National Service- What They Can Do About It
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-
- 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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?
- 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. - 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.
27 Comments so far
i couldn’t agree more, unfortunately, like most things else that the citizens can suggest, almost none of which gets heard, needless to say, implemented. it was an excellent read though, with every point, i feel as though you hit a home run with my thoughts.
I`ve yet to serve my NS, haven`t gone through all the bullshit yet[and I might change my view after I`m done with it], but I don`t think footdrills are bullshit and useless.
It`s true that no one uses footdrills and all the marching now in true combat, but they have certain meaning and uses behind them. They`re used to train teamwork, coordination and instill discipline into soldiers.
I won`t say the same about parades and the rest though.
zs. I have the same view as you before i serve NS.
If you become an officer, you will STILL believe in that after 2 hours (woohoo! aircon room loh!) .
If you become a man, specs like most of us, good luck.
Totally agree with your article. Total waste of time and one year with 5 cycle is more than enough… however it will rob the government of cheap labour etc….. also they will never pay NS the same pay as regular… that is a sore point and is not fair at all !!! Is is a violation of HRs ? or any employment act etc.. ??
[...] you ever wondered why we must serve.. – Insanepoly: National Service- What They Can Do About It – Singapore Life and Times: Based on justice and equality – The Void Deck: Flash: SAF Deaths n NSF [...]
7. Get the FT involved
If you’re staying in the country permanently and taking the jobs of the locals, you might as well go to NS.
If one out of four reisdents in Singapore is a foreigner I don’t see why we should not involve the 4th person in some form or another. Don’t give me the crap that the 2nd generation only needs to serve. There are other ways to help in ‘National Defense’. Try making them do time in the Fire Service/Civil Defense/Neighbourhood Patrols. Afterall how many of these foreigner-parents willingly had to ‘volunteer’ for their kid’s primary school placings!
NS is a waste of our time if not metted out fairly. The whole premise has changed over the last 40 years. Time for revolutionary thinking to reduce the burden of our local men and the Foreigners start PAYING FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
[...] comment to this post was flagged as spam so I’m putting it here for me to remember. I have more to write about his [...]
Good article. The next step is to get your message across to the SAF
May I be bold enough to suggest that we even scrap NS by increasing the amount of regulars, over time of course. It takes a few years to train and recruit a professional army. Countries such as Netherlands & Belgium have scrapped NS in the late 1990s. In the meantime, NS should be reduced to 6 or 9 months. Are we training for defense of Singapore like the Swiss or offensive like the Israelis? With the reduction of Military spending currently to the tune of $10billion, the savings can be channelled to increased spending on Singaporean’s Education. Of course, many Generals will be redundant and these people will be really pissed off and resistant to the changes.
On women serving NS, when NS has become a liability to Singaporean males, do we want to inflict the same misery on our women? If the above suggestions are applied, then, NS for women is a moot subject.
Getting New citizens to perform National defense duties is a great way of introducing to them our ‘wonderful’ sacrifice to our country and a taste of the real Singapore. Of course, to be patriotic to their new country.
Excellent article! You have captured the essence of what is wrong with the implementation of National Service in the SAF.
1) Wayang Culture and Sai-kang (shit jobs)
- drills, parades, NDP, fatigue, gardening, area cleaning, lobo-ing (yes, to the uninitiated, there is such nomenclature as “lobo-ing”, i.e. to be a lobo, someone in between training schools, postings of assignments. Think itinerant worker except you are an NSF in the SAF)
- I never did see the relevance of footdrills and parades to combat effectiveness. Does it mean if I can berhenti on the right spot on command I will be able to execute taking cover and shooting the enemy better?
- Does the quality of shine on my combat boots help me kill the enemy?
- Does anyone have similar experiences of watering plants kept by the RSM/CSM using on Government property (army camps) at taxpayers expense?
2) Underpaid NSFs
- Conscription is akin to modern slavery
- You have a choice born a male in Singapore. Serve your NS, or kena court-martialled and serve 3 years detention or chao-keng yourself w with a medical downgrade with supporting documentation
3) Training Standard of SAF
- During my reservist days, the trainers say they would train the specs and officers and “by right” NS (reservist) specs and officers had to then train the men?
- To be fair, not all regulars are crap. Some are okay, trying to earn a living and imparting nuggets of practical wisdom in soldiering
- But like any large bureaucracy, they have their share of dead wood
4) Anal-retentive rules and regulations
- I still do not see why the CSM/RSM have to spend so much time to “catch” NSmen with long hair
- How does long hair (mind you we are not talking about mat rockers waist length but those touching ears and not sloped or those tinted) affect your ability to fire your M16/SAR21 to kill the enemy?
- My last ICT in reservist still had rigid rules i.e. tuck in t-shirt or get charged type of sh**? Cut us reservists some slack please, we can carry live rounds and do protection of installation but we cannot walk around with untucked shirts in camp? WTF?
Just organise a media-friendly ceremony for those killed and things can carry on like before. Everyone goes back to their routine, male citizens continue to be marginalised in their careers and lives, until the next death happens.
For changes to be made to NS, political will is needed. There is simply no urgency and benefit for this govt to ditch the status quo. Like every issue that plagues Singapore, it all goes back to politics – our undemocratic and authoritarian govt – for sure the welfare of citizens isn’t the foremost priority on their minds.
We are all born differently, with different strengths and weaknesses. So let’s not deprive those soldierly types to fulfill their passion to be professional soldiers. The ultimate goal should be a professional army and not a conscript one. Throw in unwilling conscripts to go with those genuine soldier-types will only hurt both parties and breed poor morale and cynical attitudes that are prevalent today.
Our population size being too small to maintain a full time professional army is just an old tired excuse. Btw this govt still keeps the Gurkhas, why is this so? There is no excuse foreigners flooding into Singapore cannot play a role in this island’s defence. Or maybe it really is a case of JOBS FOR FOREIGNERS, NS FOR SINGAPOREANS!
Not bad, i think it’s a great idea.
Just some thoughts:
1. I doubt that it is feasible to pay the full salary of a regular to a full time ns men. But i do agree that a fairer pay is needed.
2. Shortening the NS to 1 year might be too short for certain vocation. But ICT should be shorten to 5 cycle. IPPT/RT to retain is fine.
3. SAF should still participate in NDP. (Juz my 2 cents)
4. Reducing reservist training to 6 days is not really realistic. But at least not more than 14 days unless overseas deployment. There should only be a max of only one overseas deployment. (Better if none)
5. Getting woman in NS … no comments =p
Now if only someone higher up in SAF would agree with us.
your article is spot on.
Thank you. I went overseas reservist ICT and yes, I had to wait. Something along the line of the ’smaller’ people had to be shifted overseas first – do more practice and loboing while the ‘bigger’ people get shipped over later – something like a huge logistics operations. That is why the reservist was about 20 days, but actual exercise was much much shorter.
Yes, if they pay people more like regulars, like the ministers, then I believe there will be more pride in our young men in serving this. Enough crap about ’sacrifice’ after the Minister pay increase
Yes, exactly the points raised. I was a soldier too back in ‘95 and I know how you felt. Thanks for writing something very important.
Yes pls shorten the length of regular NS and ICT. 2 yrs(2.5) and 10 cycles is killing most of us who want to just carry on with our normal lives w/o having to lag behind so much.
Get rid of the “white horse” company… problem solved!!
Every father’s, mother’s son have to do the same thing. Regardless of social background. That’ll wake them up to useless time-wasting drill/procedures…
If one of the LTA chief has his son/daughter riding on a school bus, you think the seat belt for children will take that long to “review”??
[...] to make some revolutionary changes to it, it may actually make NS something that is worth doing.http://www.insanepoly.com/blog/?p=532Ray Kimball: Leaders Who Care Too Much HuffingtonPostToo often, leaders both officer and NCO forget [...]
Almost every NSF in his 2 yr cycle would be involved in NDP one way or another. Can you imagine how much cheap labour they have ready every year? SAF in NDP is here to stay.
[...] to make some revolutionary changes to it, it may actually make NS something that is worth doing.http://www.insanepoly.com/blog/?p=532Greg Mitchell: He Shot Himself In Front of His Men in Iraq — Full Story Finally Emerges [...]
[...] to make some revolutionary changes to it, it may actually make NS something that is worth doing.http://www.insanepoly.com/blog/?p=532Form & Fitness Q & A Cyclingnews.comGot a question about fitness, training, recovery from injury or [...]
[...] – Can eat meh? – I Not Stupid: National Service – One Stone Kills Many Birds! – Insane Polygons: National Service- What They Can Do About It [Recommended] – Singapore Life and Times: Based on justice and equality – The Void Deck: Flash: SAF [...]
Agree.
and see birthrate shoot thru the roof 
Point 4: Totally,Too many BulShi CO parade during NS reservist.
PS Most officer ( official + warren ) are lounging in Officer mess some got karaoke some more better then home.
point 8:Woman can serve as medics and Service clerks. Plus they don’t need to go to those slimming centre. Can Get quite Slim and chio with the exercise that they get during training :p
What to say there are those who can do with some exercise and maybe there will be more marriage(2 mth can build up relationship)
Another side: Exempt from NS after giving birth
problem solved in a naive way.
I wonder how many modern democratic countries out there even bother with displays of miltary might during NDP.
Have to say that including females and exemption of parents from NS are the brilliant ideas that will never happen.
Yo folks … PAP needs females votes.
It’s not a good idea to get the ladies involved. This would delay their entry to their workforce and most likely raise the average age for them to get married, exacerbating the problem of declining birthrates…
Dude … career opportunities, higher expectations, longer working hours, lousy maternal\paternal benefits, living with parents in cramped pigeon holes and rising COST of living are the causes of declining birthrates.
Having ladies involved in NS will in fact create more opportunities for local guys and gals to meet on equal footing and more opportunities for the birds-and-bees stuff (before they are aware of the consequences) = more rising birthrates!