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PM remembers the day he got lost in Punggol
Peh Shing Huei Wed, Dec 05, 2007 The Straits Times
WHEN Mr Lee Hsien Loong attended Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) in 1967, he and his mates had to dash through rural Punggol and navigate checkpoints without a compass. In a place dotted with pig farms, unrecognisable from the new town it is today, the group of 15-year-olds failed in their task. 'We got lost,' he admitted self-deprecatingly yesterday to much laughter. Returning to OBS as Prime Minister to celebrate its 40th anniversary, he reckoned that today's youth would probably have a far easier time.

Even on Pulau Ubin, where OBS is located and which is just a 15-minute boat ride from Punggol, it is quite difficult to get lost these days.

'It is quite a crowded place. You have tarmac roads...you have road signs. It's not as much of wilderness as we would like it to be,' he said.

'But with some ingenuity and some effort, we can make the best of what we have.'

It is what OBS is already doing - taking some of its annual intake of 23,000 participants beyond its Ubin home ground.

A programme to paddle to Batam and back will kick off next year.

More exciting challenges are also lined up for participants in China's scenic Guilin area, the Himalayas, and even in Croatia.

OBS will also have more activities in other parts of Singapore, making use of nature reserves and also of Pulau Tekong and the Southern Islands.

Of course, it also wants a slice of the new Punggol 21-plus, aiming to 'chope' or reserve, as Mr Lee revealed, some space at Punggol Point Jetty when the new town is rejuvenated as a coastal suburb.

This would beef up OBS' presence on mainland Singapore.

And it will also allow more Singaporeans to try the climbing, jumping and even 'flying' - on the Flying Fox apparatus, of course - that the OBS is famous for.

'We would like more of our students, more of our people to come and have this experience which would leave them changed - not just physically fitter but mentally tougher and more cohesive as a team and with memories which would last them a lifetime,' Mr Lee said after a two-hour tour, during which primary school pupils greeted him with the Mexican, or perhaps in this instance, the Pulau Ubin Wave.

Mr Lee's 17-day course four decades ago certainly left an impression on him.

His then-OBS instructor, Mr S. Puhaindran, now 71, remembers him as a boy who didn't give trouble.

'He mixed very easily with the other people. He did everything that everyone else did and never complained. After a while, the other students all forgot that he was Lee Kuan Yew's son,' said the veteran Marine Parade grassroots leader.

As for the little misadventure in Punggol, he said: 'They were quite happy and they laughed it off.'

shpeh@sph.com.sg