Long story short, I pursued a scholarship because I once believed it was the best way to contribute to the common good. Totally bought into the sales pitch about serving the nation. Also, my parents couldn't afford to send me to university, so why not since my grades made the cut.
But boy was I so wrong. I broke the bond eventually after being harassed for basically having opinions… lengthy rant ahead, be warned.
Halfway through my studies, I realised something was severely wrong with the scholarship system. More than a handful of my peers on the programme were actually from wealthy families – from being able to afford an apartment in London, to flying home on business class. I remember once at the Singapore Seminar, a round table discussion where they flew in scholars and PS/DS/some official people to discuss issues surrounding Singapore in London. One fellow asked: “how do we solve the problem of lowly educated men not getting married and educated women not getting married?”. To which the answer from the speaker I can never forget, was “As everything we do in Singapore, low end import and high end export”.
Listed herein are the toxic bits about Singapore's supposedly pristine government scholar system:
Bad-egg scholars spoil it for all
Not all scholars are bad eggs and arrogant. But the ones who are, they truly spoil it for everyone else, therefore causing our asses to be hated by fellow Singaporeans for no reason sometimes. My former manager was a scholar himself and he basically showed disdain for almost everyone under him. His treatment of foreign workers was abhorrent. One time I recalled him yelling “GRAB ME THAT BANGLA!”, demanded that they sweep rocks (yes, I wonder if scholars have ever set foot in construction sites) and forbade them from drinking from water coolers. Step on his tail (sometimes in a completely non-work related way), and you might find yourself being threatened with a poor year-end appraisal. On the contrary, if you are the manager’s favourite, you could wiggle your way out of any shitstorm without so much as suffering a scratch. And as I obviously wasn't (or perhaps I was deemed just average in terms of personal ability, oh well I could accept that), I was criticised constantly for my “happy go lucky” attitude and for “smiling too much”…… gradually I fell into a pattern of fear of just being myself. The manager himself had apparently gotten 4 serious prior complaints, but HR decided to overlook them all altogether because he was our director's favourite. This brings me to the next point:
Directors are unfire-able Gods
Unless they commit a legitimate crime, they cannot be removed. Where I was, we had directors who felt the need to scold people at every meeting, put them down, belittle whoever they perceived as lesser mortals. Some can't stop commenting on women’s physical appearances, while others love to text at ungodly hours, say past midnight. An internal survey actually showed that about 10% of folks working at various public service agencies experience at least some form of harassment, however nothing is being done about it. Because, because … them directors are pretty chummy with one another! Who can you complain to, if HR is only going to side with all of management? This made me really upset when I thought that HR was supposed to watch over us employees. Often those who had it the worst are the “lower ranked” employees – because the organisation perceived them as expendable. Yet these are the people who were most intimately acquainted with the day in, day out operational requirements. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw that we could fire the technicians, but not the directors. Whenever I attempted to advocate for the little man, I got treated like I purposely chose to be on the wrong side of the battle. As though I picked the worker’s side instead of the correct “scholar's side”.
Culture of silence
Honestly, scholars, you know when others like yourself are acting unreasonably, or being a complete jerkball. But you don’t speak up. You never call out the bosses, or even your own compadres….because you hope that one day when you make director, you will have their full support. Behind their backs though you would speak bad of one or the other, but where it matters – when they are unjustly picking on their men, when they are harassing others, you remain silent. You know deep down the scholarship system is unfair, it rewards those rare few who hail from truly privileged backgrounds. Then again, no one wishes to speak up, because why would anyone be "foolish" enough to bite the hand that feeds us?
You also know when scholars are being overworked or made to perform genuinely wretched tasks no one else wants to. Yet when you become the boss, you choose to inflict the same misery on your subordinates.
But boy was I so wrong. I broke the bond eventually after being harassed for basically having opinions… lengthy rant ahead, be warned.
Halfway through my studies, I realised something was severely wrong with the scholarship system. More than a handful of my peers on the programme were actually from wealthy families – from being able to afford an apartment in London, to flying home on business class. I remember once at the Singapore Seminar, a round table discussion where they flew in scholars and PS/DS/some official people to discuss issues surrounding Singapore in London. One fellow asked: “how do we solve the problem of lowly educated men not getting married and educated women not getting married?”. To which the answer from the speaker I can never forget, was “As everything we do in Singapore, low end import and high end export”.
Listed herein are the toxic bits about Singapore's supposedly pristine government scholar system:
Bad-egg scholars spoil it for all
Not all scholars are bad eggs and arrogant. But the ones who are, they truly spoil it for everyone else, therefore causing our asses to be hated by fellow Singaporeans for no reason sometimes. My former manager was a scholar himself and he basically showed disdain for almost everyone under him. His treatment of foreign workers was abhorrent. One time I recalled him yelling “GRAB ME THAT BANGLA!”, demanded that they sweep rocks (yes, I wonder if scholars have ever set foot in construction sites) and forbade them from drinking from water coolers. Step on his tail (sometimes in a completely non-work related way), and you might find yourself being threatened with a poor year-end appraisal. On the contrary, if you are the manager’s favourite, you could wiggle your way out of any shitstorm without so much as suffering a scratch. And as I obviously wasn't (or perhaps I was deemed just average in terms of personal ability, oh well I could accept that), I was criticised constantly for my “happy go lucky” attitude and for “smiling too much”…… gradually I fell into a pattern of fear of just being myself. The manager himself had apparently gotten 4 serious prior complaints, but HR decided to overlook them all altogether because he was our director's favourite. This brings me to the next point:
Directors are unfire-able Gods
Unless they commit a legitimate crime, they cannot be removed. Where I was, we had directors who felt the need to scold people at every meeting, put them down, belittle whoever they perceived as lesser mortals. Some can't stop commenting on women’s physical appearances, while others love to text at ungodly hours, say past midnight. An internal survey actually showed that about 10% of folks working at various public service agencies experience at least some form of harassment, however nothing is being done about it. Because, because … them directors are pretty chummy with one another! Who can you complain to, if HR is only going to side with all of management? This made me really upset when I thought that HR was supposed to watch over us employees. Often those who had it the worst are the “lower ranked” employees – because the organisation perceived them as expendable. Yet these are the people who were most intimately acquainted with the day in, day out operational requirements. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw that we could fire the technicians, but not the directors. Whenever I attempted to advocate for the little man, I got treated like I purposely chose to be on the wrong side of the battle. As though I picked the worker’s side instead of the correct “scholar's side”.
Culture of silence
Honestly, scholars, you know when others like yourself are acting unreasonably, or being a complete jerkball. But you don’t speak up. You never call out the bosses, or even your own compadres….because you hope that one day when you make director, you will have their full support. Behind their backs though you would speak bad of one or the other, but where it matters – when they are unjustly picking on their men, when they are harassing others, you remain silent. You know deep down the scholarship system is unfair, it rewards those rare few who hail from truly privileged backgrounds. Then again, no one wishes to speak up, because why would anyone be "foolish" enough to bite the hand that feeds us?
You also know when scholars are being overworked or made to perform genuinely wretched tasks no one else wants to. Yet when you become the boss, you choose to inflict the same misery on your subordinates.
A lot more at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2022/04/government-scholar-who-broke-bond.html
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