My friend Dr Tun Singh …

In one of our usual Fellowship gatherings, I had an in-depth conversation with a new member Dr Tun Singh. He is an urologist currently attached to a local hospital for a period of 6 months. He’s leaving at the end of the year for UK where he came from. Urology is a wide discipline comprising the urine system of a human body. Kidney, bladder, urinary tracks etc are part of the urine system. They are even sub-specialists of urology. In layman terms, we just call him a “dick”doctor.

Dr Tun Singh originated from a remote village in the North-western part of India in Punjab province. Due to his busy work commitments, we do not meet often in our Fellowship gatherings. Last Sunday, he was supposed to attend the lunch for a German guest from our German affiliates but he could not make it cuz he was operating throughout the night. I wonder if he was fixing some damaged dick?

Anyway, some time ago, I was able to meet up with this busy dick doctor who has joined us only recently. We had an interesting and informative discussion on languages. When I tried to get alongside to him, he seemed wary of my presence. His serious no-nonsense demeanour is armour clad around his personality. I told myself that I need to break the ice if I want to get into a lively conversation with him.

Since I am quite well versed in Punjabi – definitely better than my Hainanese or Hakka dialects, I could start with some well rehearsed Punjabi phrases. I started with “sat sri akal” followed by “ki hal hai?” He responded in Punjabi also. Then I say, “beer peelay” and “mee agai!” He started giggling. I was telling him to drink his beer and it’s raining! They say learning filthy words of another alien language is the easiest thing to do. I let go a string of Punjabi expletives and body parts descriptions, he turned to shock, disbelieve and then laughed all the way especially when he told me he’s an urologist. Oh you are the “lan_ner” doctor?

The ice is now broken. It’s time to move into the next level of conversation. He told me that he speak many North Indian languages such as Hindi or Gujerati. He used to live in Punjab as a young boy until he went over to UK to study. When he graduated and qualified as a doctor, he continues to live there. He is now a citizen of UK. He is here on a 6-month fellowship attachment partly on a teaching appointment.

When I regurgitated all the Punjabi words and phrases I’ve learnt, he was impressed. According to him, what I just said albeit a little out of diction and pronunciation is similar to the Punjabi in India. It’s just like our Singlish or local English vs UK, American or Oz English. They are similar but with slight variations. I told him it’s the same as Mandarin too. ROC, PRC, Malaysian and locals speak slightly different Mandarin versions. We are able to differentiate where they are coming from by listening to their spoken Mandarin accents.

Dr Tun Singh was asking me if he should learn Mandarin since there are lots of Chinese here.. I told him that many ethnic Chinese learn Mandarin in school for more than 10 years yet could not even pass a simple test. It’s not easy to learn Mandarin even for an ethnic Chinese. He was surprised by this revelation. I told him it’s easier for him to learn some basic Malay. He agreed cuz when he comes across non-English speaking patients like elderly Chinese or Malays and even Indians, they usually try speaking Malay to him. But he doesn’t know Malay at all. Most of the Punjabi could speak Malay cuz they are either locals or from Malaysia. As an Indian here, Dr Tun Singh is expected to know Malay so he says.

Another important thing I learn from him is that “not all Punjabi are Sikhs but all Sikhs are Punjabi.” That is interesting. I didn’t know that fact. Dr Tun Singh says that he may be a Sikh but some Punjabi are Hindus and Muslims. If you visit certain parts of Pakistan where there are Punjabi Muslims especially near to the Punjab region, most of them are Punjabi speaking. It’s the same language as his!

After the gathering with Dr Tun Singh that evening, we became good friends. Subsequent meetings with him were like “BHÁÍ ਭਾਈ” (brothers). Our Dr Tun Singh despite the fact that he is living in UK as a practicing surgeon for most of his adult life, still yearns for his village in Punjab. Whenever, he mentions about his beloved Punjab, his eyes well up with deep emotional feelings! Ah! That is life. We always return back to our roots no matter where we go in our short life span! People like me, born and breed here will never understand the mixed nostalgic feelings entrenched in his mind and spirit! Dr Tun Singh confided in me that he hopes to retire in Punjab when he retires.

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14 Oct 2012: Lunch With Ernst Vogtle at Beng Hiang Restaurant

On Oct 14th, The Fellowship invited our German friend, Ernst Vogtle from our German affiliates for a wonderful lunch at Beng Hiang (茗香) Authentic Hokkien Cuisine Restaurant at Amoy Street hosted by Lohcifer. Like what our member Rob says, it is steeped in history. The restaurant was established in 1978 with more than 30 years of reputation.

I’ve not been to this restaurant even though I’ve heard of it before. It occupies four units of rejuvenated old shophouses along Amoy Street off nearby Chinatown. Amoy street used to be populated mainly by Hokkiens in those early days. From the exterior, it looks like an old Chinese temple with little semblance of a Chinese restaurant. But when one enters, one is charmed by so many Chinese ink paintings of mountains, rivers, flowers and calligraphy on almost every side of the walls. It is indeed a huge restaurant with a cosy atmosphere steeped in Chinese traditions and culture!

Our German friend Ernst Vogtle is most pleased and honoured for the wonderful lunch. All of us took time off on a beautiful Sunday to get in touch with Ernst even though we never met before. It’s through the German Forum that we communicated and got to know each other. Our friendship with our German Club members is an on-going process when we recall Joerg and Heinz visiting us sometime ago. We hope that other than our “permanent resident” Uncle Bodo, more members from our German affiliates will visit us. We really love to meet them and keep each other updated.

Prior to meeting Ernst, the only on-line contact which I had with him when he replied to a discussion thread in our German Forum about “Twitter” and “FB” dated 24/1/12. I blog about it here. We then started chatting when he asked about Beijing. I told him to try the “Peking Duck” when he go there. I didn’t expect to meet him this afternoon. When I saw him, he looked like an imposing German athlete – big stout serious, no nonsense athlete coach with a troupe of athletes!

I was seated next to him. As usual, AG did most of the “tour guide” on all the food dishes served. Whereas, I did most of the “interrogation!” The lunch commenced at about 12 noon and by the time, we left after 2pm, I have got much more information about Ernst than anyone else present there!

Ernst even though at the age of 55 yrs, is still working for a huge Brazilian MNC IT company. He is in-charge of the European operations and now looking into Asian operations. That is why he visited China recently and is in Singapore only for few days to meet a German client. He says that he may visit Singapore often in future due to his work.

Ernst is soft spoken and gentle in his manners even though his appearance gives the impression of a tough army general with a certain air of confidence and command. He is fluent in his English. I suspect he also speaks Portugese well since his wife is from Portugal.

In fact, he told us that he owns a vine yard slighty biggger than a football field. He plants his own grapes and brewed his own wine. He brought a sample for us to try. He told us that he bought a small cottage in a small remote village in Portugal where his in-laws live. The property came with a vine yard in a package. From there, he started through trial and error and even attended a 2-week course from a German professor in wine brewing to get started on this new hobby. Every year, he brewed 2 thousand bottles for his own consumption and give away the rest to relatives or friends. His name is printed on the bottle. It’s not for sale. Only friends could taste it. We all agreed that the red wine brewed from “Tinta barocca” grape specimen in Ernst’s vineyard is awesome! According to Ernst, there are more than 200 types of grapes. That’s surprsing cuz I only thought that grapes are different in colors only such as purple, blue or green colors.

Ernst lives in Mettmann, a rural town in the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany with a population of more than 39,000 on 42 square km. Density of population is only 921 per sq km. Compared to Singapore, we are so much compact. We only about two times bigger than Mettmann town but with 5.3 million people, our density is more than 7,000 per sq km.

Ernst has two children – a 23 year old boy and a 17 year old girl. His son is doing law in a local university. Surprising, he told me that his son also smokes a pipe. He would buy a lighter or tobacco for his son’s birthdays but for his daughter, it’s a little troublesome. So he let his wife buy the presents for his daughter’s birthdays.

Compared to Joerg or Heinz, Ernst really loves chillies. He takes lots of chillies that even locals are taken aback. Every now and then, he would add some chillies to his food. I then told him that he should try some of our local spicy Indian fish head curry in little India.

Unfortunately, it is such a short trip that we could not arrange more activities for him. He arrived around midnite yesterday but will be leaving on Wednesday. Besides meeting his clients for business over the next days, Ernst would try to visit some of the interesting places. This is his second visit. The previous visit was more than 10 yrs ago. Much has changed since.

When the lunch was over at about 2pm, Freddie and myself sent him back to Marriott Hotel. He was most delighted about the fantastic Chinese lunch and our company. Even though we never met before and we were meeting for the first time, we were just like old friends in jovial mood and good company. We could see that he loves Chinese food and chillies. The suckling pig was the best dish for him cuz he remarked that it is much better than Peking duck! He also enjoyed our local Chinese “hamburger” – bun stuffed with marinated black sauced meat.

“Rob’s email … sums it all!

“Dear Lohcifer,

Thanks again for a wonderful luncheon!! The food was really wonderful, the company was splendid and the venue was steeped in history. Hearing Ernst tell the story about his vineyard was fascinating, and I hope we all get to cross paths with him again in the near future… his wine was certainly very good and we appreciated his kindness in letting us sample his ware. Clearly, everyone had a great time and now we’re all feeling the pleasant effects of the food and drink – I’m going to celebrate by taking a Sunday siesta!

Kind regards,

Rob”

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Photos taken by Alec Ee.

NTWU 31st Annual Dinner on 12/10/12 @Orchids Country Club

Yesterday evening, together with my colleagues from different depts of SMRT, we attended the 31st NTWU Annual Dinner 2012 at Orchids Country club. SM Wilson from PSR booked a table and gathered all of us at the same table. Our table was just two tables away from the VIP table. I could see Lim SS, Josephine Teo, Ong YK, Seng HT, Heng CH, etc seated there. Even our SMRT newly appointed CEO was there. It’s quite a rare occasion to see so many union leaders gathered together at a function.

We met at Tampines MRT station at about 5.30pm. We then boarded a bus from Tampines Interchange to Yishun MRT. By the time we arrived at Orchids Country Club, it was about 6.40pm. Around 7,00pm, we settled down at our table number: 16. This is the first time most of us ever been to Orchids Country Club since we don’t play golf. There were about 106 tabes in the huge ballroom. Indeed, it’s such a beautiful place!

Our table comprised different staff from many depts of SMRT. I was the only Train Officer with the others from station, maintenance and circle line. SM Wilson of PSR station was the leader of our table. This is not a company dinner. It is a union dinner representing all the transport workers in Singapore. As such, we have SMRT and even SBS Transit workers at the dinner.

Mr Lim SS went to the stage to give an off the cuff speech. He spoke in English and Mandarin. Basically, he expanded on the theme of “衣食住行” – roughly translated to mean the basic necessities in life such as clothing, food, housing and transport. His short speech is about “imagination.” According to Union Chief Lim SS, imagine if there is no clothing, we would now be naked. Imagine if there is no food, we would be starving here tonight. Imagine if there are no HDB flats, we would be homeless when we go back. The most important of all is still basic transport. Imagine if there is no public transport, our life would be miserable even though we have the basics in life. From there, he went on to thank all of us working in the transport industry making it possible for the public to travel to work, home and recreational activities.

Secretary-general of NTUC and minister without portfolio Lim SS then went on urging all of us to work harder. He says that the public expectations are getting higher and “higherer,” so we must work extra harder to fulfil these “higherer” customer expectations. He thanked brother Ong YK’s services who is leaving for the private sector soon. He made an announcement that he has nominated brother Desmond Choo and another old timer unionist to succeed brother Ong YK. The union members will have to choose between them.

Next to speak is brother Ong YK himself. He spoke in Malay, Chinese and English. He formerly announced his intention to leave the union movement for the private sector. He expressed his appreciation to some of the older union leaders who have guided him. He listed all the names of union officers to thank them for assisting and guiding him. There remains some minor issues that need to be resolved before his final departure on 25/11/12. Could he be referring to the unresolved bus drivers’ salary increase with an extra working day? He felt sad leaving the union movement.

Here in NTWU – National Transport Workers’ Union, everyone is addressed as either brother or sister. Even minister Lim SS is addressed as “brother” Lim SS! It’s rather odd, isn’t it? But it is the culture of the union movement here to address each other as brothers or sisters such as brother Ong YK or brother Desmond Choo etc. I remember it used to be “comrade.” Now it’s brother instead. “Comrade” is outdated!

I would like to say that I have never attended any union dinner function before. This is the first time I was invited by SM Wilson to attend a major union function. There is free flow of beer, music entertainment by professional artistes, cosy atmosphere and lots of lucky prizes such as computer tablets, notebooks, giant LCD TV, NTUC Vouchers etc to be won. Definitely worth more than the $20 each of us paid for the dinner.

The food was mediocre except for the steamed grouper fish. But the compere for the night, namely Wayne Chua was fantastic. He is perfectly bi-lingual and very professional with the handling of the evening’s programmes. He was irresistibly adorable; able to generate a lively atmosphere with lots of jokes, encouragements and games to create a boisterous environment. For example when few of the staff went on stage to play a simple game, they were asked from which company? SMRT or SBS? He then instigated us to support our staff member by shouting and cheering loudly! When SMRT staff was mentioned, we shouted in support. Same with SBS and so on!

There were two performing couples to entertain us. They were professionals doing comical magic shows, singing and performing some tricks on stage. There was a segment put up all the EXCO members of NTWU. It started with a Chinese man dressed in shorts singing in nostalgic Chinese, followed by a Malay lady mimicking to a typically energetic Indian Bollywood dance item. Few Malay EXCO members also sang a Malay song after the Indian dance item by that Malay lady dressed in sari. True reflection of our multi-ethnic cultural identity!

Lastly, all of them joined in to sing an English song, “Beautiful Sunday”. According to emcee Wayne Chua the item put up EXCO members clocking more than 72 hours was dedicated to brother Ong YK who is leaving us soon. The latter was so moved that he suddenly hopped on to the stage to sing with them the English song – “What a Beautiful Sunday” on a Friday night! Lol!

Whilst the activites were going on at the stage, we were also enjoying our food and free flow of beer. CSO Anthony of Aljunied was so pleased with his role of topping up our beer glasses whenever we finished. He was clearly in high spirit mood. He kept asking us to bottoms up and cheering us to drink more beer in between the dishes.

Our new SMRT CEO who just joined us at the beginning of the month was seen busy moving from table to table toasting with staff. Brothers Desmond Choo and Ong YK also came later to toast with us. They were mingling amongst the workers asking all of us to enjoy ourselves. Many group photos were taken together with those union leaders.

Out of all these merry making and entertainment, suddenly we heard different accent coming behind us from our next table. A group of SBS bus drivers mostly Chinese ladies were busy snapping group photos with their mobile phones. I also snapped a few of them. From their spoken Mandarin, it’s quite obvious they were PRCs. They were so happy and speaking loudly amongst themselves at the table. Later when I proceeded to the toilet, I noticed another few tables of PRC bus drivers. They could easily be identified by their unique spoken Mandarin.

The food was just nice but the beer was plentiful. When another jug of beer was offered to our table by the waiter, we declined. We’d had enough already. All of a sudden, we realised that it’s about 10.30pm. It’s time to go back. The NTUC Comfort bus was waiting to send us to Yishun MRT bus interchange.

From Orchids Country Club, in the bus, the sweetest melodious voice of our local Chinese lady charmed us. She was singing loudly “One night in Beijing!” Whenever we heard the English sentence ‘One night in Beijing’, we all sang along with her. The rest of the song was in Mandarin. Maybe, it’s due to the fact that she was a local Chinese lady that we took an immediate liking to her. We cheered her on and together inside the bus, we kept singing “One night in Beijing”with her over and over again until we reached Yishun Bus Interchange. Some of us just sighed when we reached the bus interchange. We then clamoured for her to take a photo and asking where she came from. She told us that she worked in Bishan depot at ESA dept.

I reminded them that it’s already 11.30pm. If we didn’t go catch our bus number: 39 back to Pasir Ris, we may have to end up taking a taxi. Reluctantly, we made our way to Yishun Bus Interchange to board bus number: 39 back to Pasir Ris. Chris, Wilson, Bobby, Simmon and myself live in Pasir Ris. We went back together sleeping all the way in the bus to Pasir Ris. It’s the best dinner party I ever attended. It’s the fun, atmosphere, the camaraderie of meeting old friends that made it an unforgettable event! Thank you for the invitation. Hopefully, SM Wilson will extend the invitation to me again next year.

No U-Turn Syndrome (NUTS)

Dumbest things done by Singapore police

Like kids, Police also capable of “dumbest things”

Our police have done highly commendable jobs as witnessed in and publicized by Crime Watch.

At the same time like kids they are also capable of doing the “dumbest things”,

The recent case of an offense of using a mobile phone while driving is a case in point.

The offense is compoundable and even after she paid the compound fine and demerited, police continue to withhold her mobile phone containing personal and confidential information.

The question is what else can the police do for this offense unless of course they are trawling at their own leisure for any other offense of subversive or pornographic nature.

Any one knows that won’t take more than five minutes. But they would keep it for days on end with the cliche “to facilitate ongoing investigation.”

In my wife’s case bringing through the woodlands checkpoint a small package of “pok pok” for our two-year old grandson, she was subjected to police treatment as if she was trying to smuggle in a carload of gunpowder!

She was brought to a police car and escorted to Jurong police station by 3 policemen.

After being kept for a few hours while the police filed in their report she was asked to contact someone to bail her out. As I was overseas she called our son to bail her.

Then two weeks later she was called to the Jurong police station again and warned that she could be charged in court for bringing in explosive. But the police inspector said ” I will let you off this time with a warning. If you do it again you will be charged.”

The next time when she was stopped for bringing in a pack of 10 eggs the thought of what she had been through the previous time sent shiver down her spine and her face turned sickly pale.

When she was led to a room the policeman had to open with a big key her thought was “die I am going into a lockup.”

When the door was opened and what she saw was a dustbin for her to dump the eggs she sighed a heavy heave of relief and started thanking the policeman profusely (prima facie for making her dump the high grade omega boosted eggs into a rubbish bin.)

In my case when buying a secondhand mobile phone the slew hands of the shop-owner had me carrying the phone box home with all the accessories and manual but minus the phone.

This is a clear case of cheating and even theft but the Yishun police insisted it was a case for CASE. Had they come with me to the shop a simple search would suffice. But no, the policeman insisted on Case which on its part maintained it only handles cases of defective goods or goods not up to the standard.

These are only some of the “dumbest” cases and I am sure you folks have your share too.

Source

I came across the above article. I read through and found it truly reflects the general nature of our civil service. Some of those things mentioned are not exclusive to the SPF only. Most govt and quasi-govt depts share similar work culture and attitude.

I was a PO for about 12 years. Surely I know much about their eco-system within the civil service. There are few golden rules you need to follow if you want to make a career in the civil service. If you follow strictly those golden rules, your iron rice bowl is safe.

The first golden rule is to follow by the rule book. In the case of SPF, it’s the PGO (Police General Orders), IM (Instruction Manual) and other directives or FOs (Force Orders). How to remember so many orders and directives over the years? Simple, just make a copy each time a new instruction or order comes out which supersedes the previous one and file it in your own folder. You’ll start accumulating all those orders and instructions as the years slip by. So long as you adhere strictly to those orders and instructions written on paper in black and white, you will never get the sack. You will never go wrong. You will survive till pension.

There is no room for empowerment on the ground. You are discouraged to exercise initiative or common sense. Assuming that you deviate from those writtten SOFs (Standard Operations Procedures) and something goes wrong. It backfires. Your bosses would throw all the books on your face. The first standard charge is failure to comply with proper instructions and SOFs yadda yadda … But if it is successful as a result of your own initiative, no one would pat you on the your back for a job well done. This is “NUTS” (No U-Turn Syndrome) according to Creative Technology founder Sim Wong Hoo.

“In Singapore, drivers are not allowed to U-turn unless instructed otherwise, as shown by this traffic sign.

No U-Turn Syndrome (NUTS) is a term first coined by Singapore entrepreneur Sim Wong Hoo, to prominently describe the social behaviour of Singaporeans having a mindset of compliance to higher authorities before proceeding with any action.

In his book “Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium,” he uses a comparison of traffic rules in Singapore to those found overseas, to describe the phenomenon : In Singapore, drivers are not allowed to make a U-turn unless a sign specifically allows them to do so, while in some other countries drivers may make U-turns freely so long as the ‘No U-turn’ sign is not present. Following that, this analogy is used to explain the red tape he has encountered with hard-nosed bureaucrats, which in turn stifles the very creativity that the Singaporean government has been trying to promote in the recent years.

NUTS is also considered as one of the major criticisms of the rigid Singapore education system, where students are taught from a young age to obey instructions in an unquestioning manner, in a society where grades and paper certification are emphasised at the expense of some life skills.” Source

To make matters worst, some of them even try to CYA (Cover Your Arse). They are pre-occupied with taking all measures to fool-proof and safe-guard themselves against any complaints or allegations of wrong doing. For example when I tried to close a case either due to lacking in evidence or no leads at all, my supervisor would direct me by writing in the minutes of the IPs (Investigation Papers) one hundred and one or even one thousand and one things to do before he could trust me to CFF (Complete for filing) the case. Often, he would direct the IP to his supervisor cuz he dared not make the decision. The IP, if it’s a sensitive case kept moving up until it might even reach AGC. The chain of command or “ta-chi_ing” to one another is to CYA! As simple as that! Pass or push the ball to your court. You answer in case that time bomb explodes!

As long as you follow the rules I was told by all the old-timers when I was rookie, nothing will ever happen to you. You will not get into trouble if only you just follow the rules; never mind about the inconvenience caused to the public or the untold man hours and massive costs involved in shuffling unnecessary paper work. Once an IP is created, it’s so difficult to “kill” it. Every 5 to 6 days, you keep accumulating IPs when you take on a 24-hour tour of duty. With more IPs created on each tour of duty and so few CFF, the end result is that you will be swarmed with IPs. Each year, I had 35 days of A/L (21 vacation and 14 casual). But I had to take at least a week of my own leave doing nothing but to clear as many IPs as possible. No one believes me when I told them that I took my own leave to clear work – so that I would not be rostered for active duty.

I could go on and on but I am afraid that I might be hauled to court under OSA if I reveal more of my previous life. We have yet to reach the level of those advanced countries where there is clear freedom of speech and total transparency. I don’t think those gods will take my comments kindly.

I just wish to add that I recently heard of two langgar stories from my friends about SPF. The first case related by my fren Y, a retired pensioner. He told me his fren had left some expensive heavy machinery outside his JTC flatted factory. It was chained and covered. He didn’t shift it into the premises due to space and it’s heavy. He planned to shift it to another factory premises. The next day, it gone missing. He reported it to the police in the police station. The PO classified the case as “missing item!” under “Lost and Found” property. KNN!

The complainant was incensed. It’s a clear cut case of theft. Someone had stolen it. The PO on duty insisted that the item was left outside the factory premises so it’s only a missing item. The case was classified as NOD (No Offence Disclosed). There was no criminal offence revealed. KNN! When my friend heard that story from his friend, he shook his head and wondered aloud what’s happening to our new batch of young officers with much higher education? I would never have classified it as NOD. Highly educated young officers with diplomas and degrees but not street smart enough. It will take years thru’ trial and error to hone their skills. It’s not possible if turnover rate is high! Experienced officers leave the service only to be replaced by younger ones. They are not able to retain a pool of dedicated experienced officers. This vicious cycle keeps repeating itself. It’s a reflection of our core locals across all industries at the national level where loyalty is a thing of the past and cost cutting to trim the bottom-line is the norm. It’s all happening everywhere around us if only you care to examine closely.

I then asked my fren that if you discover your car parked at the carpark gone. Is it missing property or theft? On knowing the mentality of the police too well, my fren said that it could be a case of someone driving off your vehicle without your permission. As such, it is a traffic offence of driving without authorisation; not criminal offence of theft. Again NOD! Every case, they will try to NOD. They love to NOD cases.

We have zero crime tolerance. We don’t have crime here ok? Only if there is an accused caught in the criminal act, then it’s a crime committed. The crime is solved with the accused apprehended. Otherwise, there is no crime you know? Langgar!

Next case, Douglas was relating his recent encounter of a police road block near to his place at Pasir Ris Dr 1 when his boss sent him home past mid night. Some young officers with Sgt rank and an ASP were conducting a road block at Pasir Ris Dr 1. Douglas and his boss surrendered their particulars and were duly screened. Police Officer asked where they were staying. Douglas said nearby and that his boss also living nearby was sending him home. Next question followed, “Where did you all come from?” Douglas got pissed off. “Officer, if I were to tell you we just came from Geylang Rd having screwed some girls. What are you going to do about it?” That young officer holding the rank of Sgt immediately retorted that “you are obstructing the police on duty!” Douglas told him off by asking him if he knew what is “obstructing police on duty? Don’t simply let go like that.” That led to a commotion.

The young ASP then came forward to enquire. Douglas identified himself as a retired police detective with more than 30 years service and that his boss was a retired DSP now running a security firm with more than 100 staff. Douglas is working for him. There was an immediate change in their attitude admonishing them for not disclosing their background earlier. They would not be screened if they did! Douglas told me that nowadays POs are highly educated compared to his time. But hopelessly lacking in EQ, common sense or real experience when handling people. Douglas says that when dealing with today’s demanding public, PO need to be tactful, careful of what to say and wise not to sprout nonsense opening avenues for the public to tekan you!

Both interesting cases were related to me by my retired police officer friends. They are of the same opinion that today’s police officers could not hold a candle to those veterans of that era whom had seen much action. I’ve got many more police stories to relate. I’ll leave it on another time.

PS: ‘NUTS’ happens to be Freddie’s favourite pet topic whenever he criticizes public servants. He’s had his fair share of encounters with those NUTS bureaucrats.

Dr Vai: I’m slightly tilted towards “masochism”

During our weekly fellowship meeting last Saturday, our most charming Dr Vai as usual was entertaining us with his jokes and anecdotes one after another. All of a sudden, he declared that he has a tendency towards “masochism!” Definition of masochism: pleasure in suffering. Alamak!

I wasn’t paying attention to his repertoire of endless anecdotes and jokes but this description caught my attention. We asked him what he meant by that statement? Dr Vai then went on to relate his traumatic childhood experience.

Dr Vai is a Malaysian. He studied and worked in UK before coming over here to practise. He is a specialist in micro hand surgery. He began relating his real experience as a Primary school pupil in a Malaysian school.

According to him, he had to wear a green color school tie as part of his school uniform. The shirt was white and the trousers was also green in color. One day, Dr Vai forgot to bring his tie. He didn’t realise that he left it at home until he reached school. By then, it was too late to go back for his green color school tie.

The little school boy of Dr Vai panicked. He knew that he would get a good thrashing from the school discipline master for his carelessness. Dr Vai and most of the older generation belong to that class of students where they were brought up with a big stick and caning was the norm then. No parents would would ever challenge the school authority even though their children were disciplined by public caning. Nowadays, parents would not hesitate to lodge a police report or even petition to the Prime Minister if they feel that their children were “abused” when their hair was snipped! Really langgar! We live in a different era.

The quick thinking and intelligent school boy of Dr Vai then thought of something to salvage his predicament. He went around the school gardens looking for a pandan leaf. He managed to find a huge longish green pandan leaf and adroitly used it in lieu of a green school tie. The Chinese would describe this precarious situation as “败中求胜是一种境界，一种智慧。” Alas! The school discipline master didn’t resonate with this priceless concept. Maybe, he is not a Chinese? Only a Chinese will understand the full significance of that statement – ” 败中求胜是一种境界，一种智慧。” Many great battles and wars were fought and won based on the full understanding of this timeless concept – roughly translated as “in the face of inevitable defeat and hopeless desperateness, one overcomes adversity to score victory like the proverbial phoenix risen from the ashes is an art and genius!”

Dr Vai was publicly caned and humiliated. It left an indelible mark in his young mind. Till today, he still remembers vividly that incident etched forever in his mind. Dr Vai says that if he were the school discipline master, he would definitely praise and highlight the incident to the entire school as an example of creativeness, resourcefulness and innovation. It was something unexpected of a small little boy. Who would have thought of that pandan leaf replacing his forgotten tie?

Do you think that the little boy ought to be caned? Au contraire, we need to train students who could think out of the box. The key to face ever increasing global competition is innovation, creativity and resourcefulness! We do not wish our competitive school system churning out highly educated leaders lacking EQ or compassion only to lord over lesser educated, disadvantaged mortals and devise ways and means to extract the maximum out of their sweat, tears and blood to keep their bottom line? Do we?

Hence, Dr Vai joked that he is slightly tilted towards “masochism” which he attributed it to that traumatic childhood experience. Psychological damage was done at an early tender age. Despite of that, Dr Vai was able to soar and achieve international fame in his field of speciality. If it had happened to any of us, we might have ended differently! Different strokes of the cane for different folks they say, pun intended.

Click here to read what NTU Professor says about public caning.

Click here to read more about Dr Vai.