Current Affairs – Rochor Road Accident

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Warning: Graphic Content

This video is the actual footage of the Rochor Road accident taken by another taxi’s in-car video recorder. Had they been one second faster, they would have met with certain death.

It is painful to watch when you realise that the inconsiderate action of the Ferrari driver took the lives of 2 innocent people, cabbie Mr Cheng Teck Hock (a father leaving behind 3 children) and Japanese passenger Ms Ito Shigemi. It also brought grievous injury to motorcyclist Mr Muhammad Najib Ghazali.

Sadly, instead of portraying the facts as they are, the headlines of the evening Chinese tabloids Shin Ming was awash with the alleged talent, wealth and success of Ma Chi, the culprit. It is as if the main stream media went full force to made the heinous act of the culprit less abominable. I am not alone because it was not long before netizens spoke about the perceived injustice in the matter.

Meantime, I have no idea what happened to the victims until Monday, when I read that the cabbie has passed away. It is heart wrenching to read his family’s account. (There was almost no report on Ms Ito. All I did read was a brief write up that her brother was the only person who went to identify her body, because her parents did not want to see their beloved daughter disfigured. Her brother has politely refused interview. Unfortunately I could not find any English version of the same report.)

Excerpts from an article on insing.com

But Mr Cheng, the sole bread winner of his family, apparently hung on because he wanted to let his family know what really happened, according to the newspaper.

His family told the cabbie to “go in peace, since your children are already grown up”, but Mr Cheng, who was seen shedding tears, hung on.

On Sunday evening, after the family found out how the accident happened, they repeated their plea to Mr Cheng.

“We know it was not your fault. You did not drive recklessly,” they told him.

On hearing this, Mr Cheng opened his eyes and his heartbeat slowly stopped, the newspaper said.

As if the slanted and favorable reporting of the culprit by the local media isn’t bad enough, I start reading articles about how the crash fuels xenophobia in Singapore. While I cannot (and I won’t) deny that shit stirrer sites like Temasek Times are clearly xenophobic, there is no denying that part of the anger also stemmed from the perceived absence of justice (if not the perceived failure or weakness of Singapore in exacting justice) when dealing with offending foreigners. This perception has steadily built up over the last two years. It began when former Romanian diplomat Silviu Ionescu fled the country after his hit-and-run accident in December 2010. While Ionescu is now on trial in Romania’s courts, justice has yet been meted out to him.

It was then further aggravated when news broke that the police took almost a year to investigate a brawl at SunTec City where 4 people were assaulted by three expatriates. To make matters worse, after finally pressing charges against them, two out of three of the culprits jumped bail and escaped the justice of Singapore’s Courts of Law. While it had originally looked like the police only acted after public pressure, this now convinces some Singaporeans that anyone can come to our country, bully our people and even flout our laws and get away with it. Add that on to the competition we face from foreigners in all aspect of our lives – from jobs to housing, from transportation to places in our schools and it is of no surprise that things boiled over.

Of course, beyond the competition and the perceived injustice, there is also an element of annoyance towards the deplorable journalism standards of Singapore’s newspapers. Personally, I don’t really care about the nationality, identity, success or wealth of the culprit. Even if the papers did not want to stand up and point it out as wrong, I personally expect the papers (and in this case Singapore Press Holding’s [SPH] Shin Ming Daily) to at least report the facts as is without trying to slant it either way. It is undisputed that the taxi had the right of way and it was hit even when the traffic signals were in its favor. The very least the papers could do was to give us an educated report on what the family can do in this case to seek compensation, whether from the culprit himself or from the insurance policies that cover such matters. Granted, there is a distant possibility that the entire accident may be one of mechanical failure and no one would be any wiser until all the facts are out, just what exactly has the Ferrari driver’s success got anything to do with anything? For Shin Ming to emphasise on the Ferrari driver’s supposed wealth, success and talent is just wrong on so many levels. It almost sounds like it was trying to absolve Ma Chi from the idiocy he has committed.

If SPH thinks they’re going to avoid a massive xenophobic outbreak by sugar-coating the entire thing and painting Ma Chi in a positive light, they’re dumber than dumb. While Temasek Times’ meaningless foreigner bashing is grating, SPH’s foreigner praising (which SPH has a long history in doing) is simply nauseating. It isn’t helping to improve Singaporean-foreigner relationship at all. In fact, it is simply making it worse because the obvious bias will continue to enforce Singaporeans’ rejection of whatever attempts the government makes to smoothen relations between Singaporeans and foreigners. That’s not mentioning that if SPH keeps this up, the next time a careless driver driving similar cars may actually find himself lynched by a mob regardless whether he is foreigner or Singaporean because the anger will be on the wealthy as well.

Addendum:
It is also my considered opinion that Comfort Delgro needs to do one important thing – review the safety features of the Hyundai Sonata cabs. First of all, there had been 2 cases of fire. In this particular incident, the entire engine block was knocked 30 meters out of the cab. I seriously cannot perceive how the engine can fly out of the cab even in spite of the speed of the Ferrari because the bolts that secure it to the engine compartment are normally huge. I am not suggesting any responsibility on the part of the cab company but am raising this matter as a commuter’s concern on the safety of the cabs we frequently use.

Addendum 28.05.2012:
In view of my subsequent blog post, I must also point out that Ma Chi and his passenger Wu Wei Wei are perhaps also victims if my assertion in that blog post is true.

Travel Journal – Phuket

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It was pretty dramatic before this trip. On April 11th, a large earthquake struck near Sumatra in the afternoon and a tsunami alert went out over the entire Indian Ocean. I was crestfallen when I heard Thai authorities closed the Phuket airport. I attempted to find out the situation in Phuket over social media but after 2 hours I was none the wiser as fools repeatedly retweeted outdated messages and rumors, drowning out most of the useful information. For e.g. at 8pm Phuket Time someone was still retweeting a message that the first tsunami waves will hit at 5:45pm Phuket Time. Just how that information would still be useful to anyone was beyond me. I ranted to my friends that the strength of social media – its users – will also be its undoing. Fortunately, the tsunami warning was lifted by 10pm Singapore time (information which I obtained from NOAA) and the Thai authorities re-opened the airport an hour later (information passed on by a concerned colleague who was following the news on traditional media). I quickly packed my stuff as the trip will go ahead.


Photo Courtesy of xinyun.sg

This is my third visit to Phuket and the first time I stayed at a resort near Patong Beach. The last two times I had stayed at resorts in Karon Beach and then Kata Beach respectively. Personally I prefer the other two beaches as they are more tranquil and far less commercialised than Patong. That’s of course not mentioning that the resorts at the other two beaches are much cheaper and they have better amenities like swimming pools, and in my opinion better breakfast included. But Silver Resortel isn’t bad at all, the staff are polite and it comes with free Wifi. It’s also just about 5 minutes away from the beach, and within walking distance is Jung-Ceylon (perhaps the largest Shopping Mall in Phuket itself) and Bang La Road where all the interesting pubs are. In the case of my previous visits, I had to pay 500 baht at the hotel counter to purchase Wifi access and a lot of money is spent on transportation between the resort and Patong.

While I had enjoyed my last two visits (and still very much enjoyed it, considering the company I had), I enjoyed this visit even more because I get to experience the Songkran – the Thai New Year. I was however told that the Songkran in Phuket was way milder than other parts of Thailand, for e.g. Chiang Mai, which lasts several days. Basically, everybody just keeps making me wet (no pun intended!) on April 13th itself.

I wasn’t originally aware that I will be there during the Songkran. When I was told, I wasn’t particularly thrilled and in fact I felt dreadful since I don’t really enjoyed getting wet. I arrived a day before the Songkran and was exceptionally pissed when I repeatedly get sprayed on the face by irritating foreigners (not the local Thais!) with their super-soakers. Thinking back, I still didn’t enjoy that in particular because unlike the Thais who douse anyone with water as a cleansing ritual and to welcome the New Year, these foreigners were simply just picking on any unwary or unsuspecting passer-bys whom they know cannot retaliate. I really dreaded what is to come the day after.

Oddly, even though a lot of the Thais may are also just playing with the water, the Thai people themselves give us a lot more respect than the foreigners. Even while they might not actually be discriminating when splashing someone, they warned me in advance so I am ready for it. When they don’t, they just throw the water at my torso or lower body. Since this is part of their culture, I take it in my stride and either smiled or wave at them when it happens. Unlike the foreigners, no one deliberately “cums to my face” with their hoses or super-soakers, even when they are clear that I don’t mind getting splashed. After that, it’s no holds barred. I get splashed by the mobile squads on a pickup coming in the other direction or passing me by on the road. At times they come at me from the sides when I passed by their shops. I even recalled the Tuk-Tuk stopping by a traffic light and a pickup was just 2 car lengths ahead. A Thai chap smiled at me and then dipped his scoop into his barrel of water. As the Tuk-Tuk started moving past him, I quickly shout a warning to my friends to be ready and before I am even done with my warning, we were splashed. I realised that once I am wet from top to bottom, it simply means I am a “free-for-all” target for anyone. After a while, I just get used to it since for the entirety of April 13th, my friends and I went through several cycles of drying up and then getting completely soaked again. My only regret is that I didn’t have to equipment to keep my camera dry or the water resistant cameras which would allow me to snap photos of the Thais enjoying themselves, and I should have gotten myself a super-soaker too.


Photo Courtesy of xinyun.sg

The Songkran allowed me to experience the Thai culture up close and unlike Chinese New Year in Singapore, it was a lively affair. From the chap spraying water at us with his water soaker while dancing to the loud music (see photo), to the chap running after our Tuk-tuk with a bucket of water shouting in Teochew – tan! tan! tan! (meaning: wait! wait! wait!) – it brought my friends and I lots of joy and laughter. Perhaps this is what happiness is all about, as for that one day they forget all their worries and enjoy themselves with abandon. Comparatively, we find Chinese New Year in Singapore a chore of constant feasts and dealings with pesky relatives asking dreadful questions. I find Singapore exceedingly boring, pressurised and mundane. Perhaps that’s the difference between a tourist and a resident of the area, though I will still insist the food in Phuket – even just their fried rice – is way better than that of Singapore. I won’t be surprised that at the rate we are going, sooner or later tourists will find no better reasons to visit Singapore where things are expensive and food really taste terrible. (Just today my colleagues from Germany who are here on business told me that the Pad-Thai at a Thai restaurant was terrible. The portion is small and there was more tofu than meat. Whatever happened to our reputation of being a ‘food paradise’? While those who own homes may not be affected by housing rents, this is a testimony that commercial rents is certainly killing businesses – at least the eateries. They are resorting to cutting down on costlier ingredients to stay profitable.)

Anyway, here are the photos I managed to take on this trip when it is relatively safe to take out my camera (or my mobile or tablet).

Recommended Reads:
Money Smart: Why Average Singaporeans ARE Hurt By Inflation

Random Discourse – Wage “Shock Therapy”

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Former National Wages Council [NWC] chairman, Professor Lim Chong Yah, stirred up controversy since he made a wage reform proposal at a public lecture calling for a 50% increase in wages for the low-income (those earning below S$1500) over three years, and a freeze in wages for high-income earners (those earning S$15000 or more). So-called “labour chief” Lim Swee Say took issue with the proposal, saying that productivity and wages go hand in hand. He said the “labour movement” is concerned that not addressing the issue of productivity will lead to a “no-win situation”. Lim Swee Say also said that if wage increases outstrip productivity gains, companies may cut jobs or move out of Singapore and there may also be structural unemployment.

Netizens definitely have good reasons to call Lim Swee Say the ‘talk cock minister’. First of all, I don’t see how Lim Swee Say’s pay (and that of his colleagues) goes hand in hand with productivity. Perhaps the only way to measure his productivity would be how many great games he managed at the golf course, or how fast and how often he can regurgitate the same stuff we have grown tired of listening to. In fact, how to measure the productivity of a CEO or someone in high management who make decisions which affects the fate of a company? Maybe a good CEO would be the one who lose the least money or the quickest in retrenching staff to stay profitable. As for the bad CEO, how fast he can screw a number of companies thrice over and still get millions in severance and bonuses would be the measure of his productivity.

Isn’t is absurd that companies won’t blink an eye paying a CEO millions in severance and bonus after getting screwed but our so-called “labour chief” is concerned that raising the pay of just low-wage workers may cause them to move out? In my opinion, low-wage workers are often those who are not as academically qualified and also older with less job mobility. In many cases, unless they grow a few more arms or get a sudden boost in vitality, they are unlikely to be “cheaperer, fasterer or betterer” than their foreign counterparts. In some cases, it might not even be possible to employ technology to increase their productivity. When Lim Swee Say said that companies may move out of Singapore because of wage increase for these people, I would like him to name the companies which still employ large numbers of low value-add, low-tech workers in Singapore. These companies deserved an award for not leaving Singapore when most started doing so to China or some other parts of South East Asia since 1998! All the more so if their work force aren’t already dominated by foreigners by now! I would be surprise that any low-tech, labour intensive company would still find Singapore attractive and competitive cheap enough to set up shop here. Assuming that it is true companies are attracted to Singapore for cheap labour, then the question would be why such a policy is still pursued knowing that in the long run we could never outpace competitors like our neighbours or even China. Didn’t the People’s Action Party [PAP] government, which claimed to have the foresight and the best talents this country have to offer, already think of that?!

That’s not mentioning that relocating a company is not an easy decision to make, because it’s not as easy as just firing all the workers here and switching off the lights in the office. Don’t even talk about moving out of Singapore when moving an office between 2 building within the CBD in Singapore can cost over a million dollars. That’s just the cost of building the infrastructure in a new office, employing the services of movers and the cost of demolishing the old office to pre-lease conditions. When moving to a new country, almost everything is built from scratch which means when a company decides to move, there will be more than one factor. Perhaps wages would be the last straw that broke the camel’s back, but it won’t be the only one.

Next, while it maybe true that some companies may cut jobs, for e.g. local SMEs that runs cleaning services, many of these are similarly employing large number of foreign workers, or old folks with low CPF contributions. I am not surprised if a lot of these companies have under-bid for their contracts and in return exploit their workers to stay in the black. Don’t forget that these companies can’t go anywhere and while it might be possible that they could wind down if their revenue cannot keep up with cost, the services they rendered are still required and another company may pick up the slack and these workers will still find jobs. If a low-wage Singaporean is unable to get a job, that is simply because companies drunk on employing cheap foreign workers have taken the easy way out because the government has let in one too many.

Even if it may be possible for some employers to employ technology to increase productivity, that will still cost money. New technology also require training to use and maintain, and they often require replacement or upgrades several years down the road which might mean another cycle of re-training and more cost. Granted, the government may provide grants to fund the training, but the cost and maintenance of the technology, and the purported wage increment that will come with the re-training of the workers are all borne by the companies themselves. What the National Trade Union Congress [NTUC] is doing is simply “sugar-coating the bitter medicine for the companies to swallow”. But there’s no guarantee that companies will bite unless there is good incentives to do so. A lot of what Lim Swee Say is saying may sound logical when we consider the bigger picture and not just the low income group, but to use that as a response with regard to those earning less than S$1500 a month makes really no sense at all. If it doesn’t show his complete lack of understanding as to what Professor Lim is proposing, he is simply – talking cock [講鳥話].

Then there is this Lui Tuck Yew who talked about the need to look at the ideas carefully and understand not just the benefits but the consequences. Wasn’t this the same chap who said that raising taxi fares – through extending the surcharge hours – would make taxi drivers work harder? I quote:

“Rationale behaviour would be such that the driver would pick the best time to drive the taxi. And for him, the best time is in a sense the gains, the revenue he could derive as a result. And hence with the peak period in the past stopping at 8pm, there was a lot of feedback on the difficulty of getting a taxi, including call bookings and hence that was one of the main reasons why the taxi companies, starting with ComfortDelGro decided on the need to extend the peak surcharge period.”

Tuck Yew, seriously! As a matter of personal experience, my employer pays $60 in allowance to work more than 2 hours and less than 4 hours on weekends or a public holiday, but will only pay us a maximum of $80 when we work 4 hours or more. Thus, we generally try to finish everything slightly more than 2 hours and not more. That actually increases productivity so none of us will game the system by working a full 8 hours on weekends. Consider this, if the company pays us a fixed hourly rate up to 8 hours, do you think we will try and keep things sweet and short? Why just make $60 for 2 hours when we can make $240 by taking it slow? Simply put, wouldn’t it be more common sense to just eliminate the surcharges so the cabbies stop gaming the system? How absurd it is for Lui Tuck Yew to believe that making commuters pay more will make the taxi drivers work, but raising wages for the low-income would have consequences (which I believe to be negative and possibly dire)? Really, if taxi drivers can afford to take a break because the pay isn’t right then they are already making enough to go around! Why are we rewarding their bad behaviour when we should punish it? But of course, even my ass knows the real objective was never to alleviate the taxi problem, but simply to keep cabbies happy so they continue to rent the cabs and keep the cab companies profitable!

While I am not against the idea of increasing productivity, I am sick and tired of the constant drumming of this message. I find it utterly ridiculous to only suppress the wage component when the other components of a company’s operating costs (i.e. rental, utilities and transportation) costs are left unchecked. After all, we do not see similar value add when landlords raise rents during lease renewals nor an improvement in service from transport operators when fares are increased. What value-add is there when rentals and fares (or even utilities charges) goes up? Are landlords going to replace the old air conditioners with more efficient power saving ones, or even throw in a free renovation when we renew our lease? Similarly, transport operators expects us to pay more fares while we get the same squeezy bus running on the same route with no value add. And what is the general excuse given to justify that? To fight inflation! Well done, fight inflation by contributing to inflation!

But to raise wages to fight inflation – no way. Because our Deputy Prime Minister Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in July 2008 that “a rise in wages without a corresponding increase in productivity would only fuel inflationary pressures”

Duh?! No wonder a friend made the following comment recently:

When they have done nothing of worth and continue being paid salaries unfathomable by most of their countrymen, all they can do is to give excuses and dumb ass explanations… it is unavoidable.

That about summarises my thoughts about the present government too. While I previously did not begrudge the government for the pay scale, that is on the condition that the ministers do their work dutifully for the best benefits of the people. Keep this up, and my vote will be decided before the polls are called in 2016. Perhaps, we need stick the spurs deeper into their hides because obviously we didn’t stick it deep enough in GE 2011.

Random Discourse – Underage Prostitution

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Excerpts from the Statutes

Sexual penetration of minor under 16
376A. – (1) Any person (A) who –
(a) penetrates, with A’s penis, the vagina, anus or mouth, as the case may be, of a person under 16 years of age (B);
(b) sexually penetrates, with a part of A’s body (other than A’s penis) or anything else, the vagina or anus, as the case may be, of a person under 16 years of age (B);
(c) causes a man under 16 years of age (B) to penetrate, with B’s penis, the vagina, anus or mouth, as the case may be, of another person including A; or
(d) causes a person under 16 years of age (B) to sexually penetrate, with a part of B’s body (other than B’s penis) or anything else, the vagina or anus, as the case may be, of any person including A or B, with or without B’s consent, shall be guilty of an offence.

~ * ~

Commercial sex with minor under 18
376B. – (1) Any person who obtains for consideration the sexual services of a person, who is under 18 years of age, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 7 years, or with fine, or with both.
(2) Any person who communicates with another person for the purpose of obtaining for consideration, the sexual services of a person who is under 18 years of age, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine, or with both.

It is some times interesting to read the Statutes and the wording of the law. A friend pointed out that at times it is quite absurd because when you look at Sections 376A and 376B. It simply means if you have sex with a 17-year old girl, you walk the thin line between having committed an offence or not. It all depends on whether you paid her for it.

That brings me to the matter of the 48 men who were charged for sex with a 17-year old “freelance prostitute”. I doubt many of those who are guilty know that the Penal Code was amended not long ago in October 2007 which increased the age of “legal prostitution” from 16 to 18. In fact, how many are aware that there was even an amendment back then? All I can recall from that period was that furore about Section 377A, and everything else was drowned out amidst all that noise. I wasn’t aware of this change had a friend not pointed out to me that the changes were mooted in 2005.

Had the men been aware of the amendment, it would still have been an issue because the pimp (or OKT, aka Or Kui Tow) “marketed” the girl as 18-year old. The girl also failed to inform her customers that she was below 18. A colleague of mine joked that this was as good as ‘mis-labeling a product’. (On the matter of jokes, another friend joked that the pimp is more pro-Singaporean in his “employment practices” than our SMEs and MNCs. Yet another mentioned that the pimp is a champion entrepreneur. After all, he allegedly “sampled” his girls for a mere $50 while the other clowns paid $450 or more for the same. Where else can you get to test something at a low cost and then rent it out at a huge margin?)

Jokes aside, there is a legal doctrine known as ‘Willful Blindness‘ – i.e. there is a duty to check whether the person representing something to you is telling the truth – which means it is unlikely that the Court will accept the men’s argument that their ignorance should not render them liable for this offence.

Even so, I must point out that it is difficult for the men to verify the girl’s age. Consider this, these freelance prostitutes usually operate under a different name so that they are not easily identified by their friends or relatives. For e.g. if “Tan Lian Hway” operates by the moniker “Mimi”, would she have shown her customers her identity card to prove she is above 18 and thus reveal her real name? Common sense tells me that even if she is 30-year old, she would still have given a myriad of excuses to avoid verification, simply to protect her true identity. (I am also puzzled as to why the prosecution refused to reveal her identity. Unless I am mistaken, isn’t she no longer a minor since she is above 16-year old? That’s not mentioning that if one searched hard enough, they will come across certainly websites which flout the law and reveal her identity for all those who are interested anyway.)


Juerg Buergin


R D Suhartono

Simply put, even though the men are considered offenders under the word of the law, they are also victims. I failed to understand why the papers had selectively picked on and humiliated some of them – in particular the ex-principal of Pei Chin and Howard Shaw – and shamed them publicly. There were so far 48 men charged but these two basically occupied the front page of the papers (at least on the evening Chinese tabloids such as Shin Ming) for at least 2 days. Meanwhile, very little is said about the foreigners, for e.g. the Indonesian who was allowed to leave Singapore allegedly for his marriage ceremony and the ex-UBS banker. Personally, I find it unacceptable that Indonesian was even allowed to leave in view of the fact that two foreigners who are indicted for assaulting a taxi-driver had jumped bail recently. Now contrast that with Taiwan which almost immediately impounded Makiyo and her friends’ passports after their assault on a taxi driver!

Anyway, how exactly are these two foreigners different from Howard Shaw, or even Allan Khoo (one of the other 46 men) who has been previously charged and convicted for attempting to extort money from another 21-year old student prostitute? If the Main Stream Media [MSM] claims that it is reporting all these about the ex-principal and Howard Shaw to keep the people in the know, then tell us everything about everybody or nothing at all. Why the bias, and in particular why pick on these two prominent Singaporeans? What they have done is not any more heinous than the other 46 offenders, or even those who “used” the same girl more than once. Had they been opposition members I am quite sure many would have screamed “political persecution”. It does make many wonder whether those two have crossed someone that brought such ill fate upon them! More ominously, perhaps the MSM find Singaporeans easier to bully.

It particularly irks me that the MSM again selectively destroyed the lives of a few men much like how it has splattered the private information of the pre-Dana Lim ExCo during the AWARE drama. Those private information include not only the occupation of the members of that short-lived ExCo, and in some cases even the number of children they have and their spouse. It is of no surprise that the MSM is steadily losing credibility among Singaporeans. What it is doing is no better than the wall posters of Mao’s Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.

That said, I am not expecting the MSM to start making the information of the foreigners involved in this case headline but rather that I wished they would stop selectively destroy the lives of people in this manner.

Recommended Reads:
FoxTwo: The 44 Men Charged For Illegal Commercial Sex Are Victims!

Random Discourse – NSF Deaths and Online Comments

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When 21-year old Private Dominique Sarron Lee Rui Feng of 3 Singapore Infantry Regiment [SIR] passed away during training, a girl Zheng Huiting posted the comment “Singaporeans too weak? LOL” to a Facebook link about the news of this tragedy.

This is not a post written to flame Zheng Huiting, because many others have done that rather effectively. The girl has apologised and even beat a hasty retreat from social media by erasing her Facebook and Twitter profiles. My friends and I wouldn’t care to flame her, because we wouldn’t give a damn to the comments about National Service [NS] by those who are not required to do it and has never done it. Personally, I felt some of these girls probably can’t survive even one Physical Traiing [PT] session in the army. If they have so much to say, just try one of our PT sessions. Survive that first, then come back and talk.

However, I am still outraged. We don’t “LOL” (Laugh out Loud) over the death of someone. Regardless whether we know some of these people personally, these are one of our brothers who lost their lives doing their duty for our country.

I remembered watching with some apprehension when another NSF was carried into the medical center on a stretcher screaming in pain. One of his leg is broken and he was bleeding profusely. A part of the shin bone was jutting out. We don’t “LOL” about something like that. We simply rush out of the way so the medics and his platoon mates can carry him quickly into the first aid room. I also remembered back in 1994, I did a recovery for a overturned tank in which the commander was killed. I was subsequently sent as part of the unit (also as part of the larger Armoured Formation) to the poor sod’s funeral. No one wants to die doing their NS. But it breaks the heart when you see the mother screaming and running after the carriage carrying the coffin of her son to the crematorium. None of us even dared to smile, much less “LOL” at that.

Even after our full time NS is completed, some of us still feel something for the units or camps we have served in. When a Taiwanese F-5F crashed in Hukou camp in Taiwan, I went to look up the news to find more details. I was sad when I read that 2 of our soldiers were killed in that crash. No, we don’t “LOL” at such things even when we don’t know those people.

Are our young boys spending 2 years of the prime of their lives defending those who no longer appreciate it? Maybe it’s high time we implement some form of NS for our womenfolk, to bring about some real gender equality. Even putting them as nurses in hospitals would help. Having them pull night or weekend duties will make them understand how painful that is.

If there is any other thing that invalidates the meaning of NS, it would be our young womenfolk’s failure to appreciate the sacrifice our men has to make, on top of employers’ preference in hiring foreigners over Singaporeans due to our NS obligations. I shudder to imagine when they become mothers. Anyway, 2 years of NS is not all to a Singaporean men’s NS obligations. There is also a “reservist” cycle in which the men are expected to spend up to 40 days a year during training, and to keep fit and pass their annual Individual Physical Proficiency Test [IPPT] every year until their are released by the Singapore Armed Forces [SAF]. How long this cycle will be depends on how soon you reach 40 years old or complete 6 High Key and 4 Low Key training, whichever is sooner. If the NSman is an officer, he needs to serve even after 40 years old.

Are we ourselves to blame for this lack of respect for NS? All too often we talk about NS as a waste of time, and we ridicule some of the “silly things” we do during NS before our women folk. Worst of it all are those who thought little of their NS training and openly belittle it. Perhaps I was mistaken. Maybe this chap loved NS so much that he is angry that the Ministry of Defense [MINDEF] did not post him to a unit where training is tougher than what he experienced – such as the Commandoes, the Guards or even the Combat Engineers where they do more than taking a “stroll in Lim Chu Kang or Mandai with guns”. MINDEF should have made him redo his NS.

Then there’s the damage one of our full-time National Servicemen [NSF] has done to the image of NS. We have all done our part to ridicule that poor boy whose maid carried his fullpack, but what is worse is the public hounding of our NSFs – such as a recent photo showing a NSF sitting on the floor of our MRT trains, or even longer ago NSFs who occupied the ‘Priority Seat’ (if I remembered correctly). I have two things to say about this. First of all, why the hell does anyone complain about the NSF sitting on the floor of the MRT when we know just how horrendous the service has been recently? Are we forgetting that the trains come at irregular frequencies, and the increased number of break downs? Furthermore, the train wasn’t even packed and is this poor sod still sitting down where he is when the train is getting more packed? If he stood up when it is required, why berate him for it? Who knows what he might have gone through that day? As for those who took the priority seat, I always find it ridiculous that people takes photos of the “offenders” and make a fuss. Why didn’t they step forward and confront the “offender” right there and then? As far as I am concerned, anyone who failed to do so at the scene has basically forfeited his right to pursue the matter. Don’t convene a ‘kangaroo court’ in STOMP or some forum or website to trial the poor sod.

Really, even though the food, treatment and allowances maybe better in NS these day, I am quite sure the PT sessions to ensure everyone attain the IPPT standards are not compromised. Stop beating up on our NSFs because they seem to be better off now. We all aspire to a better life and we expect the SAF to improve and evolve over time as well. I don’t demand everyone to mourn about accidents and deaths in the SAF, but please remember this is a life of someone who is obliged by law to defend everyone else of us. At the very least honor them for their sacrifices even if they might be just pushing pens in a cubicle in one of our camps.

Recommended Reads:
FoxTwo: Singaporeans Too Weak? LOL!
Senang Diri: Singaporeans close ranks against post on NSF’s death

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