Citizen Soldiers: The Unsung Pillar of the Singapore Armed Forces

What started as a blog for me to pen my thoughts on my full time national service experiences in the Singapore Armed Forces has slowly turned into something different. When I first started this blog "military-life.blogspot.com", it was more about letting go of the repressed feelings of being forced into conscription by the State and how I felt about the experiences.

As I delve deeper into my own perspectives as a citizen soldier, I realise my own views on the impact of conscription on the psyche of a male citizen has resonated among my fellow nsmen. Some feel that it was a colossal waste of time. Some feel that they benefitted although 2.5 or 2 years plus the accompanying 13 or 10 years of reservist was fairly disruptive. Some are openly patriotic and say they will lay their lives for duty, honour and country.

Today, I shall explore how the nsmen or reservist is really the bedrock of the Singapore Armed Forces.

1) Numbers game
Purely on the strength of numbers, reservists are arguably the largest component of the Singapore Armed Forces should we be in a shooting war. Estimates range from 200,000 to 300,000 nsmen can be mobilised in a complete mobilisation. Of course,this would hollow out the entire workforce and cripple Singapore Inc.

2) Vested Interest
Our net worth is tied up to this country. Our homes, CPF balances, equity, investments and family are mostly in Singapore if we have not migrated. This is why we REALLY fight, to protect our hard-earned CPF monies and our family and homes. There's nothing if all our equity in Singapore Inc is wiped out. So might as well die fighting for it.

3) Regulars
The regulars in the SAF for the most part do not have combat experience. Given the way the reservist units are formed comprising wholly reservists, regulars will be left at the upper echelons planning to send us to our glorious deaths for duty, honour and country. By and large, we don't expect them to be at the vangard of the advance to be part of cannon fodder we reservists are expected to be.

Given that our citizen soldiers are an integral part of the SAF, why is it that we are held in so low esteem in our own country, treated shabbily when we go back for reservist training as a detriment to the organisation as our jobs need to be handled by foreign talent or women who do not have to serve? Going back for "holiday" during our in-camp training was a common perception by my female colleagues who had little inkling about the risks we undertook so that they could sleep better at night.

Generally, the military is also not held in high esteem unlike in the US where serving your country was deemed something positive to be proud of. In Singapore, I am glad to be rid of my NS burdens after completing my 10 years of reservist. I am perfectly happy not to receive the tax reliefs for active NS duties as it hardly compensates me for the risks I take during my ICT and especially during operations.

To truly recognise the nsmen is to go beyond tokenism of SAFRA and tax reliefs and take bold steps in providing free or even higher subsidies for university education or even preference for jobs. Such tangible forms of recognition make a difference. SAFRA and tax reliefs are an insult because now Singapore Inc is made of almost 30% foreigners and if we included permanent residents, I believe the singaporean born singaporeans make up possibly only 60% of our current population. What are we defending if virtually 2/5 of the population is not Singaporean?

When will be take bold steps to recognise reservists?

Increasingly, why do we need to serve in a country where in time, perhaps more than 50% will not be a Singaporean?

These questions will start to bite us in future generations as globalisation makes the next generation of Singaporean males resistant to conscription and being open to emigrate before they are liable.