Muchopunk on being disabled in Singapore

One of the reasons I enjoy blogging so much is the comments left by my readers - currently there are 2685 comments so far, wow. When I get a really good comment, I would often create a new post based on it because I want others to read it. You see, once a reader has read an article, s/he would rarely return to it unless s/he is participating in a discussion in the comments section with either myself or other readers so they may miss the really good comment if it was left a few days after the article was first posted.

This comment left by Muchopunk today made me sit up and just say WOW when I read it. It was inspiring, passionate and heartfelt in so many ways - hands down, the BEST comment ever left on Limpeh's blog. I present to you the best LIFTer comment award and have reproduced it below in full so you can all read it, share it and be inspired as well. Muchopunk, I salute you. You inspire me. Thank you.

Laurentia Tan

Now here's the context for this comment - a lively debate has ensued after I posted my latest piece of Laurentia Tan and the challenges that she would've faced in Singapore as a deaf person with cerebral palsy. I was very honoured by readers like Yong Tat Yan, Chem Poupee, E, Winking Doll and Muchopunk giving their opinions and sharing their personal experiences. I would encourage you please to go back to that article even if you already read it and read the exchange amongst these guys in the comments section. Over to Muchopunk:

"Having been through just about the entire education system; primary right up to university and out of it prematurely by my own choice to UK to pursue my interest, I immediately could tell the marked difference between what we have here and what is mandated in UK. I'm not sure what Yong Tat Yan is driving at, but surely he knows that in Singapore NONE of the schools, any school at ANY level is actually obliged to give you any sort of help and surely he must know that dependance on friends notes is one of the sure fire ways you won't get any given the competitive environment? No.

Do students share their notes and help each other? 

It strikes me that it is exactly people like Yong Tat Yan that my government likes to use as examples to say--if he doesn't need it then people like Lisa wouldn't need it would she? This is the sort of attitude and ableism that infects the disabled community that I find the hardest to combat to be perfectly honest. I'm not sure what Yong Tat Yong's experience is, I don't fault him for making do with what the system has to offer; but when you move somewhere else and you see the Disability Centres or rather even at face value that there is a physical building with people employed full time to listen to the problems that you have, you start to wonder what the 14, 15 year battle you fought back home with your own education system means. 

The fact that I had to talk to a building management manager to find out if there are any disability access routes for 20 minutes over the phone only to find out even he didn't know if there were any goes to show just how far we lag behind really. UK has really opened my eyes and even then, the Brits will tell you that the facilities there are piecemeal. Just ask the Baroness that had to crawl off the train cabins. I think she would find NTU a horrible place and maybe a large part of Singapore equally as bad as the worse non barrier-free things she can find in London and elsewhere. Maybe she'll get a chance to see just how piecemeal things can really get. 

How many buildings are wheelchair friendly in Singapore?

For example, Stairs with handrails only to go without handrails right in the middle of nowhere with an entire lunchtime crowd waiting to stomp all over you should you fall and then with handrails again just before you reach the topmost or bottom level of a particular building; curbs everywhere was my nightmare and still is. Granted I know NTU is an old building, but I also know I made it through your admissions by sheer grit so who gave them the right to make my daily life in there more difficult than it already is? Given a chance, I would really like to scream at the top of my lungs for all parents rich enough to send your kids overseas, get PR-ship or whatever. 

The mental battles are tough and I thank my lucky-stars that even though I'm not from a well-to-do family, I have a "like i give a fuck what you think attitude" or the system would have chewed me right down through my brains and bones really. Singapore's education system is not for the faint-hearted normal kids. Now think of it as Singapore's education system is REALLY not for the faint-hearted of disabled kids. And yes, you could change Lisa's million to billion years and my opinion would be, Laurentia Tan won't stand a chance in Singapore and her parents were smart enough to figure that part out and fast. 

Many kids with Cerebral Palsy don't stand a chance at the means testing into mainstream schools. I know. Because I myself almost didn't make it. Fast forward years later I was in a UK Law School and I'm proud of that even though I had to abort that idea and return home given how difficult living alone with a disability was be it in Singapore or UK."

Click here for Muchopunk's blog. 

Please, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what you think of Muchopunk's comments. Let's have another lively debate on the issue. Thank you everyone.