Alter Ego - The Able and Disabled State

Slick hair style, formal wear and a cheerful disposition are what Desmond Ho presents to everyone who meets him. He expresses his views on any subject without hesitation and with a smile. His friends and colleagues receive an additional gift of his corny jokes.

Despite his short stature, Desmond stands tall amongst any group of people. He does not allow his physical limitations to deter him from fulfilling his dreams. As a former colleague who had an office on the same floor as Desmond’s, I could tell that he was on the move by the soft sound of the engine of his motorised wheel chair. I remember the first time I travelled in Desmond’s car to a dinner at Market Place in Centrepoint a couple of years ago. I asked him whether the venue was suitable for him. He answered, ‘No problem. Let me give you a lift.’ It was an eventful journey from the time we reached his car. His car is specially fitted to suit his spinal muscular disability. After storing his wheel-chair into the car boot with the assistance of an in-built winch, Desmond gets into the car slowly and drives like a car racer stuck in the Singapore roads and traffic. He dismisses my safety concerns with smiles and assurances of ‘don’t worry’. On the surface, Centrepoint looks inaccessible to a wheel-chair bound individual. Desmond guided me through long back passages and several doors of the shopping centre filled with workers, cleaners and huge baskets of papayas and water melons. Hey presto, we were at the entrance of Market Place! Throughout the whole journey, my travelling companion only had smiles.

Having been around and working with disabled people in my initial years as a volunteer, I fully appreciate the difficulties that Desmond must have gone through in his childhood and schooling years in the Gifted Education Programme in Raffles Institution and in Raffles Junior College. In addition to the pressures of life, he has to cope with the additional physical demands. ‘I see myself as any one of you. I just take a little more time,’ he explains over a weekday dinner. He acknowledges the support of his parents who did not have any great concerns when he travelled to Cambridge to read law. ‘Some of the halls and buildings in Cambridge are more than six hundred years old and surprisingly many of them are so user-friendly to me. In modern Singapore, the physical restrictions often deny the disabled the possibility to live their lives independently.’ When the MRT system was first launched, the Handicaps Welfare Association, of which Desmond is a member, wrote to the relevant Ministry to request them to make the MRT accessible to the disabled. ‘They replied that this was not their priority then. After more than ten years, the MRT system is now finally being made accessible to the disabled.’

Singapore prides itself on its stand for equality and justice. Are the less able members of our society given the full opportunity to enjoy the full rights and opportunities as a Singaporean? Many disabled people are confined to their flats because of inaccessibility to subsidised transport and lack of job opportunities. ‘In Britain, there are various assistance programmes for the disabled. The disabled enjoy a budget to buy a car and wheel-chair. I am fortunate that my parents were able to offer me the opportunities from birth. Everyone of us can assist the disabled by providing them with opportunities to overcome their disability,’ Desmond shared. Although Singapore is not a welfare state, exceptions should be made to cater to the special needs of the disabled and the underprivileged of society. How many more years does this class of people need to wait to enjoy the opportunities they would have otherwise enjoyed if they were living in countries with modern social service policies? The correct approach for the authorities to adopt is to recognise the disadvantages faced by the disabled and to support them by providing them with assistance to purchase a wheel-chair or car so that the disabled can compete on a level footing with their counterparts for the same jobs.

Chess featured in Desmond’s life since secondary school days. In university, Desmond represented and captained his college, Trinity Hall, in chess competitions. He also represented his university in the annual Cambridge-Oxford match. ‘It is a non-physical extra curricular activity for me. I enjoy chess tremendously and it develops my thought processes. It is a game of skill and I play it with the end game in mind.’

He applies the lesson that he has learnt from chess — knowing when to advance and when to concede — in his work as a litigator in Allen & Gledhill. ‘I find litigation challenging. The constant learning process makes me motivated to continue to remain in the legal profession.’ Many of his peers have left litigation. ‘There are many pull factors for my friends. International law firms offer more money, flexible working hours, a varied flavour of work and good training opportunities.’ The large number of lawyers leaving the legal profession may not be compensated by the number entering the profession. This is a worrying issue and increasing the intake into the law faculty and the number of foreign law graduates is not going to address this shortage. ‘In the future, we may see paralegals performing more of the solicitors’ functions.’ Desmond’s method of balancing the demands of work and his personal life is to work his personal pursuits around work. He tries to leave his office in the early evening to pursue his other interests of football watching, computers and meeting with his friends. He then resumes his work late at night at home until the wee hours of the morning.

On the several occasions when I went out with Desmond, I noticed that he always manoeuvres himself from the wheel-chair onto a chair unaided. To me, this simple movement unaided shows his endless desire and willingness to be and live life like any other individual.

Rajan Chettiar
Rajan Chettiar & Co
E-mail: rajanchettiar@pacific.net.sg