The Dr. Allan Ooi Act.

Perhaps, it is time for a Dr. Allan Ooi Act, in Singapore. I shall explain.

As many of my readers will know, Dr. Allan Ooi was a Singaporean doctor working for the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) on a bond. This was a legal restraint of his right to do anything else but work for the SAF. He had no freedom to do so, until his bond had expired. The problem, for him, was that the bond, originally twelve years long, had been extended to fifteen or sixteen years - and then made unbreakable - meaning he had no escape option, under any circumstances. Dr. Allan Ooi killed himself to escape his bond.

In many countries, the tradition is to name new laws after the people whose lives inspired those laws. Perhaps, in Singapore, there could be a new law called the Dr. Allan Ooi Act, which could either outlaw the practise of bonding entirely, or restrict its scope so that bonds are short-term affairs, with get out clauses so that anyone can leave the bond by fulfilling certain requirements which must not be impossible or too onerous.

Dr. Allan Ooi took his own life, because he could see no other way out of the living hell he faced. He hated his job and the life it gave him, but was bonded to it, for what must have seemed a lifetime. No-one should have to face such a life again. It is time to change the law: let there be a Dr. Allan Ooi Act to bring humanity into Singaporean employment law.

Dr. Allan Ooi could not have made the point of his distress clearer. Let us listen to the message of his short life and change the law, to make Singapore a kinder place in which to work. Let not his short life, have been in vain.

(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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