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An Anonymous Email From Someone Scared - More Revelations, More Truths?
by Mohammad Nizam TransformingPap on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 5:47pm.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/moham...-more-revelations-more-truths/217501431629483
Hi Nizam,
Great. I’m sorry to have to conceal my identity, but I’d prefer to remain anonymous so I can research this more thoroughly without fear of repercussions.
Dr Patrick Tan’s CV is available here:
http://www.gis.a-star.edu.sg/internet/site/investigators.php?f=cv&user_id=37
His press release is here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=242709609083900
There’s a few questions here. After looking at his CV, and his subsequent clarification as well as some old newspaper reports. I’ve the following questions.
A report by the ST “5 President’s Scholars this year” dated 20th Aug 1988 says that Dr Patrick Tan was already away in Harvard studying for a medical degree. Hence he couldn’t have made it in time for the photo-op done the previous day on 19th Aug. The other 5 awardees were present though. I would like to link you to the report, but unfortunately it’s been taken offline (for some unknown reason). The dead link is here:
http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19880820.2.4.aspx
The article used to be accessible here as you can see from this Google search:
http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=...0007l0l10196l39l39l2l33l0l0l209l604l1.1.2l4l0
According to Dr Patrick Tan’s CV, he was awarded the scholarship only in August 1988. However, according to the ST report he was already away in Harvard by 20thAugust. People say Dr Patrick Tan was granted this disruption because he was President’s Scholar. However, it is beginning to look like the disruption was granted before and not after he was awarded President Scholarship. So the PS can’t explain why he got disrupted. The reports also state that President Scholar candidates for males are assessed on their military performance in NS, so personally it looks like the disruption was approved before it was clear that he would be awarded PS.
But his CV makes things even more confusing. According to the CV, Dr Patrick Tan was awarded President Scholar and the Loke Cheng Kim Scholarship in 1987. Now, that was the last year of his JC, and certainly before the A level results which he aced was out. So something is wrong here. Either Dr Patrick Tan made an error with the dates, or he was awarded it even before anyone knew how he scored for ‘A’ Levels.
For myself I believe Dr Patrick Tan had misremembered the date of the President Scholarship. It should be as reported by the ST dated 1988 instead of 1987. But I’m less certain about the LCK scholarship. There doesn’t appear to be any news article about that. When was he awarded that? Was his disruption granted on the basis of being awarded the LCK scholarship?
Next, Dr Patrick Tan says in his note that he entered NS in 1988. I believe I saw a comment on Dr Tony Tan’s FB page from an old friend of Dr Patrick Tan who said that he misremembered the date. Apparently it appeared that Dr Patrick Tan had enlisted in end 1987 instead of 1988 as claimed.
Secondly, the original reply by Dr Tony Tan’s office made reference to the fact that Dr Patrick Tan’s disruption was not as unusual as it seems because many people had disrupted to study medicine. But here’s what is unusual. It’s not a guarantee that one would automatically be granted disruption to study medicine. In fact in 1986, some 2 years earlier, MINDEF tightened the policy on which medical student gets to disrupt. The article explaining this is here:
http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article.aspx?articleid=straitstimes19860327.2.63
As you can see, disruption was not always granted even if it is the case that Dr Patrick Tan would be coming back as an MO to serve his NS (he did not). Moreover, Dr Patrick Tan did his medical studies in a school which was not recognized by the Government yet as an approved overseas medical training college. You can see the press release where they finally recognized a medical degree from Stanford here:
http://singapore.usembassy.gov/uploads/images/gUKZM7OFtm50I7xWbjpAQw/MedicalRegistration_03.pdf
So strangely, Dr Patrick Tan got disrupted to study medicine in a school which was not yet recognized by Singapore. Hence this make sense that he could not undergo MOCC, or be converted to an MO and instead remained at 3SG. What is clear is that he did not disrupt as originally claimed, the same way many other medical students did. His case was purely studies in medical research but not medicine. It turns out also that Dr Patrick Tan was never registered in SMC as a practicing doctor. So clearly the MO route was never an option. Hence it must be clarified that his disruption has nothing to do with coming back as an medical officer. It was a special case by itself.
Lastly, other outstanding individuals were told that they could not defer for a post-grad degree. So I wonder why Dr Patrick Tan was granted this privilege. For example I refer you to these ST articles from 2001, where an outstanding individual who got straight A’s and offered PhD programme to MIT was denied further deferment and had to serve NS. The consequence? He dropped his Singapore PR as a result. The reply by MINDEF makes it clear that the individual could only disrupt for undergrad studies.
http://furrybrownblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/inflexible-policies-could-lead-to-brain-drain/
I hope I have not asked too many questions. All these are lingering questions which I feel make the story incomplete.
by Mohammad Nizam TransformingPap on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 5:47pm.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/moham...-more-revelations-more-truths/217501431629483
Hi Nizam,
Great. I’m sorry to have to conceal my identity, but I’d prefer to remain anonymous so I can research this more thoroughly without fear of repercussions.
Dr Patrick Tan’s CV is available here:
http://www.gis.a-star.edu.sg/internet/site/investigators.php?f=cv&user_id=37
His press release is here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=242709609083900
There’s a few questions here. After looking at his CV, and his subsequent clarification as well as some old newspaper reports. I’ve the following questions.
A report by the ST “5 President’s Scholars this year” dated 20th Aug 1988 says that Dr Patrick Tan was already away in Harvard studying for a medical degree. Hence he couldn’t have made it in time for the photo-op done the previous day on 19th Aug. The other 5 awardees were present though. I would like to link you to the report, but unfortunately it’s been taken offline (for some unknown reason). The dead link is here:
http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19880820.2.4.aspx
The article used to be accessible here as you can see from this Google search:
http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=...0007l0l10196l39l39l2l33l0l0l209l604l1.1.2l4l0
According to Dr Patrick Tan’s CV, he was awarded the scholarship only in August 1988. However, according to the ST report he was already away in Harvard by 20thAugust. People say Dr Patrick Tan was granted this disruption because he was President’s Scholar. However, it is beginning to look like the disruption was granted before and not after he was awarded President Scholarship. So the PS can’t explain why he got disrupted. The reports also state that President Scholar candidates for males are assessed on their military performance in NS, so personally it looks like the disruption was approved before it was clear that he would be awarded PS.
But his CV makes things even more confusing. According to the CV, Dr Patrick Tan was awarded President Scholar and the Loke Cheng Kim Scholarship in 1987. Now, that was the last year of his JC, and certainly before the A level results which he aced was out. So something is wrong here. Either Dr Patrick Tan made an error with the dates, or he was awarded it even before anyone knew how he scored for ‘A’ Levels.
For myself I believe Dr Patrick Tan had misremembered the date of the President Scholarship. It should be as reported by the ST dated 1988 instead of 1987. But I’m less certain about the LCK scholarship. There doesn’t appear to be any news article about that. When was he awarded that? Was his disruption granted on the basis of being awarded the LCK scholarship?
Next, Dr Patrick Tan says in his note that he entered NS in 1988. I believe I saw a comment on Dr Tony Tan’s FB page from an old friend of Dr Patrick Tan who said that he misremembered the date. Apparently it appeared that Dr Patrick Tan had enlisted in end 1987 instead of 1988 as claimed.
Secondly, the original reply by Dr Tony Tan’s office made reference to the fact that Dr Patrick Tan’s disruption was not as unusual as it seems because many people had disrupted to study medicine. But here’s what is unusual. It’s not a guarantee that one would automatically be granted disruption to study medicine. In fact in 1986, some 2 years earlier, MINDEF tightened the policy on which medical student gets to disrupt. The article explaining this is here:
http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article.aspx?articleid=straitstimes19860327.2.63
As you can see, disruption was not always granted even if it is the case that Dr Patrick Tan would be coming back as an MO to serve his NS (he did not). Moreover, Dr Patrick Tan did his medical studies in a school which was not recognized by the Government yet as an approved overseas medical training college. You can see the press release where they finally recognized a medical degree from Stanford here:
http://singapore.usembassy.gov/uploads/images/gUKZM7OFtm50I7xWbjpAQw/MedicalRegistration_03.pdf
So strangely, Dr Patrick Tan got disrupted to study medicine in a school which was not yet recognized by Singapore. Hence this make sense that he could not undergo MOCC, or be converted to an MO and instead remained at 3SG. What is clear is that he did not disrupt as originally claimed, the same way many other medical students did. His case was purely studies in medical research but not medicine. It turns out also that Dr Patrick Tan was never registered in SMC as a practicing doctor. So clearly the MO route was never an option. Hence it must be clarified that his disruption has nothing to do with coming back as an medical officer. It was a special case by itself.
Lastly, other outstanding individuals were told that they could not defer for a post-grad degree. So I wonder why Dr Patrick Tan was granted this privilege. For example I refer you to these ST articles from 2001, where an outstanding individual who got straight A’s and offered PhD programme to MIT was denied further deferment and had to serve NS. The consequence? He dropped his Singapore PR as a result. The reply by MINDEF makes it clear that the individual could only disrupt for undergrad studies.
http://furrybrownblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/inflexible-policies-could-lead-to-brain-drain/
I hope I have not asked too many questions. All these are lingering questions which I feel make the story incomplete.
