Who could have started the SingTel fire?

Who could have started the SingTel fire?

SINGAPORE - I met Arnold Gay once a long time ago.

I was still working at MediaCorp and he was the hunky Channel NewsAsia news reader.

It was Lisa Ang who introduced me to Gay, though I can't recall who introduced me to Ang.

Ang was a Channel NewsAsia host at the time but had previously hosted the Channel 5 infotainment series Hey Singapore and played VR Man's cap-wearing tomboy girlfriend.

Anyway, back to Gay.

What struck me about him was that he seemed like a remarkably well-adjusted guy for someone whose surname is the equivalent to being born with a "Kick me" sign permanently pasted on his back.

So he's the last person I expect to be in the centre of a controversy.

Before this month, possibly the most controversial thing he did was burning his bridges at MediaCorp by jumping ship to join the newly formed (and now defunct) SPH MediaWorks in 2000.

Then two Saturdays ago, he burned something else.

On Oct 5, Gay, now a Kiss92 radio DJ, reenacted his own mini Singaporean version of Fahrenheit 451 by getting his 12-year-old son and his son's friends to throw their schoolwork into a bonfire to celebrate the end of the stressful Primary School Leaving Exams (PSLE).

I've never read the Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451 about book-burning or seen the movie. But I have seen the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore and that's close enough.

After Kiss92 posted a picture of Gay's flaming stunt on its Facebook page, Gay got flamed himself for such inflammatory behaviour.

One commenter wrote: "Hey Arnold, are you really that dumb to inculcate your kid and his dumber friends into doing something that silly?

"Come on, PSLE is just a freaking small stepping stone of a kid's life! Gonna burned down the whole of National Library when your kid grad from his PhD?"

Uh… if Gay manages to raise a kid who can get a PhD, I think it's fair to say Gay is not "that dumb".

Although I'm against polluting our continually haze-threatened skies with more ash, I have come to accept that burning stuff in public is a Singaporean Chinese way of life.

Since we are already burning fake money, paper iPhones and paper houses for the dead, we might as well burn some assessment books to help the dead score in their PSLE so that they can get into the secondary school of their choice in hell.

God forbid they end up in a neighbourhood hell school. That would be hell indeed.

I just hope this post-PSLE burning thing won't become an annual ritual. My family suffer enough breathing problems during the Hungry Ghost Month.

Still, as a parent myself, I empathise with Gay for wanting to provide a catharsis for his son and maybe himself after the stress of the PSLE.

As one Facebook user wrote: "It's also a great opportunity for parents to bond with the kids."

Being a father of two teenagers, I am constantly on the lookout for opportunities to bond with my kids. When they come home from school, the first thing they do is interact with their mobile devices rather than another member of the family.

So the disruption in Internet services, caused by a fire at a SingTel facility last Wednesday, was a blessing in disguise of sorts.

Deprived of a broadband connection for two days at home, my kids, my wife and I were forced to stare at each other instead of the computer monitors or our smartphones.

That was as close as we got to bonding. We didn't have anything to burn. My son's O-level exams only start later this month.

My daughter, 14, said: "This is what happens when we don't have Wi-Fi. We spend more time together." I'm not sure whether she meant that as a good thing or a bad thing.

I suspect mine was not the only family forced to bond because of the Internet disruption. Wait a minute. I just realised something.

A mysterious fire caused last week's Internet disruption which might have led to a sudden surge in family bonding in Singapore.

Hmm... who do we know who has recently started a fire to bond with a family member?

I wonder, were any charred past years' PSLE papers found near the burnt SingTel facility?

I think it's about time Gay came out - with the truth.

I bet Lisa Ang can get him to talk.

Editor's note: Our writer's theory is clearly off. Gay did not have anything to do with that blaze.

smong@sph.com.sg


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