SLs: Student Leaders, or Slave Labour?

(Edited and Annotated)

Hello there, fellow NUSHS students. Do I Know You? I'm not sure how many of you read the last set of notices I
put up, seeing as how they keep getting ripped down within hours of them being put up. Therefore, I have
decided to be more environmentally friendly, save paper and take the war to the cyber level. Wait, what war?
This may end up in the spam folder - I'm not sure what will happen. If it does, do ask your friends to check it
and read this message as well. Huh? If it ends up in the spam folder, how am I supposed to know it even exists?

And so now, I shall proceed on to deliver the same message I pasted up on the walls. This time, it shall reach all
of you. The voice of freedom cannot be silenced.

Agreed. My inbox count has increased. So has the number of mails selling ‘services’. Thanks man.

First of all, I thank you for taking the time to read this message. It is not often that someone is suicidal enough
to go up against the administration in the hopes of getting a message out, since these messages always end up
nowhere, mired deep in the quagmire of bureaucratic red tape. Have you tried? Only 1 person has died in our
school, and not for this reason. No expulsions so far too. I have no illusions about how far this piece of writing
can reach: sending out any remotely original idea into this largely apathetic school without it first being
endorsed and stamped by the Management© has about as good a chance at reaching its destination as a
paper airplane does in a hurricane. But, as you can see, I’m risking it. Risk what? Your name? It’s been taken
already; you had to place a twelve behind it.

The history of student leadership in NUS High has been brief, but none the less tumultuous. Last year, however,
was when things really began to go downhill—a fact that has gone unnoticed by most students. I speak, of
course, of the merger between the then-Student Council and the PSLs, as well as this year’s massive intake of
students into the Student Council. Point taken.

I ask you, is there any other school in Singapore, with a Student Council one tenth of the student population?
It’s a ridiculously large proportion of students who are chosen to “serve” our school. From my point of view,
it’s always to better to have more servants. They’re serving us right? Kings had how many servants to one
person? (As an interesting side note, it appears the Council still hasn’t really figured out its role either. To serve
or to lead? It’s an interesting question, and one unlikely to be solved soon.) Of course, we all know the
purpose of having so many Student Councillors: the school just wants to stamp as many students as possible
with the title Student Leader™.

And this brings me to the next topic, which is how the Student Council is run. With over a hundred students
within the Council, it is logically impossible to conduct a meeting with all present. As of such, the Council is run
by the leaders of the six different committees. The ones beneath them on the ladder of rank are left to submit
whatever suggestions they have, but are largely kept out of the loop. Point Taken.

What is the role they play then, you might ask. After what I’ve already written, is there any doubt to it? To put
it nastily, “slave labour”. Or you can phrase it as “logistic helpers”. What difference does it make? In the end,
their role is to wait for orders from their leaders and get to work without any say as to how they’ve to do what
they’re supposed to do. Point Taken.
So what can we do? That is the question you might have in your head now. I thought you’re delivering the
lecture?. All I’ve done so far is list out the problems, and no solution is in sight. What are you implying? Truth
be told, I have no idea too. Same. Isn’t that great? All we know is that the Student Council needs either
reformation or some serious downsizing, and fast. I so did not It is stagnating, because there is almost no
communication between the Administration and the Council, nor is there any communication between the
Council and the student body. Point Taken.

We can go the usual way. Write a protest. Send a petition for a reform. Or there’s always the ask-your-parents-
to-complain method, though that’s actually quite overboard. Go on.

Personally, I have no dreams about achieving any of this. My only role in this campaign for reformation is to
get the message out. And now that I have done so, I can only hope someone else will take up the burden, and
push for the reform. So, you’ve listed YOUR problem, and you want US to do the work? Sounds great.

Until then, keep thinking. Don’t stagnate.

And that is what I had to say last week. For you Student Councillors who feel your moral duty pulling at you,
feel free to reveal this message to the teachers. Don't worry, they already know about the original notices. This
is but the next step in this campaign. Showing this to a teacher is a moral duty. Right

Also, since the time that this message was written, it is worthy of note that the reforms are already starting.
People are going to be axed from the Council, and the structure will be revised. With any luck, things will go
back to how they were: a highly organized Council which delegates work effectively, as my seniors tell me.

Hmm. Problem solved. So what were the first 1k words for? Are we still supposed to push for reform that is
happening?

But honestly, the Council isn't the only problem with student leadership in this school, and we all know that.
The whole system was created simply to prop up the idea that all of us are elites, and it's completely rotten.
It's full of holes and overlapping roles.

Are you sick of it yet? Sick of being led around by fools within your respective ExCos, who have no real idea
what they're supposed to be doing either? You should be. Learn these moral principles the school's force-
feeding you, do this job for some event or whatever, but they won't give you enough time to eat, so just chow
down on this packaged crap. Ah. So you have personal problems being led around by people? What do we do
now?

Tired of being assigned to some group or another like subjects in an experiment? Are you the test subject, or
just part of a control group? Do you want them to continue leading you by the nose, or do you want to escape
the scientists and run amok for a while, scaring the hell out of everyone else? I would definitely like to escape
and cause havoc? Where do I sign up?

There's too much going on these days, too much to the point where everything, in its own special way, means
nothing. Struggling to comprehend all the module content while rushing out all that work, and working on
those long-term projects all at the same time. And oh, the school throws random events which are always
down to the students to organize and execute. It drains the emotions out of you until you're tired out and can
only slave on the next day. Huh? You’re now complaining about schoolwork and events?

And that's exactly how they want it! Tired little sheep kept running all day long by the massive amounts of
work they have to do "just to keep up with the advancing world". Who said you needed to keep up? You can
just let your CAP go to ~2.5. Its fine there.

What is the solution? There is none. In the end, you are as committed to the continued success of this
establishment as everyone else is. So go ahead and continue living the safe, numbing life of a slave. As for me,
I'm going to live life as it was meant to be: exciting and highly dangerous, but free. It’s called the rat race .
People discovered it long ago. It just so happens you happen to be caught in it a little earlier than others.

Whether you follow my example or not is entirely up to you. But all of us have a rebel within, and it's always
good to let that rebel roam free for a while. Follow what? Send more spam? Run havoc and scare everyone?
My inner rebel is typing this message out now. I should swear, but I’ll keep my language clean. It makes my
arguments more convincing

Which is why my next move is to get out there, and show you that the Administration is just another collection
of individuals. And they can be beaten, or outsmarted at the very least. Where we go from there, all comes
down to you. Ok. The Administration is made out of many people. Got it. It can be beaten or outsmarted?
Check. Tell us your name please? It wouldn’t be nice if you got out there as AngelofAnarch12. Wow, why me?
You haven’t even told me what to do.

You all will be hearing from me.

Once again, keep thinking until then. Don't let them break you down yet. I’m not breaking down. No one’s
breaking me down. Is this email even related to me? Sounds like people telling me in mails that I have a long
lost uncle in Africa who just died.

Conclusion:

1. Angle of Anarchy12 introduced himself. Talks about how hard it is to send a message to us. Talks
about the risk of using AngelofAnarchy12 as his name

2. States his argument that there are too many student leaders. According the Dr Hang, these are
servant leaders, but he says that many servants are bad.

3. States that the student is unorganized, that lower-ranked leaders are like “slaves” or “helpers” (Good
Point).

4. Now that we know HIS problem with the school, want US to solve it for him.

5. No. He doesn’t want us to solve it. It’s already been solved. You must REALLY thank us for wasting our
team to read about a problem that is undergoing the process of being solved.

6. Talks about his personal problems, how he cannot stand coping with schoolwork? Feels like the school
is forcing you to get a CAP of 5.0. Are we supposed to care about you if we don’t even know who
AngelofAnarch12 is?

7. You repeat that you’re a rebel, that you roam free, and that you plan to get out and show us that the
Administration (summarized in 1 word) sucks. Mind telling us your name? Then, you go on to say that
it all comes down to us. I thought you were going to do the job?