Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Champion of the One-Horse Race

 You have to hand it to Singapore’s top national marathon runner, Mr. Soh Rui Yong for being able to do something that Asians are generally not known for – generating self-publicity. Mr. Soh, who holds the local running record for running the 2.4km (a mile and a half), issued a public challenge to any Singaporean who could run the 2.4km run in under seven minutes at the Pocari Sweat Singapore 2.4km Run on 9 to 10 October 2021. Mr. Soh has offered $700 of his own money and sponsors have also included several other prizes such 700 bottles of Pocari.

To put things into perspective, the 2.4km run is the standard distance for Singapore’s national individual physical proficiency test (IPPT). It’s one of the more difficult elements of IPPT, which is something every man has to take during full time national service and thereafter it becomes a yearly requirement until we are discharged of all reservist liabilities. Most of us clear this between nine and eleven minutes when we’re in our 20s, during full time national service (my best, if memory serves correctly was around 10.15, which was during my specialist course some 20 odd years – these days I walk instead of run). Hence, anyone who finishes this distance in less than nine minutes is way above average and Mr. Soh’s sub-seven-minute time is exceedingly good.

Part of the reason for Mr. Soh’s challenge is attributed to “negative” comments online.  In the course of dealing with online detractors, Mr. Soh inadvertently offended a few commandos (elite of the Singapore Armed Forces). The end result has been a great boon for Pocari, because at the time of writing, it appears that nearly 2,000 people have signed up for the run.

Now, there’s a twist. It appears that there is someone who has achieved what Mr. Soh has challenged Singaporeans to do. That person is Mr. Subhas Gurong, who serves in the Gurkha Contingent in Singapore (For Non-Singaporean readers, Singapore hires Gurkhas. If I’m not wrong, we take the top ten percent who don’t make it into the British Army).

https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/fastest-gurkha-24km-runner-race-soh-rui-yong-wont-be-eligible-prizes

 

Copyright Straits Times

To be fair to Mr. Soh, he’s been exceptionally gracious about Mr. Gurong and announced that he hopes that they’ll challenge each other to better things. Mr. Gurong’s sub-seven-minute time is a few seconds slower than Mr. Soh’s record but Mr. Gurong ran this time after doing 60-push-ups (I can barely do one) and 60 sit-ups. This race, as they say, will actually be interesting because there’s competition.

As interesting as this entire incident is, it is actually something more than a spat over a race. It actually reflects the state of things in Singapore. We are a nation filled with champions of one-horse races and it starts at the very top.

Our elections are the best example of one-horse races. We are officially a democratic country where our politicians make a song and dance about the fact that they have a mandate from the people Lee Kuan Yew used the fact that he was “elected” as a reason for crushing everyone and anything that disagreed with him. His standard line when it came to the media was “Who elected you?”

Whilst he and the gang have been genuinely elected by the people, what they forget to tell you is the fact that they are one-horse race champions. We are a “democratic” country where the opposition fights to be opposition rather than government. A good part of that is the fact that Mr. Lee and his successors made it such that opposition politics would be a very painful career path.

Then there’s the media itself. The press system is designed in such a way where the media has no choice to be anything other than a distributor of government press releases. Let’s not forget that it took less than two years for the media to “remonopolise” because they lost the license to print money. Suddenly Singapore was “too small for competition” and somehow the normal rules of business no longer applied to the media. I’ll always remember 2005 Ad Asia where then CEO of Singapore Press Holdings, Alan Chan talked about the Straits Times as being Singapore’s “favourite” paper and the two senior creative directors from Y&R muttering “favorite implies there’s competition.”

The second point is that when competition to the single horse in the race appears, it is made such that the second horse is effectively being punished for being a second horse in the race. Mr. Gurong is probably the only person in Singapore who can beat Mr. Soh’s timing. However, someone has just found a loophole to prevent him from claiming prizes on offer because, well he's not Singaporean. It’s as if Mr. Gurong’s ability to compete with Mr. Soh exists on a different plane.

Mr. Soh is shown to an extent that he’s an unusual creature. He’s a champion of a one-horse race that had the audacity to invite other horses to the race. He’s rightly said that competition from Mr. Gurong will push him to be a better runner. One can only hope that Mr. Soh rises to his occasion and gives out the $700 of his personal money to anyone who runs 2.4km below the seven-minute mark as promised, regardless of their nationality.

The other champion of one-horse races should learn from Mr. Soh. Instead of treating competition as a threat to their position, they should welcome competition as something to make them reach new heights of excellence. Being a champion of a one-horse race only makes one stagnate in a fantasy world of delusion. Real champions beat other champions.  

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Maira Gall