Thursday, June 12, 2008 7:00
Shouldn’t MINDEF be more transparent about servicemen deaths?
In Joel Tan, Main Stories, Top Story • 1,927 views • 44 Comments
Breaking News: Another servicemen dies on Wednesday (Earthtimes). June 12 – SAF suspends physical training after two deaths in two days. (CNA). Singapore’s Ministry of Defence has declared a three-day time-out (12-14 June) on all physical and endurance training activities in the army, navy and air force.
The last line of the Singapore Armed Forces pledge states that all of us servicemen, active or otherwise, should be prepared to defend Singapore (cue shout) “with our lives!”.
Indeed, this has manifested itself very literally and very unfortunately in several instances, and mishap, understandable in the struggle to balance realism with safety, has caused many soldiers to lose their lives while in active service to the nation.
The latest case of death in the SAF surrounds recruit Andrew Cheah Wei Siong who, during a 2 kilometer walking exercise at Pulau Tekong’s BMTC on Tuesday morning, collapsed and was later pronounced dead at the Singapore General Hospital where he was evacuated to.
Sudden deaths
Cheah had only been enlisted 5 days prior to the incident, and his sudden passing is both shocking and puzzling. As the Channel News Asia report on Cheah’s death was quick to point out, the major causes for the sudden deaths of otherwise fit young men are myocarditis, an infection of the heart muscles causing inflammation, or an inherited condition that leads to the thickening of the heart muscles. Both can lead to sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac arrhythmia, which are fatal.
Either condition, according to the above report, is easily detected through the use of an electrocardiogram (ECG), which the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) applies during its pre-NS medical screenings. Apart from mild obesity and childhood asthma, Cheah was given a “clean bill of health”.
Putting aside the causes for Cheah’s death and looking at the circumstances, we find that his is not an entirely unfamiliar story. Earlier this year, 40-year old Major Tan Yit Guan collapsed during a self-paced run and, in 2006, Lieutanent Lionel Lim, 24, encountered unspecified difficulties during training in a swimming pool and died soon after being evacuated to hospital. In 2005, 19-year old 3rd Sergeant Ivan Ong and 2nd Warrant Officer Teh Kok Lian, 39, both died after collapsing during runs, following 2nd Sergeant 25-year old Rajagopal Thirukumaran’s and 20-year old Recruit Andrew Chew Heng Huat’s similar deaths during training in 2003. In addition, we have four more similar cases between 2001 and 2002, and two cases of servicemen found unconscious and who died later, the first in 2002 and the other in 2006.
Tight-lipped MINDEF
Of all the above cases of sudden death, MINDEF has only offered the coroners’ reports (deaths from complications of the heart) in two instances- one in 2003 and 2005, in the form of addresses to Parliament by then Defense Minister, Teo Chee Hean. Otherwise, the results of the MINDEF-led investigation into the deaths are never disclosed.
If we look carefully at the two occasions above, we will notice that 2003 and 2005 were particularly exceptional in terms of service personnel deaths. In 2003, MINDEF saw the death of three servicemen, all within a relatively short span of two months. All three were unrelated incidents except that two were deaths during strenuous exercise (the third death relates to the infamous commando head-dunking incident). Had MINDEF remained quiet in this instance, it would have been a public relations disaster. Similarly, in 2005, the reports were only made public when Minister Teo was queried in Parliament, and this perhaps because the two sudden deaths in 2005 happened one week apart from each other.
At risk of sounding churlish, it appears that MINDEF is incredibly tight-lipped about deaths in the military, particularly when it comes to cases of sudden deaths during training or exercises, all the more urgent in the level of occurrence in the past eight years.
In fact, MINDEF only begins to report deaths of servicemen on its website from 2001, despite having archived official releases from as early as 1996. If we are to believe that no deaths, sudden or not, happened in the SAF before 2001, then we will not understand why Minister Teo said, in the above mentioned 2005 parliamentary address, that “over the period from 1996 to 2005…. there were 19 cases of sudden cardiac deaths (in the SAF), that is about 2.1 cases a year. Of these, five had collapse during training; the others were not during training.”
MINDEF also offers no clear statistics as to deaths within the SAF and also has no comprehensive breakdown of this information offered to the public.
In writing this article, I drew up the table below, which profiles reported servicemen deaths between 2001 and today, compiled from existing reports made on MINDEF’s website. Some 48 per cent of these deaths correspond to the “sudden death” pattern of servicemen collapsing during training and dying soon after.
|
S/N
|
Name of serviceman, age
|
Unit
|
Activity
|
DOD
DD/MM/YY |
Cause of Death
|
Summary
|
|
1
|
1WO Loke Meng, 49
|
Navy
|
2.4km run
|
06/04/01
|
Undisclosed
|
Collapsed during run
|
|
2
|
CPL Kwok Wei Ming, ?
|
Commandos
|
Training
|
29/10/01
|
Undisclosed
|
Collapsed in camp (ST reported “collapsed during training”)
|
|
3
|
OCT Tan Kim Keng, 23
|
OCS
|
Group navigation exercise
|
25/02/02
|
Undisclosed
|
Collapsed during exercise, evacuated to hospital and was pronounced dead
|
|
4
|
LCP (NS) Mohd Shahlan bin Abdul Rahim, 32
|
?
|
IPPT
|
15/05/02
|
Undisclosed
|
Collapsed during exercise on 14/5/02, evacuated to hospital and passed away on 15/5/02
|
|
5
|
REC Ivan Ho Yong Hua, 22
|
BMTC
|
NA
|
10/10/02
|
Undisclosed
|
Found unconscious at training ground
|
|
6
|
CPL Goh Hui Ling, 22
|
RSN
|
NA
|
?
|
?
|
Body found in RSS Courageous after collision at sea, 5/1/2003
|
|
7
|
1SG Heng Sock Ling, 24
|
RSN
|
NA
|
?
|
?
|
Body found at Bintan Lagoon after RSS Courageous collision 5/1/2003
|
|
8
|
1SG Seah Ai Leng, 25
|
RSN
|
NA
|
?
|
?
|
Body found at Sebong after RSS Courageous collision 5/1/2003
|
|
9
|
2SG Chua Bee Lin,
|
RSN
|
NA
|
?
|
?
|
Believed dead, body still missing after RSS Courageous collision
|
|
10
|
2SG Hu Enhuai, 19
|
Commandos
|
Combat Survival Training
|
21/07/03
|
Asphyxia and Near Drowning
|
Malpractice on part of trainers; water treatment forced into body
|
|
11
|
2SG Rajagopal Thirukumaran, 25
|
Commandos
|
Ranger Selection Test
|
3/09/03
|
(Postulated) Sudden Cardiac Arrhythmia
|
Collapsed after completing a 5-km run
|
|
12
|
REC Chew Heng Huat, Andrew, 20
|
BMTC
|
IPPT Categorisation Test
|
23/09/03
|
(Postulated) Sudden Cardiac Arrhythmia
|
Collapsed during exercise, evacuated to hospital and died later
|
|
13
|
2WO Teh Kok Lian, 39
|
?
|
Routine run
|
22/06/05
|
Sudden Cardiac Arrest
|
Collapsed during run, evacuated to hospital and died later
|
|
14
|
3SG Ivan Ong Peng Ghee, 19
|
BMTC
|
Informal run
|
29/06/05
|
Undisclosed
|
Collapsed during run, evacuated to hospital and died later
|
|
15
|
1SG Shiva s/o Mohan, 24
|
Commandos
|
Rappelling Instructor Course
|
14/07/05
|
Died of injuries
|
Fell 20 meters while rappelling from the helicopter
|
|
16
|
REC Mohd Sufian Jamil, 18
|
BMTC
|
NA
|
01/02/06
|
Liver and organ failure
|
Died after developing complications upon reacting to anti-malaria drug, Maloprim in 2005. Death described as unprecedented.
|
|
17
|
LTA Lionel Lin Shi Guan, 24
|
Commandos
|
Training at pool
|
21/06/06
|
?
|
Encountered difficulty during exercise and went under the surface, evacuated to hospital and pronounced dead
|
|
18
|
PTE Yeo Chang Wen, Ambrose, 20,
|
HQ Supply and Transp.
|
NA
|
18/09/06
|
Undisclosed
|
Found unconscious, pronounced dead at hospital
|
|
19
|
2WO Tan Boon Toon, 45
|
? (Senior Tech)
|
NA
|
17/11/06
|
Undisclosed
|
Reported sick for chest pains, collapsed and evacuated hospital; pronounced dead
|
|
20
|
3SG Isz Sazli Bin Sapari, 19
|
?
|
NA
|
11/05/07
|
Died in accident
|
Killed when aircraft crashed into storeroom at Taiwan military facility
|
|
21
|
PTE Fan Yao Jin, 23
|
?
|
NA
|
11/05/07
|
Died in accident
|
Killed when aircraft crashed into storeroom at Taiwan military facility
|
|
22
|
LCP Chow Han Min Calvin, 19
|
?
|
NA
|
28/05/07
|
Severe burns
|
Died of burns after being flown back to Singapore following incident in Taiwan
|
|
23
|
MR Quek Meng Chua, 58
|
Senior Defense Exec.
|
Treadmill
|
15/06/07
|
Undisclosed
|
Collapsed while exercising, transferred to hospital and passed away
|
|
24
|
MAJ Tan Yit Guan, 41
|
Logistics
|
Self-paced run
|
02/02/08
|
Undisclosed
|
Collapsed while running
|
|
25
|
REC Andrew Cheah Wei Siong, 20
|
BMTC
|
2km walking activity
|
10/06/08
|
Undisclosed
|
Fainted during walk, evacuated to hospital and pronounced dead
|
+ The above information was extracted where possible from http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/news_and_events/
+ The data profiles deaths of personnel in active service during active duty between 2001 and June 2008
+ The data profiles such deaths and relevant details as were reported by MINDEF on its website
+ Where cause of death is indicated as “undisclosed” or “?”, MINDEF stated that investigations as to the causes to the serviceperson’s deaths would be carried out (only for the former); no subsequent reports were found
Undisclosed and missing information
If you notice, there are several instances where the word “undisclosed” relates to “cause of death”, and there is occasionally missing information like the serviceman’s age and unit, and this does not seem acceptably transparent, especially when relating to a very public issue like deaths in the military. I am not, of course, about to suggest that MINDEF is responsible for any of these deaths, but all this clearly shows a timidity with regards to transparency, and only compounds the mystery surrounding sudden deaths in the military.
It may strike you as nitpicky behaviour on my part, but there are several reasons why MINDEF could stand to be more transparent about these matters, especially sudden deaths.
On one level, MINDEF would be doing itself a favour by systematically releasing information about the cause of sudden deaths in the military- if, indeed, it has nothing to hide, this will help to dispel pet conspiracy theories and the general intrigue surrounding servicemen’s deaths. An already unpopular institution like National Service could do with the clearing of some air surrounding such an unpleasant situation.
Why MINDEF should be more transparent
Greater transparency would also help to alleviate fears about corrupt practices and complacency within the SAF, especially considering how, on the outset, it looks like the same situation has been replaying itself over and over. If these servicemen can be shown to have died from unpredictable conditions, be they heart-related or otherwise, and if on-the-ground medical attention can be shown to have been quick and efficient according to protocol, then MINDEF can raise public confidence in its practices and safety values. This is particularly important to parents who send their young children off to the military, and is even more poignant considering how a large number of those who died suddenly in the SAF were 25 years of age and younger.
So far, the SAF has reviewed its safety practices and has made these public. This is a positive development, but since sudden deaths still happen, the public has a right to know if these were unprecedented or similar to previous sudden deaths. MINDEF may be playing on the fact that public interest in the matter wanes fairly quickly, but as a branch of the government, it has a responsibility to make such critical information readily available, instead of when it is simply politically expedient to do so.
As is typical of our government, official reports do not have to be released to the public and, arguably on the grounds of preserving classified information, and, especially in the sticky issue of deaths in the military, this has been the accepted status quo for many years. Yet, with the number of recent cases of sudden and mysterious deaths in the SAF, can we, who either go through national service or see loved ones go through national service, afford not to have all the information at our disposal?
A look at our neighbour Malaysia shows their National Service, introduced in 2004, grappling with teething problems- parents have started to campaign for an end to NS in Malaysia on the grounds of abuse, corruption and servicemen deaths. NS in Singapore is a much more established, ostensibly much safer institution. Unlike in Malaysia where the main purpose of NS is to foster national unity, NS in Singapore has a critical role to play in our national security, and already it is not particularly popular for reasons best known to people who have been through “the system”. Moving towards greater transparency in MINDEF, on any level, can help to reduce a natural disdain for an institution that our government constantly lauds as critical to our national interests- it would, in fact, seem like the logical thing to do.
Indeed, just as our political figures do with their many opponents, so must MINDEF show it has nothing to hide by confronting Truth in the open court of the public domain.
—————–
About the author:
Joel Tan is currently an under-undergraduate, awaiting matriculation at NUS to enjoy the intellectual buffet of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences where he hopes to develop his interest in understanding the world and its related baggage from what academics have had to say on the matter. He can be found pontificating at The Daily Backtrack.
—————-
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44 Comments
The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily Sg: 12 June 2008
RH:
1. Nice, important, essay. It would be more complete if you could do a comparison [no need to be very long or exhaustive] with other countries’ military deaths, if any.
2. For example, we would love to know if there are deaths during military training in other countries. If not, then why only our LIEgime’s? If so, are these deaths similar, in terms of causes of deaths [if the LIEgime is truthful and not, as always, falsifying statistics and facts through under-reporting, reclassifying, outright lying and suppression of facts, etc]. Do soldiers who are conscripted die more than volunteer soldiers who sign up and join of their own volition? Is this because conscription is forced, so the training and treatment of conscripts is more callous whereas volunteer soldiers have the options of not joining or even resigning immediately at maltreatment, thus creating better and safer conditions for themselves, etc?
3. The evil LIEgime is famously secretive of everything, even charging a ST editor for merely reporting flash GDP numbers just days before the official release date. They are secretive because this gives them the advantage of monopolising facts and figures so only they know the true situations so only they can therefore, hopefully, see the problems and even more hopefully, solve them. Thus, monopolising information is key to their monopolising ’solutions’ to problems. If we don’t even have the facts, how can we see the problems let alone solve them? So secrecy is key to their ’superior problem solving’. We are not allowed to know so we cannot see and solve problems better than them. This is the “primal fear of superior minds” [self quote].
4. It is important to note that the LIEgime is not interested in solving OUR problems, even if we die from their stupidities, of which there are legion. The LIEgime has spent half a century entrenching itself in absolute power and has perfected every means of power play and power abuse as well as personal corruption to the tune of >S$10,00 A DAY plus a whole host of secret ways of playing the local bourses whose profitability of companies they can directly affect, to rake in even more $$$ in dividends and rising share prices. Not to mention the occasional ’special discounts’ buying luxury condos like Nassim Jade and Scott 28. There are much more of all these except that they are not widely known.
5. Also contributing to secrecy, besides monopolising information so as to monopolise ‘problems solving’ is the determined and painstaking PAPaganda that SG is a PAPadise, and in PAPadise, nobody dies from NS. SG is the most perfect PAPaganda PAPadise in history because every single negative fact has been deleted or nullified or modified, that is, SPUN and whitewashed whiter than the PAP uniform.
6. Thus, if not for the occasional question in Parliament, and the word of mouth of NS deaths spreading throughout each camp when it happens, the truths, like every other inconvenient truth, would have been suppressed, too. Nice, important, article, Mr TAN.
MichaelEng
We are running low on locally born sons to man the arms to defend an increasing growing imported population.
I have seen my fair share of injuries sustained by my men and friend during my active combat unit. Luckily no death.
The guys on the ground take safety seriously. Medics, safety rovers, water points, water parade and stuff.
Any divine light shed on how a walking exercise can lead to the death of a young son will be helpful.
Sylvester Lim
Joel, good job of highlighting the number of deaths due to training exercises. The other data that has not been disclosed by Mindef is the number of injuries and their severity ie. loss of limbs, loss of sight, fingers & toes etc. How many of these incidents are caused by gung-ho regular officers/specialists wanting to proof their worth at the expense of these conscripts? Singapore should start following other First World countries in increasing the pool of regulars and further reducing the duration of NS to 1 year or less. Are our guys training for defense or more?
Soldier of Misfortune
Hello, death from walking? How can one died while walking? It must be an extremely tough kind of walking exercise that Mindef nowadays conduct for our feeble foot soldiers. If thats the case, then Mindef should re-evaluate their structure of compensation seriously as many of us might agree, when what comes next – die while listening to lectures, or while just queing to eat or while drawing stores.
lim
For the undisclosed cases, I understand its not a question of not disclosing to families but public disclosure.
I think some people may like to hear such ba-kwa news, but personally I think privacy should be a consideration.
Gary Teoh
Not worth the money only $400/mth, I always ask ppl to ‘keng’ in NS. Why work so hard, after all, our life only worth $400 in NS, you lose a limb or hand, nobody heck care, your family will suffer not the govt. Any body talk abt patriotic, I ask him f## off. This type of soceity under this type of govt.. you better take care of yourself !!! After all we are 2nd class citizen, everything, think for FT first. Without FT, we locals don’t have jobs !!!!
Andrew Loh
I am not an expert in medical stuff by any means. So, I’m just throwing out this question: Could the deaths have anything to do with diet? I mean the kind of food served by the camps?
In the past, long time ago, food was cooked in the camps kitchens themselves. Now, I understand it is catered by Singapore Food Industries? I stand corrected, just what I heard.
I am also curious why MINDEF has not done any detailed researched or investigations into potential causes of these deaths. I think MINDEF needs to do more – and not just rely on doctors’ pronouncements.
The number of cases are getting to be discomforting.
Andrew Loh
And oh, if MINDEF were to do an investigation into possible causes, please have an independent panel.
No more putting own people into the team and then call it independent. I think Wong Kan Seng tried to re-define the word but he fell flat on his face.
Independent, please.
bylaw
Depends on what you mean by being transparent. For instance, take the recent dragon boat inquiry, headed by Bernard Tan, a PS. He did a WKS, even out-WKS WKS. In his case, noone is to be blamed, let’s just move on. It seems that every big shot civil servant is taking the cue from the WKS handling of the MS case. Be transparent, but also shift responsibility to others/God and then ask everyone to forget the whole matter and move on. Just a bunch of highly paid irresponsible jerks.
LEEporter
It’s an honest mistake. What to do- it’s happened. Let’s close ranks and move on.
mr kit
#16 was my platoon mate, #20-22 were part of my platoon. For the former, we were told nothing for weeks after he disappeared from training.
mr kit
sorry i meant #20-22 were part of my battalion
Your list is incomplete, which is not surprising as I don’t think Mindef offers this type of information easily over the internet.
I know for a fact that my infantry reservist unit encountered a fatality 2-3 years back. He was a 30+ year old reservist who collapsed during IPPT 2.4km run.
ROD lor.
To add on, a relative of mine who is was Medical Officer reservist officer told me that IPPT is the most lethal form of training within the SAF if you include both active and reservist units.
DC
An OCT just passed away 2 days ago (which didn’t get reported till today).
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_247079.html
aygee
Joel, you wrote
“An already unpopular institution like National Service could do with the clearing of some air surrounding such an unpleasant situation.”
perhaps thats the very reason why deaths are not fully revealed. Perhaps the military doesnt want to give the public any more reason to protest against NS?
i suppose we’re taking the cue from other military as well – when deaths happen, its never fully revealed but seems to be always a “training accident”. the military tends to then settle it internally without having any public scrutiny.
If we’re to fully disclose to the public, then the “who’s to blame” becomes centrestage. the instructors? the medical staff on duty at that time? the medical officer who gave this unfortunate guy a clean bill of health when he went for his FFI/ pre-NS checkup?
with full disclosure, i suspect this would lead to a complete revamp of the NSF enlistment process. are we prepared for this? Does this mean we’ll have even less combat personnel in our military? will this, in the long run, be good for our defence?
my sympathies go to the family of Rec Cheah.
Andrew Loh
Another death reported today (June12) and the SAF has suspended all training for 3 days.
This is at least the second time Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean has done such a thing since becoming Defence Minister. I am just wondering how many servicemen have died under his watch – the most memorable being the commando death.
I can imagine that if anyone calls for him to step down, we will get the same response as Wong Kan Seng gave us.
Anyone know when Teo Chee Hean became Defence Minister?
lim
For what its worth, I extend my deepest sympathies to the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. I am embarassed that I did not do this in my first post which should have been my first thought.
rob
Well ,
Lets not blame or others for what already done, it is a good thing to review and most importantly , look at the people who is responsible for managing risk.
I think no matter what kind of training there is risk, but if human can be more responsible, dont take things likely, risks can be minimised.
Like any other male, who being through NS, BMT is a place to learn and adapt and change to a military person. It takes time. To hear that 5 days into enlistment, he on route march which is pushing people to their limits. They should be more organise in training so that less will happen again
… rob said, “To hear that 5 days into enlistment, he on route march which is pushing people to their limits”
i don’t think it was a route march. they reported it as a 2km walk. from what my frens tell me, the walks are quite gradual for the obese recruits. they start with 1km, then 2km and so on, until they hit 8km. nothing anybody would have thought was “too dangerous” for our young men.
Anyway, hope the SAF can find a better way to detect underlying heart conditions which cannot be tracked through a typical ECG. I suspect that’s what happened to Andrew. Sigh. Too many Singaporeans are just collapsing and dying… it’s scary.
My condolences to both young men – REC Andrew Cheah and OCT Clifton Lam. RIP.
DavidSeeLeongKit
> Sylvester Lim, bylaw, LEEporter, Andrew Loh have all hit the nail on the head.
> I am a 60-year old educated/thinking S’porean — who did my full-time NS some 35 years ago (among the first batches).
In the initial years, they do not even bother to report injuries/deaths! (as if the people have NO RIGHT TO KNOW!)
In more recent times, they announce deaths (but not injuries and permanent disabilities) — mentioning Mindef will investigate the deaths. As expected, investigation done by their “own people” (hence “non-independent” and possible “cover-up”). Also, dare not disclose outcome of investigation.
> I personally heard of one tragic incident — an only son ( assured of place in varsity) who didn’t die but suffered irreversible brain damage (from heat stroke) and became a bed-ridden “vegetable”.
> This is the REAL TRAGEDY for Singapore (the nation) and Singaporeans (the people) — our world-infamous, obscenely-paid, million-dollar ministers cannot even afford to buy a cheap $15 english dictionary to check out the true meanings of “transparency, accountability, moral responsibility, independent inquiry”.
> My recent Internet contribution “GSS = Great Singapore Shame” is at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/4728
if MINDEF remains zip-lip because they assume that the family doesn’t want the details of the death to be released, then yes, we should press for transparency. But if the family has consistently insisted that MINDEF not release the results, then what can we do? What right do we have then to demand that MINDEF be transparent?
Rico
well i guess it is part n parcel of life for singaporean guys…anyway i can say is that i have been waiting for the pass 14 mths for national service and i was supposed to enlist the same day as Rec Andrew until my enlistment was cancelled due to -something wrong with my chest x-ray…the problem..? well u guess it ritz….unable to disclosed…well let see wat they will say tis time….
My condolences to the deceases family…..
Gary Teoh
Again the question is who is responsible ? Teo Chee Hean ? or who ever plans the NS programme. Earlier I already mentioned not worth to ‘ cheong’ as anything happen to our boys, the minister just send condolence, what the f##. Taking million dollar salary, I also know how to send condolence. The govt has to solve the problem, something is wrong somewhere, dont just concentrate on economy, investment, investment……. and then investigation not transparent. What the hell is this, so many lives lost.
Oscar Choy
Andrew Loh mentioned about the type of diet intake may be partially correct. I shared his views on this aspect. However, the blockage and narrowing of blood vessels/veins will not, in my opinion, form in short terms during the 2 years of NS. They were built and accumulated over many years, may be while they are children. See – we have many over wt., over eat obese children around us.
I may not be medically trained, but I believed poor lifestyle and, improper and unhealthy food intake (too many fatty food, red meat, deep fried food, etc.) during a person lifetime is the main cause of the problem. Of course, if a person that is borned with a narrower blood vessels will compound and complicate the problem further. Just like a “lonkang” drain, a surge & rush of blood flow will dislodge some fatty tissues/blood clots and flow to other parts of the body and causes unrepairable damage eg. heart attack, stroke.
Many years ago, (I came acrossed this article) American medical research report on the postmortem of dead young US soldiers during the Vietnam War indicated that even at young age of 18-25, servicemen had various degrees of blood vessels blockages closed to the hearts.
So, it is mainly likely to be a person lifestyle over the years that caused the mishap rather than the training methods as many grandfathers(past servicemen) had gone through similar courses of military training.
Jackson
In the past, there weren’t much of such unfortunate incidents, but since 2000 onwards we’ve been hearing much of incidents whererby servicemen suddenly collapsed due to medical or unknown reasons. MINDEF should REALLY start examining servicemen VERY CAREFULLY before deciding whether to put them to harsh training or not. Singapore already has a small population, can’t afford to lose anymore fine young men to unknown collapsing.
ding
seems like male singaporean under too much stress, if not why so many of these similiar cases. thanks to the elite uncaring faces who give us this pressure cooker society and please sleep peacefully at night with yr million dollars.
Life is cheap in the SAF. Oh yes, cheap, cheap labour too! :)
C J
…and so they declare 3 days of no PT, and as usual, an ‘independant’ investigation into the incident… will it make any difference? Will these sort of ‘Training Deaths’ stop? Did all previous deaths’ investigations changed anything?
… maybe another Ministerial Pay Hike is required?
I wonder, how do they stick to their claim that Singaporeans are Living Longer when people are reportedly dropping dead in and outside of Military Training?
Quite apparently, they want us all to work till we drop dead, as well as train till we drop dead…
Hi,
Although it is good that you have brought up this important topic of National Service, let us please get a few facts straight about this latest case.
No matter what the media reports say, it is not true that causes of sudden death ” (are) easily detected through the use of an electrocardiogram (ECG), which the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) applies during its pre-NS medical screenings”.
From what I know about the BMT ( I know someone who just enlisted) Rec Cheah being part of the extended BMT ( due to obesity) has just started his course and was walking only 2 km!
The SAF nowadays are so “kiasu” (careful) that these obese guys 1. started with compulsory water parades ( unlike my time when we drink one capful of water to last many km 2. Can stop or ask to be excused anytime they don’t feel well. The SAF takes great pains to be extra-careful due to Public Relation reasons. I have been to these PR tours on the enlistees first day and the one objective is to reassure that the NSmen are well taken care of.
Rec Cheah’s medical condition looks to be preexisting ( probably not easily detectable without specialised investigations)
Of course I prefer not having to do NS for my kids ( I have completed my obligations), but if it is still compulsory, I would prefer it done in Singapore then any of the surrounding countries ( have you heard what happens in Malaysia?)
The only question any Inquiry want to find out is whether the normal pre-enlistment medical process is adequate. Even if every enlistee gets seen by every specialist ( heart/ent/orthopaedic etc), we still cannot prevent deaths completely. The other question is if the medical support was properly instituted at the time of Dec Cheah’s collapse ( first aid/Medical centre/medi-evacuation). This is so that when something happens like this again that the collapsed soldier can have the maximum chance of survival.
Not every death is preventable. In my hospital recently, 2 colleagues died even with the best specialist present immediately on collapse and even with immediate open heart procedure!
My sympathies to Rec Cheah’s family
aygee
Jackson Jun 13th, 12.40am, hit the nail on the head.
I have seen and heard how BMT has changed drastically from my time (1988) to now, due to the changing physical capabilities of Singaporeans.
During my time, pre-enlistment FFI was basically a 1/2 hr with a doctor at Dempsey Road, where he checked my medical history, confrimed my height/weight ratio, confirmed my sexual orientation, simple stretches which i assumed was to check my spine alignment, and the infamous “look to the left and cough” while he held my testicles.
Has the FFI changed to a more sophisticated check, to pick up potential ailments that the late Rec Cheah had? If they changed the BMT, they need to change the pre-enlistment process. I’m sure it has, but maybe its time to review this again, to suit the different physical attributes of our youth today.
i trust that MINDEF does these reviews constantly. As many have mentioned above, a transparent understanding of the whole enlistment process would ease our apprehensions that the NS is dangerous.
Its sad what happened to Rec Cheah, but it can happen to the fittest of people – like the footballer Marc Vivien Foe, who simply dropped dead playing in a match for his country.
blackout
once upon a time i was also in NS and i was in the police. the lack of transparency and the practice of ‘covering my ass’ attitude is definitely prevalent in govt sector. i too was involved in a near fatal accident whislt on duty. trust me, the words used in a report can change the actual course of events. and what is even worse is that recuits are often punished for taking necessary actions such as seeking redress. they are often slapped with the isa code penalty and hence not many have the ballls to challenge the system. so i salute those that have laid their lives for the country. for those that have intentionally played a part in the unncessary deaths and have not been punished for their actions, may the same thing happen to their children and their descendants.
Concerned Citizen.
There are too many cases of unnatural deaths in the SAF pertaining to young
and healthy men that Singapore can ill effort, due to the retarding natural
population growth. Something must be wrong.
I think the SAF’s enlistment medical checks must be thoroughly reviewed to
ensure all finer details have been checked.
Even Captains, Majors and Lt Colonels are dying like that. Therefore, there
should be a regular thorough medical checks on a yearly basis upon
non-NSmen as well.
Is the SAF or MINDEF going to do something about the above recommendations
before more and more deaths appear?
My sympathy and condolences to Rec Cheah’s bereaved family and to all those
families who sons have died in such manner in the past.
Concerned Citizen. 2008.
the unknown soldier
I would like to know how many people have killed themselves in NS as well. Not to make things difficult for MINDEF, but for the sake of transparency. A soldier blew his brains out in my camp. Never read about it in the papers.
MINDEF and the government should start taking this opportunity to communicate with the most important people besides the soldiers: former soldiers like us. We can contribute a great deal to improving NS – if the powers that be listen.
That two people died was unfortunate but I hope that MINDEF will do the right thing and invest more in quality medical screening. All I remember from my pre-enlistment check was being asked to “cough.”
spellfire
every soldier is important to the SAF, but its impossible to have zero deaths when your organization has 80,000 man and women from every part of singapore engaging in serious risk.
wat is most important is that the SAF learns from it, so that our guys dont die for nothing.
and hopefully the lesson would be passed down, so that we dont have to learn it again.
sufferer
Their deaths can be avoided. I share the grief of the affected families.
as a medical student, i agree with dr huang’s comments.
also, with regards to diet being a contributing factor, i dont think you can attribute atherosclerosis (build up of plaques in vessels) to deaths of young men in NS. all of us have some degree of narrowing due to genetic factors and the progressive build up. however, at age 18, the risk is almost negligible. that is why the usage of blood-thinners or clot dissolvers are NOT indicated in young people, but only when blood tests show, e.g. cholesterol levels are high, or blood pressure above normal.
i think if the public presses for information, its unclear whether we will get them. surely we would like to know WHY they died, and i think the parents would like to know even more, to have some sort of closure to the incident. but as someone said before, it cannot be less understated: PRIVACY is a key issue. some might not want how their son died published all over the newspaper.
its amazing how we can have casualties even before the first enemy bullet fly over our head. imagine what will happen if war breaks out.
Chao Fan
What about simple things like implementing simple allergy tests for malaria pills they issue? There was a case where a soldier died from eating the malaria pill. Instead they just gave MOs a lecture and changed the drug. It doesn’t solve the root cause of the problem. Mindef has the largest budget, I’m sure they can afford allergy testing.
Sad ST report
in today’s ST – to add fuel to fire – the commentary indicated that Singaporeans willingly allows their sons to go for national service. – like we have a choice.
Andrew – I think it is time to post a list of compulsory NS in other countries and let us remind our efficient govt that the other countries can do it in lesser time. In Turkey – they seve 16 months without reservist liability. We should push for a similar scheme and stop this unfair treatment of our male citizens by our world class govt.
aquaskylet
Hmmm… Actually, the author failed to realize that a coroner’s inquiry is held in OPEN COURT (according to my forensics science lecture in uni). Which means that should any member of the public wish to find about about the cause of the death, they could just attend the hearing.
As deaths are handed over to the police / coroner / court, I do believe that it is not for MINDEF to go around announcing who died for what because the issue has been handed over to another organization. I don’t think that it is a lack of transparancy in this case, cos the information are blatantly in front of everyone, its just a matter of whether ppl choose to look for it (kn this case, to attend the hearing).
Joanna
Recently, there are too many young soldiers died in their training. I suggest MINDEF should investigate and report on their cause of death. Many people commented on the pre medical check up. However, I think MINDEF should also re-look into their training schedule and work with the medical teams to understand the cause of death and re- structure their taining schedule. I believe no matter how healthy a person may be during the pre medical check up, if the human body is over stressed and without enough rest their health will definitely deteriorate. Why put our young men to death instead of training them to be fit soldiers to protect our country.
SS Stirrer
Australia lost 11 soldiers in the war on terror in Afghanistan –
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5735465/australian-soldier-killed-in-afghanistan/
we lost 25 in training????
I believe none of these deaths are so called White Horses. (son of MIW and VIPs). If these were their children, the whole place would have been turned upside down by now.
I feel like a Bangla....
So many deaths and those in charge got no accountability for it by trying to cover up.
Makes me feel like a Bangla worker in this country. Cheap, expandable and exploitable.
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