Taranjiv Singh is a law degree holder who once served in Malaysia’s biggest broadcasting company.
While exploring his farming venture, the 40-year-old started driving for an e-hailing company some six months ago.
Taranjiv shares his tales with Twentytwo13. This week, he talks about a young man who renounced his Singapore citizenship to live in Malaysia – only to regret the move.
“More often than not, you hear of Malaysians packing up their bags and leaving for Singapore to earn a living.
The main motivation is first, money. This is simply undeniable, given that one Singapore dollar is equivalent to RM3.31.
Some also say it’s for a better education, and future prospects for their children. It comes as no surprise when schools in Malaysia now offer “Singapore English” and “Singapore Mathematics” as part of their syllabus.
So, it caught me by surprise when I ferried a family recently – a mother, her two children – a son and a daughter – and their grandmother.
The mother, a Singaporean, is married to a Malaysian. When their eldest child, the son, turned 15, they renounced his Singaporean citizenship and chose to be Malaysian, instead.
The motivation was to avoid the mandatory National Service (NS) in Singapore, and to “be connected with better cultural values” in Malaysia. I would have thought food, affordable housing, and lower fuel prices would be the other main factors for one to live in Malaysia, instead of Singapore.
Yet, the boy continued to live, study, and even completed his tertiary education in the republic. Having been born there and spent almost all his life in Singapore – the son, now in his late 20s, is simply Singaporean.
However, he faces a huge dilemma. He can’t find employment in Singapore as he is required to have an Employment Pass (EP). And that, according to his mother, is an issue because he had renounced his citizenship.
Many questions were floating in my mind. For starters, we have people – born in Malaysia and who have been living in Malaysia for decades – who have not been granted Malaysian citizenship. We also have children, born to Malaysian mothers, whose citizenship is not recognised. And then, we have this lad.
I also found it odd that he went through all the trouble just to skip NS. I’ve got friends whose children have gone through NS and they had a blast of a time. At least, some of them now know how to make their own beds.
In Malaysia, we don’t need NS. Or at least, as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t need NS.
Discipline was part of my family’s life and that meant ‘military drills’ on a daily basis – making our beds, washing our own shoes, and taking responsibility whenever the need arose.
We did all this while studying, and for some of us, working after school to help the household.
So, taking a two-year sabbatical from everything else to learn about discipline, following instructions, and working as a team, should rightfully be an easier task.
No nation is perfect. Both Malaysia and Singapore have their flaws. As we reached our destination, all I could tell the mother and her son was to keep their chin up. I told them that if I, at the age of 40, am still hustling to get my agro-venture farm moving, the young man shouldn’t have any excuses.
He should find a solution to this challenge and move forward.
The family got out of the car slightly more motivated than when I first met them.
But it got me thinking, how people often think that the grass is always greener on the other side, only to realise that that is not the case.
It boils down to your motivation – money, education, food, or enjoying every second of life.
And always remember that some of the best lessons come from the mistakes we make.”
