President’s Scholar, one year on
Went to the Istana last night to witness the President’s Scholars ceremony. For a few fleeting moments of deja vu, I recalled that one year ago I had stood there on that stage, where the President had put a thin red folder with gold lettering in my hands. “Serve Singapore,” he had said, and then it had been one crazy year before I found myself back again last night.
The Istana, before my ceremony last year
It has been an up and down year for scholarships in Singapore. A subject usually hidden from the mainstream media, it has enjoyed quite a bit of attention this year. Eddie Teo’s open letter to scholars emphasized the need to “be yourself”. Yet for many Singaporeans scholarships continue to be a thorny issue- “paper generals”, educated on public money, who are guaranteed advancement and “special favor” from the bosses. There has even been the emergence of the ex-scholar, disillusioned and critical like the one here, and counter-arguments from the “status quo”, like the response here.
I will admit I do not know much about the scholarship system, nor have I experienced enough to have an opinion on it. But one year on, I have no regrets at all choosing to go this route, instead of taking up financial aid. My work in the police has opened my eyes to the Singapore I never knew. A year ago I sat in a interview room and told them I thought I could make Singapore a bit better, and one year on that belief still remains.
One thing I must bring up: shortly after the ceremony last year, I was talking to an old friend, and told him I had taken up a scholarship. Oh, he said, that means you can’t think and blog anymore. Yet, one year on I must say I have never been told to censor myself, or asked to close this blog down. Hopefully this will not change. As Eddie Teo said, “it is all right to be critical, and even sceptical”- perhaps not only just in the interview room, but in the real world beyond.
