Interview with PIONEER Magazine for General Lee/Speaking: Singaporeana

Wed, 23 Mar 2022
7 min read
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PHOTO: PIONEER Magazine

PIONEER Magazine recently interviewed me and General Lee for a story on General Lee/Speaking: Singaporeana. A big thank you to Benita Teo for the well-written story, as well as Chua Soon Lye for the brilliant pictures.

You can read the story and view the pictures in their entirety here. I’ve also included it below for archival purposes.

Also, more PIONEER-related posts here.

GENERAL LEE – SINGAPORE’S HIGHEST RANKING BAND
// STORY BY BENITA TEO
// PHOTOS BY CHUA SOON LYE & COURTESY OF INTERVIEWEES

How did Redhill get its name? Who was Radin Mas and why are so many places named after her? Why is Opium Hill an important part of Singapore’s history?

Many of us may have forgotten these local myths and legends. Rock-and-roll band General Lee is hoping that through their music, Singaporeans will remember the stories of their childhood, and re-discover our country’s rich culture and heritage.

Formed in 2013, the band is made up of lead singer 3rd Sergeant (3SG) (NS) Lin Jiahe, 40; guitarist 1SG (NS) Victor Chen, 41; drummer Corporal First Class (CFC) (NS) Lin Hanrong , 38, and bassist Major (MAJ) (NS) Isaac Tan, 40.

Having honed their craft in other bands, playing covers in pubs and bars, the members of General Lee came together to release their eponymous album of original music in 2016, singing about famous local landmarks in songs such as Redhill Remorse, The Ballad of Bukit Brown and Radin Mas Ayu.

PIONEER catches up with the band in the studio, where they are rehearsing for their upcoming Esplanade show, titled General Lee/Speaking: Singaporeana. This time, they have a fifth “instrument” – poet Lieutenant (LTA) (NS) Laremy Lee, 39, who will be adding a new dimension to their music with his spoken word performance.

Thanks for letting us crash your rehearsal! Tell us more about your upcoming live show!
3SG (NS) Lin: It’s a music and spoken word performance that’s part of Foreword, Esplanade’s annual festival of spoken, narrated and musically interpreted words, stories and literary texts. We’ll be performing songs from our album, accompanied by Laremy’s poems, which were written specially for the show.

Your songs put a unique spin on the stories of our heritage and culture. Why did you choose this topic?
MAJ (NS) Tan: We often hear young Singaporeans say things like: “Ah, Singapore’s history is so manufactured, we have no heritage, unlike other countries.” But if you dig deeper, you’ll find the heritage, culture, history and mythology that many of us overlook. And Jiahe does a brilliant job at writing about history, rather than frivolous stuff about girls, rock ‘n’ roll and drinking—

1SG (NS) Chen: —although we do have a song about girls, rock ‘n’ roll and drinking! (laughs)

It’s not every day we see a performance that marries rock-and-roll and poetry.
3SG (NS) Lin: We wanted a cross-medium performance that is not commonly seen. We thought about working with a poet, and Laremy was the first person who came to mind.

All of us were from the same hall of residence at NUS (National University of Singapore)! We first worked with Laremy in 2020, when we made a video of The Ballad of Bukit Brown and Laremy wrote a poem that was a response to the song. We put it online and people loved it.

1SG (NS) Chen: This time, we’ve rearranged our music to suit the poetry better. We also have musicians accompanying us on instruments like the mandolin and banjo, which gives the performance an American folk music flavour.

One of the songs you’ll be playing is Opium Hill, which recounts the iconic battle of Pasir Panjang and the heroism of LTA Adnan Saidi and the Malay Regiment’s 1st Battalion. What was the inspiration behind this song and its complementary poem, Hung, by the legs, on a cherry tree?
1SG (NS) Chen: When I was researching for this song, I noticed that a lot of old American country songs were written about historic battles such as the Civil War.

Singapore also fought a number of battles during World War II (WWII), and Opium Hill (or Bukit Chandu) is the site of the battle that we read the most about in history textbooks. Such songs also tend to have a personality attached to them – in this case, LTA Adnan is the hero.

LTA (NS) Lee: While I was researching about the battle, the phrase “hung, by the legs, on a cherry tree” kept appearing. I’m always looking at duality. When the Japanese did this to LTA Adnan, it was to dishonour him for decimating their soldiers.

But at the same time, it has become a symbol of pride for us, because he is a son of our land who defended us. The same image (represented) honour and dishonour at the same time.

Did your experiences in National Service (NS) influence the writing of Opium Hill and Hung, by the legs, on a cherry tree?
LTA (NS) Lee: Definitely. Writing the poem made me recount my own experiences during military exercises when I was a Platoon Commander in 696th Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment (696 SIR).

I recall the anticipation, the adrenaline rush and the smell and cacophony of blank rounds being fired, and thinking: so this is some semblance of how people feel in wartime. Thinking back about my experience helped me channel some of these ideas and emotions into my writing.

3SG (NS) Lin: I was an Infantry Scout Commander in 754 SIR. I fondly recall a particular knoll in one of my training areas that gave me the inspiration for Opium Hill. The image of soldiers lying in wait in a defensive position on top of that knoll was what I envisioned the brave 42 probably saw and felt in that dire situation as they fought to defend their homeland.

1SG (NS) Chen: As an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialist, I was on standby as part of 36SCE’s (36th Battalion, Singapore Combat Engineers’) first response team the day after September 11 in 2001. Watching the events unfold that evening before I booked into camp was a sober reminder that Singapore’s defence lay in our hands. I wanted to convey that sentiment by portraying the bravery at Opium Hill in the medium closest to my heart – music.

CFC (NS) Lin: I used to be a drummer in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Band before being posted as an infantry soldier to 812 SIR, where I carried out island defence. I recall us writing Opium Hill when my unit was preparing to be operational. The battle simulations helped me see through the eyes of our war heroes when we were writing this song.

MAJ (NS) Tan, you’ve been a ROVERS (Reservist on Voluntary Extended Reserve Service) since 2019 and you’re currently the S3 of 737 Gds (737th Battalion, Singapore Guards). What gives you the motivation to keep serving?
MAJ (NS) Tan: I used to be an Officer Commanding (OC) in 745 Gds – a rather unwilling one. But my turning point was this one mission – I was exhausted and my men surrounded me and gave me water. Someone said: “Sir, if you peng (collapse) now, who will lead us?” To this day, that’s what’s kept me going, and I ended up seeing them through to the end of their ORNS (Operationally Ready NS) cycle.

It was also my wife’s idea! When I asked her if I should continue to extend my service, she said to me, “If not you, then who?”

I feel a sense of duty towards the junior and senior commanders and all the men who rely on me, and I want to help them understand why they must defend this land. At the end of the day, as long as they can go out with good memories that they can share with their families, and build strong, long-term friendships outside of In-camp Training, I’m satisfied.

General Lee/Speaking: Singaporeana

Wed, 16 Mar 2022
2 min read
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In an extension of our previous collaboration, I will be performing together with my good friends General Lee in General Lee/Speaking: Singaporeana on Thu, 24 March 2022 from 7pm to 8.30pm at the Esplanade’s Concourse.

This is a music and spoken word performance focused on telling Singapore stories and will feature General Lee’s original songs from their their eponymous debut album released in 2016, as well as poems written by me in response to their music.

This interdisciplinary collaboration brings together music and literary arts to imagine (or reimagine) Singaporeana – Singapore stories of our country’s history, myths and legends, and to tell (or retell) them through word and song.

General Lee will also be rearranging their music in collaboration with The Good Company to incorporate acoustic instruments integral to American folk music such as fiddle, banjo, mandolin and dobro, in what is likely to be the first performance of its kind in Singapore.

The Good Company – comprising Kailin Yong, Greg Tucker-Kellogg, Kelly Olafson and Mark James Garratt – is a collective of musicians well-versed in the acoustic instruments that define the sound of Americana, or American folk music. This includes country, bluegrass and old-time music of the Appalachian Mountains.

More information can be found on the Esplanade’s website here.

See you then!

Looking beyond the pain over PSLE

Fri, 8 Oct 2021
9 min read
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Covid-19 has been tough on this year’s cohort, pointing to further action needed as the children go on to secondary school. Parents too need to consider the broader shifts in education and the lessons they impart their children in their responses to exam setbacks.

St Gabriel’s Secondary School assembly grounds in 2008. This year’s PSLE en route to secondary school exposed a chasm between what the majority of this cohort of Primary 6 pupils were prepared for, and what they were ultimately able to do. (Photo: Laremy Lee)


Laremy Lee
For The Straits Times

So palpable was the pain from this year’s mathematics primary school leaving examination (PSLE) that it even affected those of us who did not sit the exam.

It prompted my 29-year-old cousin to recount, over WhatsApp, her traumatic experience in 2004, when she sat for her PSLE: “For my cohort, our science PSLE was the toughest. Science was my best subject. But I could neither do the paper nor finish it in time. I was quite shaken and on the verge of breaking down. Our teachers confirmed it was the toughest science paper they had seen in years. So how (this cohort of) pupils must be feeling totally resonates with me.”

Her story, as well as various accounts of both pupils and parents in the news and on other media platforms was heart-wrenching. There is a distinct struggle which Singaporeans of all stripes go through when it comes to high-stakes national examinations, further exacerbated in the last two years by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gaps in three areas
At the same time, the stories surrounding these exams have illuminated gaps in three areas where course corrections are needed, to do right by this generation of children, and the generations that follow.

This year’s PSLE exposed a chasm between what the majority of this cohort of Primary 6 pupils were prepared for, and what they were ultimately able to do. The pupils had just commenced their PSLE journey in Primary 5 last year when the pandemic befell us, bringing about its associated disruptions to learning.

One of these hurdles was home-based learning, as not everyone was equipped to learn well in an online setting. The loss of curriculum time over the last two years also meant teachers were unable to offer as much clarification and support to all pupils as before, which compounded pupils’ learning gaps. The outcome for these kids was a rocky PSLE foundation, so some attempts were made to mitigate this.

Content reduction
For the PSLE, the Ministry of Education announced in June the removal of common last topics. These are a set of topics in each subject taught at the tail-end of each graduating cohort’s time in school. For this year’s mathematics PSLE, the dropped topics included speed, volume, pie charts, solid figures and nets.

Given the insufficient time for schools to cover the breadth of topics they normally would in a non-Covid year, it was only right for the ministry to mandate a reduction in scope for this year’s PSLE.

Kudos must also go to teachers who selflessly carved out time for supplementary classes to help pupils who needed it. Despite these efforts, the disjuncture that still occurred suggests it may then have been an issue of skills.

Broadly, educators look at what needs to be taught in each subject from the lenses of content – what learners should know – and skills – what they should be able to do. For instance, content topics in mathematics would include fractions, decimals, percentages and so on, while skills would include calculation, spatial visualisation, estimation and the like. In all fields, skill mastery is obtained through adequate opportunities and space to tackle the range of methods and approaches to comprehending, problem-solving and application.

Even with content reduction for this year’s PSLE, pupils still struggled in attempting questions on the remaining topics, which indicates there was also insufficient time to develop skills. This deficit could likely be cohort-wide and will have a knock-on effect on their learning needs and development.

Plug skills gap in future plans
Both the ministry and secondary schools should now look ahead towards the next four to five years, as the majority of this cohort moves on to secondary school. Plans for enhancements to both curriculum and assessment – taking into account this skills gap – should be discussed now. Implemented progressively over the next half-decade, it would go some way in making sure this generation is not disadvantaged tomorrow by the havoc the pandemic has wrought today.

Expectation versus reality
That it may have been an issue of skills hints at a second gap – between expectation and reality regarding assessment, on two levels.

For parents, one of the myths surrounding this year’s PSLE has been the perception of the increased difficulty of papers, due to the new achievement level scoring system introduced this year. It replaces the old T-score system.

The misconception: the new scoring system makes it easier for more students to do well. Accordingly, exams have been made more difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The truth: Kids are indeed finding exams tougher and it is not because of the new scoring system. Instead, it is because national syllabuses, from primary school to pre-university, have been increasing in complexity over the last decade or so.

Complexity refers to the types of thinking we carry out, from lower levels of memorisation and recall, to higher levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. In a mathematics syllabus, a learning outcome of lower complexity may require pupils to be able to identify fractions, for example. A learning outcome of higher complexity may require pupils to be able to demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between fractions and percentages, and represent this understanding through a mathematical model.

Transition to higher-order thinking
Worldwide, there has been a transitional trend towards teaching more higher-order thinking in schools, and for good reason. Our young will inherit from us a fitful future. The best legacy we can bequeath them would be critical- and creative-thinking skills that allow them to adapt nimbly to the vicissitudes of that uncertain age. In this, it is inevitable that assessments – which both measure and aid learning – make the same shift to impart these proficiencies.

To some extent, this might also explain the infamous “Helen and Ivan” image that has been circulating in the media and in chat groups recently. Allegedly a four-mark question from this year’s PSLE mathematics paper, it has drawn the ire of many because of its complexity, to the extent that even adults are stumped.

Discomfiture notwithstanding, it is a plausible representation of the type of thinking skills our young need to have and are starting to pick up. Likewise, it will take time for older generations to get used to this new normal, and to acquire the same cognitive skills and approaches alongside our young.

In terms of the setting of the PSLE paper, there also appears to be a likelihood of a similar gap between expectation and reality. Given the pandemic’s global impact, the challenges parents and pupils faced are the very same ones with which educators had to contend. In this, we are, truly, all together. So it is not impossible for a paper to have been set, wherein a mismatch existed between the assessment expectations and the pupils’ reality, as outlined earlier.

Review on moderation of grades
It is timely for both the Education Ministry and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board to conduct a review, to first determine if a moderation of grades for the cohort is needed. Then, if an assessment-setting gap is found, to also identify how to close this gap for future cohorts.

Therein lies the heart of the pain which parents and pupils alike poured out: a desire to be heard on these issues for the sake of fairness – one of the universal principles of assessment.

Yet, some of the posts from parents had me wondering if the unhappiness from their instinctive protectiveness could have been channelled in a manner more suited to the care and concern it belied.

Many parents were, naturally, upset by their children’s distress, especially since it occurred during a high-stakes national examination. Wanting to be there for their children in the present, and concurrently worrying about how it might affect their future, parents reacted by posting diatribes of blame and bitterness in a range of fora – a method at odds with its goal.

Create loving, supportive environment
Hence, the third and most crucial gap that needs to be closed: the one within our personal and national narratives, in terms of how we want to care for our young, and how we actually do so.

Psychologist John Byng-Hall popularised the concept of the family script, to describe behaviours that individuals absorb and enact during interactions with family members. While this has importance in establishing roles and boundaries within a family setting, it is also damaging when taken to the opposite extreme, and people repeat unhealthy attitudes and behaviours. This means the negative narratives we propagate about assessment – and life, in general – will be imbibed by our young, who will – to paraphrase English poet Philip Larkin – hand on that same misery to their children, in a vicious circle of anxiety and fear.

A better script might go something along these lines: “Today, my kid came back crying because the paper was tough. But I told them: ‘Don’t worry; what matters is you showed up and you did your best. Whatever happens, I love you, and it will be all right. We will get over any obstacles you face together.”’

For that is how my aunt and uncle responded to my cousin 17 years ago, when she returned home, bawling her eyes out and doubting her own abilities at that tender age.

Despite that setback then, my cousin is doing well today. She handles diversity and inclusion matters in a multinational corporation and speaks globally on these topics too. She cannot remember the grade she eventually received for her science PSLE. But what stands out most to her, besides the shock and ordeal of a paper that she and her peers wrestled with, was the kind, loving and supportive environment her parents created for her to thrive.

And that is what we should really be assessing ourselves on, as a nation.

Laremy Lee is a writer and educator. He was formerly a schools correspondent with The Straits Times. 

(Published as “Looking beyond the pain over PSLE” on 7 Oct 2021 in The Straits Times.)