am sharing this with you so you have an idea of what people did at home way back in the 70′s. In case you are wondering how it is possible for pig farmers then to have such big farms to consume the amount of swill dished out by so many HDB estates such as Yishun, Bedok, Tampines and Ang Mo Kio, let me tell you this – such estates were not even built then. There were only two HDB towns then -Queenstown first, and Toa Payoh later. If memory serves me right, the next HDB town built was Bedok in the late 70′s, followed by Ang Mo Kio.

But, it’s all history now. Memories of the old ways come back when the mind is jolted. It is times like this that I yearn for the old days, of a time when I was much younger. Can we turn back the clock? Obviously no. But, we can have a good time reminiscing the past. And this advertisement did something that money cannot buy – it brought me back to the past, albeit in my mind.

I look at the advertisement again and read aloud the line in red:
“Hurry, When It’s Gone! It’s Gone.”

It’s true. When that time has gone, it has gone, never to come back, except in our reflections.

So what is the message I have in mind for this new Year of the Rooster?

It is this:
Live each new day to the fullest, for it will never return. What you do today decides whether it is good memories or bad nightmares you store in your mind’s bank for you to conjure up in your twilight years.

Have a good day!

*500 for Giant

On [...]]]>

Yes! The boys at Morning Express are back on their morning radio programme on Class95FM today, after a one-week absence. Their last- broadcast stunt last week caused minor ripples on the island. I heard that one loyal fan even set up a Web site to garner support to keep the popular programme from going off-air.

On Getforme, we had to re-title our FrontPage edition for 14 Jan 2005 from Morning Express Ends Successful Run on Radio Today to Morning Express Ending Successful Run on Radio Today? with a question mark at the end of the title. Read what I said in the article.

This morning, we had the boys apologising for the stunt which they pulled off last week. The Flying Dutchman said that he and his wife had a one-week sponsored holiday in Japan, courtesy of Club Med. The other two spent the week in R&R on the island. Loyal fans such as this Editor had to get used to waking up each morning last week to female DJs Vernetta Lopez and Jean Danker making conversation over the air on the Morning Express programme.

Did the last-broadcast stunt sit favourably with listeners to the Morning Express? Well, I can’t speak for others, but I wasn’t too happy though I had suspected the last-broadcast thing to be a prank. And my suspicions grew stronger when Rod Monteiro said on air on the supposedly last day of broadcast last Friday that “all will be revealed at 9.52am”.

I couldn’t stay for the end of the programme as I had to keep an appointment. But, I found out that it was all a stunt when I read The Straits Times the next morning – there was an article with the header DJs Say It’s Just A Joke.

Yes! it was just a joke. Did it backfire on the trio? I am happy that the boys are back. I can hear news that I would otherwise have not been privy to. For instance, this morning, I heard Glenn Ong sharing with listeners an incident he witnessed at the National Stadium during the recent Tiger Cup Finals. He mentioned that the wife of one of the Singapore players had trouble coming in because her 3-year-old kid did not have a ticket for the match.

“It’s a new dawn; it’s a new day; it’s a new life for me, and I am feeling good,” croons Michael Bublé over the airwaves on the Morning Express this morning. Yes! I am sure feeling good this morning. And I must confess – the Morning Express puts zest into my mornings. I can feel it now, while listening to the songs they dish out. I am glad they are back, aren’t you? Forgive and forget! It’s great to be alive!