Tolong

Tolong means please in Malay, help in Singlish. As in begging for help.

Mr Gay

Refers to Ng Boon Gay, the ex-CNB (Central Narcotics Bureau) chief who got charged in courts for accepting sexual favours from the infamous Cecilia Sue, a gorgeous looking IT manager. Ng Boon Gay was later acquitted but lost his job at CNB.

Game

This portion of the story refers to the phenomenon in Singapore where kids are forced to learn abstract concepts more and more at earlier ages to outwit the competition. But when everyone is doing that, it defeats the original purpose (to outwit the competition) and put stress on all the kids. 

Alumni references

This refers to the strange prioritization in Singapore's primary school that allows children or younger siblings of old boys and girls to get top priority to enter parent's or elder sibling's alma mater primary schools. This is also ultimately unsustainable as the no. of affiliated applicants would overwhelm the no. of vacancies, since the alumni would grow exponentially over time.

Fundamentally stable uniforms

A reference that Singapore should focus on developing students holistically rather than to influence them to take up higher studies that serve the national interest in certain industry, which could backfire with unintended consequences.

Engineering uniforms

This is in reference to Singapore's policy in the 80s to promote Engineering to supplement the lack of engineers needed in our industrial estate. Later it was Biochemistry for our next leg of growth in research. However when every student studied the same subject, the supply quickly outstripped demand leading to a stagnation in pay for such jobs.

Lower Quality Mandarin uniforms

Refers to the falling standard of Chinese/Mandarin in Singapore

Pasar

Malay word for market. In this context, it means business.