Duty, Honour and Country - Can eat meh?

Image via WikipediaThe unfortunate deaths of 2 servicemen last week involving Recruit Andrew Cheah and 2LT (awarded post-humously) Clifton Lam has triggered some reactions in the Singapore blogosphere. Coming so close after the St. James public relations fiasco over preferential treatment for foreign students vis-a-vis local male undegraduate who has served his 2 years of full-time national service in the Singapore Armed Forces, the deaths bring to mind the risks full-time national servicemen (NSF) and reservists (NSmen) face in discharging their citizenship responsibilities in the name of duty, honour and country.

Who fights for the NSman - Insane Polygon
Insane Polygons raised the pertinent question, "Who Fights for the NSman" where he highlights the discrimination against Singaporean males in the economic arena where we fight for the same pie for jobs, salaries and careers against the increasing tide of foreigners who compete on an unequal footing. Ceteris paribus, a male foreigner on employment pass or those newly minted Permanent Residents can compete for that job sans their NS liabilities. (The issue of females being exempted from national service would be discussed in a future post). One of the reasons why this blog was started was the increasing realisation of the unequal playing field even as the Government opened up the immigration floodgates to keep Singapore Inc. purring along.

As I served my reservist cycle over 10 years subject to annual Individual Physical Proficiency Tests (IPPT), in-camp training, mobilisation manning and subject to informing Mindef Notification Centre of my whereabouts eIevery time leave the country for more than 24 hours, I saw the increasing burden of citizenship without commensurate benefits. "You can serve NS and potentially risk dying, and you can sign up for SAFRA" appears to be the situation from my own Mindef-Reserve status eyes.

Anecdotally, stories of small businessman who cannot afford to be away from their business, even myself where a work assignment was taken away from me and given to female colleague because of the disruption my impending 3 weeks ICT doing operational duty. That wasn't exactly a good thing to put in my year-end appraisal.

Compulsory conscription is an atrocity against mankind - Molly Meek
Molly Meek also talks about "Specters of Unnameable Soldiers: On Necessary Deaths & Singapore's Tragic Modernity" where she (the author is using the pseudonym of "Molly" but speaks like a man) gives her brutally honest personal view that "compulsory conscription is an atrocity against mankind..."

I share her views because duty, honour and country just doesn't cut it anymore. Our country generates budget surpluses that is sufficient to fund a smaller, compact and 100% volunteer force. Conscription was a cheap and quick way to raise a standing army back in the early days of nationhood. Now, it is this author's considered view as a ex-conscript in the Lion City, that conscription is a form of control over the population, to make us receptive to figures of authority and to give up our individuality for the good of the "nation". But the soul of this nation is slowly unravelling because despite what you read in the States Times, the economic imperative is the reason for our existence. Everything else comes into number 2. We are drilled that economic growth, virtually at ALL costs, is what keeps Singapore afloat and surviving as a nation. To reject this notion is to be unpatriotic. To reject this notion is to be anti-establishment. To reject this notion is to be less than a Singaporean.

But the question that we need to ask ourselves now is what does it mean to be a Singaporean. As a ex-conscript in the Lion City, "duty, honour and country" is NOT the answer.

Majullah Singapura.

[Post-Script: Relevant Posts by other Bloggers:

The Void Deck has made a relevant posting and linked to this post on the recent SAF deaths in his usually bo-twa-bo-sway (no big no small, i.e. irreverent) manner. Worth a read as it is written by someone who has actually spent some time as a conscript himself. It takes one to know one. :-) Majullah Singapura.

Insane Polygons: National Service- What They Can Do About It

Singapore Life and Times: Based on justice and equality]