Sunday, November 27, 2005
Even cows appreciate music
I totally don't understand the big hoohah over Melvyn Tan i.e. the world-renowned pianist who defaulted NS and was penalised with a fine. When there are so many articles about this guy in the newspapers and everyone is clambering over themselves to fire the next salvo expressing how they think he's getting off too lightly, your morning read becomes really tiresome. Aren't there other majorly important things in the world for us to be concerned about, rather than debate over whether a fine is sufficient punishment for a person who has defaulted national service? Nonetheless I still felt compelled to read the articles, if only to try to understand what's got everyone's pants tied in knots. And at the end of it all, I gained nothing but frustration and impatience, because I still don't understand what everyone's so angry about.
Sure, he defaulted national service. Sure, he's now a British citizen, and has been staying in the U.K. for decades, and his parents have to fly over to meet him because he can't return to Singapore. Now he's returned to hold a concert, and has to pay a fine for defaulting. Personally I'd like to give him a pat on the back and tell him how excellent he is now, becoming a world-renowned pianist and doing Singapore proud. So what if he didn't serve national service, what's the big deal about that? In pursuing his passion and becoming truly masterful at it surely he's done his own form of national service, surely all the trauma he and his family had to go through were not for naught.
Perhaps I'm totally biased because I'm known to be fanatically against the concept of national service, but hearing all these people proclaim that surely, patriotism to the country should come before self - that Mr. Tan should have served the nation before thinking of his own career - it makes me feel rather nauseous, and wonder how many of these people waxing lyrical about patriotism really mean it. Love for your country can be shown in many ways, perhaps the least of which is national service, so how can we say that a person who defaults national service in pursuit of his dreams doesn't love his country? (Yeah, now I'm sounding totally biased) Not having done NS doesn't make you unpatriotic, just as having done NS doesn't make you a person who loves your country. All these people who're criticising him, what they're really feeling is envy, that he could have
gotten away so easily while they slogged so much of their time away for a "patriotic" cause. Hiding their bitterness behind the veneer of patriotism is so fake.
I'm not saying all this to be in-your-face, I just find it difficult to understand how people can get so angry over something so small, how they can overlook a person's great achievements and instead focus on how that person got away with a minor punishment for what they think is a serious offence (and the offence isn't even criminal). What gets me even more perturbed is how some individuals are even considering making a scene at his concert because of this. It only goes to show how narrow-minded and childish we are, and it's disgusting to see. So get off your little high horses and be happy for Melvyn Tan, a person who was brave enough to pursue his dreams.
I wonder if I'm totally going to get flamed for his post, but I suspect that most people, like me, are wondering why there's a big hoohah about this matter. I just hope it's not illegal to say things like this, heh.
P.S. Regarding the title, certain studies have shown that cows that listen to classical music produce more milk than cows that don't. Yeah, I watch Brainiac.
Avaris / 11/27/2005 02:39:00 PM
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