One Day in Singapore

Two weeks ago, a colleague and I flew to Singapore for a very short business trip. From the airport to the office, we were lucky to have a friendly taxi driver who was keen on showing things around us, pretty much like a tourist guide.
“That is the Flyer (huge ferris wheel, pretty much like London Eye and Eye on Malaysia – every country has got to have one now, is it?), and that is the new F1 tracks and grandstand.”
He pointed to this and that flats and condominiums. “That one could cost 700k, that one more than 1 million.”
He pointed to some workers trimming trees by the roadside. “Nothing goes to waste. The branches will be ground and used as fertilisers right there on the spot. The leaves they will send to the zoo for the animals to eat.”
He pointed to more buildings. “That belongs to the government. That also belongs to the government.” He continued. “Everything belongs to the government. My house belongs to the government although I’m paying the mortgage. I’m only passing my time there. This car, even this meter, belongs to the government. I’m just the runner, I collect the money and pass it to the government. I’m just an operator, a servant.” What an intense speech! I could sense his resignation. We didn’t say anything.

*
When we were having lunch, we asked our host about Singapore. He is a Sabahan Chinese who just got posted in the Singapore office. When he came out with a list of less-than-positive things, I asked him “So, would you say you prefer to live and work and in Malaysia compared to Singapore?” perhaps intending to fish out a ‘hujan emas negeri orang, hujan batu negeri sendiri, lebih baik negeri sendiri’.
My colleague paused to think before replying “Not necessarily. I could stay in Singapore. They have much better facilities and parks. The pay is ok, it’s just that the houses are too expensive. Malaysia is home, but I dislike the politics – especially recently. We are all Malaysians – why segment us as Chinese, Indians, and Malay?”

*
At the immigration counters in KLIA, I queued for the auto-gate passport check before noticing that the manned counter is vacant. So I proceeded there. The officer took a look at my passport. “Awak lahir kat UK ni kat mana?” “Manchester” I answered. “Jadi awak sokong Man U ke?” “Tak jugak.” We smiled. Having machine-operated systems do make the process more efficient and faster, but once in awhile it’s nice to have that human touch (not literal touch, ok).

*
I reached home thinking how ‘funny’ it was that I only left home half an hour earlier than usual and arrived half an hour later than usual, yet I went to a place hundreds of kilometres away. My colleague also chose to do a daytrip, despite us both being offered to stay overnight. We were at the office for only 4 hours, but that was enough to get the job done. All the travelling was pretty tiring, but as I lie down to sleep that night, with Munief on my right, and Afiefah on my left, I knew that I had made the right decision.