Being a prisoner in SINgapore, having to serve National Service, looses opportunities & then having to work & serve time in reservist, and looses evern more opportunites, to the ever-growing( at that time) tide of Malaysian FT's.....
My friend, felt SIngapore was a prison, left & never looked back; fortunately he kept a level head & did not die like Dr. Allan Ooi....
I simply don't dig it when thousands and thousands of Singaporeans can endure the rigor NS and took it as an obligation to defend our own people and country and why this elite cannot.
Is it a case of having too much of a privileged and good life as a young man as he came from a rich family - is it a case of having too much cake and having to eat it all of it?
Shouldn't his rich family forsake the expensive scholarship (free university fees, guarantee jobs, through-train to top government jobs, high salary etc) that is so coveted by many poor but talented Singaporeans?
I think the ordinary men-in-the-street can endure more hardship than the privileged ones. Something must be wrong with upbringing rather than the society or country they live in.
The Japanese commit harakiri because of its value system - a code of Samurai honour if not bravery - and not as a way to escape a situation of mundane life.