I am surprised that our mainstream media allowed this letter to be published. Many parents of male Singapore citizens and 2nd generation permanent residents must worry as they read about news of fatalities happening during national service to their precious children.
As a father myself, I too worry about my child but count my blessings that she was born a girl so she does not have to go through what I went through for duty, honour and country.
My parents had two of their sons serve national service in combat vocations for 2.5 years and 10 years reservist. They too worried when we were overseas for training as well as undergoing field exercises in ulu places in Singapore. Fortunately, both sons went through their NS stints safely but not without encountering news of unit mates passing away due to accidents or to IPPT.
Conscription as it stands cannot continue to go on like it is. I cannot fathom why we cannot even start the discourse to consider professionalising the military into an all volunteer force. Taiwan is going that direction. Germany has ended mandatory conscription in the military. Policy makers have to understand that we are living in a very different geopolitical world compared to when Singapore attained self-rule in 1959 and independence in 1965.
As it stands, the Republic of Singapore Air Force and Navy are already fairly professionalised. It is high time for the Army to consider gradually transiting away from reliance on a conscript force and move fully into a professional force. Detractors will accuse me of saying that I'm advocating throwing away our defence force.
Rubbish. If you read carefully, I am advocating that we consider re-thinking about our reliance on this model of mandatory conscription that is imposed only on the male citizen population. Given a defence budget of $15billion, I believe we can professionalise the army and reduce the number of soldiers we need without compromising our defence and security needs. We do not have to look far to see that the Police Force has many regulars who are PRs and not citizens and we also induct the Gurkha contingent made up of native Nepalese who serve in the SPF.
Our home team is already staffed with many paid professionals supplemented with full-time Police national servicemen. Similarly, full-time Civil Defence Force officers work alongside SCDF conscripts. Why can't the army start to professionalise itself and wean itself off conscripts? The US Army takes into many naturalised citizens from other countries into combat service. I say we should do the same. If you want Singapore citizenship, you can be prepared to shed your blood alongside locally born Singaporean men who continue to do so to defence our motherland Singapura.
Majulah Singapura.
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National service: A mother's constant worry
Published on Aug 12, 2011
AS A mother of a full-time national serviceman (NSF) who is nine months into his national service and who has just graduated from the Specialist Cadet School, I feel the pain of the parents of Third Sergeant Ee Chun Sheng ('NSF on training exercise dies'; Aug 3).
Each day, since my son began fulfilling his NS obligations, I have lived in fear of the telephone ringing, or of a soldier in uniform calling at my house, to break some painful news.
We can live with the sores and cuts that he comes home with, but we fear the day we will never see him come home again.
Every year, thousands of our boys leave their homes, their studies or their jobs to fulfil their obligations to the nation. All they and we, their parents, ask for is their safe return two years later.
Why are there fatal accidents involving our NSFs almost every year? Why do they happen even after inquiries and investigations reveal that procedures were followed and safety measures were in place?
The Defence Ministry should correct this distressing record. Let us, the parents of current and future NSFs, live and sleep in peace.
Looi Pek Hong (Ms)
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