I enjoy eating at hawker centres with my family, but whenever I have to use the toilet at one of these food centres, it almost always ends up with an unpleasant experience.

First, hawker centre toilets are often dirty.

As if that is not bad enough, the toilet paper dispensers are positioned outside the toilet rather than at the usual place next to the toilet bowl.

Not only does this force you to declare your intentions to the whole world, but it also causes anxiety as it makes you wonder if you have taken adequate toilet paper or perhaps a little too much.

In any case, it does not make for a nice experience.

This may all seem comical to some but, as a First World nation, surely we should trust our citizens not to abuse free toilet paper.

If this basic level of civic-mindedness cannot be expected from the people in Singapore, it truly is a sad reflection of our society.

Jacob Lau Wei Jun