Today’s story originally appeared in the Summer 2015 launch issue of the sadly short-lived Bahamut magazine, publishing literary fiction with an international focus by many noted speculative authors.
These days, JY Yang is best-known for their queer silkpunk novella series, The Tensorate, while this story could be best described as contemporary bureaucratic horror. It uses an experimental format that will nonetheless be familiar to most of us, that of work emails and document revisions. Despite the grim subject matter of a mutant rat invasion, I found myself grinning and nodding. Enjoy seeing the mechanisms of civil service laid bare…
– Bogi.
Content notice: The story involves animal attacks on people, including children, and animal extermination.
RE (For CEO’s Approval) Text for 10th anniversary exhibition for Operation Springclean by JY Yang
From: CHUA Kee Yong (NLB)
Date: Monday, 24 June, 2024 at 2:15 PM
To: Siti Noriati bte AHMAD (NLB)
Cc: TANG Yen-Nee Lisa (NLB), Arianne MARTIN (NLB), Magnus CHEN (NLB), Dorothy POON (MINDEF)
Subject: (For CEO’s Approval) Text for 10th anniversary exhibition for Operation Springclean
Siti,
See my changes & comments. Please discuss with Lisa before sending to me again.
Tks.
From: Siti Noriati bte AHMAD (NLB)
Date: Monday, 24 June, 2024 at 10:56 AM
To: CHUA Kee Yong (NLB)
Cc: TANG Yen-Nee Lisa (NLB), Arianne MARTIN (NLB), Magnus CHEN (NLB), Dorothy POON (MINDEF)
Subject: (For CEO’s Approval) Text for 10th anniversary exhibition for Operation Springclean
Dear Kee Yong,
We’ve edited the text for the panels to be put in the 10th year anniversary exhibition in August for National Day, and are seeking your approval before we send it to print.
Thanks!
Regards,
Siti
INTRODUCTORY BILLBOARD
Ten years ago, Singapore faced its biggest crisis since the Communist conspiracies of the 1980s and the escape of Mas Selamat in the early 2000s. For two weeks the nation united to fight the scourge of Grenade rats. The enemy was small, nimble, and deadly, tunneling under our hills and homes and threatening our lives. But eventually Singaporeans, and Singapore, prevailed.
In this special exhibition curated by the National Library, we take a look back at Operation Springclean, and the people who made it possible.
PANEL 1
Heading: Attack On Baby Clarice
Text: It was a normal evening on the 6th of December, 2014. 23-month-old Clarice Lee was out on a Saturday evening walk with her mother in the Bukit Batok Nature Reserve when the toddler was set upon by a dozen rats on a walking path near the playground, and pulled into the trees nearby.
Several bystanders heard her mother’s screams and immediately came to the rescue, plunging into the forest and fighting off the rampaging rats, some of them with their bare hands.
Although Clarice was immediately sent to KK Hospital, she unfortunately succumbed to her injuries and died later that evening.
NSman Amos Chua was out for his usual evening jog that evening when he heard Mrs Lee screaming. “I didn’t even think about it. I wanted to save that little girl. After jungle training, you think rats are nothing.” He suffered cuts and bites in the incident.
“There were signs around warning us about the rats,” said Ms Sadhana Kapoor, another one who came to help. She usually did her marathon training at the nature reserve on weekends. “So we knew we were taking risks. But none of us expected the rats to actually attack and kill a child. It was horrifying.” delete
The five heroes who rescued Clarice from the rats were later given an Outstanding Citizen Award.
Media:
– Photos of Clarice from the family
– Sunday Times, 7th December 2011, front page, “Shock over baby killed by wild rats” (visual)
– Straits Times photos of Clarice’s funeral & cremation procession, including picture of the PM
– Interview excerpt from The New Paper, 8th December 2011, Pg3, “They were a nice, ordinary family”
“You don’t expect something like that to happen, especially in your neighborhood… they invited Clarice’s first month. She was very cute little girl, even though we don’t see her so much because both parents are working.
“Actually, we knew there were a lot of rats around already. Last time, got a lot of monkeys, but now all rats. Sometimes they will run out onto the pavements, I heard they snatched things from people before
.Now I’m also scared, I asked my two sons to avoid that area. I hope the Government can do something.” —Mrs Chan, neighbour to the Lee family
PANEL 2
Heading: Enter The Exterminators
Text: The incident shocked a nation used to that took pride in its safe and clean parks. Calls for action came from every quarter, some more strident than others. A task force was immediately assembled to address the problems, headed by NParks and helped by the Bukit Batok Town Council.
The Sunday after Clarice was killed, a team of 21 pest exterminators assembled at Bukit Batok Nature Reserve. The reserve had been sealed off to public, but a large group of concerned bystanders and gawkers gathered to watch the proceedings. Many people were invested in seeing the threat to the local area contained.
The exterminators were armed with ropes and poisons and traps. It seemed certain that the situation would be resolved simply.
But it was not to be.
Media:
– Video loop: Channel 5 and CNA news reports, including interview with one of the exterminators transcript??
– Photos of the extermination operation from various media sources (including citizen journalism photos) please vet this with me
PANEL 3
Heading: No Ordinary Rats
Text: On the first day the exterminators killed 71 rats. The public welcomed these results, but the exterminators knew they had only scratched the surface. From the size and complexity of the warrens they found in the dirt they knew this rat colony numbered in many hundreds. It was one of the worst rat infestations they had seen in their lives.
On Monday, the day many had to return to work, disaster struck. The exterminators, digging in the ground in the centre of the warren, triggered a concealed pocket full of noxious gas and toxins. The rats had sprung a trap of their own. Two exterminators had to be sent to the hospital.
“Grenade rats are not like normal rats,” said Mohd Hassan, one of the exterminators in the team. “They’re very smart. Sometimes they can use tools. Macam fighting army like that, not easy to kill. I got rid of some nests before, but this one, is king, first time I saw something like that.” Edit this quote, we are not a fish market
But worse was to come. The exterminators, digging further, found that the tunnels led straight to the drainage system of the Park Connector Network. The bulk of the rats had escaped the hill. The hunt was on.
That night, the Prime Minister took to the airwaves to make an important announcement.
Sidebar: About Grenade Rats
Grenade rats are a special breed of rat that were designed by scientists for use in experiments. They were specially modified and selected for their high intelligence and complex brains, and are used in scientific laboratories worldwide to help understand human behaviour and the human brain. Because they are so smart, however, it is sometimes a challenge to keep them contained. There have been instances of Grenade rats escaping from labs all over the world, despite the best efforts of their minders. However, due to the tight social connections they form with each other, In the wild, they are highly unlikely to mate with normal wild rats, and generally pose no problems to the public. This is why the attack on baby Clarice was particularly shocking.
Media:
– NParks photo of the 71 rats killed on day 1
– Stock photos of Grenade rats
– NParks photos of the day’s operations
PANEL 4
Heading: Operation Springclean begins
Text: On the evening of 8th November, the Prime Minister appeared on national television to announce the beginning of Operation Springclean. The rats were a threat to public safety and they could be anywhere on the island. It was a situation that required swift and drastic measures.
The armed forces were mobilized. A state of emergency was declared, but only because rats are nocturnal and a curfew needed to be implemented so the army could hunt safely at night without endangering the public. Life would go on as usual for as much as possible, he promised.
The hunt for the rogue rats faced many challenges. Although Grenade rats are larger than ordinary rats on average, it is difficult to differentiate the bigger wild rats from Grenade rats by sight, so the army had to cull wild rats too, just in case. They were also now dealing with drains in housing estates and built-up areas, and not just forested areas.
To help them, animal experts were called in. The exterminators who had front-line experience with these rats provided advice. Operation Springclean was a tightly coordinated team effort.
Can we have interviews with army commanders & the experts please??
Media:
– Straits Times, 9th December, Pg 1 “Time For Operation Springclean” (visual)
– Operation Springclean photo documentation from MINDEF archives
– Wholesale clip of PM’s televised announcement
– CNA doorstop interview with Chief of Army, 8th December context???
“We take our job very seriously. Nothing less than the peace and security of our nation is at stake.”
Take out this whole panel. We do not give credence to unsubstantiated rumours. Replace it with Jonathan’s story pls
PANEL 5
Heading: Controversy Arises
Text: Not everyone was on board with the operation. Criticisms and conspiracy theories came from many quarters, but particularly from Netizens. Animal behaviourists said that the rats were being unfairly maligned for the actions of a few bad ones. Some pointed to the dead bodies left behind in the warrens, which had signs that they were killed by fellow rats, as proof that the rats had already taken justice into their own hands. “They want to co-exist with us, and we should give them a chance,” said Vernon Chua, an expert on animal behaviour with the SPCA.
A particular rumour that gained a lot of attention was an essay posted anonymously online, written by a person who claimed to be a former research scientist with DSTA. The letter claimed that the rats had been part of experiments to study the control of human behaviour, and the army operation was just a cover-up for the fact that these experiments had taken place.
True or not, these rumours started campaigns to end the operation and spare the lives of the rats, with hashtags on social media such as #OperationClearMinds and #RatsAreCreaturesToo gaining some traction.
Media:
– Screenshot of “Save The Rats, End Operation Springclean” petition
– Interview excerpt with Vernon Chua, CNA The A.M. Show, 11th December
PANEL 6
Heading: The Public Chips In
Text: The majority of the public, however, The public fell in step with Operation Springclean. People worked together and supported the soldiers as they scoured the streets, laid rat traps and put down poison in the day. The curfew was kept to so that the roads and void decks were clear for the troops to carry out their operations at night.
Many also volunteered to help the army with their rat-culling efforts. However, it was considered too dangerous for people to catch and kill rats on their own, so citizens were asked to help by reporting rat sightings to the army instead. A hotline was set up, and a mobile app was developed for members of the public to send in tips.
There were other ways citizens could contribute to the effort. The Health Promotion Board started an anti-littering, anti-dumping campaign to cut down on available food sources for the rats. Several hawker associations pledged to keep clean stalls to stop vermin breeding.
But the most important part was this: People carried on with their affairs as much as possible so that the nation was kept running. Even in a state of emergency, business went on as usual, and investors kept faith in the country the lives of ordinary citizens were minimally affected.
Media: This panel needs to be more detailed. I want interviews with members of the public, soundbites etc. Check w/ the national archives please
– “Don’t invite additional guests!” posters from HPB archives
– Screencaps of “ I Smell A Rat!” mobile application, iOS and Android
– TODAY, 15th December, pg 3, “In fight against rats, a pledge for cleaner hawker stalls” (visual)
PANEL 7
Heading: Endgame
Text: 18th of December. Christmas was fast approaching, but none of the Operation Springclean task force was in a festive mood. Something far more important had happened—they had located the leaders of the rat colony in Bukit Brown. Several of them had been microchipped in the lab, and scientists from DSTA were able to track them down via the chips. with help from local scientists, who were able to track the rats down.
Two hundred men were sent into the forest, fully equipped. They were the best Singapore had to offer. The battleground was dense and difficult. They knew that the enemy was fast, clever and elusive. They expected the worst.
But it did not come to pass. Our troops found the scourge of rats defenceless, perhaps weakened by weeks of running. and overwhelmed them completely (pls rephrase) The soldiers dug up the centre of the warren and killed the five rats scientists had said were the leaders and founders of the group. All in all, more than 300 rats were gassed and rounded up. It was almost as if they had given up without a fight.
But at least, the threat to Singapore was over.
Can we have more in this section? Doesn’t National Archive have interviews w/ soldiers who were there that day? This description sounds too anti-climatic, we need to play it up a bit
Media:
– Straits Times, 19th December, pg 1, “Victory for Springclean” (visual)
– Photo of soldiers with culled rats, from MINDEF archives
– PM’s doorstop interview on CNA’s news at 10pm, 18th December
PANEL 8
Heading: A Nation Moves Forward
Text: It was ten days that changed the nation. Ten days where the mettle and determination of the people were tested. At the end of it, we emerged victorious. Swift action from all quarters meant that the threat to the country was neutralised effectively. Singaporeans woke to a cleaner, calmer city, the streets cleared of vermin. It took many years before the wild rat population of Singapore returned to normal.
Many lessons were learned in this saga. The most important was the throughout it all, Singapore continued to function as normal. Trains ran, businesses functioned, children went to school. If anything, it proves that when the public does as its told, great things can happen. It showed the importance of the citizenry participating in Total Defence (pls rephrase)
– List of media for this panel???
SIDEBAR
The Hero Of Operation Springclean As mentioned, expand this section to replace Panel 5
Jonathan Lui of the 1st Commando Battalion came to be known as the hero of Operation Springclean. Part of the elite team that tackled the problem in the most challenging areas, Jonathan distinguished himself through his boundless energy. His tireless devotion reaped rewards: Throughout the ten-day campaign, Jonathan killed over a hundred and fifty rats by himself.
—
Siti Noriati bte Ahmad :: Associate Librarian :: Programmes And Events :: National Library Board :: DID: +65 6374 7346 Fax: +65 6473 3287 :: Website: www.nlb.gov.sg
L I B R A R I E S O F T O M M O R O W: Embracing the Public, Equipping the Nation
To empower citizens with the knowledge to shape their future
This e-mail and any attachments are only for the use of the intended recipient and may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the recipient, please delete it or notify the sender immediately. Please do not copy or use it for any purpose or disclose the contents to any other person as it may be an offence under the Official Secrets Act.
Galli Books 