KQ's response telling me why gum's illegal in Singapore

This is what KQ had to say in response to this post about Terrence and gum in Singapore.


This is what I know regarding the ban of gum in Singapore, as told to the E. Literature class by my once-idol, Mr. Steven Sim.

In the early nineties (1992, to be specific), we had our transport system going really fine for us. We had the SMRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit, trains, as you might have occasionally read me usually refer to them as) working really well, and everything was on a smooth ride. Back then, we were also allowed to chew our gums. One not so fine day, some smart asshole decided to stuff his chewed gum against one of the many automatic doors of one SMRT, and as expected, the door jammed and the SMRT workers had to gather at the specific station it was stuck at, in order to figure out what was holding the doors back. It took a mightily long time because a) there were many doors, and b) the workers had no fucking clue what could have happened! Technical problem? Didn't seem so. So what could be the problem? Eventually they found the damn culprit, the gum, but not the accomplice who stuffed it there, since the passengers were evacuated. We did / do not have cameras on the trains, so they had no idea who could have done such a wise-ass deed. By the time the problem was found and solved, hours had passed, which meant that the subsequent trains were also late, and therefore, the entire bloody transit system went crashing down for the entire day.

For a thriving country (or one that was trying to pretend to be one), this incident was definitely not very encouraging. So there went gums, over the Causeway, out of Singapore.

Of course, there is also the reason that people tended to discard their chewed property wherever they went, so we would find gum stuck to the bottom sides of tables, or on buttons in elevators. So the argument that chewing gums should be banned for the sake of cleanliness (especially in the early 90's when we had abundant Clean-And-Green campaigns going on) worked fine too.

I also told this to the Americans Brent and Jamie, both of whom also could not figure out why the government decided to ban gums in Singapore. It was funny, because at the Abschiedessen (the farewell dinner we had at the Sports Centre), Brent and Jamie told me that their lecturer (the one they disliked quite a bit) announced that chewing gums are available in Singapore again, and that it was some stupid idea to ban them in the first place. They had shaken their heads in unison at their lecturer's ignorance, because she was obviously oblivious towards the real reason behind the ban. I thought it was hilarious.

And the boys, when they first heard about the ban, could not understand how we live without gum. As a Singapore who lived through the no-ban and then the ban, and now, discriminatory-ban, I must say that I don't give a shit about gum anymore. It was good while it lasted, but on my trips over to Johor (just once), Bali, Perth, and then Germany, I had little wish to bring back any gum with me. The boys were suggesting that I should buy a whole load and bring them back, but I don't really miss gum all that much. I bought but one pack of it over in Muenster, and I bought it because I would not like stinky breath when talking to Markus. That was the one mere reason to get gum. I ate the last one from the pack on the flight back to Singapore from Bangkok. I know of Singaporeans who buy loads when they cross the Causeway, but I am sure there are a million and one better things to buy from Johor Bahru than gums.

So that is my long take on chewing gums. And now that some are available in Singapore, I can't get them anyway because a) I don't smoke, and b) I am saving my money for Markus.