Is National Service legalised forced labour, slavery?

Full-time military service or conscription for male citizens is technically slavery or forced labour but it is allowed by our Constitution because it is for "national purposes". Article 10 of Singapore's Constitution states,

Slavery and forced labour prohibited
10. —(1) No person shall be held in slavery. (2) All forms of forced labour are prohibited, but Parliament may by law provide for compulsory service for national purposes. (3) Work incidental to the serving of a sentence of imprisonment imposed by a court of law shall not be taken to be forced labour within the meaning of this Article.

National Service: A Reservist's Take
When you think about it, how is National Service NOT forced labour?. The means are coercion and compulsion exercised by the State for male citizens to be subject to its whims and fancies in the name of "National Purposes" or "National Defence". How is buying coffee and breakfast for the Company Sergeant Major or Regimental Sergeant Major considered national purpose or even national security. How is being called names like cheese pie and kuniang and f**ers considered good for defence? How is doing area cleaning and gardening helping Singapore become stronger in national defence?

Imagine, you can get charged for:

• swearing at a superior officer
• telling a lie
• being late for duties
• not following a lawful order by a superior
  

And all these can be done in less than 1 day for your Commanding Officer or Officer Commanding to ask the clerks to prepare the charge report for you to be "take orders" and be sent to the detention barracks the following day. And the powers-that-be go around trumpeting how good the Home Team is whilst the whole nation waits with bated breath WHEN we catch Mas Selamat. In addition, how impartial will the inquiry be? Will junior officers be offered to the sacrificial altar whilst MANAGEMENT continue earning their pay, bonuses and increments for NOT ENSURING that things were done right and done well?

Conscription is a tool used by the State
I believe conscription is increasingly a tool for the State to emasculate the male citizenry, to impose its will to develop a compliant male population who is ever so quick to kowtow to authority figures all in the name of duty, honour and country.

Yes, we live in turbulent times of low intensity conflicts, terrorism and lapses by our Home Team in allowing Mas Selamat to escape whilst in custody of the State. We spend billions of dollars on high-tech weaponry to maintain the "force-multiplier" (a favourite SAF recruiting poster buzzword) but yet still allow our NSF conscripts to be damaged by the system that they serve.

Is the cost of conscription too high?
I think it is. It is not just the dollars and cents but the damage we do to those who do not survive the NS system. The NS system imposes an economic burden on the male population because they are competing on uneven terms with their non-NS women cohort as well as with foreigners on employment passes and permanent residents. NSmen have to compete for their rice-bowls in Singapore Inc. which does little favours except for 2 increments in the civil service and some statutory boards granted to NSmen who have served their full-time national service prior to gaining employment in those entities. The economic growth that Singapore Inc. lives off happens partly through the umbrella of security created by the efforts and sacrifices of NSF and NSmen. However, the economic returns through tax reliefs and SAFRA membership are a poor form of compensation as Singapore Inc. is brutally efficient in human resource allocation. From a purely economic standpoint, Singaporean men are more costly to hire because of reservist requirements do disrupt work and careers.

I have done my duty to my country as so has countless many others. Most have suffered in silence and some actually enjoyed serving their country. But for me, the BRUTAL TRUTH is that our darwinian economic jungle that is Singapore only rewards the survival of the fittest economically. I have already laid down 2.5 years of my youth plus 10 years of annual reservist call-ups plus IPPT assessments and operations mannning. Now is time for me to forge ahead in the economic stakes and to maximise my share of the economic pie for my family.

ROD lor.