End the practise of bonding.

Singapore has very strange employment practises. One of them is called "bonding". This is slavery that comes in two flavours: a scholarship with a "bond" and a job with a bond.

Now, I am aware that I shall have to explain the concept of bonding for those who reside in countries that abolished slavery a century or two ago. Singapore has yet to understand the value of a free people.

In Singapore, many people find themselves tied down to jobs or situations that they don't want to be in. Yet, they have no choice but to continue for periods which really can be quite long. If they try to escape these "bonds", they will find themselves financially ruined - thus they labour on, unhappily, in what amounts to bonded servitude, without any freedom to leave their position.

In Singapore, youngsters, who are really too young to understand what they are getting into, are often offered "bonded" scholarships. These are scholarships with a big sting in the tale. For the privilege of receiving tuition fees and the like paid (which in many countries would be free anyway), they have to serve a number of years with an organization, thereafter. They have no choice, in this job, once they accept the scholarship: they must do it, or else.

In Singapore, people in the job market often encounter a job contract with a "bond" attached. This means that once you sign, you cannot leave that company for a certain period. You have no choice but to continue, unless you wish to pay ruinous financial penalties. So, if you stay you might be very unhappy, with your work circumstances, if you leave, you will be very unhappy with the "fine" you have to pay.

I must say it is really all quite evil.

Now, I have brought up the matter of bonding in Singapore for a reason. There has been yet another high profile suicide among Singapore's academic elite. Dr. Allan Ooi, killed himself, to escape his bond with the Singapore Armed Forces. That is right: his bond was such an onerous burden upon him that he would rather be DEAD than complete the term of his servitude.

Singapore has really got a lot to learn about treating humans like, well, humans.

Dr. Allan Ooi committed suicide, according to his suicide email, sent 24 hours after his death, largely because of his awful job at the SAF. "My job was terrible, no joy, no satisfaction" he wrote. That was bad enough. However, what sent him over the edge, it seems, from his own words, was that his TWELVE YEAR BOND was extended to FIFTEEN OR SIXTEEN YEARS, then "UNBREAKABLE". It seems clear that his employer, the Singaporean government in the shape of the Armed Forces, was treating him as a possession and not as a human being. Well, this particular "possession" didn't want to be possessed - and so killed himself to escape being possessed.

The worst part of this case was the way the media tried to lie about it. They painted him in various ways and none of them remotely reflected the truth of his suicide letter. They even portrayed him, in some quarters, as broken hearted! Other suggestions included excessive online wargaming and addiction to gambling - none of which is true. It is really more than a little disturbing that the local media should rush in to smear a dead man's name, just to protect the image of a "terrible" employer - the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).

Bonding treats human beings as possessions to be used and abused. It is nothing but slavery renamed. It should be stopped. No civilized country practices this procedure, nor especially would they condone the way it is used in Singapore: to remove choice from human beings. In Singapore, people are often placed in terrible employment situations from which there is no escape, because they are bonded to their jobs. I, too, have been offered bonds but have always declined jobs that come with such conditions.

I think it is no coincidence that Singapore has had this rash of recent suicides among the brighter of its people. Quite simply, many people are suffering, in their own, individual ways, in this state, largely because there is too little regard for people, in Singapore's institutions. Employers and Universities alike have, the evidence suggests, created circumstances that have not considered the frailties and vulnerabilities that many people have. In Singapore, human beings are outlawed: only robots are required. If you are not robotic enough, you will just have to suffer in silence, until one day, you crack as, recently, David Hartanto Widjaja, Zhou Zheng and, now, Dr. Allan Ooi did.

None of these deaths were necessary. All of them would have been prevented if the institutions in question had been a little more humane. In one case, if a scholarship had not been withdrawn, one scholar would probably be alive. In another, if a bond had not been extended, a young Doctor would still be alive (he was only 27). I have no information on Zhou Zheng and so cannot say why he died. These are not inevitable causes of death. A little more kindness would have prevented these suicides.

The justification for bonding is all one-sided: the organization that paid the scholarship wants to ensure that it is "reimbursed" by enforcing a certain number of years labour from the scholar. Yet, if the experience of working for them is unbearable, the scholar has no escape. In the case of Dr. Allan Ooi, his only escape from the terrible existence he faced was death itself.

Good organizations don't need to bond their scholars. If an organization is good to work for, scholars will voluntarily stay with the organization. It is only BAD organizations that need to use this kind of force. Clearly one can come to some sort of conclusion about an organization that needs to extend a 12 year bond to 15 or 16. Perhaps no-one wants to be a doctor with the SAF voluntarily. They could remedy that, by becoming a pleasant place to work. It really is quite simple.

I rather hope that Dr. Allan Ooi's death will lead to a reassessment of the practise of bonding. It is time Singapore caught up the developed world and accepted the general concept of VOLUNTARY labour. Slave labour should play no role in the employment landscape of Singapore: that it does, is a matter of great national shame.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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