What it takes to be a Model Citizen

By Noer Mothia Alivia Astari Surya

Directed by Alvin Tan and written by Haresh Sharma, The Necessary Stage Brings you “Model Citizens” a play about what it takes to be, well as the title says the perfect human being in a society. The play debuted in Singapore and thanks to the Kuala Lumpur Performing Art Centre (KLPAC), was staged here from January 19 – 22, 2011.

The story revolves around two Singaporean women with completely different backgrounds but face the same unhappy fate. The other character was an Indonesian maid.

Mrs. Chua (Goh Guat Kian) represents the envy of all women – beautiful, rich with a loving husband and perfect kids. But being a wife of a member of parliament, she feels trapped. With constant changes in the Singapore government, she feels tiresome to follow every rule especially when her husband brings the rules back home. With the inability to speak proper English, she often feels left out as Singapore is now a modern, English speaking country.

The second character is Melly (Siti Khalijah), an Indonesian maid working two jobs. Melly’s boyfriend has just been arrested for injuring the MP which is actually Mrs. Chua’s husband. Filled with panic Melly, begs Mrs. Chua for help and is promised that everything will be fine. Who would have known Melly has a hidden agenda. She has only one mission – to become a Singaporean Citizen. She also offers ‘special services’ to men and realizes one day that she is pregnant. Without hesitation, she decides to abort her fetus.

Wendy, the third character, which is Melly’s boss, is an average housewife who struggles with the tragic loss of her son who committed suicide. Wendy struggles with grief, stays in her bedroom and visits her son’s Facebook profile looking for evidence why he decided to take his own life. Wendy also tries to help Melly’s boyfriend get his sentence dropped and encounters Mrs. Chua, which leads to a great debate on tradition and expectations.

Overall the story focuses on one thing – expectations. These three characters try hard to live up to everybody’s expectations, to be the perfect model citizen but throughout the process they realize they’re not happy. Mrs. Chua ends up leaving Singapore and goes back to her roots in China because she can’t bear pretending to live the life she has been living.

After the abortion Melly realizes that she doesn’t really love her cleaner boyfriend and being a Singapore citizen isn’t as fulfilling as she hoped it would be. Following Mrs. Chua’s departure, Melly leaves for Indonesia.  After being blamed constantly by her relatives and co workers for not grieving properly, Wendy finally gets closure and is able to move on.  Hoping for a second chance in life, Wendy sells the apartment she lived with her son and buys a house as a new start.