The Enigma of Leadership #1

2012: Undeserving

Let's talk about fairness. Visualise a person who is very popular, is friends with practically everyone in school, has the support of masses and goes out of his ways to flaunt the 'virtues' he possesses. Pretty awesome right? In reality that is just the surface of this person and if you bother to pierce your way to know everything about him, you will realise the cold, dark truth.

I am talking about a senior from both my primary and secondary school whom Rebecca and her close friends tolerated for eight years since 2009. Rebecca was already telling me what he did in school before I even entered primary school and I had the privilege of getting a clearer picture from my Choir senior - Cuthbert Ng.

I was in Primary Three in 2012, a significant year, as I would take up a new subject - Science, as well as join a CCA. Besides, I would be meeting new classmates. Oh well, it took a long time for me to get over my horrible Primary Two results. I really wanted to get into 3A but I apparently missed it by two positions. The best part about getting into 3B was that I could be with my best friend, Vera Ang, again! Blame me for being lazy to get to know more classmates during the previous two years.

Honestly I barely had more than two friends in Primary One and Two. Vera and I stuck together most of the time. During recess I would hang out with Rebecca and her friends (Vera too of course), since we shared the same recess slot. Sometimes I would talk to my cousin, Leo, who would be with his friends. Before I entered primary school, I could already get along quite well with her closest friends namely Nicole Tan, Liu Kai Le and Ng Jing Xuan. Upon entering school, I befriended my buddy Joseph Lee Boon Hai but after the first three days of school we only greeted each other and spoke a few sentences, as he was spending more time with his friends. I befriended Elijah's friends too, but we did not meet as much as I met Rebecca's friends because of our different recess timings. In 2009, Elijah brought me and Rebecca along when he went out with his friend, Dylan Fung, and our mothers. That was how I befriended him. Despite not going out with them, I still managed to befriend two more of Elijah's friends - Ann Tan (who was also my Choir senior) and Maybelle Seah.

Alright, back to the main subject.

The year was 2012. This guy was P6 and he got appointed to be school Vice-captain (thankfully not the Captain). Regarding this there were mixed responses - the overly excited girls, the supportive boys, the jealous boys, the puzzled students and disapproving students. Based on all the information I was given regarding him, I would confidently say I fell in the category of the disapproving students.

You can say that I am weird, but when I first met him on my very first day in primary school, I was slightly overwhelmed by his behaviour. He was talking quite loudly to many of my classmates who were laughing away at his jokes. He then approached me and wanted to find out more about me. When I told him I am Rebecca's brother, his expression changed instantly and said, "You watch out," before walking away.

As a child who was about to turn seven at that time, that left me with a chain of question marks in my mind. What did I even need to watch out for? What is wrong with telling him I am Rebecca's brother? Quietly, Rebecca explained to me how that person used to squirt water at Elijah the year before, because he was clinging on to her a lot. Nicole added how that person was already dating a Geraldine and was still eyeing Rebecca, which explained his aggressiveness towards people who were close to her. That is actually quite dumb. Why would he want to date my sister when he was already dating someone else? He had not lived for a decade and he wanted to try out romantic relationships? I was wondering how someone with such an immature mindset would be elected by the teachers as the Vice-captain.

On the other hand, I feel the teachers were too convinced by his 'good character' he was portraying in front of them. They saw him as a caring and passionate student who would reach out to the student population. I have to admit he had charisma and was also a good orator.

The question is: What was he doing all these for? Did he do these because he genuinely wants to bless others or was it all for personal gain? I did not bother probing myself, but what I heard from Cuthbert, Kai Le, Nicole, Jing Xuan and my siblings, I would say the latter. I was being told that this person has tycoon parents and would frequently invite friends to his huge house for parties. These friends could be from his class, other classes, church and even those he talked to online. He has many rich friends too, and they would hang out when their rich parents were at ballroom dinners. He would ride with them in sports cars and go on expensive holidays, afterwards bragging about what he did to his batchmates and juniors and encouraged them to tag along. I wonder how he would react to a policy where the government decides to increase the tax rates tremendously for the rich people.

What was even worse was how he treated girls. He actually ditched Geraldine in the middle of P5 because he did not want their relationship to affect his chances of being the School Captain. It surely was good news for some girls who wanted to get close to him very badly. Unfortunately, I would say these girls were too shallow and only deceiving themselves with the surface of him. Like I mentioned, this person was eyeing Rebecca, and still was after ditching Geraldine. This makes it even more questionable about his intentions - was he really doing that for power in school? Before I forget, I heard from Cuthbert that he targets several girls simultaneously, and they are the ones who look good (yes, my sister is quite pretty and has many pursuers), with Nicole included too. This further affirms that this person was not sincerely dating Geraldine and was doing so for his own pleasure.

Thanks to Cuthbert who had been keeping abreast of his actions, I learnt that this person got attached to his Swimming junior right before 2012 and their relationship was kept secret until he finished his PSLE. I heard he said mean things to girls who wanted to go out with him solo because they were not up to his standard and it was shameful when they appeared in his social media pictures. I still do not understand why his popularity hardly dwindled despite him doing such things. It was only later that Cuthbert found his tactic - bribery.

Talk about a racist person. An international student from Tajikistan called Pagzman joined Rebecca's class in P5 and she befriended him. That person mocked Pagzman for his accent and insulted his heritage very badly, because he was hanging out with Rebecca majority of the time and she would often hug him, hold his arm briefly and rest her arm on his shoulder (she is very open about doing these to boys she is close to). He almost got into a fight with others who were trying to defend Pagzman when he became furious after seeing Pagzman merely touch his wallet. Kai Le was another victim of this person because he has been Rebecca's best friend. This person affected Kai Le so badly that he loathed going to school and would break down in class occasionally.

This is definitely not fair! Such a person does not deserve to be a student leader! What kind of student leader will be nice to promote his outer image and at the same time make enemies? Who was I ranting about all these while? None other than Joseph Ezekiel Adams.

Time for my experience now.