The Never Published Story I Wrote

Besides the piece for Urban which I did on musical couples e.g. Derek Whibley and Avril Lavigne, which never saw the light of print (why ah!!), this one is on a smaller scale, for NTU. Haha, here it is:

Deities and Demons


My speech lecturer likened Lee Kuan Yew to a deity. Many students here apparently think so too, judging from the snake like queues at Canteens A and B on 17 to 19 September where 600 tickets each day from 11am were distributed to would be participants of this year’s ministerial forum.

The Minister Mentor, still one of the most powerful and influential people in Singapore at a wrinkling 84 years, visited NTU on 4th October to speak at the annual forum. It was his 4th feature as speaker in the last 12 years. The 2 ½ hour forum was held at Nanyang Auditorium with the topic: Singapore in the 21st century. The discussion, proffered that Singapore, will not be able to replicate the stunning rate of economic growth in the 60’s and 70’s and highlights the challenges faced by our nation in an increasingly uncertain, political and economic environment.

That is macro-level reality. Micro-level: I realize we have demons in our midst. Obviously, being an avid admirer of the founding father for his gargantuan achievements and sharp thinking, I went hunting for tickets on the first day of collection.

It was crazy. At 11am, the queue number had already reached 107. 600 tickets would be given out per day for both venues. Therefore at Canteen A, I was number 108 out of 300. Satisfied with myself, I pulled out my IPod and indulged in the waiting. Around 15 minutes later I was rudely jolted out of my world. One of the event helpers was gesturing at me. Removing one of ear-phones, I realized that he wanted to see my verification. I offered him my matriculation card. He stopped. “I need your IC as well” he said.

Being a person that doesn’t go around looking for un-necessary trouble, I have always steered clear of bringing important documents like my IC or passport out my house for lest they fall into the wrong hands. I can picture someone rushing to the loan-shark to steal a loan using my pink card with my home address conveniently emblazoned on the back.

I use the next-best-thing, my driver’s license for almost all local verification purposes, whether gaining entry into clubs or collecting my matriculation card. Thus far, it had served me well. Not this time. “It’s our policy only to accept your IC for ticket collection” he said. “We have turned away people coming to us with driving license” he added. I thought he was joking. I reasoned that both the IC and driving license served the same purpose of verification. Why, both had my face and IC number on it. The only difference was that the IC had added information on home address and blood type which in his case seemed to be very important for ticket collection to a ministerial forum.

At a loss for words at my reasoning (maybe I was the first one whom made him aware?) he told me to wait while he checked it out. He pulled a be-spectacled guy over, whom judging by the way he conveyed his authority, seemed to be higher in ‘rank’ compared to his colleague. I used the same reasoning on him and got a shocking answer. “We need the IC for security purposes, security verification” he said.

My first reaction was a blank in my mind. Then I felt I was downgraded from a Singaporean student to a migrant worker. My IC for security purposes? For admission into a ministerial forum? Now that’s new. “For security purposes?” I repeated to him.

Maybe it was the sugar and margarine rush from the McDonald’s Hotcakes meal which I consumed minutes ago or the over consumption of double-yolk lotus mooncakes at a rate of 2 per day but what happened next was shameful. I actually backed down and decided to come back on Wednesday with my IC to get the tickets.

While walking back to my hall, I kept on thinking about the failure to get ticket and I shocked myself when I realized that I did not even know what ‘security’ reason he was talking about. I could have just slapped him for even suggesting it. On second thought, I should have slapped myself twice as hard for meekishly accepting his inflexible stand. Blaming the maple syrup overdose just won’t cut it now.

I further felt the un-fairness of the situation when I was at Canteen B the next day for lunch. Out of curiosity, I asked the booth attendants whether they allowed driving license to be used in place of IC for ticket collection. “Yes of course, no problem with that” was the male attendant’s immediate reply. Sadly, tickets for Tuesday were long given out. I set a strategy for Wednesday and promptly reported to the frontlines of Canteen B at 10.30am the next day with my driving license and matric card in hand.

While in the queue waiting for my tag, I wondered whether they had changed their stand on allowing the driving license since yesterday. Whatever the case was, I wasn’t going to leave without a battle this time. It was kind of anti-climatic, the lady giving out the tags accepted my matric card and driving license without a word and handed me a tag labeled 104 (not bad for 10.30 huh) to exchange for the ticket.

At 11.40am, I was the proud holder of a ticket to the 2007 ministerial forum. And my IPod’s battery life had been drained to 10%. Lest you think that this piece is about me, of course it’s not.

It’s about the differing standards practiced by the same Student Union Body. How could there be different criteria for ticket collection by the same organization? How many students have been unfairly turned away at Canteen A?

It’s also a wakeup call for all of us regarding our stand in life. When we know that something is right beyond any reasonable doubt, don’t do yourself a dis-service by letting anyone else tell you otherwise. There are people out there whom purposely make our lives difficult so why should we let them have theirs any easier?

Apply this to all similar challenges you face from now on but at the most basic local level, let’s not forget that the driving license is as good as the IC and don’t allow anyone to contradict that, because they are certainly not your friends and if you believe them, you can slap yourself too.