Diablo 3!!! ’Nuff said.

A sneak peek at the latest Pixar short which undoubtedly will be playing infront of Wall-E. Just one more reason to see what is looking to be another classic Pixar film.

Contrary to what many may think, I am actually in favor of National Service. The problem is not with NS but with how its implemented. If they actually were to make some revolutionary changes to it, it may actually make NS something that is worth doing.

I have to be fair. My 2.5 years spent in commandos made me a better person. It certainly made me a stronger person- so I have to give them some credit. The memories, the old war stories we continue to trade with each other during every reservist training- I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

If I had the power to change NS, this is what I would do-

1. Start paying the fulltime NSmen some real money.
   If I am a NS platoon sergeant performing the same duties as a regular platoon sergeant, I don’t see how I should be paid less just because I am a conscript. If our ministers can peg their pay to the private sector, than I don’t see why the fulltime NSmen’s pay cannot be pegged to the SAF regular’s pay. If anything the prospect of making some money might prompt people to start taking their NS more seriously. Instead of aiming to be a lowly paid desk clerk or a storeman during your NS, people might start to work harder to become an officer or an NCO.
2. Raise the training standard of the SAF.
   Why do so many people feel NS is a waste of time. Here’s why- its because it really is a waste of time. Ever heard of the phrase- Rush to wait, wait to rush. I believe the concept is invented by the SAF. Every servicemen out there has spent more time waiting than actually training- from their NS days to their reservist training. Despite almost 4 decades spent training soldiers, the SAF still seems to be clueless almost all of the time.  People wouldn’t think NS is such a waste of time If we didn’t spent some much time lying around waiting for instructions.
3. Shorten fulltime NS to 1 year and reservist training cycle to 5.
   IMO, 1 year is more than enough time to adequately an operationally soldier and an ORDed personnel shouldn’t need to serve more than 5 reservist cycles. This way a singaporean can finish his NS commitment by age 25 and still have enough time to fully devote his time and energy to building a career for himself. Remember in point 1 I said to increase the pay of the NSmen to professional levels. By simultaneously reducing fulltime NS and the reservist training cycle, what money is spent improving the pay of the NSmen is more than adequately offset by the savings in resulting from a shorter training cycle. Remember the older the reservist, the more he is apt to make. If you stop recalling all the professionals and managers in the middle to late 30s, the SAF might even stand to gain from it.
4. Cut all bullshit from the training syllabus.
   Here’s how you can shorten the NS training cycle to 1 year. CUT.THE.BULLSHIT. And by bullshit, I mean every fucking activity that has got nothing to do with national defence. If SAF were to take out all the waiting, the footdrill lessons and meaningless parades, 1 year is more than enough time. Back in the day, I even have to serve mess boy duties for fucking officers dinner and dance. Imagine asking a fully trained commando- someone who is suppose to be this “elite” soldier to serve as nothing more than a waiter- serving food and drinks to fat useless lazy officers stuffing their fat useless lazy faces with free food and drinks. How’s that for respecting the SAF. If the SAF can’t even show their soldiers some respect, don’t expect the soldiers to respect the concept of NS. If the officers want to organize some dinner and dance, let them pay out of their own pocket and get some decent catering that comes with their own fucking waiters.
5. Restrict reservist training to no more than 6 days a year.
   Like most reservists going back camp, the majority of my time is actually spent lying around in bunk waiting for instructions to be passed down. If the SAF were more efficient, we frankly would never need 14-21 days of “training”. The SAF expects a lot from us reservists- from discipline all the way down to physical fitness. I think its about time the SAF lives up to their side of the bargain. Raise your training efficiency and we reservists wouldn’t need to waste our precious time. Here’s how you know reservists training is a huge waste of time- people are actually happy to go back to camp because they find life inside camp to be much more leisurely than their actually working life.
6. Review the entire medical screening process within the SAF.
   In the short span of a few days, we had 2 separate training incidents where young men in the prime of their lives died during training. In normal circumstances a doctor works in the interest of his patients, but in the army where the medical staff works under the jurisdiction of the CO or someone higher up the chain of the command, whose interests does he work for?

   Anyone besides me sees a conflict of interest here?

   Imagine this hypothetical scenario: due to freak circumstances, a lot of conscripts were found to have some kind of health problems which in their best interest would rule them out for military training. But the higher chain of command decides to impose a fixed quota on the number of people who qualifies for downgrading because the it reflects badly on the commanding officer. So what does the MO do? Does he obey the orders of the CO or work in the interest of his patients?

7. Leave the SAF out of the national day parade.
   If the SAF were left out of the national parade festivities, than NSmen wouldn’t feel NS is such a waste time because of all the time and energy spent on rehearsals and organizing the NDP. All the time spent packing goodies bag, rehearsing footdrills, marching round and round like an idiots and erecting grandstands would now be better spent learning how to be a better soldier. The only guy that ever gains from being part of the NDP is the parade commander. The rest of us are just wasting time serving the ambitions of a few tiny men. FUCK THAT.
8. Get the women involved.
   This will probably not make me very popular with the ladies (not that i was ever popular with the ladies anyway). When NS was implemented, social norms and society was much different, its time SAF catch up to the new millenium. Time for women of singapore to start serving NS. SAF already has women officers, commanders and trainers. If women are good enough to be commanders, they are good enough to do NS. Why should the burden of national defence be forever resting on the shoulders of men, if women share in that responsibility, than the load is lighter. Now we can server shorter reservist training cycles without compromising on the strength of the SAF. Israel already has their women serving in the army, singapore should do likewise.

   I’ll tell you what, if we had women training in camps with us, guys would start training harder and complain less. Hell, we might even solve our population problem. Who needs the SDU when you have young men and women in their prime living in the same camp under one roof.

In 1967, the government passed the NS (Amendment) act that forever changed the lives of all young men in Singapore. Since then it has been a rite of passage for all young men to go through 2 years of military service upon reaching the age of 18 and thereafter fulfill another 10 years or so of reservist duties.

Singapore was still in the infancy of its nationhood when the NS act was passed. We were a small country surrounded on all sides by less than friendly neighbors and we needed an army to protect ourselves. Conscription became a necessity not a choice.

When national service was implemented, Singapore and the world was a much different place. Words like globalisation and foreign talent weren’t even coined yet. Since then much has changed, but NS still remains a rite of passage carved in stone. The last 2 major changes in recent years were the reduction of NS from 2.5 years to 2 years and the reduction of reservist duty cycle from 13 to 10 years.

From the 60s all the way to the late 90s, it was pretty much accepted among employers and managers, that certain members of their male staff would periodically be called up for reservist training. Then government decided to open its doors to foreigners from all across the globe. All who can and are able to contribute to the economy was welcomed. With our declining birthrate (thanks in no small part to the government’s wildly successful birth control programmes in the 70s), the small size of our workforce, it was once again a necessity not a choice.

Now one out of every 4 person you see on the street is a foreigner. Globalisation has arrived on our doorstep with a bang. There is fierce competition for everything from bus seats to jobs. And when the competition is fierce, you need all the edge you can get.

Like it or not, NS has become a liability in every sense of the word for the Singaporean male. Not only do we start our working life 2 years later than just about everybody else, but we are also saddled with a 10 year debt (through no fault of our own other than to be born male) to the nation that no amount of money, time or effort can clear.

There are already anecdotal evidences of Singaporean males being discriminated against because of their NS liabilities. And this is something that will only get worse over time. Unfortunately being a singaporean these days can be more of a hindrance than a benefit. It has becomed an uneven playing field out there. If this was a 100m race, singapore guys would be the one starting 20m back wearing their nos.4, boots and a fullpack while competing against everybody else in their latest space-age athletic gear.

Being patriotic, defending your country with your life if need be is great and all that, but while we fight for our country, who in the country is fighting for us? And if you have a job that barely supports your family and you, than what is there left to fight for?