Happy New Year 2010!

Exactly a year since the last post, and its the New Year again!

I remember many a time within this past year where I have had the urge to write something on this blog, but somehow laziness or a lack of inspiration would get the better of me. But tonight is different, tonight is the start of a new decade. And I thought I should pen down some of my thoughts.

I remember 31st December 1999 very vividly. I had a piano performance on that night at the Drama Centre @ Fort Canning, 'The Little Prince' it was. The entire family was there to watch the LPT concert, and we ended close to 10pm. It had been a successful concert as far as I remember, my first concert with responsibilities both on stage as a performer, and backstage as stage manager. The family then proceeded to Pasir Ris Park, Fishermens' Village, to countdown with everyone else. My mum's family operated the business there, and many of our relatives were there too. The place was packed and crowded with people all waiting to usher in the New Year by the sea.

Where I was at exactly 0000hrs on 1 Jan 2000, I cannot really remember now. I probably had counted down with everyone else, and wished everyone a wonderful new year, but I do remember going over to the playground subsequently for some peace and quiet. I always liked these moments of quiet reflection, especially at momentous times like the dawning of a new millennium.

We left the park at about 2am, went for a short supper meal somewhere, before heading back to the temporary home at Mariam Way. The original house in Pasir Ris was still being rebuilt at this time. After showering up and everything, everyone had gone to bed, and I switched on my study lights, and startd to pen my memoirs of my life in the millenium that had just passed me by, my life from 1985 to 1999, up till I was aged 14. The entire essay was written in Mandarin (looking back now I cant think of the exact reasons for using it instead of English, but I had a tendency to express more intrspective thoughts in Mandarin anyway). The original copy of it sits proudly in my room to this date, and through the years, I have had more than my fair share of flipping through it just to relive the memories. It was not a short article, but overall, it was a very contented one. I remember being very satisfied with my life, very contented, having no regrets, with little aspirations for the future except that it would hold more of the same.

In the blink of an eye, here we are in 2010. To say the least, it has been an eventful decade. Alot of the things that have happened have been documented here on the blog, in private writings that I keep and in conversations with family and friends. Looking forward to the next decade, I would probably have much more aspirations for myself than I had in 1999, not because I have become less satisfied with my life, but because this past decade has shown me the possibilities one has to bring about a more meaningful life for everyone, including myself.

Looking forward ten years from now, I hope that I will have been able to pursue some of my interests in communication between different groups of people (especially within Southeast Asia), in contributing towards environmentally-responsive food production, and fulfil my responsibilities as a dedicated civil servant in Singapore. On the home front, I wont go as far to say that I will be married come 2020, but that certainly would be an important milestone (considering that for the past 5 years of my life, I have been saying that I would get married at 25!) Marraige apart, the happiness, cohesiveness and good health of the present family has always been top of the priorities and that will always stay.

Looking back at the ten years gone by, I really cant say that it has been as smooth-sailing as the years from 85-99, but what I can say is that it has been every much as meaningful and fulfilling. I remember writing in 1999 that back then I felt as if alot of good things had been thrust onto my shoulders, and all I had to do was take them on and everything seemed to roll on great. This past 10 years since then has been anything but that. I really feel that everything I did, or did not do, was largely to alot of thinking and effort on my part, and on my family and friends. I have never, and will never deny the importance of good luck in my life, and there have been many such moments this decade too. However, in terms of the relationships I have forged with both family and friends, in terms of the work I have done in school and outside school, I wont bat an eyelid to say I put in a real lot of effort to get to where I stand today. And I am proud of that.

If there is one thing that has not changed though since 1999 or even before, it has been my philosophy on how I treat others in life. In 1999, I wrote that regardless of what I did, I only had used my heart with good intentions for all around me, to the extent that it could cause me some frustration even at times. I am overjoyed that despite having seen and experienced so much since then, I can hold my head up high and say I still walk the talk. Honesty and sincerity are still very much the guiding principles of my life, and if there is anything I wish now that stays the same in this decade to come, I will say, let it be my conviction to them.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2009!

This blog always serves as a timely reminder to myself as to how time really flies by. Every New Year, I will go back to the New Year posts I made previously, and I always feels that it was yesterday when I posted them. And thus, here we are again, peering into 2009. And so, may I wish everyone a wonderful 2009, with happiness, good health, and fulfillment in abundance! =)

Lessons on Humanity

Thoughts from a Cultural Workshop in Batam

‘Music is not about telling a story, or describing a picture. Music is about feelings.’ In one of his Young People’s Concerts, Leonard Bernstein touched upon the topic ‘What does Music mean?’ The above was his answer. While the concert itself was given way back in 1958, I only had the opportunity to listen to it in DVD format in the comforts of a suite in Turi Resort, Batam. It was my first involvement with LPT ever since I ‘graduated’ in 2003.

Mr Wong had been preparing for the Batam Workshop at least a month before 16^th Nov 2008 when we departed Singapore. I was lucky enough to have had the chance to meet him for discussions on his objectives for the trip and how these objectives could be met. Through the discussions, I could sense this desire in Mr Wong, to develop ‘sensitivity’ in his students towards culture and ultimately, towards their own feelings. This was going to be about development in humanity.

The problem with an education in sensitivity is that one cannot teach it. One can only expose others in as different ways as possible, in the hope that one or a couple of these ways can evoke that ‘enlightenment of self-feeling’ within others. Having acquired an acute sensitivity of one’s own feelings, one is then able to truly appreciate culture and music, thereby transcending into a genuine appreciation of life in general. The Batam Workshop was thus that, a rigorous experimentation that the children and their parents were put through, visiting cultural venues such as ‘Tua Pek Kong’ and ‘Kong Zi’ Temple, natural spots such as mangrove swamps, local commerce culture such as the street markets and shopping malls, as well as an indigenous village. Just as Mr Wong described it himself, the trip was like a maze, he never really knew which path would lead to an outcome, or even if any of the paths would lead to anything at all.

For every activity and venue, the participants were given a list of questions that would serve as ‘guiders’ to bring out their feelings and thoughts. Mr Wong would also share his own feelings and viewpoints. The questions moved from the more tangible, observational types like ‘what are the differences between … and …’ to the more intangible ones on impressions, feelings and ‘what music arose during the visit’. The children and parents expressed themselves in words and sketches. The intention behind this simple exercise was simple – to get the participants to be more observant about things around them. The more observant one is, the more feelings one feels in greater depth. The greater the variety of feelings one is exposed to, the greater the range of expressions one is able to convey, be it through your writing, music, dance or any other form of design and communication.

At the end of the trip, the participants were divided into groups according to age to make their own sand design, based on the theme of ‘a diary in Batam’. The younger students created a temple out of the sand, but with surprising detail to the structural symmetry and wall design of the temples they had seen. The older students explored the philosophical paradigm of ‘life as a boat’ and the more raw expression of emotion of a struggle between a ‘snake and a chicken’ which they had seen in one of the villages. The adults chose to depict the journey from Singapore to Batam and their thoughts on the trip.

Throughout the trip, the children also kept a log of their answers to the questions posed and their thoughts in general. The visit to the village where they experienced little children selling fruits left a deep impression on quite a few of the older children. Most of their writings revealed a deeper sense of emotions beyond the superficial, ‘I felt that pity wasn’t the right emotion to describe my feelings then as they seemed happy and contented as they were selling or had sold the fruits’; ‘If I had to give up all I had now to come here to stay, I would not be too happy as I would have lost many opportunities.’ Different people had different thoughts, but all were equally original journeys of self-discovery into trying to explain what they were feeling and why they were feeling that. The key to me therefore, is that when it comes to your own feelings, there can be no right or wrong, there can only be whether you have experienced deeply or superficially.

Friends who I had informed of the trip had asked me, ‘Why go on a cultural trip to Batam? It’s a place of vices! Prostitution, gambling..’ I think the participants on the trip would be able to reflect a very different side of the reality. If we as humans simply take the pre-conceived, popular notion of things, and let these things guide us, then it is very difficult for us to understand ourselves as individuals. But if we put aside everything, and put our senses to the task of observation, and our mind to the understanding of our feelings, we can then find our own individuality, our own appreciation of our existence!

I am not sure how well Mr Wong has achieved his objectives and only time can really tell. But again, as he said, he had already laid the seeds of opportunity to his students and their parents. From the feedback of parents and children alike, everyone had probably started on the same footstep (be it bigger or smaller) in that direction…(for example, some students were very strong on their observations, while others were beginning to express in-depth self-reflection.)

“If each time after you feel, you think and try to understand why you felt what you felt, then in the future, you will be better able to express yourself in a way that helps others to feel what you want them to feel too! But if you do not feel, and do not train yourself to be observant in the first place, then you will find it very difficult to evoke any form of emotion in others at all. And gradually, humanity would have lost something ...” my own thoughts on art and communication

Political parties: Does pragmatic Singapore need them?

THE letter by Mr Gilbert Goh on Wednesday, 'Two-party system better', summarises the view held by some Singaporeans that a two-party system would be more beneficial than a one-party system as advocated by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last week. However, the gist of the argument for a two-party system has not run away from 'checks and balances' and 'democracy'. To me, such arguments have not really understood the meaning and relevance of a party in the first place. The fundamental reason why parties are started is that they carry certain political and philosophical ideologies which they think should transcend towards social and economic policies which will best be able to raise the standard of living of society. The idea of having a political party just to ensure checks and balances on the ruling party (as these arguments seem to imply) miss the point completely. In fact, such a mentality would lead to an opposition party opposing for the sake of opposing.

On that same note however, if the governance of a country is based on pragmatism as our leaders have explained over the years, then one should question the whole idea of a party system. Pragmatism in reality is not beholden to any political or philosophical ideology. The best manifestation of it is 'the most suitable policies at the most appropriate times'. Indeed, for a small city-state like Singapore, completely intertwined within the complex web of globalisation and international cities, pragmatism may be the only viable form of governance ideal. We cannot afford to hang on to any pre-subscribed ideology, be it socialism or democracy, just for the sake of doing so.

However, the concept of a party, by nature of its cause for existence, will need its members to share a certain ideology. Surely, however, pragmatism is something that can receive unrestrained expression only through the individual. Any form of party whip will constrain a member's view of what is the most pragmatic way to do something. If a certain policy is pragmatic, however, individuals who do not belong to any party may also subscribe to it jointly (as if in a party) as it is the most pragmatic choice to take.

Would Singapore then be better off without political parties, but responsible and capable individuals putting themselves up for elections? A selected group of 'respected elders' within society can serve as the baseline moderators for such interested individuals. For those people championing a two-party system, surely, a non-party individual-based form of democracy would provide an even more elaborate check-and-balance framework of democracy.

(Above article was published in this form in ST Online Forum on 21st November 2008)

On Obama's Election

"We reward people a lot for being rich, for being famous, for being cute, for being thin ... one of the values I think we need to instill in our country, in our children, is a sense of 'usefulness', in other words, are we useful, are we making other peoples' lives a little bit better?' - Barack Obama

Mr Barack Obama's election as the next President of America, is indeed historic, and has grabbed attention and attracted euphoria all over the world. Youths especially have been invigorated, stimulated and excited by his vision of change, his background and his charisma. Many news reports have written on how the US and the world indeed could become, under the Obama presidency. I will not go into all that, and will keep this post short.

To me, Barack Obama is not about being an antithesis to George Bush, he is not about pulling out of Iraq, he is not about getting America out of the current financial crisis, he is not about being the first black American President. These are things the American electorate (if not the world) want to hear, and therefore, are the things he has said to gain their vote and support. To me, Barack Obama is much more. He is about intuition, a man in tune to his own thoughts and feelings, a human beings who inclines towards the tangible and woolly, often-much shunned concept of 'social fairness'. When studying in Indonesia as a young boy, he told his teacher he wanted to be President. His reason? 'So that he can make everyone happy.' This was his intuition speaking, something he would never be able to use hard facts and figures to prove how, something that is not 'rational' as the term is currently understood. But critically, this was his heart. Before anyone jumps to conclusions and misunderstands, make no mistake, this guy has a great brain. The key though, is that his brain is guided by his even greater heart.

The next four years will likely be tumultuous, I can only hope that at the end of Mr Obama's term, the very same people who are hula-balooing now about how great he is, will not judge him by the so-called facts and figures, and praise or criticize him on that. If so, I do not think they understand the greatness of this man. I hope Mr Obama shows to our world, that if you have your heart in the right place, you will never go wrong following your intuition. I respect him for that, and admire him, for his ability to gain the votes in today's calculative world in spite of his fundamental intuitiveness. That speaks volumes, for his brains.