Yee Jenn Jong
He was an unassuming person in Raffles Hall, quiet, decent, spoke little, few people would notice his existence. He became prominent during the 2011 election and was named the Non-Constituency Member of Parliament. I was pleasantly surprised that he could garner so many votes although he had lost narrowly. I had a great chat with him during one of my private book launch. I admired his resilience and commitment to serving Singapore.
Here is an article he wrote tracing his life in Raffles Hall.
Staying at RH was fun and memorable. Being in a hostel gave me lots of freedom. I participated in as many activities as I could – sports in the evenings as the facilities are all within walking distance from RH (but I was never good enough to represent the halls in any games), night suppers, block parties and participated in committees to gain the points to return the next year. In my second year, I headed the Library and also the Secretariat to the JCRC, whilst also sometimes helping to debug the computer software the office was using. Sometimes we played board games late into the night. Once, we started a Monopoly circuit over several weeks, because one of our Computer Science classmate and RH resident, Patrick was NUS’s Monopoly Champ that year. We ganged up and thrashed him. There was the Risk board game circuit too where we also thrashed him. Conspiracies do take place.
With freedom came responsibility. Despite an active hostel life, I did enough academically to get into the honours’ year. There was always that intensive one month before each exam when I would burn the midnight oil and mugged to make sure I did justice to my university life. I took a long time to graduate from NUS. After my honours’ year, I did postgraduate research and taught for another 4 years at NUS before deciding that I would be more suited outside the academia. I dropped by RH once a while whilst still working at NUS. Soon, all my peers and juniors graduated and I stopped visiting the hall. While I have not been back to the physical RH for decades already, I kept in touch with some friends after graduation. Sometimes, we bump into one another in the course of work or travels.
RH taught me many things – learning to be responsible for my life, managing my time, making and keeping friends, managing my finances (I managed to fund myself through university with a scholarship and with part-time work) and more. From RH, I went on to work and soon married to the girl I dated whilst in the hostel, though she was staying at KE7. It was a long walk in the nights from KE7 to RH whenever I visited her in her hostel. I soon started a family, and later various businesses.
I wasn’t quite interested to run for JCRC office at RH. I watched others campaigned with interest over my four years in RH. In the General Elections 2011, I joined the Workers’ Party (WP) and campaigned at the single-member constituency of Joo Chiat. Perhaps it was an accumulation of my life experiences that led me to the conviction that there should be a credible alternative to challenge the very dominant and only political party that had ruled Singapore since 1959. I felt it was an unhealthy situation that would not be good for the long-term development of Singapore. So I threw my lot in with the WP and ended up being a Non-Constituency MP from 2011-2015.
A few friends from RH supported my campaign. With the wide media coverage of the general elections, more RH friends found me out online and I have since reconnected with many friends.
To me, hostel life is an important aspect of university life. I am glad for my time at RH which has taught me many things beyond the books. I did not just graduate from university with degrees. I graduated with many friends and life lessons that stayed with me throughout.
Here is an article he wrote tracing his life in Raffles Hall.
The Road From Raffles Hall
I spent four years in RH. Why RH? My junior college classmate Quek Jee Ngee wanted a roommate as all freshies will have to be in a double room. With no special preference for any halls, I went along with his suggestion. RH was a fairly new hall at that time too. Being a sports person, Quek got enough points for a single room for his next two years. I only managed enough points to get my single room in my third year. We shared a room again in our honours year.Staying at RH was fun and memorable. Being in a hostel gave me lots of freedom. I participated in as many activities as I could – sports in the evenings as the facilities are all within walking distance from RH (but I was never good enough to represent the halls in any games), night suppers, block parties and participated in committees to gain the points to return the next year. In my second year, I headed the Library and also the Secretariat to the JCRC, whilst also sometimes helping to debug the computer software the office was using. Sometimes we played board games late into the night. Once, we started a Monopoly circuit over several weeks, because one of our Computer Science classmate and RH resident, Patrick was NUS’s Monopoly Champ that year. We ganged up and thrashed him. There was the Risk board game circuit too where we also thrashed him. Conspiracies do take place.
With freedom came responsibility. Despite an active hostel life, I did enough academically to get into the honours’ year. There was always that intensive one month before each exam when I would burn the midnight oil and mugged to make sure I did justice to my university life. I took a long time to graduate from NUS. After my honours’ year, I did postgraduate research and taught for another 4 years at NUS before deciding that I would be more suited outside the academia. I dropped by RH once a while whilst still working at NUS. Soon, all my peers and juniors graduated and I stopped visiting the hall. While I have not been back to the physical RH for decades already, I kept in touch with some friends after graduation. Sometimes, we bump into one another in the course of work or travels.
RH taught me many things – learning to be responsible for my life, managing my time, making and keeping friends, managing my finances (I managed to fund myself through university with a scholarship and with part-time work) and more. From RH, I went on to work and soon married to the girl I dated whilst in the hostel, though she was staying at KE7. It was a long walk in the nights from KE7 to RH whenever I visited her in her hostel. I soon started a family, and later various businesses.
I wasn’t quite interested to run for JCRC office at RH. I watched others campaigned with interest over my four years in RH. In the General Elections 2011, I joined the Workers’ Party (WP) and campaigned at the single-member constituency of Joo Chiat. Perhaps it was an accumulation of my life experiences that led me to the conviction that there should be a credible alternative to challenge the very dominant and only political party that had ruled Singapore since 1959. I felt it was an unhealthy situation that would not be good for the long-term development of Singapore. So I threw my lot in with the WP and ended up being a Non-Constituency MP from 2011-2015.
A few friends from RH supported my campaign. With the wide media coverage of the general elections, more RH friends found me out online and I have since reconnected with many friends.
To me, hostel life is an important aspect of university life. I am glad for my time at RH which has taught me many things beyond the books. I did not just graduate from university with degrees. I graduated with many friends and life lessons that stayed with me throughout.
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