Singapore Was a Modern Education

Though Singapore remains a modern society,

Its classroom halls have voyaged back in time,

Is this the 19th century or an era more sublime?

Where teachers justify their stagnant, stalled careers

Upon the palms and buttocks of the child’s fears.

They claim it's the antidote to the bully’s art:

By striking back, they play the bully's part.

Yet gender remains a “non-issue" in the fray,

Since law permits the bully girls to play,

While punishing only boys, bound by a principal’s gaze.

Do not fret for our children's fragile well-being:

It’s but a “light cane," where no bruises are seen,

No blood stains to mar the innocent floor.

For fear is the proper law to settle the score;

As the intimidators did with the class, they do with the State,

As our leaders do with the world’s shifting fate.

Where is the cane for the corrupt or the bombmaker's hand?

Singapore is a “modern society", a model for every land?