a place to reveal | a place to hide
You’re on BA17, flying from 1°21′23″N, 103°59′28″E to 37°40′24″S, 144°50′36″E. Right now, you’re probably reaching Australian airspace.
About 6069 km…
or about 3771 miles…
or about two (or three) time zones…
or about an eight-hour flight…
Distance and time are subjective.
I’ll see you soon…
Have to preface this post: I am writing all this in a personal capacity. In no way does this post (or anything on this blog for that matter) reflect the position of my employers.
I usually steer clear of mentioning work on my blog. Things are great, but they have the potential to be much, much greater. Today, I found two blog posts which reflected my position on certain work-related issues almost perfectly.
Mr Justin Lee, you’ve got a friend in me.
I read Catherine Lim’s article, Managing Political Dissent, last Friday while having breakfast.
Sheer brilliance, I tell you. Catherine’s analysis was spot on. Like the Legal Janitor, I felt she brought to light what I’ve been thinking for a long time.
Then, I read her short story - The Experiment - which concluded the article. Her earlier words sent shivers down my spine but this… This made me go pale, as far as I can imagine.
“Not just plausible, but all too real,” comments the Legal Janitor. I nod.
Today, it suddenly hit me. Two words: Speakers’ Corner.
———-
Anyway, someone named Loke Kong wrote in to ST’s forum page.
Accountability vital in dissent or assent
I read Dr Catherine Lim’s article, ‘Managing political dissent’ (ST, Jan 20), with respect and admiration. Her views are sharp, insightful, well-researched and objective. Of course, they could be seen as controversial too, depending on one’s position.
The Straits Times should also be applauded for publishing it without fear or favour.
Dr Lim is a fair and committed Singaporean. She praised the Government when praise was due and criticised it when it deserved to be criticised.
She praised the Government for the three pillars of sound governance, but firmly believed that a model of governance in which political dissent had little or no role was deeply flawed on two counts:
# First, the need for expression should never be suppressed.
# Second, if it is, then it is all the worse for society.
However, she forgot to mention that be it dissent or assent, it must be backed by accountability, without which society would become chaotic.
I particularly enjoyed reading ‘The Experiment’. It made me smile with empathy. I believe the episode could be enacted in real life some time down the road.
Dr Lim is a catch for any political party, but I believe she prefers to be non-partisan. This is because, in this way, what she writes will be more acceptable and credible to most, if not all, Singaporeans.
Also, I believe that both Dr Lim and the Government have the interest of Singapore at heart. The only difference is that, whereas Dr Lim speaks for the intellectuals, the Government acts in the interest of most Singaporeans.
At the end of the day, let’s live and let live. Onward Singapore!
Loke Kong
I’m not sure which scares me more, The Experiment or The Response. Majulah Singapura indeed.
———–
Side note: Does anyone care that Took will be hanged?
I meant to write more about my army experiences in my earlier post about enlistment. Suffice to say, it could probably go on and on and on. So, I will stick to talking about BMT.
Yes, Basic Military Training. This is the most familiar part of National Service as it is the lowest common denominator. Whether you become an officer or a specialist, whether you become a signaller or a driver, whether you end up building bridges or demolishing things, you will have gone through BMT*.
I had the fortune of doing BMT for 5 months because I was obese. All in all, BMT was a wonderful experience. First of all, we were a very heterogeneous company with only one thing in common: a wide girth. A-level holders, diploma holders, ITE graduates tended to be - I qualify that this is my perception - put together as a cohort.
Not us. Hawk Company (and our ’sister’ company, Gryphon) represented the socio-economic diversity of Singaporeans. We had a university graduate. We had primary school leavers. We had Chinese, Malays, Indians and one Eurasian. You name it, we probably had it. We even had someone who lived on Pulau Bukom. It said so on his ID card.
The programme was designed for us to lose weight. That meant a few modifications to the training programme. Every Monday morning, we’d be weighed in at the Medical Centre. Those whose weight had not decreased from the previous week were prime candidates to burn their long weekend.
(Long before the implementation of the five-day week, Pulau Tekong was a five-day week camp. If you were in camp on Saturday morning, you were being punished.)
We had extra weight training sessions and… aerobics. Those were fun and effective. There was once, Dr Tony Tan came to visit Pulau Tekong. He was supposed to inspect Hawk company as we were put through out aerobics paces.
Unfortunately, he was delayed. The Physical Training Instructor (PTI) decided to keep us warmed up, so we continued doing what we were doing. And continued. And continued. And continued.
Dr Tan arrived to watch us. I was in the front row as I had already lost quite a bit of weight then. That weekend, I was told by relatives that I was on the news. Doing aerobics. Anyway, the PTI complimented us after the session. We had been going on for much longer than usual. He admitted that he was knackered and that he was amazed that we kept on going.
You see, the obese guys are actually very strong. Some enlisted being fit, or nearly fit enough, to pass IPPT. Who’s stronger? A 85kg guy who can do 12 pull-ups or a 70kg guy who can do the same? Who’s got more stamina? The overweight guy finishing the 2.4km run ins 12m20s or the much lighter guy who finished it in the same time?
And we proved it to some extent. The 2nd Brigade - BMT was conducted by the Brigades back then - decided to send their strongest and bulkiest soldiers for an intra-Army tug-of-war competition. We’d won the Tekong tug-of-war competition between the BMT companies, so they sent Hawk Company to represent the brigade.
We maxed out the weight limit, putting in the heaviest and strongest guys on the team. So, the profile of the team was: about 80kg on average and could pull 10 or more chin-ups. The guys pulled against the heaviest guys in the company for training. Our Company Seargent Major (CSM) even made them pull a Land Rover that was in gear.
Hawk Company beat them all. Commandoes included.
I have more stories, of course. But I leave it here for now.
* There are exceptions, since there is modified BMT for non-combat fit personnel.
Ten years ago today, I enlisted in the Army. Can’t believe it’s been that long.
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