It's been about 2 months since I came back from Korea before I finally found a job, which I gladly accepted the offer from recruit express to work temporarily as a pharmacy assistant at the National University Hospital of Singapore for a month. I've learned a great deal of how an inpatient pharmacy works although my job is mainly to just pack supplies for the admitted patients. It was quite hard to cope at first, from adjusting my body clock to make it to work, to understanding the workflow in the pharmacy. I'm grateful that they extended my contract even though I've made tons of mistakes and even near misses.

The week has just began but so many things have already happened in such a short time. While I usually take bus service 55 to Bishan MRT station to get to Kent Ridge, I decided to take bus service 73 yesterday to Ang Mo Kio to change to Bishan. On my way to the station, there was a bus stopped in the middle of the road and a lady was lying on the road near the entrance of the bus. There must be an explanation and I figured that she was knocked down by the bus and the passengers were evacuated out of the bus. I'm glad there were 2 passer-by fanning the injured lady and I prayed that she's alright. Thoughts filled my mind and I started to feel how fragile life was. How it would be if I was in that position, or even my loved ones, to the point I couldn't really control my feelings at time. I realize that we should do what we love, do what we need, say what we want to say to our loved ones; even goodbyes ahead of time before we don't have a chance to, because you never know when the last day is. It was traumatizing, but soon or maybe we already knew but chose to ignore or deny that the world goes on, with or without our existence.

There was another unfortunate incident today which I witnessed while on my way home from work. It was in Bishan station when I boarded the train towards Ang Mo Kio Station. There was a young lady standing in front of me when I noticed the suspect standing in front of her having his hands on a weird position, but I couldn't see it clearly to testify that it he was doing anything funny to the lady. However, his right hand were continuously fidgeting despite the train being stationary. Initially, in addition to the fall of an Indian gentleman towards this guy standing in front of the lady, I thought the ride was a little jerky, leading to the suspect inching nearer to the lady by the seconds. But it seemed that the lady had pushed the suspect away from her once and he still continued moving closer to the girl so that he could take advantage of her. I already felt something amiss when I saw the lady's hand lifted up as a form of defensive act and I moved my head closer to see where the hands of the suspect were. Apparently when I see it, I thought I saw the suspect's right hand in the lady's skirt, kind of like fingering her, but I thought he was related to the lady because the lady didn't actually asked or shouted for help throughout the ride. But my doubt was confirmed when I alighted at Ang Mo Kio station with the lady but not the suspect that was still in the train. Quickly I asked the lady if she was alright and when she shook her head, i grabbed her by the wrist and went back into the train to confront the suspect. Loudly, I asked if he'd intentionally touched the girl and he only said "Sorry, I didn't mean it". I shouted to him that I would call the police. This was where a kind onlooker told me to just report to the police, and I did when he gladly borrowed his phone when I asked for it because my phone was depleted of battery to make the call. While reporting, I had to report that I called from the gentleman's phone so he too alighted at Yio Chu Kang station with us. He was asking the suspect kindly to cooperate with us to alight at Yio Chu Kang station where the suspect unwillingly followed. While at the station, I actually wanted to hold on to the suspect's hand or bag just in case he did try to run away, but the gentleman told me not to do so, and told the suspect that he should not be afraid if he hadn't done anything wrong as Singapore is a lawful country. I was with the lady and was following them when they gained speed consistently walking around the platform.  Despite the firm advice by the gentleman, the suspect tried to run away, not once, not twice, but on 3 occasions towards the escalator for the gantry which he failed; towards a train when the door was closing but failed yet again; and finally another train with the door almost closed. After the suspect's second attempt, I anticipated that he would try again when I saw an oncoming train arriving at the station. I asked the lady to stay put while I rushed up to help if there was the need to. Indeed, he got into the train at perfect timing just when the train door closes, but I rushed in with him as well, with the gentleman trapped in both the train doors and the external doors in the station, and pulled the suspect out of the train, where bystander effect was displayed, yet again, not surprisingly. After pulling the suspect out of the train, 2 station staff came to help and asked what happened as I think they saw the incident of me pulling the suspect out of the train through the CCTV, and we explained to them. We waited at the security check point, with the suspect still having the intention of running despite being told that we've already called the police.

The police arrived some time after and all four of us began to provide our statements, and I reached home after 3 hours.

I'm really upset and apologetic for not stopping the suspect when I saw it, but thankful that the gentleman Ridwan assisted in retaining the suspect. I'm really glad that Singapore, our homeland is a safe country that we don't have to tolerate all these inhumane crime and let these kind of people roam free. Not all hope is lost after all. It was terrible experiencing all these, but there's always sunshine and rainbows after the rain.

written @ 1:25 AM