FMOB – Supreme Court Open House

This writing is taken from my old blog. I put it up here because it has some educational value. This writing is dated 15 March 2009.

I decided to put up this blog post as the Queensland Law Society will organise an open house of the Brisbane Supreme Court at George St this Saturday. Let’s see how similar the Australian and Singapore judicial systems are – certainly no ‘Murri Courts’ in Singapore since there’s no such thing called ‘native title’ over there. And instead of Humpty Dumpty, QLS will have a mock trial of Hansel & Gretel, believed to be involved in a murder.

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The Supreme Court, photo was taken two months ago

The publics were enthusiastic in the event

Yesterday, as part of my weekend short-getaway, I visited to the Singapore’s Supreme Court, in Indonesian known as “Mahkamah Agung”, Open House that lasts till today. I don’t know what time the event started nor the closing time. But one good thing about this is they really educate the public on laws and the appropriate behaviour in a court trial.

The first floor, taken from an escalator

Going to the “attic”

They will conduct a safety check on every visitors using both X-ray scanners and metal detectors, I don’t know why but I thought I did put my wallet, coin purse and bag on the X-ray scanner. The security guards are hired from Certis Cisco. I realised that I forgot to take out a scissors in my pencil case inside my bag. They confoscated it and I claimed back later. At first, you will be welcomed by volunteers (or may be it’s the law society, I don’t know) wearing orange t-shirt. Then, they will give out brochure on the event, summary of the Supreme Court as well as quiz that need to be solved by discovering through designated places in the building. Each question earns you one stamp and if you’ve collected all the stamps, you can redeem a prize at the first floor.

Parliament in the middleground and financial district in the background

A not-so-good-shot of me on Asian Civilisations Museum

Parliament again with restaurants along the Singapore River’s bank

There were 12 questions in the handout. There was also a parody trial of the case “Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty”. I didn’t attend the mock trial as the queue then was very long. And if you noticed the architecture of the building, it has some kind of UFO-like attic (or should I say roof?). There you could snapshot the Clarke Quay area (CMIIW) from 100 metre above the ground. A rare experience for peasants like me. You could also take some pictures of the financial district on the opposite side of the bank.

Going down from the “attic” or should I call it a pod?

Last shot before heading back, not to forget claiming back my scissors

There was an article on The Sunday Times today (15/03) regarding the open house that was held yesterday. They said that more than 10,000 people attended and it was the first open house since the judiciary body moved to the new premise in 2005.

Saybons’ crepe

I opted for ham & cheese crepe

The shoebag on the left and the mineral water on the right

All in all, I could say that the event was succesful and I also managed to finish the quiz. The worst of it, the prizes that they gave was quite lame. It was a shoe bag with nothing inside (at least a goodie bag or something like that), a D’elifrance voucher that entitled you a slash in price of their bottled water (50 cents from S$1.00) or isotonic drink, which I believe is Coke (60 cents from S$1.20) and a Saybons voucher that entitles you to a discount of 10% on crepes and soup. The vouchers also could only be used on the F&B booth outside the building and valid till today. Better than waste all my efforts, I decided to use it after all.

Australian Army Open House at South Bank (QBE Riverfire)

It may be old news but here it is, a post on the lead up to QBE Riverfire. In the afternoon before QBE Riverfire, 1st September to be exact, the Australian Army held its open house at Suncorp Piazza along the Southbank Parklands. It is the second time I am attending an army open house, firstly the Singapore Army Open House in which the story you can also find in this blog.

Since national service (termed as ‘nasho’ in Aussie slang, NS in Singapore although in Malaysia it refers to the state of Negeri Sembilan) is not compulsory, there was an army enlistment booth. Back in Indonesia, the army put an advertisement on state-broadcaster TVRI (luckily they don’t embrace ABC charter) where hardly any Indonesians watch, but the ad did say that army training is fully-sponsored by taxpayers’ money.

Unlike Singapore, the open house is not held at an army camp. So what they did was brought the tanks, jeeps etc to Suncorp Piazza. I did hope that one day the Army, Navy and RAAF could organise an open house like how their Singapore counterparts did.

Once the jeep is retired, I do hope they could be utilised as public transport like Manila’s jeepneys. Let the army help Brisbane improves its public transport system 🙂

I expected to see the F-111 to be exhibited along but space constraint at South Bank may force it to Amberley.

The army enlistment booth I have heard, though, opinion by an Aussie to reintroduce compulsory ‘nasho’. Since I’m not Australian, I don’t have a right to this issue.

Get it covered!

What I like about Australian car plate is that how funny the tagline can be. Like for Queensland, it’s “Queensland – Sunshine State”. As for the army, it’s “Army – Serving the Nation”.

Military Police – Serving Naughty Officers 🙂

I do hope the next time Australian Army, Navy or RAAF conducts an open house it can be in a grander scale equivalent to Singapore Army, Navy and RSAF. Need not be located in Amberley, Darwin or near Olympic Dam but give us more inside look of the organisation. But I’m not saying that this open house is bad.

Singapore Army Open House 2009 – Part 2

Is this a tractor? Or perhaps used to help in earthquake’s or landslide’s disaster zone?

A robot used to prevent bomb detonation? This reminds me of Indonesia’s Kopassus (Komando Pasukan Khusus or Special Fores Command), one of the best military group in the world (in terms of using brain).

And by the way, I was on the other venue showing the military equipments.

A helicopter is a rotary-wing aircraft, where did I learn that?

This artillery somehow reminds me of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Look at the humanity side of the picture

Too bad that photo-taking is not allowed in the cockpit of this helicopter, must be security reasons.

Is this the Hawk helicopter? Sorry, I don’t memorise types of military aircraft or helicopters. I only memorise types of commercial aircraft.

This is such a huge vehicle.

That’s the end of my report on Singapore Army Open House. Since this is believed to be my last year here in Singapore, yu won’t see me reporting about this event in the future (hopefully I still could). Next year, I’ll be back to Indonesia. I will report of the annual Sanur Festival, Bali Arts Festival and more of Indonesian events. So long Singapore Army.

Singapore Army Open House 2009 – Part 1

Last week, the Singapore Army held an open house from Thursday, 3 September till Monday, 7 September. I went to the open house on Saturday, 5 September. The open house is held between 9 am till 7 pm if I’m not wrong. I came quite late at about 4.15 pm.

The open house was held in Pasir Laba camp and the nearest MRT station is Joo Koon (the last station on the west side of the green line MRT). The walk from the MRT station to the camp reminds me of ‘hash’ activity I participated about five years ago by the by-pass road connecting Sanur and Gianyar in Bali (I’m talking about the distance).

Joo Koon MRT station

The army is kind enough to give directions on how to reach the camp. But after the visit, I was doggone tired (my feet skin was torn a little bit after walking).

Passing through Singapore Discovery Centre

And due to some security reasons, I didn’t take the photo of the Pasir Laba camp’s gate. I don’t dare to take any photos of military or police camp including in my own country.

So, there was a security check before I got in. No X-ray scanner (unlike the Istana Open House), they checked my bag manually and gave me a brochure on the event.

Some tanks were showcased.

The Third Generation of the Army and due to privacy reasons, I censored some of the faces.

This reminds me of one of the 80’s comedy show “Warkop DKI”. Dono, Kasino and Indro were determined to be security guards and their instructor was a mad guy (the real instructor was locked on the toilet by his twin who pretended to be the instructor).

There must be a bomb simulation earlier.

I’m not trying to capture the plate number of their vehicles.

Woe is me as I went there alone so there was no chance for me to be narcissistic (anyway I’m not one of them).

This field is only one of the venue where they showcased their fighting equipments.

I’ve never been to North Korea before but this statue reminds me of some of the statues in there.

That’s part one. Part two is coming up next.