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)

In addition to the numerous messages requesting me to come to the aid of Mrs Obutu or some similar name, there are [...]]]>

My e-mail mailbox has been piling up with more than the usual number of messages recently. I have had to sift through quite a number of them to get at the ‘real’ e-mails.

In addition to the numerous messages requesting me to come to the aid of Mrs Obutu or some similar name, there are those exhorting me to buy Viagra. Last week, I spotted quite a few messages coming from a Yahoo Group known as Sg_Review. I counted at least seven new ones from this group just for last Friday alone.

As far as I could remember, I had not ever signed up with Sg_Review’s mailing list, but apparently, my e-mail address had somehow entered this group’s mailing list. So, for the past week, I had been bombarded with eye-opening articles circulated among the group’s members.

Here are the headers of some of their messages: Juggling with knives in Singapore’s ties with the US, Amnesty criticises Singapore, CPF holders coerced into buying health insurance from GLC. And the list goes on. I think you will agree with me that such messages are essentially hate mails – you know, the sort people send to those who have fallen out of love with them.

I visited their Web site and found two things:
1. The group seems to be based in Australia
2. The Web site says they have 1651 members.

Now, back to my earlier proclamation of their messages as “eye opening”. Yes, after reading through the articles they circulated, I found myself opening my eyes to the realisation that some chaps who say they are Singaporeans have surfaced from abroad to hit us Singaporeans.

You may ask why I say that these people are hitting us Singaporeans when their articles target the present government in power. The answer’s simple. We Singaporeans have been enjoying prosperity for the past 40 years or longer. We have been leading a good life. And Singapore, I daresay, is one of the safest places in the world to live in. I can go out anytime of the day or night and not feel threatened. We have worked hard so that we get to enjoy the income that has given us much purchasing power, much to the envy of our neighbours.

The economy is now not in too good a shape because of the recent Iraq war and the SARS outbreak. We Singaporeans are in a vulnerable position presently. We need to recover from these shocks, but before we can do so, some so-called fellow Singaporeans have ganged up, purportedly from overseas, to hit us – by disseminating hate-the-government messages to sow discord among us Singaporeans. 

The weaker among us may wobble under their influence. The stronger may be able to reason out their hidden agenda and take no notice of such messages. But, what of foreigners around the world to whom some of these messages have been sent. Will they think that we Singaporeans are indeed living in a tyrannised society?

Every morning, I get up and go about my routine. I may meet some civil servants who are not so polite to me and I write in to complain to those in charge. When I make a U-turn at places where there are no U-turn signs, I get a summons from a traffic cop but I am not complaining. I took a chance and I got caught – plain and simple. And I get to go where I want to, whenever I want to. There’s nobody restricting my movements – except my wife, of course, who is the only dictator that I know of in Singapore.

Now, isn’t that what we people ask out of life? Isn’t that freedom? I have been living here since I was born 45 years ago and I have never once thought I was not a free man. Not even when I grudgingly enlisted into compulsory national service and suffered terribly because of my weak physique. The thought that I wasn’t a free man never once crossed my mind. I knew I had to train to protect my Singapore and even today, I am proud of having done my time in national service and reservist duties. I am proud I am leaving a safe Singapore for my descendants.

Therefore, I am disturbed when I read the messages being circulated within and without Sg_Review because these messages make us Singaporeans to be subservient and ignorant of our rights. The people behind Sg_Review would have us and foreigners believe that we are writhing in pain here in Singapore and grasping for every chance we get to escape from this hell hole.

You and I know pretty well that life is good here and perhaps better than many other places in the world. We may be riding through some rough spots now but hey, we are hardworking chaps. When it comes to the grind, we know we will survive any ordeals thrown at us, because we know of no other home but this Singapore. We have a stake in its future.

So, why are there people out there purporting to be Singaporeans and yet trying to break our resolve to leave behind the legacy of a better tomorrow for our children and their children? For the life of me, I just can’t fathom these people’s thinking. If they have no place here in Singapore, then, they should forget Singapore and carry on with their lives in countries such as Australia – live and let live, I say. 

But, they shouldn’t jump at every chance to poke us Singaporeans in the back, especially in these trying times. If they really can’t forget Singapore, I would suggest they revisit their past and reminisce the good times they have had here. And they should remember the rest of us Singaporeans in Singapore are now still enjoying the good times here – bad times or not. After all, it’s a place we call HOME!

He added that reincarnation as a Singaporean was something very good – [...]]]>

Last evening, my wife’s uncle – in response to my wife’s remarks about not knowing where her deceased father was or what he was now doing in the afterlife – said that most likely her father was now reincarnated as someone here in Singapore.

He added that reincarnation as a Singaporean was something very good – her father would have a “hor mia” (Hokkien for good life). I am inclined to agree with him.

This uncle of hers is now in his sixties. He has been through the good and the bad times in the last sixty-plus years here. He has also seen Singapore in good times as well as in bad. So he is in a better position than most people younger than him to pronounce judgment on the type of life available here in Singapore.

I am pretty sure most of you know we are living a comfortable life here. You also know that we are living in, perhaps, the safest country in South-east Asia.

If you have doubts, just look around you first. We can walk around any time of the day and night and still feel safe. We don’t get bombs going off every now and then, though from time to time we have had some crazy people who think they can have some fun by calling up the authorities and saying some bomb’s going off here or there.

There’s no rebel soldiers or insurgents preying on us or kidnapping our people for ransom or other reasons. We also don’t get lynch mobs openly chopping off people’s heads in the streets.

In fact, I think when we watch the news on television and catch flitting sequences of such gruesome acts, deep down in our heart we heave a sigh of relief that such terrible things do not happen in our homeland.

But, when you next get a chance to see such horrendous acts on television, keep this in mind – such despicable acts which we never believe will happen in Singapore are carried out by narrow-minded people who are prepared to create a blood bath to ensure they attain their goals. And as long as we belong in this human race, we have to accept the possibility that such people will always exist.
 
But, we have a choice. We don’t need to succumb to their threats because we have the power to stop these terrorists from ever setting up shop in Singapore. What power is it that we have? The power to continue electing the same team that has led us through the early years of independence to progress and prosperity in the new millennium.

As long as we have the right team in government, we will not need to fear terrorists, for this team will nib the terrorists in the bud. I am not rallying support for the present government’s re-election in the coming years. I am just telling you not to ignore the peace and prosperity in Singapore that you and I have been taking for granted up to now.
It is no pure coincidence that we have been enjoying peace and prosperity for as long as we have been having the present government in power.

Remember – the violent scenes that you have seen being aired on television news programmes in the past few nights could very well have happened here in Singapore. But, they didn’t. Let’s make sure they never!