My Classmate and Course mate

The English language instructed class that I have attended, has a cohort of 18 trainees. (one of half on the Left side had already left, me!) Standing front 4th is BC Din, 5th, Ksevan, 6th Ezli, and 7th Saha; standing at the back  row, alone is BC Logan (a Mechanical Graduate from Malaysia)

I befriend with them and this is what I wish to share. Initially there were 4 Singaporean including myself; 2 Malay and 2 Chinese. The elder Malay is a retired RSM (En. Rashid) from the MP (Military Police) division, with duty of catching, jailing and caning those MIA recruit soldiers; Mr. Syafie, a young Malay man in his early twenties, just ORD (operationally ready date), from the Sembawang Transport Command Camp with several Heavy Vehicle Class Driving licences to his name. The other Chinese (Mr. Lim) has been working as a driver-cum-deliveryman and speak a little English.

Into the 7^th week of the Basic Training programme, Mr. Lim left the course and went back to his previous profession. He did not complete or passed out from the course as a certified BC. The reason, he cited was the amount of risk and responsibility of been a BC are too much and demanding and moreover the basic pay remuneration is not commensurate with it.

Mr. Syafie left after 2 months working as a certified BC and citing reasons of the bus operational time schedule demands imposed onto to him; is much more rigid than while he is in the army camp. He does not wish his life to be “imposed or restricted” for now at this juncture of his young adulthood life. “sort of I want to break-free !, and to be free”.

Mr. Rashid initially was so determined to become a BC and “just bit the bullet” and accept whatever download from the trainer for those 8-9 long weeks. However, he left after 6 months into his service and now a Security Officer, with a local renowned News press company. The cited the need for higher income to support this P6 son and to have more family time to spend with him during the young boy formative years. I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

As for me, after all my worry about becoming a BC earlier; is now finally over and I felt liberated. I choose to stay on for a little longer to expose and acquire more knowledge on this newly chosen career in this Public Transport Industry. It is my employer’s mission, the ideal and passion of “moving people, enhancing lives” that has had been keeping me going day after day.

The Q that I am still searching for an answer is that, what is the “real fact” for the extremely low local signing up as BC, and even if they did sign up; they do not stay long. Sigh! Even though all my Singaporean Classmate had left me; I still have a journey to travel on, to find an answer to this big Q above. However, for other BC, I think, they may have reached their destination the moment, they become a certified Bus Captain.

            Months later, I manage to meet up with another Singaporean BC and we started to exchange notes of our odyssey. His name is Rickee Ng, aged 61, and was formerly a SGX-DT RR dealing in capital markets products. He shared with me his class intake. From what he has informed me, there were 3 other Singaporeans he'd trained together with. One left before starting revenue service duty; another left after 2 months into revenue service duty; while the 3rd, in his late twenties, left after 4 months as a qualified BC. Their reasons for resigning are no different from most others that left before them. Rickee is hanging on for now.

My conversation with Mr.Ng on our shared concern and worry for the future of this public profession in Singapore has further crystallized my interest to pursue what was been explained in the proceeded blog post “Why I Blog”. Thank You and wish you a Happy continued reading…