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[h=2]Ex-Malaysian new citizen: NS is a waste of time[/h]
October 19th, 2013 |
Author: Contributions
LW fondly recalls the time when he was first offered an ASEAN scholarship by the Ministry of Education. At that time in 2003, the then 13 year-old Malaysian living in Johor Bahru was beginning to dislike the state of affairs in his hometown because the Chinese were being treated unfairly even though they made up a huge population. He emailed me after reading a note on my Facebook page about how a former Vietnamese scholar had issues with the PAP’s way of governance and wanted to contribute as well.
Tell us more about how you and your family came to Singapore.
When I was first offered an ASEAN scholarship, I was very enthusiastic about it since it meant the start of a better life for me. Even though accommodation was provided for at a hostel, I wanted to be close to my family so I made the trip across the causeway almost daily. This daily routine saw me waking up at 4am in JB and going back at 8pm every weekday. My parents knew that this was taking a toll on me and they too felt the Chinese were being discriminated in Malaysia as well, so they decided to look for a job here. My dad found a job as an engineer while my mum managed to find a job as a paralegal. Eventually, both of them got their PRs in 2008.
What happened after that?
I had
two options. Firstly, I could remain in Singapore on a study pass or I could get my PR as well. My parents plan was to work in Singapore and retire back in Johor Bahru but they felt that I could have a better life if I became a Singaporean instead. So I took on their advice and applied successfully for a PR. When I graduated from Anderson Junior College, I was called up for NS. Since that officially meant that I could be a citizen, I was actually looking forward to it.
What are your views towards NS?
After 2 years, I felt that it was an utter waste of time and had nothing to do with loyalty to country. I was initially selected to go to SISPEC (as it was then known) but I had a shin fracture so I eventually spent the remaining time as a clerk. I was unfortunate to have horrible superiors in combat where the warrant officers would abuse their ranks and practice favouritism. While as a clerk, I was considered to be well-educated among low-ranking officers and they threw their duties to me. I grew quite deluded and asked myself: How is this even considered serving your country?
After getting my citizenship, I met many Malaysians who were working in Singapore as well. They could sympathise with my decision to come to Singapore and leave Malaysia. In fact, there were many people from the top secondary school (Foon Yew High School) who eventually came to Singapore. These people intend to work in Singapore for life before retiring back in Malaysia because they felt it is too expensive. They thought I was insane to waste 2 years of my life when others could get the same benefits for free. After 2 years, I couldn’t agree more with them.
How has Singapore changed?
It seemed like forever since I first came here, but 10 years isn’t exactly very far away. What made things different now is that Singapore is trying too hard to grow excessively when its growth has clearly peaked. Paul Krugman wrote several articles about it, including one entitled “The Myth of Asia’s Miracle”, where he pointed out that Singapore’s growth is driven not by innovation and improvements in efficiency, but rather through increasing labour inputs. He questions whether this is sustainable or not, since this leads to a stage where you can only grow by importing more population.
This has resulted in many problems since the country is clearly not equipped to handle that many people. From there we have a lot of problems from infrastructural strain which saw the MRT breakdowns and sky-high housing prices. Even LKY agreed in the aftermath of the 2011 General Elections that these were the cause in drop of votes for the PAP.
What would you do if you could do it all over again?
Not serve NS – it is clear that NS has no benefits and is an absolute waste of time. My Malaysian friends have been absolutely right in saying that you can enjoy the same privileges without having to go through such nonsense and can retire comfortably in Johor Bahru after working in Singapore for 20 years. I just think of it as payment for my stupidity and the amount of money that the Singaporean government has spent on my scholarship.
Joseph Kheng-Liang Tan
* The writer is a 20-year-old polytechnic graduate who blogs at http://chinaporean.wordpress.com.
Tell us more about how you and your family came to Singapore.
When I was first offered an ASEAN scholarship, I was very enthusiastic about it since it meant the start of a better life for me. Even though accommodation was provided for at a hostel, I wanted to be close to my family so I made the trip across the causeway almost daily. This daily routine saw me waking up at 4am in JB and going back at 8pm every weekday. My parents knew that this was taking a toll on me and they too felt the Chinese were being discriminated in Malaysia as well, so they decided to look for a job here. My dad found a job as an engineer while my mum managed to find a job as a paralegal. Eventually, both of them got their PRs in 2008.
What happened after that?
I had
two options. Firstly, I could remain in Singapore on a study pass or I could get my PR as well. My parents plan was to work in Singapore and retire back in Johor Bahru but they felt that I could have a better life if I became a Singaporean instead. So I took on their advice and applied successfully for a PR. When I graduated from Anderson Junior College, I was called up for NS. Since that officially meant that I could be a citizen, I was actually looking forward to it.
What are your views towards NS?
After 2 years, I felt that it was an utter waste of time and had nothing to do with loyalty to country. I was initially selected to go to SISPEC (as it was then known) but I had a shin fracture so I eventually spent the remaining time as a clerk. I was unfortunate to have horrible superiors in combat where the warrant officers would abuse their ranks and practice favouritism. While as a clerk, I was considered to be well-educated among low-ranking officers and they threw their duties to me. I grew quite deluded and asked myself: How is this even considered serving your country?
After getting my citizenship, I met many Malaysians who were working in Singapore as well. They could sympathise with my decision to come to Singapore and leave Malaysia. In fact, there were many people from the top secondary school (Foon Yew High School) who eventually came to Singapore. These people intend to work in Singapore for life before retiring back in Malaysia because they felt it is too expensive. They thought I was insane to waste 2 years of my life when others could get the same benefits for free. After 2 years, I couldn’t agree more with them.
How has Singapore changed?
It seemed like forever since I first came here, but 10 years isn’t exactly very far away. What made things different now is that Singapore is trying too hard to grow excessively when its growth has clearly peaked. Paul Krugman wrote several articles about it, including one entitled “The Myth of Asia’s Miracle”, where he pointed out that Singapore’s growth is driven not by innovation and improvements in efficiency, but rather through increasing labour inputs. He questions whether this is sustainable or not, since this leads to a stage where you can only grow by importing more population.
This has resulted in many problems since the country is clearly not equipped to handle that many people. From there we have a lot of problems from infrastructural strain which saw the MRT breakdowns and sky-high housing prices. Even LKY agreed in the aftermath of the 2011 General Elections that these were the cause in drop of votes for the PAP.
What would you do if you could do it all over again?
Not serve NS – it is clear that NS has no benefits and is an absolute waste of time. My Malaysian friends have been absolutely right in saying that you can enjoy the same privileges without having to go through such nonsense and can retire comfortably in Johor Bahru after working in Singapore for 20 years. I just think of it as payment for my stupidity and the amount of money that the Singaporean government has spent on my scholarship.
Joseph Kheng-Liang Tan
* The writer is a 20-year-old polytechnic graduate who blogs at http://chinaporean.wordpress.com.
