An Elite Gentlemen Golden Jamboree

25 November 2017

The moment finally arrived for me to screen the 2-part anthology The CDO Gentleman. It was a moment I had waited for close to 25 years since I ROD ORD. I braved myself to come forward for a pre-screening speech. This was a special audience. And they overwhelmed me.

This was a different crowd from the usual ‘film crowd’ that I normally speak to at film festival screenings. I’m humbled and honoured to be standing in front of almost half a century of SG Commando history. Watching me were the pioneers who carved that history, the guys who braved it all so that future generations like myself can have it ‘easier’, this was the fraternity that progressively set the standard to SG’s most elite league of gentlemen.

Most importantly these were the gentlemen who had inspired me when I was a teenager.

I had wanted to be just like one of them. I didn’t want to go for second best.

These were the guys that taught me to always strive for the best (nothing less), regardless the circumstances.

So many things I had wanted to express. While I stood there looking at these guys, I noticed that beneath all the ceremonial cliche, we are just normal folks. The years may have grazed the bite that defined us during NS but we retained that sting. The concept of camaraderie may be abstract to some people and lost to many, but when I stood there, it made sense.

It’s great to be home.

Flashback, August 2017

I received a call from CY about the upcoming Cdo Formation 48th Anniversary 2017. He watched all the videos I did for 1st Company’s 25th Anniversary on July 2017 and was especially moved by one of the videos, In Memoriam. I was asked if I would keen to do some videos for the said formation’s upcoming anniversary. CY is an administrator of a closed group exclusive for past commandos.

Almost 50 years of history.

Visual documentation.

Great Story.

I have always wanted to do a story on the Commandos. It’s a subject that intrigues the imagination and command attention regardless of the scope - as are any other stories that involved the elite military units around the world. There is a captive audience for any nugget that emerges from the fraternity.

‘Nuf said, haha.

For this project, I am interested to capture the spirit of the Commandos - the fraternity that I used to be (and still considerably) a part of.

I deliberately avoided the cliche treatment showcasing the alpha masculine bravado that the public may be familiar with. Previous documentaries missed the point about the Gentleman that makes a commando, in my humble opinion. Thus I prefer that the visuals do the talking and actual voices of past-present commandos drive the narrative.

As much as I would like to cover more stories, there are only so much I can cover. It is what the stories offer to tell rather than the quantity that matters. Doing these documentary made me discover about myself. The process has also reconnected myself and my buddies. Yes we are still in contact and I wouldn't want to trade these relationship with anything else. They were there when I was a naive young adult in National Service and they are still here 25 years later.

The Commandos have a mantra - we don't leave anyone behind.

An episode happened during the production of these videos. These brothers rallied together to turn around the issue. I shall not dwell on it here but this insert serves to remind me later on when I come back to this story. Thank you brothers, I am forever grateful. You know who you are. 

The stint in the elite unit and wearing the red beret have moulded me into somebody that the young teenager version of myself will be proud of.

Thank You to everyone involved who had made this herculean task possible. For Honour and Glory!

A madrasah celebrates 80 years

I have always been curious about the madrasah. As I was attending Anglo-Chinese School, a Methodist institution, during secondary school, I was juggling with part-time madrasah studies at Masjid Assyakirin. The interest piqued when I made the short film, AMEEN [2010]*, that completes my anthology called, The Love Trilogy.

*World Premiere; Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
*Official Selection; Montreal World Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival

Down the line, there have been so many developments with regards to the local madrasah curriculum within the context of the Singapore education system. Their relevance and existence within the current socio-political climate have always been threatened. At present, there are six madrasahs in Singapore that offer full-time curriculums. The oldest, Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah, had recently celebrated their 90th year anniversary in late November 2017.

I was introduced to Madrasah Al-Maarif Al-Islamiah through a mutual friend. I met the administration with zero expectations. My first impression of the staff was one that was very welcoming. Everyone we spoke to had warm dispositions. I remembered one notable incident was when 2 students from the madrasah were assaulted by a mentally-disturbed individual outside their school compound. The school reacted to the incident calmly without much fanfare.

During the discussions, I explained to the administration where I was coming from - that my strength is in narrative storytelling, I proposed that their video steer away from the “typical” corporate video that sells nothing but hardsell data one may find easily on Google. I was pleasantly surprised that my proposal to bring the stories of individuals that went through Al-Maarif, individuals that make Al-Maarif, Al-Maarif - was received constructively.

I was looking for that quintessential element that threads all these stories. I found that in one of the canteen stall operators - an individual the students affectionately called Cik Milah. I found the stories of how the madrasah continued to harness the best regardless of limited resources (compared to secular mainstream schools), and staying positive through the years, intriguing. I find how the students find inspiration from the pioneers, inspiring.

The results of these stories are compiled into a 15-min, beautifully crafted story.

Thank you to the administration of Madrasah Al-Maarif Al-Islamiah for giving me the chance and ibadah to craft their story - 80 years of very important Singapore history. I walked away with a new sense of discovery to the vast progress that Singapore madrasahs have achieved. 

A Commando Silver Anniversary

2017 is the year that I reconnected with my buddies from National Service at Hendon Road. Along the years we have met occasionally - very far in-between, but nothing more intimately than it had been since April 2017.

It was triggered by the short film, THE USUAL, that I was commissioned to make for the 4th edition of ciNE65 launch on 8Dec 2016. Submissions for film entries for this annual short film competition closed on June 2017. The Defence Minister himself, Dr Ng Eng Hen, got involved with a cameo in THE USUAL.

I received an invite from one of my NS batch guys sometime in mid April 2017. I was still recovering from my recent hospitalisation in March. It was a call for me to be part of the organising committee at our NS batch, ie 1st Company, upcoming 25th year anniversary from the date we ROD ORD in July 1992.

Well to be honest, the Anniversary could have been our 28th if we counted from the first day that the guys at 1st Company was enlisted in December 1989. July was chosen to tie in with the Singapore Armed Forces’ NS50 campaign - 50 years of National Service enlistment, on 1st July 2017. The committee reckoned that it would be rather apt to celebrate our anniversary on this date.

From the outset I suspected that my involvement would have something to do with videos - and true enough during the first meeting this intention was articulated. Lots of ideas were thrown in about what these videos should be, but nothing was concrete. Subsequently I was given the freehand about what these videos will be.

The first thing that came to mind during the conception was that each one of us in 1st Company would have stories to tell respectively. There would be one or two stories that never left us - one that left an indelible mark even 25 years on. The outcome of these memories were compiled into the video entitled Common Threads.  

The 2nd video is Journeys. It was rather complex to bottle 2.5 years of National Service into a few minutes. The genesis of this video is from my fond memories to the close bond and camaraderie we developed, shared and some of us subsequently retained 25 years later. Upon reflection, I remembered that we were all just very young adults navigating ourselves in regimental communal settings.

The next video, In Memoriam, is perhaps the hardest to make. It was hard to make because I find it terribly complex to define a person in an obituary. There were three of us that went too soon.

Lee Chee Hoong was a buddy from Section 2. I remembered one incident in Temburong, Brunei. In one of the exercises, we were all tired and starving. None of us had fresh ration (apparently due to some miscommunication in the logistics department). In one of the harbour points, a packet of hard biscuits aka dog tacts, was passed around and I was fortunate enough to have the last piece of half biscuits. As I was finishing that piece, Chee Hoong, huddled next to me, offered to finish the crumbs that contained in the packet that I was holding. Everyone was hungry. I am not sure if Chee Hoong had his share of biscuits. Everyone could only be selfish. I remembered his expression when he asked me for that crumbs of biscuit. On many weekends, when the boys hung out partying, Chee Hoong and I went back together because we were the only ones who stayed at the west area. I was told that Chee Hoong passed away from heart failure - only a few years after full-time National Service ROD ORD. Too young.

Mahesvaran was a fellow Weaponman in vocation. He was a soft-spoken buddy, but had a very warm disposition once he opened up to you. And when he did, one will often be taken surprised of his dark, off-beat humour. He was from different platoon. We connected because we were of the same vocation. Being an ethnic minority, he was one of handful of people that I confided in when I had my doubts about the military experience. Occasionally we did guard duty together as prowlers. It was during these walks that I connected with Mahesvaran. I was informed of Mahesvaran’s death only recently, from L, another Weaponman. I bumped into L while I was passing Jurong Point for the SMRT train. I was shocked to hear that Mahesvaran had taken his own life.

Ling Sien Boon was another buddy from another platoon. I did not manage to know Sien Boon personally, other that the cordial hi-byes in the barracks and the little chit chats during in-between guard duty breaks. The last time I met Sien Boon was in Dec 2014 at fellow camp mate, J S, house gathering with some of the boys. I was informed that Sien Boon passed away in Taiwan. He was in a bicycle race. According to witnesses, he stopped by the side of the road. He was found slumped - unconscious. He had lost his life.

I discovered many things about myself doing these videos.

I rediscover real friendship. I rediscover what it means to be surrounded by friends that do not judge and know very well if you are bullshitting, haha. Those that you lived with in close quarters, may form a perspective of you as a person when we were very young adults. As we mature, our perspectives change. As we meet again 25 years later, we are able to overlook our past, including all superficial veneers - to be real gentlemen and accept one another. We forge new friendships based on our personal and professional achievements 25 years later.

In this context, PALACE (Sam Smith), aptly describes these rediscovered friendships and lives I have missed over the years.

My head is filled with ruins
Most of them are built with you
Now the dust no longer moves
Don’t disturb the ghost of you
They are empty, they are worn
Tell me what we built this for
On my way to somethin' more
You’re that one I can’t ignore

[Chorus]
I’m gonna miss you
I still care
Sometimes I wish we never built this palace
But real love is never a waste of time

Yeah, I know just what you’re sayin'
And I regret ever complainin'
About this heart and all its breakin'
It was beauty we were makin'
And I know we’ll both move on
You’ll forgive what I did wrong
They will love the better you
But I still own the ghost of you