Be "One of a Kind"
Adapted from original draft for an article for Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM)'s The Pride
Heyo! My name is Nat but I’m sure you most likely have heard of me as “Your Future SMRT CEO”, and if you asked me about my hobbies, I’d always answer “public transport” aside from the usual answers people would give like ‘singing’, ‘playing the guitar’, which I actually do too!
To start, I’ve been brought up since young to be someone who helps those in need and told to sit on the reserved seat to reserve it for those who needed it more. Though today, I don't even sit when taking the MRT anymore because when I stand around, I always like to think I look fiercer than those younglings I affectionately call "Blue Shirt Tourists" aka TransCom but would 100% be able to respond to anything that happens on the train. And when I saw someone who seemed lost on the MRT, I’d immediately spring up to ask if they need help – and most of the time, they were indeed on the wrong train! No matter the circumstances, I would always be helping someone even if I was clad in full army No. 4 attire and people would even wonder “Wah since when SAF got this kind of service?” but the outside appearances never mattered. Even before I declared that I would do my best to fix SMRT Corporation Ltd in 2017, I was already helping commuters. And even after 2020 when people would yell out “Future SMRT CEO!” to me, I continued to help commuters. Even when I was helping a commuter on wheelchair all the way to Hougang MRT, the staff there instantly recognised me! My colleagues at Extraordinary People Limited often like to tell me “You’re famous!” but actually, I already am with the Mothership article?that came up in 2021 that further propelled the presence of someone who chose to care for SMRT and the wider public transport landscape. Eventually, I managed to put a physical presence to my aspiration – a literal platform at what I like to call ‘one of the busiest MRT stations’ in the country to continue helping commuters and promoting the Caring Commuter culture, initiated by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) Singapore and the Public Transport Council (PTC).
After reading all this, you might be thinking – “This guy siao ah?” and that is what people think when someone chooses to be different, to do the things no one else thought of doing. That is one of some of the common stereotypes people have. They think you’re crazy and mock you for aspiring to be something that is obviously difficult to achieve. And even when you’re finally on track, being happy in life, there would always be haters who want to drag you down. I can only say I’ve been through a lot. From being obviously socially awkward (“this guy autistic”) to becoming somewhat of a social butterfly (“Huh? You got autism??”), I’ve received hurtful remarks like “Fake one lah, want people pity only.”, referring to my condition because I now know many people consider me a miracle – someone who overcame his condition and is able to communicate with others quite normally and even being able to serve commuters in frontline customer service roles, which even ‘normal’ people sometimes struggle with.
Before I started out ‘loitering’ at the station, I never really had any direct interaction with other people with special needs and disabilities. This is why I always emphasise how much I learn and also teach while being at the station as that’s where I encountered and assisted commuters with special needs and disabilities – autism, hearing-impaired, physical disabilities, visually-impaired, etc. Let me share with you some of my experiences…
This one’s a funny one because I, someone who has autism, am occasionally tasked by one of my Station Managers to observe this boy with autism who apparently likes to press emergency buttons at the platform. Though I have never once pressed such buttons for fun, it was a really interesting experience to look at someone with the same condition as you, but not understanding the consequences of what a red button can do
Another case involved a much older male with autism as well, but this one is much more of a moderate or severe autism that Pangdemonium’s Falling depicts. This is something I affectionately refer to as 'case study' - if you saw a child yell at his mum at the station, what would you do? Well, a commuter decided to take things into her own hands and scold the guy until we told her that he has autism, is a regular at our station and so we know how to handle him – in other words ‘leave him be’. This is why raising awareness is so important.
I don't even know how many years have passed, but to scramble for a photo and grab the buses without remembering which was held in which hand from the old photo, and getting it right is crazy!
Aside from these two unique cases, I also had rare experiences assisting commuters with visual impairment (VI) – you have the cane users, then you have one guy who uses his cane to whack others (true story). Have you had that once-in-a-lifetime experience of guiding a… guide dog? I was so pleasantly surprised by the guide dog’s mannerism when I was guiding its owner out of the station to a particular bus stop to wait for a particular bus service. I noticed the dog would glance at me to see if I was about to move, and when I did, it knew that that was the bus its owner is waiting for. So smart!
Most recently, I had an experience with a commuter who could not speak. That was when the Communication Card which was launched by the LTA for quite some time came into good use! The commuter initially pointed to her head repeatedly before we took out the Communication Card. After she pointed to “5 – Dizzy”, she was quickly taken to the first aid room to rest.
Everyone has needs but not everyone is there to help when help is needed.
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People often embellish or even romanticise autism as something like a superpower which I don’t disagree, but they often forget that there’s an ‘ugly’ side to everything. Yes, I can memorise the entire MRT system map and get you to where you want to be, but what happens when you make me upset? That’s when I would have something called a ‘meltdown’, as a result of sensory overload, usually due to noise or when being treated harshly - don't even try scolding me, I will scold you back tenfold. Proud to say, I have mostly learned to control and manage my anger but there have been cases when some commuters still drive myself and even station staff to the edge – but we all learn to quite literally, walk away, and continue on with our day as usual.
People often talk about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) and they would often think about including colleagues of different races or those on a wheelchair – something physical; something visible. However, many organisations are still not ready for a conversation on including people with hidden disabilities and special needs, such as autism.
I won't even repeat myself anymore.