ON MONDAY, I came across a letter on the ST Forum. It was written by an obviously irate but concerned reader about the state of our transport system. According to him, our trains are still crowded, hot and slow: A 4-minute frequency is deemed far too long whilst a 70kmh average speed is just too slow.
It's easy to brush off a letter like that. After all, it's another of one of 'those' complaint letters that companies receive far too often. In hindsight however, I realised that letters like these say a lot more about the Singaporean psyche than we would like to admit.
We are inherently a difficult people. Nothing is ever good enough for us. There will always be room for improvements (and complaints), no matter how good we have it already.
True, on one hand, an attitude like this ensures that standards are always kept high and is a sign that we will never settle for less. Admittedly, that is not a bad thing per se. However, the main issue here now is to consider whether we go too far sometimes.
How much of a difference can 2 minutes make? It's far from being a long wait and making a fuss out of it borders on being ridiculous.
And this is especially so after the conversation I had with a Pakistani fellow judge during a recent international debating competition I was at.
Prior to talking to him, Pakistan to me was the country that only existed in the news. It is located in South Asia, far away from Singapore. It is the place where Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. It is where there exists a never-ending conflict with India.
Conflict, violence and bloodshed. Without personally speaking to someone who had seen it, all this was pretty hard to believe.
However, I eventually had to.
Said Pakistani friend is a 23-year-old final year student studying medicine. Coming from two different parts of the world, we proceeded to talk about our countries. Being an aspiring doctor, he was most interested in the state of our health services and the main health concerns that Singapore faces.
I mentioned that we were having a problem with diseases most commonly associated with developed countries: Diabetes, obesity and heart-related diseases. Other than that, Singapore is well-known for being a medical hub and the latest medical technologies are developed here.
He told me a different story: In Pakistan, they struggle with diseases which are associated with both developed and developing nations. Doctors treat obese or diabetic patients alongside those who are undernourished due to lack of food.
Furthermore, despite advancements in medical technology, many patients choose to seek the help of 'Holy Men' to cure them of their ailments. Cancer patients who could otherwise be cured using the latest treatments are subjected to the futile 'cure' of being beaten by shoes to 'beat the evil spirit' out of their bodies.
Doctors end up seeing patients in the terminal stages of the disease who die even though they could have been treated successfully much earlier.
Then, we talked about doctors. I told him that being a doctor was generally a well-regarded profession in Singapore. People respect and look up to their doctors.
He told me that this was the reverse in Pakistan. If anything, people tend to look down on them. Those in the private sector were ludicrously overpaid whilst those in the public sector were so overworked that they barely had time to interact with their patients. This lack of interaction led to the conclusion that doctors lack compassion and passion for their jobs.
I listened, intrigued by this picture he painted.
Moving on, we then discussed poverty. He asked me if Singapore had a problem with poverty. I mentioned briefly that it wasn't that big a problem in Singapore.
“In general,” I told him, “the 'poor' in Singapore at least have a roof over their heads and receive some form of help from the government if needed.”
In a matter-of-fact tone, he replied, "Poverty in Pakistan is starving children on the streets in the cold."
I did not know how to react to what he said.
The conversation then moved to the topic of politics.
I mentioned the two main gripes that Singaporeans generally have. They either complain that 'it's not fair' to have one main political party in power or they complain that Singaporeans are politically apathetic.
My Pakistani friend looked at me briefly and replied, "We have multiple political parties in Pakistan but they spend too much time bickering and nothing gets done for the people and funnily, because nothing ever gets done, they become politically apathetic."
Once again, I remained silent.
It was a strange and sad reversal of situations we had in our countries. I realised that we really did have it better.
So, who are we to complain about trains which go at 70kmh, have faulty air-conditioning and come every 4 minutes?