What a week it has been. I'd expect my four years in university to be extremely peaceful, free from trouble and fuss. My idea of university life used to be that of dating, studying, and having fun generally.
How things have changed in the space of seven days.
University life usually invokes the 'M' word -- mugging. I wonder if future undergraduates have any idea what they signed up for when they applied to get into NTU or NUS. Mugging never ends, here in Singapore. In fact, it continues to haunt you and strangle you, until you finally get out of the education system.
In my father's generation, the 'O' Level certificate was certainly enough for most people. Now, even a Bacholer's degree is not sufficient. My friend told me this: he is considering taking up a Master's degree, for the sheer fact that he wants to stand out from the competition.
Things are certainly getting interesting, right here at NTU. In one night, at the click of a mouse, I became an activist, and I did not even realise it then. So, what is activism, you wonder? It is standing up for certain beliefs, and fighting to get it recognised by the authorities and the wider public.
So, what exactly happened? Here's a brief:
1) Chee Soon Juan came down to NTU to gave out flyers and talk to students. They were generally apathetic, but student reporters were on hand to report the event.
2) However, the campus administration did the unthinkable -- they censored all coverage of Dr Chee's visit, wanting to "protect students."
3) Many of us at the Nanyang Chronicle, the school's campus newspaper, were infuriated. It showed two things: that the school has no regard for the opinions of students and that the school treats us like children, thinking that we will be easily influenced by whatever we read. That was when a thought came to me: Get it out! Get it out! Singaporeans need to hear about this!
4) After some discussion with certain people, I wrote a piece (you can read it here if you haven't) on how NTU has censored campus media and posted it on The Online Citizen. The NTU administration certainly wasn't pleased.
5) The article generated huge publicity on the Internet, making rounds in the Singapore blogosphere. As of now -- on TOC -- the article has generated 3,629 hits and 98 comments. It has spawned a Facebook group, and caught the attention of the Straits Times (I saw some ST photographers at SCI, one Brian van der Veek and another Alphonsus Chen), although somehow the story didn't get published in the end.
I had doubts, really, about what I did. Should I have talked to the student administration first? Should I have kept it internal? But my actions have already sparked a chain of events and there seems to be no turning back from there. I am reassured though, to find out that I wasn't the first to do such things (a campus paper in the US experienced the same thing), and I probably won't be the last.
Actually, I am the last person to expect myself to do such a thing. I am a really mild person. My friends can certainly attest to that. But maybe that is just a front after all.
Where is God in all of this? What is He saying to me? I've prayed about it, and I feel totally at peace. Somehow -- I hope -- He is giving me a pat on the back, and urging me on. There is certainly a long journey ahead of me, and I'll need all the encouragements I can get.
