-u h- SMU

Wanted Jimmy Boh wants to help other ex-convicts get back on their feet

Publication: The Straits Times Date: 26 June 2005 Headline: Wanted list to Dean's List

list to Dean's List

A LIFE LESS ORDINARY ) Wong Kim Hoh

J IMMY Bob is ebullient, hav- ing just finished his first year at the Singapore Management University on a triumphant note. He was placed in the top

5 r cent of his cohort and earned him- se IF a place on the Dean's List.

Seven years ago, he was aIso on a list., albeit a more diabolical one. Then living the life of a fugitive drug peddler, he was wanted by the Central Narcotics Bureau.

It ended one &moon in July 1998, just three days &r France- beat Brazil 3-0 to win the World Cup Finals in Paris.

A posse of more than 20 CNB officers swooped in on Bob's rented Geylang apartment and nabbed him. He was fbund with 300g of marijuana

He was sentenced to eight years in jail and five strokes of the rotan. He was re- leased after five years and four months.

It's hard to believe that Boh, 30, is an ex-convict He is jocular, looks a lot youn- ger than his age and has the restless ener- gy of a hyperactive undergraduate.

He grew up in Tanjong Pagar, the sec- ond of three boys born to a delivery man and a hairdresser. His elder brother is a teacher, and his younger siiling works in the Singapore Armed Forces.

Afhr completing his 0 levels at Gan Eng Seng Secondary School, he earned a spot studying electronic engineering in Singapore Polytechnic.

"But I was there for just over a month. I was not used to the system so I stopped

attending classes. They struck me off the student register: he says.

He started working as a waiter - first in the now defunct Dallas Nightclub in Amara Hotel and later in Regent in Cup- page Plaza. To earn extra money, he also became a despatch rider by day.

One day, he chanced upon some col- leagues smoking marijuana He asked them what it was and how much it cost.

He says, laughing: The first thing that came to my mind was not whether mari- juana was good or bad, but how big the profit margins were."

He became the delivery boy for a sup- plier. Not for long though, because "I de- veloped my own contacts".

His network of clients grew and by the time he left national service in 1997, he was easily raking in nearly $6,000 a month. His family begged him to stop but

to no avail. Not surprisingly, he also at- tracted the attention of CNB officials.

"I had to keep moving because they were hunting me down."

Around this time, his mother fell sick. 'I felt that I was such a failure. I was

depressed, I drank and smoked heavily." He felt "both a sense of relief and a

sense of doom" when he was arrested. About one year into his term at Tanah

Merah Prison, he was allowed to see his dying mother in Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

"All my relatives were in the room, cry- ing. She was lying there. Her organs had failed her, her eyes were closed. I didn't know if she could hear me but I put her hand to my face and then I saw her tears."

He adds: "I told her not to wony about me, to go safely if she had to."

She died shortly after he left the hospi- tal. He spent the next few months in a

deep funk. "I really hated myself then." He found religion and managed to

pick himself up. He read voraciously. He applied to sit for his A levels

through self-study, scoring one A, two Bs, one D and a B3 for General Paper.

Because of his good conduct, he spent the last year ofhis term helping out at the Kaki Bukit Prison School where he taught and counseUed inmates, organised activities and even started an alumnus.

He applied to SMU because he saw its newspaper ads which em hasise its ap- preciation for students o are "differ- ent".

2 "I'm really different, I'm an ex-con-

vict," he jokes, adding that he had to de- clare his past in his application form.

He started his first year at SMU last August. Before that, he attended an inter- view where he was asked his opinion on

the new Consumer Rights Act. He was never grilled about his past.

Mr Alan Goh, SMU's director of un- dergraduate admissions, says: "We sussed out Jimmy's character and aspira- tions in a holistic manner. We saw through his A-level grades a single- minded pursuit to excel. We could feel the fire-in-the-belly and the steely deter- minatican to succeed.

W e did not sense any hint of a plea to be given a second chance. lhat he wore his heart on his sleeve is enough evidence to convince us that he has the potential to be transformed into a gem worthy of hi piace and contribution to society."

Boh confesses he nursed initial trepi- dation about 4usting to a new life.

*But I told myself I must go all out to make things work for me."

He doesn't hide his past In hct, for his module on kadership and Team Build- ing, he rounded up seven of his course mates and took them to the Prison School in Kaki Bukit.

They decided to hold a workshop for the ' , teaching them %ow to let of t h z t , set goals and take the r i g steps" towards reintegrating into society.

"I told myself that I would one day re- turn to the Prison School, not as an in- mate but as a volunteer. And I wanted to show my course mates that inmates are normal, just like them."

He wants to devote time to raising ac- ceptance of convicts. 'We can say we have succeeded when we find convict teachers in mainstream schools."

He's hoping to graduate with a double degree - Bachelor of Business Manage- ment and Bachelor of Accounting - and work in the finance industry.

Boh, who now lives with his father and younger brother, says he has made many new friends on campus.

But he has no girlfriend. "Most of them are seven or eight years younger. Anyway, girls can wait. The Dean's List is more important."

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