SINGAPORE – He taught himself English – a language he had forgotten – then beat his drug habit and stepped out of prison and straight into law school.
The impressive turnaround has won him many accolades, but Mr Darren Tan, now a full-fledged lawyer and deputy managing director at ground-breaking firm Invictus Law Corporation, most values something else altogether.
“My biggest achievement was getting married and starting a family. I never thought I deserved to have my own family, after causing so much heartache, disappointment, and trouble to my parents,” he said.
The Straits Times first interviewed Mr Tan in 2013 as he was working his way through law school at the National University of Singapore. ST caught up with him again recently for this series.
The long road to success
Speaking from his Havelock Road office, the clean-cut 46-year-old is a far cry from the aggressive youth who joined a gang at age 14 and spent his days fighting, extorting money and peddling drugs.
As a child, Mr Tan did well in the PSLE, scoring three As and an A*.
But the latch-key kid, whose father worked in a coffee shop and mother at a fruit stall, was often left to his own devices at home. His friends were in neighbourhood gangs, and he spent a lot of time roaming the streets.
What began as a dalliance with marijuana when he was in secondary school evolved into a full-blown addiction to crystal methamphetamine or “Ice”.
At age 14, he was smoking marijuana, sniffing glue and taking sleeping pills to get high.
He also sold pirated VCDs, collected protection money and was involved in illegal gambling and drug trafficking, often spending long stretches not going home.
By the time he turned 18, he was sent to the Reformative Training Centre for two years for armed robbery and drug consumption.
The strict regime did not make a dent. After he was released, he went back to trafficking drugs. Eleven months later, he was back in jail for trafficking and taking drugs. This time, he was given an eight-year sentence.
Just six months after his release, he was caught again and sent back to prison for another five years for possessing and taking drugs.
He became the first person to feel the bite of the newly amended Misuse of Drugs Act, which hands out long prison sentences to recalcitrant users of synthetic drugs. The amendment was barely one month old.
Read more https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/life-after-a-decade-behind-bars
