Tag: national service

Random Discourse – Heather Chua

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Well, it is not very often someone writes something utterly stupid that I get a good laugh. This piece from Heather Chua definitely ranks up there with Xiaxue’s pro-PAP piece during the 2011 General Elections. After all, that talk about the Prime Minister, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin and Geoerge Yeo being the only ones who are considered to have made sacrifices definitely came from the same vine as Xiaxue’s utterly uninformed piece. While Xiaxue should just stick with her usual stuff and stay away from the political discourse, Heather Chua should keep her big mouth shut on the matter of NS (National Service).

Personally, I ain’t complaining about the quality of PAP supporters like these. After all, they have outsourced their thinking completely to the men-in-white and they simply suck it up regardless of what the PAP throws at them. Then again, perhaps not. I pity their husbands, and also the rest of the 39.9% of us.



Article taken from Facebook.
‘Mass facepalm’ watermark added to to emphasize my point.


For someone who has no NS obligations at all, it is quite hilarious when Heather Chua even dare utter about having our NSF (Full time National Servicemen) trained by Israelis. Does she not know even Israeli women served NS to defend the Jewish State from her enemies? Let me guess, perhaps the only thing she knew about the Israeli trainers was after she watched “Ah Boyz to Men” or after going to the Army Open House last year? It doesn’t matter that I am wrong about that, because there’s really quite a number of us who can talk about Israeli trainers too. In fact, we probably can do so in more vivid details, as if we have been there personally to experience the ‘tekan‘.

The combat troops maybe the blade of the sword, but the support troops would be the hilt in which a warrior holds his weapon. For Heather Chua to denigrate the non-combat NSFs, shows her complete lack of understanding about the military. She can quit hiding her elitism behind the praises she sings of our political leaders with military background and also the combat troops because it doesn’t mitigate what she has said. Basically, it’s as good as saying “No offense but fxxk you anyway.”

Why single out the storemen and clerks for her derision? Is the life of an army clerk easy? For her information, I doubt any of the officers type their own documents. They probably consider those tasks to be beneath them and a clerk will be assigned to do it. Oh yes, the clerk is told what to type, but it will be the clerk’s responsibility to ensure that there are no errors or the officer will give the clerk hell.

I suspect, if Heather Chua has a husband and in the event of his death in service of the nation, it would be a clerk who would be preparing the document to send her the bad news. It will also be a clerk who will be identifying what sort of compensation her husband will be getting. Did she imagine that an officer would be doing all that? Perhaps. That’s because someone who comes knocking on the door might be an officer, an warrant officer or an NCO. Not the ‘chow clerk’ that she looked down on, right?

Next, logistics plays a big part in military operations. There used to be a time when the SAF maintains its own stores instead of subcontracting it to defense contractors. The storemen’s role back then, would be to maintain the equipment in those stores when they are not in use. For e.g. guess who keeps the tow bars from rust and well oiled in the vehicle store so that when it is needed, it will not be dysfunctional? Did she imagine the officers to be maintaining the store which the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) will be utilising when Operationally Ready NSmen (aka “reservists”) are mobilised in the event of war? If Heather Chua thinks that the officers are the ones that does all these work, and the storemen and clerks have their life easy, then perhaps it is high time we implement NS for women and have them staff these ‘sin lang’ (aka relax, no-pressure) positions.

Since those tasks are so easy and people just sit there as ‘tua peh kong’ doing nothing, it should be a difficulty for women like her to fill those positions right? She probably wouldn’t complain either, because she can look on the bright side as she can keep fit – perhaps even cosplay as Lara Croft *oh, the horror!* – and she gets to learn shooting and play with the SAF’s modern SAR-21 rifles too.

In fact, we might even be able to worry less about the low TFR (Total Fertility Rate) and aim for a lower population in 2030. Thank you, Heather for pointing this out so the government and SAF can evaluate the feasibility of channelling those men from vocations she despises into other more worthy, combat positions and solve the SAF’s manpower problems. In fact, even AWARE should be pleased too. NS for women will further the equality between the sexes in this country!

Random Discourse – National Defense Duty

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Serving in the military to gain citizenship is not a modern concept. The concept goes all the way back to the Marian Reforms of the Roman Republic in the 2nd Century BC. In fact, this still holds true for the French Foreign Legion where a Legionnaire who has served for 3 years with “honor and fidelity” may apply for French citizenship.

So tying citizenship to military service is not a concept invented by Singapore. It never failed to irk me when I am reminded that certain people such as penis pianist Melvyn Tan managed to dodge National Service [NS] and was let off with a simple fine, or that second generation Permanent Residents [PRs] who received subsidised education in this country can opt not to serve. Worst of it all is that such people will still have unimpeded access to our country as so-called “Foreign Talents” and their past transgression can be forgotten. As far as I am concerned, any person who feel no commitment to defend the country he grows up in, should leave and never come back. It doesn’t even matter if they find the cure for cancer or invent the perpetual energy generator.

Hri Kumar’s suggestion of a National Defense Duty has to be the most harebrained idea I have ever heard. The idea that PRs and foreigners should make financial contribution for what this country has to offer them is tempting, but not the idea to make it legal for the sons of PRs and foreigners born in Singapore to be excused from NS. If PRs and foreigners preferred their children who are born in Singapore not to serve in NS, then they should have the decency not to send their children into our government schools for subsidised education. They should send their children back to their home countries, or send them to international schools in Singapore. They can choose to pay the price of separation from their kids, or let them serve the country they took advantage of. Simply put, PRs and foreigners cannot expect to have the cake and eat it.

Granted, it maybe a walk in the park for some and NS does not turn every Singaporean male into a elite fighting men or crack troops like the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. But to attach a monetary value to it cheapens the sacrifice in time every Singaporean male has to made, and the great economical cost Singapore has paid in the past 45 years. There is simply no monetary value that can be attached to serving NS. It is an insult to all the men who has served faithfully and steadfastly, even though grudgingly, all these years. On top of which, how are we to justify ourselves to those who were imprisoned for refusing to serve in the past? How are we to face those who lost their sons, brothers and husbands to the service of the nation?

What meaning is there for those who cannot legally escape NS to serve, if second generation PRs are allowed to do so? As far as I am concerned, if certain people can choose to enjoy the privileges in this country and not serve his duty, then there is no purpose whatsoever for anyone else to serve. Why place the burden on some of us to defend our country to the death, while some can choose not to by paying out? We might as well all just roll over and die. After all, who cares when some people can already choose not to defend it anyway?

It made me wonder whether Hri Kumar even understand the purpose of NS at all. How sad it is for our country that such a man is even elected as a Member of Parliament!