Ex-Briton doing his bit for S'pore's 'evolution'

New citizen active in grassroots and political work

By Andrea Ong, The Straits Times, 11 Aug 2012

SALES manager Brad Bowyer spent more than a year training to be on the elite front line of Britain's defence.

Now, the 45-year-old spends every Monday night on a different sort of front line: a void deck office near Tekka where he greets residents, listens to their concerns and drafts letters on their behalf to government agencies. "I'm the first line of talking to people about what's your problem, what can we do for you, how can we help," said the former Briton, who is now a Singapore citizen.

He has been volunteering at Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew's Meet-the-People Sessions in Moulmein since he got his pink identity card last year. He is also an active grassroots volunteer, and is assistant secretary to the Cambridge Neighbourhood Committee, the grassroots arm for private estate residents in his area.

On his decision to get involved, he said: "It gets to a point where you realise the world you live in is what you make of it. If you've got the ability to do something, you have a responsibility to do so."

He was also galvanised by last year's General Election, which he felt was much more polarised than previous elections. "I'd like my country to evolve by evolution, not revolution, and I was hoping I could play my part to make it a smoother transition," he said.

Mr Bowyer also got the sense that things, while not perfect, could change. The Government has become more consultative over the years, he said, and he wanted to see if he could add "an alternative voice" to the conversation.

He is impressed by the Meet-the-People Session system, where MPs make themselves available to constituents every week. In Britain, where he grew up, MPs generally appear only at the hustings or on TV, he said.

After he became a citizen last October, Mr Bowyer wrote to his former school rugby opponent, Speaker of Parliament Michael Palmer, to ask how he could get involved. Mr Palmer referred him to Mr Lui, MP for the ward in Moulmein-Kallang GRC where Mr Bowyer lives.

Mr Bowyer attended Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) when his family relocated here in 1985. His father had been hired to head Singapore Polytechnic's computer centre.

After two years at ACJC, Mr Bowyer returned to Britain, where he signed on with the Royal Marines, the navy's elite commando force. It was a boyhood ambition that ended after 18 months, when he hurt both kneecaps during training.

He returned to Singapore, where he started working in theatre and television. He now handles regional sales for Autodesk, specialising in animation and special effects.

In 1994, he met his wife Li Chun, now 47, and became a permanent resident in 2001. It took a while before he applied for citizenship as his homemaker wife was concerned that the family might eventually want to move to Britain or elsewhere.

But he managed to persuade her otherwise. "It came down to the difference between going to a place and living in a place. For living, Singapore pretty much beats every other country," he said.

Their deep ties to the country played a part too. The Bowyers' 10-year-old son Tau, who speaks Mandarin well, just transferred from a primary school in the neighbourhood to Pathlight School for autistic children.

Mr Bowyer is keen for Tau, who is mildly autistic, to do national service to build team spirit.

But he has had brushes with the less positive aspects of the Singapore system, experiences that got him started in grassroots and political work.

Some changes he wants will resonate with any Singaporean parent. He hopes the education system will be more open to different pathways to success - not just in grades. Tau is an exceptional drummer and artistically gifted. But his grades do not qualify him for the School of the Arts, which requires a relatively high Primary School Leaving Examination score, said Mr Bowyer.

While helping out at Meet-the-People Sessions, he also had to bone up on policies and the bewildering array of ministries and agencies, which led him to feel the Government could do a better job of communicating the various help schemes available to people.

This year, Mr Bowyer marked his new country's birthday by taking part in the National Day Parade. He and 19 people from Moulmein-Kallang GRC rowed a dragon boat trailing fireworks, part of a fleet that appeared towards the end of the Parade.

Before the Parade began on Thursday, Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin chatted with the performers in the holding area.

"I got a bit confused because he asked if I was Singaporean and I said 'yes'. Then he asked me, 'Where are you from?', referring to which country I was originally from," said Mr Bowyer. "But I said, 'Moulmein-Kallang'," he added with a grin.