Trackback from thegreatsze:

I can also consciously decide to eschew both outright elitism (Wee Shu Min) and overcompensating humility (to a certain extent, Alfian Sa'at ...)...

Happens to the best of us! Academia, after all, is an integral part of the Military-Industrial-Financial-Academic-Religious Complex aka Big Brother. Enjoyed an 18-month run at a private college in PJ, guest lecturing 12 hours a week, and getting to know how the young generation thinks (oh, many of them do!)... until a couple of Christian girls filed a complaint that I was in the habit of making jokes about religion in class. They didn't "terminate" me - just cut my hours to 4 a week, which made it less worthwhile, so I quit. Alfian Sa'at has enough talent and brains to move beyond his day job. I'm sure this will catapult him to something much more exciting - and lucrative too :-) If Alfian stumbles on this blog, here's a personal message for you: "Don't waste your energy battling Liliputians, bro. Piss on them and move on!"

Trackback from Simply Me:

There has been a recent brouhaha regarding the dismiss of a relief teacher, who had been dismissed for unknown reasons. I wanted to blog about this earlier, but thought that I should wait until it becomes clear on why he was dismissed....

Trackback from Channel News Asia:

Mr Sa'at has since blogged about his rejection, reproducing his correspondence with the MOE. Other portals and Internet forums have also picked up the controversy, attracting hundreds of postings. ...

Come on folks, the reasons why he lost his teaching job are obvious. Let's be objective here. Sure, MOE is not perfect but with his critical writings, what does he expect? That he be warmly embraced by the establishment? He can't have it both ways.

Noting that MOE has "stringent criteria in the recruitment of relief teachers", the official added "we look at each applicant in view of the specific requirements of the ministry at the time, considering each application as a whole, on its own merit. While many capable candidates apply every year, only those that best meet the organisation's requirements will be considered for appointment."

Why does this sound so eerily similiar to SMU's adverts?

Trackback from Teacher unaccountably terminated:

Opacity is a potent tool for those who wish to oppress us. It denies citizens the information they need to judge for themselves how good the government is in its job, and whether they live up to their promises (e.g. non-discrimination)....

Tsk, tsk.

All these playwrights. They're up to no good, I say.

Alternative explanations for dismissal:

- He blogged about work
- He dropped out of university school
- He dropped out of Medical School after 5 years (it's 6 years), escaping the bond and costing the government a helluva lotta money in tuition fee subsidies
- They didn't want him writing about the school system

No degree, no diploma still can do relief teaching meh?

Yea.. not to mention A levels, my cousin got seven O level credits from two sittings and did it as well.

Can. A lot of A level grads do it (hell, some while waiting for their A level cert)

Only conformists need apply! And gay teachers are a NO-NO! That's Singapore, I am afraid.

Trackback from Blogger Samurai:

I am inclined to agree that in this case, Sa’at behaved a fool. An educated fool, but a fool nonetheless....

Just out of curiosity, can Alfian sue MOE on grounds of discrimination?

Can always deploy him in a Girls Only school lor.....

Sigh! What a waste of talents. I don't think it's gay issue since there are other gay teachers hire to teach fulltime for MOE.

I guess it could be due to this poem linked to his name. No freedom even to make artistic expression in Singapore?

Trawlers
Alfian Bin Sa'at

Come election time
we would see those vans
crowned with loudspeakers
like wind vanes-

with a supply of their own
hot air. Their mission:
to catapult slogans in four directions
and four official languages.

No child throws stones at it.
And old women chew their curses
like betel leaves, tangy, unspat.
Woe be the motorist

trapped behind the hearse-crawl
of the harbingers of "good years".
Who says that lightning
never strikes twice at the same spot?

Here it comes again:
not so much a van as a trawler,
casting huge nets, not subtle hooks;
the only way one catches mouthless fish.

erm.. I think this would be why..

Death of a Tyrant

it will not rain on the day of your passing.
the ground will be the sort that will not yield a grave.
fountains will be turned off, men will arrange chairs
near sun-dusted windows, watching as if expecting
your black-suited procession to visit their streets.
you will refuse, of course, to fit into your coffin,
and they will have to anchor down the eclipses
of your eyelids over those outraged suns.
they will parade you, a gulliver,
with one hundred corpse-bearers taking turns,
because anyone within three feet of you
will sweat at the palms. there will be
junctions where citizens will want to spit
at your passing, but the memory of fines
will keep them mum. what an entourage
it will be, with the walkie-talkied mourners
throwing affidavits like hell money,
(for nobody but you could endure so much
damages in one lifetime), the sunglassed
actresses turning your acronym
into orgasms of mourning, and the cwo
sweepers blushing from behind.
and heading it all, a frisky lettuce-lion, to yap
at the invisible (unlawful?) gathering of hanged ghosts
who will weave for you, like a mute band of brothers,
a wreath of nooses, soiled as stillborn snakes.
your eulogy will be an edifice of fire,
sheer lightning in a cloudless sky,
(O architect of charisma, glorious historical weeper)
a baptism that will char dead trees into totems.
in life, your snort was a decree, your fart a sermon.
in death, a nation's silence will follow you to the grave.
only then will you know what it means to be exiled,
only then will they know what they have
been holding their breaths so long for:
the stench of your corruption,
and the clear, newborn coughing,
on a dawn-rinsed, tearless morning.

truth is, MOE just cant handle a gay teacher. PERIOD.

Hypocrisy at its best! Why should someone with some academic success and relevant experience be able to teach? Let's put boring syllabus-abiding degree/dip holding MOE ROBOTS in classes instead so kids can learn EXACTLY how to hone their creative side.

If it is not about his work performance, then you could probably take this to court to settle for lots of money for "unfair termination".

MOE's reply to Alfian was very evasive and did not enter into any details, Alfian should pursue the matter and find out the reason behind the termination.

He has every right to know the reasons since it was never about his work performance.

Trackback from The Sapphire Dream:

In yet another life-imitating-Dilbert scenario, the government has produced yet another winning answer when a relief teacher asks why he was terminated despite being nothing but exemplary in his work....

Trackback from Illusio:

Dear readers, we've known for almost a full month that Alfian Sa'at has been sacked from his relief teaching post at East View Secondary School. Word travels fast......

Actually, MOE made one unintentional achievement...educating ignoramous me! Eh...not easy you know, my past teachers all vomit blood. Ok lah, tomorrow.sg...you get credit like my tuition teacher lah.

Suaku like me never heard of Alfian till now. Damn, I think his books and plays are going to be more expensive now. Of course, I presume they will still be available...next time give more warning before you blacklist ok? Must give chance to slow suaku.

Dun bother trying to change Singapore...it's a lost cause.

What's troubling to me is that it's precisely this sort of institutional narrow-mindedness, that can breed radicalism among the disaffected. WTF?

what does the fair employment act has to say about this?

are they allowed to discriminate because he is malay? is it because he's not "bilingual".

MOE isn't giving the details, so my best guess is the prevalence of this "bilingual" policy of not speaking mandarin, MOE is racist.

???

There are plenty of Malay teachers out there.

there are plenty of malay fighter pilots too...

There're a lot of Malay toilet cleaners and carpark parking attendants too.

OMG Malays are discriminated against in these jobs!!!

we need to start fighting for the rights of chinese and indians in singapore to be toilet cleaners and parking attendants!!! no more discrimination against non-malays!! down with the affirmative action bumiputra policy of the sg gahmen! equality for all!!

moe's evasive non answer probably means the new moe head thinks there is one too many..

It's not surprising coming from MOE. My close friend had just won a very prestigious scholarship from US government, and MOE does not allow him to take study leave because his field of study does not benefit MOE directly.

I don't be surprised if this is a political move against terrorist. Gov has already been a paranoid in clamping down terrorist and leave no chance even to the detrimental of innocent, dedicated and talented ppl like Alfian Sa'at . We see gov implementing thing that take the worst case scenario just to make thing easily. Probably, even ppl in MOE will not even know the reason if verdict is simply passed down from the very top, and we knew who the so-called top ruling gahmen are.

If gov really want to stop terrorist, then by all meant, treat the people fairly and well, and stop giving craps and rubbish to justify their own very existence. In other words, don't act like terror themselves.

It's the citizen that give Singapore a place to be remember not somekind of ruling, regulation and exterior superficial images !

If gov could not trust Singaporean, why the crap to even trust foreigner ? Of course, money is a very good and excellent reason !

More Christian conservatism at work in the civil service, I presume? Been seeing more and more of this in recent years, and yet we worry so much about Islamic fundamentalism.

Yes, its dangerous to have gays in schools. They set the wrong examples for kids.

What makes you think some of the top leaders are not gays themselves? Just look at their legal wives.

yeah lor, we dunch want our kids to learn abt dose ebil gay ppl like francis bacon the philosopher, artist andy warhol, author emily dickinson, singer elton john, admiral horatio nelson, alexander the great, playwright oscar wilde, hollywood producer roland emmerich, footballer justin fashanu, malcolm forbes of forbes magazine, pianist liberace, roman emperor hadrian, fashion designer isaac mizrahi and also the guy who plays gandalf in lotr.

so hor, we need to protect our children from dis ppl. we need to ban lotr because it got a gay actor in it and will turn all dose ppl who watch it into icky gays. who will think of the children leh?

Wow, so many luminaries whom are gay ? wonder how many other luminaries that one can named that aren't ?

Sick of this kind of supportive argument.

From a parent standpoint, I rather not have a teacher such as him who are in position that moulds the mind school children.

Ah, I see. You'd rather have sheltered kids who would wilt at the first sign of someone challenging their firmly entrenched prejudice.

I dont read forbes magazine.

You know what i think about you. you're a cocked up homophobic idiot. who's so young and stupid. Please don't talk about other people's sexuality cos it ain't your business. It just goes to show that you practically have a homophobic disorder. Just because they have different interests from you doesn't make them any different from you. Their still human and their English is probably way better than yours. So if you're not exactly happy that there are gay people around, why don't you just kill yourself so you don't have to see it lest it pains you.

So you like young guys huh?

"If you have to explain satire to someone, you might as well give up."

And what does being young have to do with it?! You're such an ageist!

wow... sarcasm dude... sarcasm...

Trackback from I’m gonna email Tharman:

I don’t know Alfian personally, but I’ve read some of his writings, and he’s helluva talented guy.

So I got pretty pissed when I read about his termination as a relief teacher....

Trackback from Singapore and the Stuff:

Bureaucracy at its ugly worst......

Talk about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. Well done MOE!

Trackback from Mr Wang Says So: Stop Right There, Mr Alfian Saat:

from our very Mr Wang......