My stay in SG [part 6 - the scholarship's aftermath (cont'd)]

Alright, here is the 6th part of my soon-to-end long story (honestly, I even start to think that this may be its penultimate episode). For some of my friends who kept reminding me that the story hasn't yet reached its closure, I'm sorry guys. I just couldn't manage to wrap this one up last week (and the week before) immediately after the 5th part. I was kinda busy for the past 8-10 days, going through my probably-applying-to grad schools list for the...well, I don't even know how many times I've done it...God knows.
Oh btw, I decided to remove the previous post (the intermezo thingy) as I had been told, like four times in a row, that it may just be a hoax. I actually got it from this guy who has been a trustworthy source (so far), but apparently even Ega makes mistakes...oops... So, due to my lacking time, I didn't bother to re-check if that was really a nonsense and yeah, "just delete it" seemed like the best option. Sorry ga, I accidentally typed your name. But who knows if some random Hollywood producers happen to visit my blog and be interested in you lol.
Well well, I'd better start now before this post keeps getting longer and longer having nothing to do with the story itself. So, where was I? Yeah, my request for the original deed (still, if there was any).

May 2008, nearly 3 months from the very beginning of the case and I hadn't received any satisfactory email or notification from the "sponsor" regarding the existence of the deed. Well, I did get an email from NUS RO telling me that I didn't have to worry (what?!? I didn't have to worry?! These people must be nuts!! What did they expect me to do? Get laid??), that the deed was not gone, that the company just needed more time to return it to me (may I know why, dear fuckin' people??). Come on, did they seriously think I'm that stupid to realize that there was something wrong? Of course, I kept giving them the same answer too, that no matter what, I had the legal right to get 1 of the 2 copies of the original deed and that just an email wouldn't do me any good. I guess they just didn't have any idea whom they are dealing with. It's me and yeah, I can be way more stubborn than they could possibly imagine. Indeed, it's not about being stubborn or patient in this case; it's about being smart or being lied. More than anything, I never let people ruin my plan. If it happens, they're surely going down with me.

Few weeks passed, and at that stage even the people at the RO seemed to be giving up. I don't know if they had indeed been involved in all the lies during those 3 months, but apparently they then realized that it was about time to reveal the truth, admitting to me that the deed might be gone (or had been burnt in hell, maybe). They told me, however, that the company wouldn't in any case admit that they had lost the deed. So this one had not given up yet (what a headstrong!!) BUT neither had I. The NUS RO then suggested that I could just go on with my plan going to the States to pursue my graduate degree and safely assume that the deed was gone. Safely assume?!? Hell no. What if I followed their moron suggestion, preparing everything for going, applying for visa, buying the airline ticket and all of a sudden those bastards showed up on the day of my flight telling me that everything had to be canceled? "Can you guarantee that such a scenario won't happen?", I asked. Instead of giving me a yes/no answer, they came up with what they thought might be a good solution for me, telling me that, in the case that the company could finally locate the deed and used it as a reason to stop me from going, NUS'd work it out with the "sponsor" telling that I should be given time to finish my post-grad degree before serving my bond. For God's sakes, why didn't they just do it from the very first time? It was, unfortunately, too late. My concern was no longer on pursuing my post-grad study, yet on having a clear closure for the case. So, of course, I turned it down, not to mention the fact that my offer was no longer valid by then.

I realized how important it was to get the original deed as soon as possible, or to get a formal notification that it was gone. If the deed was really gone, they had to legally admit that the agreement was no longer valid. Think about it!! That scholarship clearly didn't worth my life. By no means did I want to be in such an obscure position for my entire life, not knowing if I still had any obligations to the "sponsor". I couldn't just play around assuming that it had been lost and spend the rest of my life in such an uncertainty. What if, say, 20 years from then, when I have settled down with my life, the "sponsor" comes to me telling that they found the deed from 2 decades ago that I have to come back to sg?

So, with all those that happened, I was no longer the only one against them. My family had definitely put much concern on this and by noticing how all those bitches and sons-of-bitches worked, we had no choice but to tell them that we wanted to break the bond immediately. This seemed like the best thing we could do, because in order for both of us (me & the "sponsor") to have a definite closure on the case, the latter had no choice but to show us the original deed or to admit that it had been lost. The signed agreement letter was clearly needed for us to be liable for paying back the Liquidated Damages. Otherwise, without the deed, they'd get nothing, not even a penny.
We also made it clear that, should they keep dragging the case without giving a satisfying answer, we wouldn't hesitate to look for a legal help, to bring the case up to media attention as well as to the court of law. If the "sponsor" didn't want its reputation tainted by this surely-unimportant-for-them case, they'd have to be gentle enough admitting their mistake. This was exactly what I told the RO to convey, and that I urged them to give me the contact details of the company for me to address my legal issue. They had no choice, I guess, or else the legal issue would be wrongly addressed to my loovveeelly university as the third party (note the cynicism). So, submitting a legal request would hopefully get us to the one behind all those chaoses.

The "sponsor" then asked for a 2-week time to give an answer. Answer?? I didn't even pose any question. Why'd it take them 2 weeks just to give me their address? Was Osama bin Laden hiding with them??
What came after 2 weeks was unimaginable. The sponsor, miraculously, finally agreed to let me go and pursue my post-grad study. Wowwww, wasn't that great? Yes, if my offer was still valid. As I had to provide an answer to the university giving me an offer by a certain date, this "good news" came a lil bit late; I had informed the university that I wouldn't be able to attend the program in Fall 2008. So, I turned down this "kind-hearted" offer from the "sponsor" who apparently had been kind enough letting me go at the end.
If there was any, this counter-offer that I got would only serve as another mean to convince me that the deed had indeed been lost. If not, why would the company change their decision that drastically? From insisting that I may not go to letting me go? Those people behind all the appeal processes must've realized that they could no longer win, that my request was just impossible to entertain. They prolly thought that I'd be exhilarated being allowed to go, forgetting the chore problem that the deed was gone. Well, I ain't that stupid. I told them how it was too late and how I had firmly decided to break the bond so as not to have any affiliation to such an irreverent party.

Being informed that I'd still want to break the bond and get a proper closure on the agreement, be it with or without getting any legal consult involved, the NUS RO told me that the "sponsor" needed another 2wk time to prepare everything. Now you see how all the processes almost drove me crazy, it took me more than 3 months just to keep waiting without going anywhere. I was running out of patience and thx to this case, I no longer disliked sg-I officially hate it. I just couldn't wait any longer and told the RO that it'd be the very last time I would ever want to wait. If those 2 weeks still got me nowhere, I'd no longer give them any more time. They wouldn't have to bother contacting me again as I'd stick to my plan and let a legal consult do everything for me.

(to be continued...)