By Abhijit Nag
In a way Google has become more like The Straits Times.
When did you last see a Google bomb embarrassing a top leader? Remember when you typed “miserable failure” in the search box, George Bush showed up on the results page? That was back in 2007. There have been other Google bombs since but nothing that made such a buzz.
I recall an Australian was handed over to the police at Changi airport after trouble on a Tiger Airways flight in January but was subsequently let off. I first read about the incident not on Google News but on another website. It was reported by The Straits Times after making headlines in Australia.
Google seems to be cleaning up its act, guarding not only against Google bombs but also sanitizing the content. Google’s Blogger, for example, does not show the same content in every country. If India objects to a blog, that won’t be shown there but elsewhere.
Google, which celebrated its 15th birthday on Friday, is no longer what it was. I was underwhelmed when I first saw it. The site looked so bare – just a search box on a white web page.
My Yahoo was my favourite website then, a personal home page with magically updated feeds from my favourite news sources – Yahoo News, BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times. I could read them all for free.
My Yahoo seemed to offer so much more than Google — a white page with just a search box. How mistaken I was. Now we can hardly do without Google.
Google has not only grown and diversified, offering almost every online tool from email to web analytics, but changed fundamentally.
No advertisements were allowed on Google when it was launched. Larry Page and Sergey Brin wrote a research paper while at Stanford where they said that “some advertisers attempt to gain people’s attention by taking measures meant to mislead automated search engines”.
In the year 2000, however, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords. The ads were text-based and so less obtrusive than the banner ads on Yahoo and other sites.
“The ultimate search engine,” said Page, “would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.”
If you want to know about Taj Mahal the American singer, you don’t want search results showing Taj Mahal the famous marble mausoleum in Agra.
Google introduced personalized search in 2005. “By personalizing your results based on your search history, we hope to deliver you the most useful, relevant content for your search,” said Google.
Personalized search can be useful and when I use Google News, instead of the standard Singapore edition, I prefer a personalized version which gives me more content.
The problem is Google has extended personalization beyond search and the Google News site.
Eli Pariser says in his book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You:
“Most of us assume that when we google a term, we all see the same results… But since December 2009, this is no longer true. Now you get the result that Google’s algorithm suggests is best for you in particular – and someone else may see something entirely different. In other words, there is no standard Google anymore.”
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Google’s algorithms are secret. That makes it less transparent than, say, The Straits Times. With The Straits Times, you know what you are likely to get. But you can’t predict what you will get when you google. The algorithms are secret to prevent manipulation of the search results, but it means Google works in mysterious ways.
“Is Google making us stupid?” asked the writer Nicholas Carr in a famous article. I don’t think so, but the general knowledge quizzes I used to love when there was no World Wide Web seem less relevant now because you don’t have to remember all that information any more — you can get it on the Net.
I wonder, however, about what the internet is doing to language. Books enriched language, wrote Nicholas Carr in his book, The Shallows, while on the internet you skip and jump. People don’t read but scan online, it is said.
Bloggers are told to write simply for easy reading. Simplicity is fine, but there should also be sensuous writers like John Updike and Lawrence Durrell whose words you have to linger over to appreciate their beauty. Unfortunately, that kind of slow, leisurely reading is not what we do on the internet, where we want information fast and relevant.
“Google updates search engine to answer questions more like a human”, reported The Huffington Post as Google celebrated its 15thbirthday. The new algorithm, called Hummingbird, will try to match the meanings of queries with content on the internet instead of matching keywords as Google originally did, reported Reuters and The New York Times. Google said it made the changes because users are asking increasingly long and complex questions and searching Google more often on mobile phones with voice search.
So Google is responding to us. No wonder the information it provides is getting more personalized, less comprehensive. Are you interested in what I had for lunch?
Google and The Straits Times
Oh, My Papa . . .
By P Francis
UNLIKE the universally celebrated Christmas Day on 25 December, Father’s Day is not on the same day globally. Singapore and Malaysia marked it in June, while Australia celebrated it this year on Sunday, 1 September. Father’s Day, intentionally or not, is also not celebrated or marketed as lavishly as Mother’s Day with all the flowers, perfumes, chocolates and beauty treatment vouchers (it is okay when daughters give them) showered on the ‘better’ half.
In Singapore and Malaysia, dads are remembered on the third Sunday in June together with a host of other nations, including the Philippines, India, Pakistan and Vietnam.
The ‘first’ Father’s Day on the calendar goes to Russia on 23 Feb (defender of the fatherland). Next is 19 March, observed by Italy, Belgium and others; while South Korea is alone on 8 May (parents’ day). At the bottom of the calendar are the Bulgarians, who mark it on 26 Dec – believe it or not!
Father’s Day came into being to complement Mother’s Day – both started in the US last century. Since then they have gathered momentum in the marketplace, although dad’s gift list is much shorter with after shave and handyman’s tools filling it.
The word father has many synonyms, including papa, daddy or dad, pops, abba (in Aramaic, Jesus’ language or Hebrew), bapa/bapak/bapang/ayah or pa (Malay/Indonesia/Gujarati).
To Christians, when they address a priest as father they are actually showing respect to God the Father since the priest is God’s representative on earth. Thus, the Pope is referred to as the Holy Father. Then there is Father Christmas aka Santa Claus aka St Nicholas. Add to that the Our Father prayer common to most Christian denominations.
Some Singaporeans will even refer to Lee Kuan Yew as the ‘Father’ of modern Singapore and they may have reason to. Just like Malaysia’s Tunku Abdul Rahman other founding fathers tagged with the ‘Father’ status include Sun Yat-Sen of the Republic of China, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi of India, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta of Indonesia, David Ben-Gurion of Israel, Genghis Khan of Mongolia and Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, to name a few.
So does Father’s Day mean anything today? Filial piety and honouring parents aside, dads are human and have feelings, too. Those with daughters, I dare say, feel it more than those with sons because fathers tend to ‘protect’ their girls for as long as possible until they are married. Call it old fashioned if you will, but fathers are the head of the house especially when things go wrong.
A Singaporean friend of mine living in Australia had the unwanted experience of a daughter leaving home suddenly, claiming she was not with her boyfriend. The frantic parents did not know where she was, whom she was with or if she had been forced to go. When the wife went berserk, the husband had to stay calm because “a man just cannot sit down and cry”. He said: “I felt outraged, perhaps a little humiliated that my daughter had left my care. The police could not help since she was above 18. Eventually, she made contact after many long weeks and, over the years, links were re-established with our family. I would not wish this on anyone.”
He added: “Unlike other parents, who have their children visit them once a week or fortnight, I usually have to visit her at Christmas – just like the mountain going to Mohammad!”
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This brings me to the radio – decades ago when it dominated the airwaves – blasting out the hit song Oh, My Papa sung by Eddie Fisher. The original song, according to Wikipedia, started in Germany; trumpeter Eddie Calvert took it to No.1 of the UK charts and the Top Ten in the US in 1954; the popular song has endured over the decades and been performed and/or recorded and used in TV shows ever since by a host of artistes including Connie Francis, The Everly Brothers, Billy Vaughn and even Björk. The lyrics hold their own even to this day and may trigger a few tears:
Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so wonderful
Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so good
No one could be, so gentle and so lovable
Oh, my pa-pa, he always understood.
Gone are the days when he could take me on his knee
And with a smile he’d change my tears to laughter
Oh, my pa-pa, so funny, so adorable
Always the clown so funny in his way
Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so wonderful
Deep in my heart I miss him so today.
Those words may have struck a chord with Singapore-born Catherine Joseph, who now lives and works in Melbourne. She said: “We did not do anything for Father’s Day in Petaling Jaya where I spent most of my school days. It was hardly heard of then. Unfortunately by the time we were ready for it my dad passed away, that was 30 years ago.
“As for my son, Jacob, Father’s Day was introduced in school. They made gifts for dad in school and could purchase small items at school for dad. During his primary school days, a handmade card would be presented to dad and come secondary school days it was cards purchased by mum each year. Whilst at home, we attend Mass on a Sunday and afterwards adjourn for a special meal in a restaurant. It was always a restaurant or menu Jacob preferred though! It’s 20 over years and we do the same and so it was earlier this month on Sunday, 1 September.”
In this day and age when it is all about ‘I want this or that’, it was like a breath of fresh air to receive a candid comment from a father, who was content to take a back seat and let his own ageing dad bask in the glory of Father’s Day.
Raymund Francis (no relation of mine) of Singapore told me: “My parents, who are getting on in their years, just love having the grandchildren over. So, on Father’s Day, rather than my family and I doing something for me, I rather we go to my parents’ place and just spending the day with them. My kids, being older now, are seldom at home, so to have them all together is a treat, even for me. And that’s the best gift I could ask for, having my kids with me and, yet, being with Dad.
“I have not yet had a Father’s Day celebration just for me in my 20 over years as a father. As long as my dad is around, he takes precedence over me. It is not, and never should be about me or us individually. Our parents deserve our respect and time, especially in their golden years. So, whatever celebration I could have, I/we should put it on hold. That’s how I celebrate Father’s Day….for now.”
His father, mother, wife and children must be very proud of Raymund and, knowing him, that would be enough reward for the younger dad.
From another perspective, the day would be the most painful if there is no father figure around as in the case of a single mother – whatever the reason. It is difficult to fathom, something like the first Christmas after losing a spouse.
So what did I do last Father’s Day? My younger daughter and her boyfriend took my wife and I out to lunch – and she drove me there and paid the bill at the buffet. To me, it is not the cost or the gift, but the thought that counts. Do not get me wrong, I do believe that actions speak louder than words and today children do have to make the effort to be seen and heard – unlike 50 years ago!
P. Francis is an English tutor in Melbourne, who has more than 20 years’ journalism experience with newspapers, books and magazines in Singapore and Australia.
How many foreigners here to eat your lunch?
By Abhijit Nag
Remember Ask the Prime Minister? The Channel NewsAsia show where Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: “If you look at other countries — China, Vietnam, even in India — they’re not talking about work-life balance, they are hungry, anxious, about to steal your lunch.”
Now guess how many foreigners — permanent residents aside — are here, holding jobs that Singaporeans might like? About 325,500.
How do you get that figure? Look up the Population in Brief 2013 report released by the National Population and Talent Division yesterday.
Singapore’s total population as of June this year was 5.4 million, including 1.55 million non-residents (read foreigners, excluding permanent residents). According to the report, 11 per cent of the non-residents were employment pass holders – foreign professionals — and 10 per cent here on S Passes working in retail, manufacturing, healthcare and other sectors. Combined, the two categories make up 21 per cent of the 1.55 million. How much does that come to?
Another 13 per cent were foreign domestic workers while 46 per cent were work permit holders, “mostly in occupations which face difficulties in hiring Singaporeans (e.g. construction workers),” said the report.
Another 5 per cent international students while 15 per cent were dependants of citizens, PRs and Work Pass holders.
So 325,500 – that’s the ballpark figure if you want to put a number on the foreign competition. For jobs, that is. The competition is flagging. There has been about a 50 per cent drop in the number of foreigners recruited outside the construction sector, said the report.
Meanwhile, total employment stood at 3.4 million as of June this year, according to the labour market report for the second quarter. There were 23,800 job vacancies for professionals, managers, executives and technicians and 28,300 for other workers.
Foreigners don’t compete for jobs only. The whole lot — 1.55 million — also need housing and transport and locals and foreigners alike will agree commuting has become a pain, especially on the overcrowded MRT.
So it’s a relief that population growth is slowing down.
Even the foreign population is growing more slowly though not as sluggishly as the local population.
The total population increased by only 1.6 per cent, the lowest in nine years. It has not been this low since 2004, when the population grew by only 1.3 per cent.
The number of Singapore citizens went up by only 0.9 per cent, same as last year, to 3.31 million. “The permanent resident population remained stable at 0.53 million,” said the report.
The non-resident population grew by 3.7 per cent, down from 7.2 per cent last year, for a simple reason. Foreigners are not landing jobs as fast as before.
“Growth in foreign employment in the non-construction sectors slowed to about half compared to the year before,” said the report, “while the bulk of foreign employment growth was from the construction sector to support key infrastructure projects such as housing and transport.”
The government plans to continue to have 15,000 to 25,000 new citizens and 30,000 permanent residents each year to replenish the shrinking citizen population.
It’s clear, however, that the days of massive incursions of foreigners are over. The influx peaked in 2008 when the total population grew by 5.5 per cent and the non-resident population by an astounding 19 per cent. That was on the back of an economic boom when the GDP grew by 9 per cent in 2007 before plummeting to 1.7 per cent in 2008 and a recession in 2009. Although the economy bounced back, skyrocketing 14.8 per cent in 2010, the May 2011 election returned the People’s Action Party to power with the slimmest majority since independence, and nothing has been the same ever since.
If you look back, there was near-double-digit growth in the non-resident population in 1990 (9 per cent) and 2000 (9.3 per cent), but that was another time, another place.
Singapore soccer: Very strange, this
By Tan Bah Bah
Singapore soccer is in very serious need of an immediate boost of self-confidence. The rather strange declarations of the current FAS President are not exactly what thousands of soccer fans expect to hear from the country’s top soccer boss.
Replying to press questions about the poor performances of Singapore teams in recent months, Zainudin Nordin said: “Losing is part and parcel of football but I’m afraid people will look too much into the results.”
Let’s look at the results. The national team lost to Jordan and Oman in the Asian Cup qualifiers. It lost its friendlies to China, Myanmar and Hong Kong. Five losses were one loss too many. But there might be excuses, the overarching one being that many of these teams, especially from the Middle East, have traditionally been a cut above those in South-east Asia.
Now, let’s check out the other results. The National Under-19s at the AFF Youth Championship beat the Philippines, drew with Timor Leste and lost to Laos and Cambodia. All these aforesaid countries were not powerhouses of regional soccer by any stretch.
So, what’s happening, FAS?
Soccer aficionados are more than aware of the limitations and possibilities of soccer in Singapore. They are neither asking for miracles nor chasing mirages (remember the bizarre Reach World Cup 2010 Finals plan?).
They know that with globalisation and the spread of information and expertise in sports science and techniques, there are really no secrets anymore that we can tap on to give us an enduring advantage. Inherently, no country has any special style which cannot be copied by others. Occasionally, as Cameroon did in 1990 when it beat Argentina, the world suddenly took notice of a new kind of cavalier soccer. After that, the better teams analysed the Cameroon team and got familiar with it.
Talent has always counted but more so today when the competition to lure and buy good players is intense. Singapore’s talent pool is small, not helped by the reluctance of young male Chinese Singaporeans to play the game as a career.
We understand. For those still not clear about the direction of Singapore soccer, I reproduce verbatim the exchanges during a Parliamentary session in January this year:
“Ang Wei Neng, MP, Jurong GRC:†
To ask the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) whether the Ministry has plans to ride on the success of Singapore’s performance in the 2012 Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup to further improve the standard of Singapore football; and (b) what are the plans to retain good national football players to play for Singapore clubs when they are sought after by regional football clubs with more lucrative terms.†
Acting Minister Lawrence Wong (MCYS) :†
The recent Suzuki Cup triumph can be attributed to the developmental system that the FAS has put in place since 2000, to identify and develop young talents with increased funding support from the Singapore Sports Council and sponsors, such as the Tote Board and Singapore Pools. The SSC is currently working with the FAS to conduct a holistic review of football development in Singapore to further improve the standard of Singapore football.†
When the standard of Singapore players improves, it is only natural that they will be sought by foreign football clubs. The best way to retain our players is to make sure they have good development and growth opportunities in Singapore, such as playing in the LionsXII team in the Malaysian Super League, and for various S-League teams. Notwithstanding this, we recognise that professional players do sometimes relish the exposure they can gain from an overseas stint. If they play better as a result, they can still contribute to the national team when they are called up for international matches. Hence, we need to strike a balance between trying to keep all our players in Singapore and giving them the opportunity to play for regional and international football clubs.”
Yes, it’s tough. Yes, we have a plan. Yes, the new coach, Bernd Stange took over only in May. But, unreasonable as it may sound, soccer fans are interested in results – and results alone. Stange has been on the job for four months already. One draw against a minnow South-east Asian team and two defeats by two other regional minnows are unacceptable, by any standards.
Gerard Houllier had this to say at Liverpool when asked about his lack of success in the British Premier League:
“You can’t say my team aren’t winners. They’ve proved that by finishing fourth, third and second in the last three years.”
You know what happened to him? He was sacked.
Tan Bah Bah is a retired journalist. He was a senior leader writer/columnist with The Straits Times and managing editor of a local magazine company.
What LKY should have done
By P.N. BALJI
A frail Lee Kuan Yew marked his 90th birthday on September 16 in a country that is transitioning from his iron-fisted form of democracy to a new style of politics that will emerge in the next couple of elections.
The man who once famously declared he would come out of his grave if he sees Singapore going the wrong way is witnessing changes taking place very different from what he would have ever imagined for the city-state.
The biggest game changer has been the Internet, which has put the government of his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, on the backfoot, not knowing how to react to flourishing public debate.
The national mood is sour, with a host of issues like the affordability of housing, high cost of living, a transport crunch and the influx of foreign workers all coming together to create a perfect political storm.
All of these issues are getting free play on the Internet, more often than not drowning out the government’s voice.
Singaporean author Catherine Lim, a fierce critic of the government, blames Lee for the fallout.
She said in her blog, soon after the Senior Lee stepped down from the cabinet as Minister Mentor more than two years ago: “The supreme irony of Lee Kuan Yew’s political demise was that the paradigm, which resulted in his most spectacular achievements as a leader taking his tiny resource-scarce country into the ranks of the world’s most successful economies, was the very one that caused his downfall.
“The related irony of course was that a man of admirable sharpness of mind, keenness of foresight and strength of purpose had failed to understand, until it was too late, the irrelevance of this paradigm to a new generation of better-educated, more exposed and sophisticated Singaporeans.”
Political demise. Downfall. Irrelevance. Very strong words that hardly existed in Singapore’s political vocabulary when describing a man who towered over nearly every facet of Singapore life for the last 54 years.
In those years, Singapore’s first prime minister turned a small, initially impoverished oasis in a turbulent region into a prosperous metropolis that is envied by many in both the developing and developed worlds.
He fought his domestic political adversaries with brute force. He jailed them, sued them and tore them to bits in public debates.
Lee was also loyal to his loyalists. He flew to Jakarta to see a dying Suharto just to demonstrate to the world that the former leader’s achievements should not be forgotten, despite criticism of his autocratic rule and the corruption that flourished under it. Under Suharto, Singapore-Indonesia ties blossomed.
The Singapore leader was also a pragmatist, prepared to hit the refresh button when he felt Singapore had to make policy about-turns. He was uncomfortable, for example, with having casinos in Singapore, but relented when he saw their economic benefits.
He was even prepared to re-look at the law that made homosexual sex illegal.
Populism, however, never existed for him. He was clear from day one of his leadership that pandering to the Chinese-language activists would only bring trouble for Singapore in a region dominated by Muslims and non-ethnic Chinese. Also, he realised early on that making English the city-state’s dominant language would help Singapore more easily plug into the international community and move away from third world poverty to first world status.
Swimming against the tide was his favourite hobby. When the Philippines gave notice to the Americans that they had to leave the Subic Naval Base, Lee was the only one in the region prepared to accommodate the U.S. Navy in Singapore. Thus was born the Changi Naval Base.
His obsession with leadership renewal set him apart from many leaders. An elaborate and rigorous scheme was devised to get the best and the brightest into politics and in the cabinet. He voluntarily stepped aside so that a younger man, Goh Chok Tong, could take over as prime minister in 1990. But he remained in the cabinet as Senior Minister and later as Minister Mentor.
In hindsight, perhaps he should have stepped out of the cabinet altogether. That decision to stay on was one of two of his biggest failings. The other was not to understand the importance of giving full voice to the citizens of Singapore.
More than two years after an election result that saw the mood of the nation swing away from the ruling party in 2011, Lee announced in a terse statement his departure from government.
When he was offered the honorary title of Emeritus Minister Mentor, a bitter Lee said: “I don’t need it.”
For a man who inherited a marshy island and turned it into a modern-day miracle of superstructures, that shock departure on May 14, 2011 must have been difficult and disappointing.
Leaders, both and good, often don’t know when to exit the scene. Some stay on because of the good life, some because they want to amass more wealth and some because of their obsession to ensure that their countries don’t fritter away their gains.
One man who bucked the trend was South African statesman Nelson Mandela. After being released from a long incarceration and becoming the country’s first black president, he made up his mind to rule just for one term from 1994 to 1999.
And he kept that promise. That is a great leader with no buts and ifs.
If only Lee had taken a page from Mandela’s book, critics like Catherine Lim might have been kinder to him.
What is even worse is that this man who could sniff out problems before they even appeared on the horizon never realized that a citizenry cannot be bottled up forever.
If only Lee could have predicted that and allowed his citizens a bigger and more meaningful say in determining the future of their country, Singapore today might not be in the restive political mood it is today.
My army days
By P Francis
Neil Armstong, who died last year, made world headlines when he landed on the moon and became the first person to walk on its surface circa 21 July 1969 – depending on your time zone. That was the time I landed in SAFTI (Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute) without any headline or fanfare. Not unexpected. The news was shown on black-and-white TV in the army camp canteen.
In Armstrong’s case, his call-up to the Navy arrived on January 26, 1949. The year 1949 also became significant in Singapore in that it was the start of National Service (NS) for Singaporean males born in that year and after. Public employees born earlier were also affected by the call- up, which was to fill the void left behind by the 1971 withdrawal of the British forces based in the Lion City.
Even though modern-day compulsory NS was new to Singapore, it had been around for a while. Israel enforced it on men and women – unless married or pregnant – while the US and Australia were among many countries with non-mandatory NS.
In those days, in Singapore, it was two years full time in the army and an extra year for those who attended OCT (Officer Cadet Training) and graduated as 2nd Lieutenants. There was also part-time NS in the Special Constabulary and the Vigilante Corps. The scheme was later extended to include the fire department and the construction industry, where NS personnel were taught fire-fighting skills, a building trade or were just labourers.
The first year of NS recruits were under the expert tutelage of Israeli instructors – renowned for their tough training regimen and tactics after the successful Six-Day War in the West Bank from 5-10 June, 1967 against neighbours Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
NS 1969-1971
My NS stint was from 1969 to 1971 after being deferred from the initial batch because of studies. The army pay then was $90 a month when a STC (Singapore Traction Company) bus ticket was capped at 25 cents. Being a civil servant, the army pay was deducted from my monthly salary – a princely sum of $220. My platoon comprised two non-Chinese – a Malay and myself. Some of the Chinese, probably, had never been so close to a non-Chinese before; eating, sleeping, training together – a new experience.
My company included those earmarked for admin duties, pay clerks, drivers, cooks, storemen and medics. The training sergeant, Sgt Tan, claimed he was a gangster from Chinatown, who had joined the PDF (People’s Defence Force), which also had women in admin and store positions with the quartermaster. Sgt Tan said he had undergone training with the Israelis. His bellowed commands – Semulah (do it again) or Belakang pusing (about turn) – were all in Malay and were punctuated by colourful expletives. The Malay language was a problem for the Chinese-educated recruits.
Punishments were meted out by Sgt Tan and his contemporaries mercilessly – one of their favourites was for the recruit to ‘frog jump’ around the parade square, sometimes with rifle held up. Other penalties were running a stipulated distance in full battle order with rifle held high over the head or “give me 50 push ups!”
Starched Temasek green khaki uniforms and polished boots were the order of the day. Hard, heavy helmets, inherited from the British, covered a lighter inner helmet. Rubber-soled combat boots were for daily wear, while the leather-soled boots (had to be highly shined – Kiwi polish sales went up!) were reserved for parades, where the Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) ruled the square and even told officers off for not marching across it – “you are not walking with your girlfriend at the pasar malam (night market)!” would be the reprimand.
Stand-by bed was a discipline to ensure recruits kept their cupboards and beds clean and orderly. Then there were the ’jee siau’ (naughty) fellows who carried a sleeping colleague out onto the parade square at night with a ‘toothpaste treatment’ on his body. The poor guy awoke at 5 am to find the sergeant screaming down at him because that was the time to assemble for 5BX (5 am exercise routine) at reveille (wake-up call).
Basic training
Although training was not as intense as for combat troops, we still had to run up and down Pengkang Hill in full battle order; we had to complete a route march, also in full battle order and camp overnight in Choa Chu Kang cemetery among graves and tombstones.
At basic training, we were taught to treat our heavy, wooden British SLR (Self-Loading Rifle) rifle as our wife – it had to follow you everywhere. Later, the lightweight, semi-automatic American AR-15 was introduced. Grenade-throwing exercises involved the use of dummies – with some calling out ‘nenek’ instead of grenade – until the test when each recruit had one live grenade to throw. Officers were on alert to prevent mishaps by some ‘clowns’ as grenades were sometimes thrown skywards only to land back behind the sandbags!
During the three-month basic training, we were confined to base. However, I was able to obtain a 24-hour leave pass after Saturday training to attend Sunday mass at my parish church and return to camp before dusk. Thank God for that – it was great to be home and sleep even for one night in your own old bed! Recruits had to wear their uniforms home and I saw my neighbours pointing and whispering as I walked down the street. Funny thing about the uniform – you felt fearless when you walked down the street at whatever time of night and you were not even armed!
A very close mate of mine, Lim Ko Koh, who has retired from the public service, was in the artillery during his NS days. He recalled fondly: “I remember my first day in the School of Artillery – we were told that once in artillery we would die in artillery. There was this slogan on the wall of the dining hall: Man of steel you must be, anything less will have no place in the School of Artillery.”
But there were those who were against NS and claimed exemption on varied grounds. The most curious was that of being a Seventh Day Adventist and he could not carry a gun. “How about driving a ‘three-tonner’ (truck) or cooking meals, which did not need a gun?” a smart-aleck mate asked.
Then there were rumours of suicide – hanging from the shower – by those who could not stomach the first few weeks of army life. They did not know that things would improve after basic training. Like them, I was from a ‘protected’ lifestyle: school, home, study, dinner, reading and bed. Roaming the streets and sports activities were frowned on by my parents as the focus was on academic goals. But, I did not want to be different from the rest, so I welcomed NS as a way to ‘escape’ and develop and become a real macho man like everyone else. Alas, I was a little disappointed that there were no martial arts classes or any bulging muscles after the three-month course!
As in life, not everything was palatable in the army. Meals, in those days, were mediocre although the officers and cooks had better fare. If you wanted something better, you paid the price at the canteen. But this was not always possible just like when I discovered a small cockroach in my cabbage at lunch in between training sessions. There was no time to throw out the food and queue up again or to run to the canteen and buy food before training resumed. So I removed the offending insect, ate the food and survived.
CO I want to go home!
Make no mistake — army life was not as exciting as Private Benjamin (1980) starring Goldie Hawn or The General’s Daughter (1999) with John Travolta and Madeline Stowe of TV series Revenge fame. Apart from occasional movie nights, we did entertain ourselves with sing-a-long sessions, especially when there was someone handy with a guitar – whether there was a campfire or not. One of the favourite songs was:
They say in the army, the food is mighty fine
You ask for curry ayam, they give you putu mayam!
Oh, I don’t like the army life
CO I want to go, OC won’t let me go
CO I want to go home!
They say in the army, the girls are pretty fine
You ask for Brigitte Bardot, they give you Frankenstein!
Oh, I don’t like the army life
CO I want to go, OC won’t let me go
CO I want to go home!
They say in the army, the pay is mighty fine
They give you hundred dollars, and take back ninety-nine!
Oh, I don’t like the army life
CO I want to go, OC won’t let me go
CO I want to go home!
Twice I was called for OCT tests at the CMPB (Central Manpower Base) and failed them intentionally as I did not want more runs up Pengkang Hill unless I was prepared to sign on as ‘tan chia’ (regular). When the colonel interviewed me and asked why I failed deliberately, I told him I was already serving Singapore as a civil servant and he accepted my explanation. However, a disgruntled Nanyang University graduate, who had failed with an obvious very low score, simply walked out of the interview rather rudely when his turn came. No, he was not charged under Section 42 (or any other section) of the Singapore Army Act (SAA) as far as I was aware.
Simon Camp
Being in the service sector, I was assigned to Simon Camp – the transport base in Upper Serangoon just 10 minutes ‘march’ from home. No more staying in barracks. The posting was as a clerk in the RSM’s office. Wow! I was almost untouchable. First there was WO1 Encik John Chai, who was succeeded by WO1 Encik Shafie. These army ‘terrors’ were really very nice to me since their written education was low and they depended on me to run their office. I was in charge of the daily Company Routine Orders and compiling the guard duty rosters. Even when a sergeant complained that he was on duty on Sunday and again on Friday, the RSM defended me, saying “What do you expect when there are only five sergeants available? Do you prefer Saturday?” No more complaints from sergeants after that day.
Life was easier, more 8 to 5, and I lived at home. I even walked home for lunch! The Commanding Officer Major Zee often gave me a lift in the morning as his driver took a short cut along my walking route to camp. Again, my educated background helped as I chatted with the CO on the short drive to camp and the bewildered RP (Regimental Police) on sentry duty saluted. It was one of the RPs who instigated a charge against me for jokingly knocking his cap off his head while travelling in an army Land Rover. In my defence, I told the presiding Captain Chooi that the RP had joked at my expense previously. The wise captain said: “It takes two to clap – case dismissed!”
Quest guitarist Admin Officer
After full-time NS came the Reservist training until age 40 or 50 for officers. As company clerk, I reported to the Admin Officer Lieutenant Henry Chua. Does the name ring a bell? He was a bass guitarist and founding member of top Singapore band The Quests, who left the band to study and become an engineer. Yes, Chua was laid-back and trusted me to do the job. Leave passes were no problem, lah! It was during such training – some called it holiday camp – when I met and made fast friends with Richard Chan and Jugjeet Singh and their respective families.
One down side to NS, however, was that boys who went overseas with their families had to return and do their NS. A Melbourne dad told me: “My son was willing to go back and do his NS after completing his degree here, but he was arrested at Changi airport when he returned voluntarily, charged and sent to detention before being allowed to do his NS.” Perhaps some tweaking could iron out the problem.
‘From Boys To Men’ was an article I wrote for the SAF’s Pioneer magazine in the 1970s with the pseudonym Citizen Soldier – before becoming a journalist. When I google those words today, I notice how the title has been used in variation over the decades – even a blockbuster Singapore production of army days!
In retrospect, I still hold the view that NS makes men out of boys and exposes them to the real world with a difference – they are under the governance of the SAA, which does not tolerate any indiscipline. They learn teamwork, responsibility, loyalty and how to live with other races. That strict grounding makes them better citizens when released into the civilian world and some smart employers know it.
P. Francis is an English tutor in Melbourne, who has more than 20 years’ journalism experience with newspapers, books and magazines in Singapore and Australia.
So rich, so what?
By Augustine Low
Conventional thinking is that a Third World country has much to learn – even copy – from First World countries.
The contrast between Third and First is huge. Take Myanmar, the poorest country in Asean, with GDP per capita of about $700. While the International Monetary Fund’s 2013 estimates show that Singapore is the world’s richest country, with GDP per capita of $61,567, and projected to rise to an astounding $77,000 by 2018.
But Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while in Singapore this week, has given a sobering reminder. Perhaps Singapore can learn from her country too – about human warmth, about the value of kinship and family ties.
This reminds me of remarks by Minister Khaw Boon Wan in Parliament a couple of years ago that Bhutan was not the happiest of places, the Shangri-la on Earth, that it’s often made out to be. When he visited the country, he “saw unhappy people, toiling in the field, worried about the next harvest and whether there would be buyers for their products.”
A Bhutanese responded: “Those people you saw in the fields weren’t unhappy, if you have gone closer you would have heard them singing and enjoying social life. Perhaps you won’t understand that. If you had spent a little longer time watching them, you would have seen a woman with basket on her back and holding arms with several children coming with steaming food – we don’t have McDonald’s or KFC. Then everybody will sit down to eat their lunch, laughing and joking, feeding babies, for over an hour – you wouldn’t have had so much time to sit and watch, I know. Time means money in your country. But we have the luxury of time.”
Singaporeans are rightly proud of our shining metropolis, but we need a reality check from time to time to remind us that GDP and world-class airport, port, casinos and F1 are not the be-all and end-all of being exceptional.
Not long ago, a Filipino asked me: “Singapore is so rich, why are there so many old people working as toilet and food court cleaners?”
Indeed, look around and we see Singaporean elderly in their 60s, 70s and even 80s – sometimes hunched back, often physically infirm – toiling as cleaners for public toilets and clearing dirty tables.
We have been told that Singaporeans should be prepared to work longer and harder. That self-help is the best form of help. That there should be no over-reliance on social welfare and public assistance.
But backbreaking work for the elderly? In a country teeming with wealth?
I was told by another foreigner that it is a stain on the family honour if a grandmother has to resort to cleaning toilets to support herself. So the family network invariably chips in to help out.
Are Singaporeans so lacking in filial piety that we refuse to support our parents and grandparents? Are we more inclined to spend lavishly on tuition for the children than give allowance to dependent elderly?
Or is there a shortage of social safety nets for our poor elderly, who helped in building the nation?
Aung San Suu Kyi may well have a point. A First World country can still learn a thing or two from a Third World country.
Augustine Low is Director of Strategy at a communications consultancy.
Do not solve problems one election cycle at a time: DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam
By Kumaran Pillai
Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam outlined the global economic risk and opportunities in the years ahead in his keynote address at the SALT conference held for hedge fund managers at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre this morning.
He enumerated four risks in his speech that may affect the global economic outlook: The danger of cyclical unemployment in Europe and America becoming structural; China’s structural deceleration; Supply side risk of the emerging economies; and stagnation of the middle class in mature economies.
Stagnation of the middle class
The generational tension in the middle class of mature economies, he said, is a cause for concern for policy makers. He added that policy makers have been responding to these challenges one election cycle at a time.
Short-term policy shifts to cater to the growing demands of the electorate only compounds the issue of global economic instability and may manifest themselves in the socio-political arena. What is required is a major political reform, he said.
The feedback from these tensions may become more significant if the mature world does not address these issues adequately.
Risk in emerging markets
He also highlighted the opportunities in the emerging markets and said that each market was unique and should not be lumped together. However, the challenges facing these economies include political instability, structural gaps and policies that protect local industries. He warned the investment community that these problems can turn into huge frustrations for them.
Tharman added that opportunities abound in these emerging markets but the labour force in these countries often lagged behind and this may result in a supply-side risk.
Deceleration of China
The deceleration of the Chinese economy was also another risk factor affecting the global economic outlook. The world economy may be severely impacted should China’s GDP grow at less than 6.5 per cent per annum. He added that there is a danger that the GDP figures reported may be lower or higher than the actual GDP numbers.
The transitioning of the Chinese economy from an investment-driven to a consumption driven model also poses a major risk to investors worldwide. It is a major undertaking and investors should not expect the Chinese government to get it right straightaway.
America and Europe performing below potential
Tharman said that both the American and the European economies were performing below potential and highlighted the danger that cyclical challenges may become structural if the policy makers do not respond adequately now.
There has also been too much focus and reaction to Federal Reserve’s tapering of interests rates. The withdrawal of monetary accommodation is never an easy process and there are uncertainties in the interaction between markets and policy makers – the central bank can only shape cyclical changes and can’t alter structural problems.
The real problem that we face in the world today is that the challenges are globalized while the policy reactions to them have been largely local. No country is immune to the perils that lurk in this inter-connected world and how our world would be in the years ahead is determined by the socio-political conditions both locally and worldwide.