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My "feedback" essay (ie complaint) to RJC

To whom it may concern,

I am an ex-student of the college, and would like to lodge a complaint about the general behaviour of the security personnel responsible for the area of Raffles Junior College (RJC) and Raffles Institution (RI).

On this 30th day of August in the year Two Thousand and Five, my brother (also an alumnus of the school) and I decided to pay an impromptu visit to our alma mater. This was a trip I had made before on more than one occasion; on none of those previous occasions had I ever encountered any difficulties. On this occasion, however, we were informed by the security guard stationed outside the general office that we would have to change pass to enter the school. Deciding not to go through with the hassle of such a procedure, we turned to leave, and exited the compound through one of the front gates. As we walked past the main entrance of RI, a large Malay guard waved us over to the guardhouse, at the same time excitedly speaking into his communications device. "I've got them!" were his approximate words. Not knowing what was the matter, we complied with his instruction, whereupon he accused us of "loitering at the back there" after we were turned away by the guard at the office. This accusation is a blatant falsehood. All we did after leaving the office was to leave the school - unless the security guard has an alternative meaning for the word "loitering". It is also worth mentioning that on our way in, from one of the back gates, we passed this same guard riding past on a bicycle - and though we did not then possess passes, he made no attempt to stop us. In the light of the aforementioned events, this is most puzzling.

We did not, however, refute his accusation directly as we knew it probably would not do much good due to his rather insistent and agitated manner. We explained reasonably that we did not know of these new regulations - in fact, I had paid a similar visit to the school earlier this month and had not been informed of any such requirements. He responded in an extremely impolite fashion; to quote him approximately, "We not talking about last time! We now talking about today!" This was accompanied by some emphatic hand gestures. At this point, another guard of more seniority came up to us - he eventually resolved the situation by admonishing us more gently to keep track of regulation changes. We were then allowed to leave.

It is worth noting that the guard at the general office simply allowed us to walk away after he told us we would have to change pass and we decided to leave. From the events that were to occur later, it was obvious that we were regarded as suspicious characters. Would the right thing then not be to hold us and question us?

In addition, the security guard who stopped us by the main gate met us earlier around the school, and it was obvious that we did not possess passes then. Why did he not stop us on this occasion, then? Why wait until he saw us later to stop us?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do think these actions on the part of the security guards concerned might have constituted a security breach. After all, we were allowed to wander around the school compound for more than a quarter of an hour without passes - if we had been visitors of malicious intent, that would have been more than enough time to carry out any nefarious plans we might have had in mind.

Another thing worth mentioning is the attitude of the security guard in question. I will admit that my brother and I were in the wrong, but we were genuinely ignorant of these new regulations - I had visited earlier this month and nothing of this sort occurred to me on that occasion. Perhaps he could be a little more forbearing? As it was, he was self-important and rude; surely this is no way to treat visitors to the school? I regret that I am unable to remember his name, but he was a short, stocky Malay man. I trust that the capable current school administration will take action against this character, for his impolite manner could be more of a hindrance than an asset to the school's image.

I fully understand Raffles Junior College's right to amend visitor regluations as and when the honourable school administration deems it necessary, especially where security is concerned. After all, with terrorism casting a long and dark shadow over the world stage, it is best not to take anything for granted. I sincerely apologise for the way my brother and I breached these regulations today, and give the school administration my honest word that it will never again happen. Unfortunately, I must also call into question the competence and attitude of the college's security guards, and say that there is much area of improvement in these two fields.

Once a Rafflesian, always a Rafflesian. I retain strong emotional bonds with my alma mater, and it is definitely not my wish to see it damaged in any way, shape or form through carelessness or ignorance. That could well have happened today, if only my brother and I were not alumni but saboteurs harbouring darker intentions than an innocuous drop-in visit. I can only urge and advise the august school administration to take the proper and necessary steps to amend the currently inadequate situation. At the same time, it would be a most severe blow indeed if the image of the school was harmed by the attitude of one whom I actually saw to be extremely devoted to his duty of keeping the college safe. Perhaps the school administration could also look into this area. After all, interpersonal skills are necessary for anyone to go far in life.

I shall end my statement thus, trusting the school administration to do what is necessary. I have full confidence in leaving these matters in your capable hands.

Auspicium Melioris Aevi.

The Honourable School Administration's reply

Dear Chun Wee

Thank you for your valuable feedback especially the manner in which Security dealt with you and your brother We deeply regret the incident and shall counsel the staff concerned and ensure that all such personnel have a basic understanding of managing interpersonal skills in collaboration with the Security agency.

The College has, as you have correctly surmised, institutionalised the need for all visitors to change passes so that we can provide a safe and secure environment for our students and staff given the current security climate. Given the size of the campus and several access points for walk in visitors, it has posed a great challenge for us and Security. The guardhouse is also manned by RI guards who may not be familiar with our Security requirements. This is a point that we shall raise with the Security agency to ensure that this does not happen again.

We apologise for the incident and wish you and your brother a pleasant visit in the near future. As alumni of the college, you are always welcome back to your alma mater and we hope this incident will not deter you from visiting us in future.

Auspicium Melioris Aevi
Regards

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I'll let them off with that, because I was never someone who loved giving others trouble. But I will not be talked down to by a rude, incompetent and self-important junior security guard at an institution I sweated buckets for for six whole years. Yes, my complaint was overly long and extremely condescending. It was meant to be; whatever few letters of this sort I have written down the years have infallibly been. But you can't take everything that comes your way sitting down. The way my brother and I were treated yesterday was absolute rubbish, and the school administration better really be taking action - although my long experience with school administrations in general and the RJC school administration in particular suggests they won't.

I will go back again, and if something like this happens again, I will complain again. And when I do, I will not forget this first occasion. Nor will I leave it at merely a condescending essay. I also call upon all schoolmates who are dropping in in future to make similar complaints if the security guards are not impeccably behaved. It's time some of the unjustifiably arrogant got off their high horses.

"Rafflesians salute your alma mater"... because when you try to return, you will be treated like international criminals by obnoxiously self-important security guards.

My brother hadn't ever been to the new campus, so we decided to take a little trip down today. I thought nothing could go wrong; after all, I had been back just earlier this month. Instead, an overzealous fat Malay security guard with a vastly over-inflated sense of his own role on the vast stage of human existence took it upon himself to save our alma mater from us, who obviously greatly resemble terrorists about to commit an act of mass murder upon one of Singapore's premier educational institutions.

Oh, and he and his colleagues managed to show how incredibly incompetent they were in the process, too.

What happened? Well, we entered through one of the back gates, and along the way this very Malay guard rode past us on a bicycle. He didn't say anything, or attempt to stop us (this will be important later). We proceeded to take a little tour of the school, and when we reached the office, the guard sitting there (there has been one for months and he's never said anything to me or the people I've gone back with over those months) called to us and said we had to change pass to enter. We weren't about to go through this senseless little ritual, so we turned to leave. He said nothing more to us and went back to his desk. We exited by a front gate and as we passed the main entrance to RI/RJ, the Malay guard called us over, rather rudely too, and spoke excitedly into his walkie-talkie: "I've got them!"

We wonder what is the fuss, and he claims after the guard told us must change pass, we were "loitering" at the back of the school. A patent untruth, because all we did after that was leave by the front. He claimed he saw us doing this. Either that was when we passed him, or he observed us after we were turned away at the office. But on neither of these occasions were we stopped. If it is as important a rule as he made it out to be (and he did), why were we not stopped earlier, or held by the guard at the office? When he passed us earlier he could already see that we had no passes. Why did he not stop us then? Why did the guard at the office also not hold us or question us, if we were found to be suspicious characters?

The only explanation: gross incompetence on the part of the security staff. If security was that important, and he certainly made it out to be, a massive breach had already occurred, because two suspicious characters had been allowed to walk around the school for more than a quarter of an hour. What is more, they belatedly tried to cover their own asses by calling us back in when we were technically already outside the school and what we were doing was no longer any of their business. We only cooperated because we didn't want trouble.

I will also mention that this guard was extremely rude to us and seemed to think he was a hero, Sherlock Holmes and the saviour of the world all at once. When in fact he was the most junior security guard there could be. His more senior colleague seemed like he couldn't give less of a fuck about the situation, and all he said was "Keep up with the regulations, ok?" in a very nice and genial tone.

So, be warned. This is how you might get treated when all you want to do is pay a visit to an institution where you spent a good six (or 2) years and sweated buckets for.

A good day yesterday - one of the better ones I've had in a while. After crashing Zihao and Elgin's date, I went downtown with Zihao to get birthday gifts for the people whose birthdates are coming up. On the way, we had the luck to run into Winston discussing insurance (which I will now tell anyone who asks is very vital and something you should always have and keep) and after he was done he came to join us. To our good fortune, because neither Zihao nor I have any idea how to pick out a good shirt. A metrosexual friend is a handy thing to have, and Winston did it for us.

We hung around a bit after that, as they picked out books at Borders, then Winston had to leave because he had to book in later. Pity we couldn't have a nice, cosy dinner together. Hahah.

I happened to read the vast feature on the 1968 National Day Parade in the Sunday Times yesterday, and for once, most of it makes sense to me. The idea of a newly-independent nation having to demonstrate resolve, and going ahead with the parade being one way to do so... that certainly isn't far-fetched. What a nation amounts to depends largely on how much its people are willing to go through. In 1968, Singapore's situation indeed looked parlous, if not completely hopeless. We were only just cut loose from Malaysia, poor and backward without any natural resources and facing the impending British military pullout that would both denude Singapore of an effective defence force and greatly hurt the national economy - a list of problems that would give any politician in any era an awful headache. That we overcame all these problems to become Southeast Asia's richest and most developed country in just over two decades is nothing short of amazing.

But that's a story for another day. Back to 1968. I agree with the article that it was indeed important for Singapore, with the world watching and no one giving us a chance of making it on our own, to demonstrate resolve then. When everything seems to be going wrong, the best way to put it all right again is with steely determination. And that's exactly what the government decided we had to do. More than merely showing the world what the new republic no one thought was going to amount to anything could do, it was an exercise in nation-building. With this show of resolve, a new, multiracial country was welded into a nation.

However much we may bash nation-building, it was vital for Singapore. The race riots of 1964 in the Federation and 1967 in Malaysia showed how uneasy race relations could be. I certainly would not want to live in a country where there is a polarisation of the different races and racial unrest is common. In the end nation-building is all about creating a peaceful, harmonious society. There is little wrong with that. Nation-building, along with the resolve of our multiracial population, is arguably what has given us the developed, successful and safe Singapore of today.

Perhaps you may think this post is strange; why am I spouting all this nauseating patriotic propaganda? The thing is, I'm not. Sometimes we have to look beyond the propaganda they dish out and view the facts instead. Sometimes, what they tell us is not propaganda but the truth. Singapore has indeed weathered difficult times, and for all the ruling party's minus points, it has made quite an accomplishment in bringing this small island to whereit is today.

I've realised that in the end, I can't hate this place. There is still plenty to like about it, and I'll always consider it my home. I recognise its shortcomings, which are many and various, and I dislike the way certain things are done, but in the end I was born here and bred here. It will always be a little corner of the world where I can feel genuinely at home, and I honestly can't say that for anyplace else at all.

You can of course disagree with me. I've heard more than a few of my peers consider migration. Any of that has to be far in the future, but I would like them to ask themselves before they make up their minds: Is there really anywhere else in the world you would feel comfortably at home? If you can answer with a snappy "no", I can't say a thing, but give it some thought and ultimately an honest answer that comes straight from the heart.

I think I have realised one thing about the medical profession from all my experiences this past month. That they can be astonishingly and unfeelingly brutal, and have licence to be so too.

From the surgeon who with a hint of joy in his voice told me during my operation "Now this, this is going to hurt" just before he stuck a syringe full of anaesthetic deep into my veins to the nurse who with a look of demonic concentration sliced into my finger in pursuit of the mysterious hidden stitches of doom to the latest crazy old woman from the therapy room who seemed nice and genial until she began using tweezers to rip the dead skin off my digit, I think I've seen enough sterilised medical brutality for this life and the next.

I can't help but think back to that day and how this accident could simply have... not happened. I remember handing my MC to the BDS and him asking me to go photocopy it myself. I instead badgered him into doing it and went off to handle the radar. The rest is, well, history. What if I had done the photocopying myself? Would someone else have performed the task instead because I didn't show up? Or would the accident simply have been moved to a later time? But we'll never know.

Speaking of things like that, have any of you ever wondered about how your life would be different if you had, say, done this or not done that, or if this had happened or that simply had not happened. If you had taken the other path of the metaphorical fork in the road. A different you would currently be existing (or perhaps in extreme cases you would no longer be existing). It could be a very different you. Another person entirely, perhaps, with his/her own hopes, dreams, pet peeves et al.

Just think about it. There are literally millions of decisons we have to make in one short lifespan. Most affect little more than, say, what you fill your stomach with or what you do for leisure over the weekend. But there are those that can influence the course of an entire lifetime, and some of those, you don't realise that they can until later - sometimes much later. A lot of the time, we have to make these decisions on the spur of the moment; sometimes, important ones too. Sometimes we just have to close our eyes and leap into a gamble - and live with the consequences later.

Countless alternate yous exist... somewhere. They are different from you in some way. They could be wholly different. Thinking about how and how far - now that is the intriguing part.

Alternate history. What E H Carr disparagingly called "the parlour game" of the historian. Well, parlour games are good, clean harmless... fun? I don't think that is necessarily the right word here.

I go to the doctor's on Wednesday and he gives me two more weeks to bum around at home. Well, can't say I'm exactly complaining about that.

The finger is healing well and the top has finally closed up, though this one hell of a scab is going to take some time to fall off. I am curious as to how useful it will be in future, really, especially since it just feels numb most of the time currently. Sometimes it will burn or sting, and I can't touch anything worth beans with it still.

In other news, just about everybody else has something to do with their lives except me. And my good buddy Sean, of course. The good thing is the SAF continues to give me $450 a month even as I do nothing. The bad is they are still being bastards over my compensation.

Just hoping I can get the annoying bandage off and regain full use of both hands as soon as possible. It's irritating to have to take more than a few seconds to open the simplest of packages.

It's the season for departures, and saying goodbye is never easy.

Alright, I've had it. I am absolutely fed to the back teeth with the incredibly inconsiderate behaviour of so many of my fellow Singaporeans. From my dear neighbours who for some blessed reason or another love to wake up early and begin mangling "My Heart Will Go On" at nine-fucking-thirty in the morning, to ditzy teenagers who think it is perfectly alright to make as much noise as they bloody well please in a fucking public library, to goddamn mothers who take their snotty brats to the selfsame public library and then proceed to lose control of them, resulting in unbelievable amounts of noise pollution. Oh, and did I forget to mention those who, true to the spirit of "me, me, me - first, always", will use practically any means (largely physical) to be the foremost commuter to board the MRT train?

Seriously, what the fuck? Dear neighbours, I know singing may be your hobby and can offer you momentary escape from the daily pressures and struggles of the rat-race, and that your children must treasure and enjoy their carefree childhood days before the rigours of puberty begin to intrude, but could you just, you know, GIVE ME A BIT OF PEACE AND QUIET ONCE IN A BLOODY-FUCKING-WHILE?

Or if you want to sing, you could try being better at it. If it's loud but good, I don't think I would mind that much. As it is, it sounds like I'm living next to a monkey slaughterhouse. But I would prefer it if you could de-stress and your mongrel children enjoy their precious childhood years a little more quietly. I really can't take any more off-key "My Heart Will Go On" that goes on from the motherfucking early morning until the afternoon, and sometimes the evening as well. Yes, her heart can go on, but your singing can't.

Moving on. You, illiterate fuckwits in the library, are you making noise because you do not know what a library is? Last I checked, the commonly-accepted definition of "library" was not "place where I can make as much fucking noise as I bloody well want and no one is going to give a shit". So shut the fuck up or find somewhere else to hang out.

For the mothers, couldn't you take those terrestial forms of noise pollution you insist on calling "children" someplace else? That or you purchase a leash and a muzzle and then take them to the library. Because, frankly, I am utterly sick of children crying, screaming or running about recklessly in public libraries while I am trying to select a nice, new book I can bring home to digest. Especially if they narrowly miss hitting my damaged digit.

And you bastards on the MRT. Dare I ask if there is a prize to be won for being the first into the train? Because it's elementary courtesy to let those already in the train to alight first before you enter. Really, if there is money at stake perhaps I could understand, but as far as I know, there isn't, so be a little more patient, fucktards.

I think from all the above experiences we can see just how far our courtesy campaign and drive for a gracious society has got us. Really, I can just feel Singapore going forward in this new millenium, taking vast strides towards being a kinder, more considerate place to live in. Or it would, if Singaporeans can just see the error of their ways and work to change themselves.

And while I'm at it, I would like world peace and my finger whole again.

In the stillness of night, only one light burns still... mine.

My neighbourhood seems to retire early. Even the students, which to me is a mystery, unless they work by candlelight or something.

It was a busy week, this one just past. I got my stitches out, which was a study in just how much pain I could stand. The answer is, quite a lot. Really, I surprise myself. I also find that being a doctor or a nurse, you basically have a mandate to be brutal to people. Because the first thing that damn doctor did when I entered his office was grab my finger where it hurt the most and try to, I don't know, rip off the dressing. It's a good thing I psyched myself for this appointment to hurt and took a healthy dose of painkillers beforehand. It still hurt as the nurse went at my wounds with a pair of scissors, tweezers and a good, fine needle, but I think it could have hurt a lot worse. I also realise that when a nurse apologises before going at you with her tools, what she is about to do is going to be PAINFUL.

My MC was extended to 17 August, which is the date of the next appointment. I hope the hole at the top of my finger would have closed by then, because it is just slightly uncomfortable to look down at your unwrapped finger and have glistening white bone smile back up at you.

Friday, I went again to get together with Sean, which is fitting since we are just about the two people in Singapore with the most spare time at the moment. Gen found the time to join us and we spent an afternoon just sitting around talking.

Saturday, I join Winston bubbling like a little kid over fireworks (I really don't see the fuss, forgive me Winston) at Marina Bay. He said it made up for the time on New Years' Eve (which we also spent together in town) when they didn't have any, and I guess that's actually really sweet. The display was nice and we had a good time down by the bay in the quiet night with the sea breeze in our faces.

I may have said this before, but I'll say it again. It's always the people who make life worthwhile. I just don't know what I'll do without all my friends and their lovely little idiosyncracies. You're far from the only one, Winston. ;)

It seems that every time I go out with Winston, we end up eating at Long John Silver's, then wandering around urban Singapore on foot until we maybe find a quiet spot, talking like the old friends we are all the way.

Not that I'm complaining. Moments you will always cherish - sometimes they just come by so easily.

I think the SAF has a very healthy give-and-take policy with its servicemen. In my case, they have taken my fingertip and are trying their best to foist on me the blame for the whole incident. Of course, I am patently unsurprised by this despeicable act: who likes taking responsibility, after all? It's just too much trouble, this whole thing about being responsible and accountable for the good health and welfare of the conscripts under your charge. Whoever came up with such a silly notion that we ought to be? Obviously anything that happens is their own damned fault, unless the media somehow gets wind of it and manages to put it on the front pages.

There's been little that has left me more disgusted with the state of affairs in our fair countree. My patriotism, never high, is now at an all-time low, and I view the upcoming National Day Parade with a lot more loathing than I ever have. It is nothing more than a thick layer of make-up to prettify the irresponsible, hypocritical, prematurely-decrepit hag that is our nation at forty.

I didn't think I could be more bitter towards the place of my birth than I was when still a student. But now I realise that NS is when you genuinely see the unpleasant side of our clean and green Lion City.