Comments on: PM Lee “would not like” to be your platoon commander if you’re 30, 40, 50 years old

By: National Service « Team NSP for CCK

National Service « Team NSP for CCK — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:37:26 +0000

[...] [1] http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/10/pm-lee-would-not-like-to-be-your-platoon-commander-if-youre-30-4… [...]

By: taxiahkong

taxiahkong — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:49:04 +0000

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON
He is talking BIRD language.

By: Army Boy

Army Boy — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:03:06 +0000

Make them do NS work lah…. Sacrifice 2 yrs of their salaries.
We sacrificed 2.5 yrs of our salaries and youth, drawing 200 bucks, area cleaning, guard duty, clear urinals with hands…. etc. for fun?
Make them polish RSM boots for 2 yrs!

By: Papsmear

Papsmear — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:46:46 +0000

Now I am convince our PM is STUPID !
NS does not necessarily mean Army duties.
It could be in the form of Vigilante Corps assisting the Police or even Nursing or Healthcare.
This has been done before in the 80′s.
His probably too ypoung then to know of this !

STUPID IDIOT !

By: FPC

FPC — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:45:29 +0000

Why isn’t these words in the page where all the infamous quotes aka bashing singaporeans were recorded?

By: Active AGEISM

Active AGEISM — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:47:23 +0000

At last one PAP leader, LSL, has come out to say he is uncomfortable managing people who are not of his age or not below his age. As a leader he is no different from the many poor quality people managers who lack the intellectual maturity to deal with diversity in the ranks in the military or in the corporations or in the country. If a CEO is 21 years old, all employees should be below 21 years old, right?

If a leader like LSL believes age discrimination or AGEISM is necessary, do Singaporeans have reason to fear him and his party’s policies? I think we should because we will all one day grow old and weak. The liberal immigration policy enables AGEISM as can be seen with the covert discriminatory hiring practices in our job market. The loads of younger Foreign Talent (who are not at all talented but are here to learn) will naturally displace the older Singaporeans. And the NTUC pretentiously says “Singaporeans quitting workforce by the time they are 50” “more research needs to be done to understand why this is happening”.

National Service should be for CITIZENS only. I do not know why Foreigners are in any of our Total Defence Forces neither do I support Foreigners in them. Who are these Foreigners LOYAL to??? They are here for the LOVE OF MONEY and should be on Work Passes nothing more. When their Work Passes expire they should return to their homelands. There is no need at all to issue them with Permanent Resident Status as they are all here temporarily.

By: Tang Li

Tang Li — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:03:02 +0000

Why don’t we get a bit of honesty here? Let the PM say it. The SAF is not about to fight a war and we, your elected leaders will probably be on the first plane out of the country to a place where we have stashed away plenty of money so that we won’t actually have to do anything like….fight……

By: Singapore citizen

Singapore citizen — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 06:45:56 +0000

Govt should cut the pay of SAF regulars and to reduce defence spending and GST! This is to be fair to the NSmen, who are not paid to serve military service and had to compete with foreign workers in the job market! Moreover, it is the NSmen who will be at the frontline in the event of war!

By: no:1

no:1 — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 04:15:08 +0000

What brings to mind he propably had thought himself above Gen. Patton or Macarther. Perhaps best fits the soles of their shoes! I would want to have such lollipops PC whose adopted strategy of defence is to FINE,FINE, FINE ! In all respects, most will AWOL, if this little nut general in show.

By: vote a dog

vote a dog — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:20:59 +0000

Not the first time he conk up when cooking his own examples, remember he orders mee siam bai hum, lolz

By: Unfair

Unfair — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:01:36 +0000

The statement “If we make it (NS and Reservist for PR) a requirement, we would not get the people we wanted.” is as reasonable as those 18 years old foreigners who come in on scholarships and bursaries to skip NS and have a great career headstart when ours have to go through NS and with the years of NS liabilities and duties making them more expensive to the job market and with nothing much to cushion them in terms of social or job security welfare.

By: ccchia

ccchia — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:16:48 +0000

Actually, not many people would want Pinky to be their PC, or to have anything to do with him, if possible.
In an actual conflict or war, the reality would be that Pinky would be safely hidden away in underground bunkers, otherwise his own soldiers would end up fragging him instead for his incompetence and stupidity.

By: Clear

Clear — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:54:54 +0000

Sad that the real interests of Singapore citizens are secondary to the interests of the economy of Singapore. Are we building a Nation or a Business Empire??

By: jiangbao

jiangbao — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:44:01 +0000

Actually LHL is arty officer. so there is no PC. He is right to say that he is not going to be your PC. Try BC, GPO or BRO or FO for that matter.

By: Charles Stewart Lee

Charles Stewart Lee — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:19:49 +0000

@Gemami…..

“Going a step further, serving NS need not even be the military kind. Like I have mentioned earlier, why not send these FTs to nursing homes, hospices, charitable homes etc where they can be trained to take care of Singaporeans? This will endear them to Singaporeans and make it easier for us to accept them and integrate with them – as is the desire of this government.”

This is probably the best suggestion I’ve heard in ages.
I’m a Born-in-Singapore but shipped out at 10 yrs old, who would gladly do any of that to get my PR. Ironically, one of the reasons my family left was becuse they did not want me to do NS. I also noted your earlier posts regarding the empathy Singaporeans could show the New Singaporeans; essentially in a similar position to our forefathers. Thanks for the level-headed reminder. My grandfather was an FT from Penang. Did a LOT for the country as one of its non-political Founding fathers. Our extended family has spent time in Singapore since the 1700′s and whilst some were born in Singapore, we view the region as our home. Even back in those days, my descendants went to Singapore to make money. This is something that is engrained in Singapore culture and has been happening for a long time.

That was then, this is now though and your idea is really good and would sort a lot of tensions and fill a lot of needed roles in showing compassion for older Singaporeans.
I feel sometimes that Singapore’s success is a double-edged sword because of the impression it puts on prospective New Singaporeans with the expectations of relative paradise, compared to where they are coming from.
Singaporeans are definately pissed off though. These developments -Overseas sourced population growth- are happening much faster these days and the stress levels it places on the people as a result of economic pressures is getting a bit much.
Defunately something the Govt could be managing better. They have to address the will of the Public eventually.
I hope that something I read in this thread that Singapore is to take on 5million people to apease the Chinese Govt is not true.

Thank you too for your insights on the distribution of power through the GLCs and Stat Boards. I am filled with optimism based on this that Singapore’s interests should be looked after even if there is a change in Govt.

By: WT

WT — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:13:43 +0000

Hello ChinesePR, you came here because you can make more money right? Do you come to a kampong to make more money? You should be grateful but instead you throw insult at us Singaporeans. So sad that Singapore leaders are taking PRs to insult their own people because of their incompetency by inviting people like you. . Do you agree with me if you were Singaporean?

By: angry_one

angry_one — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:59:54 +0000

Sinkaporeans’ view on NS is always “i suffer so i want to make more people suffer”.

I am all for abolishing NS completely, and building a good volunteer army.

The real crisis facing sinkapore now is talent drain, competing in the new economy… and NS is a huge obstacle to this. Hsien Loong knows this, with his comment of “NS will put off new PRs…”

By: wisefool83

wisefool83 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:44:55 +0000

What PM meant was that if the PR only started his NS at 30,40,50. Meaning learning his BMT stuff at that age, then he would not like to be their PC. You can question the validity of whether a soldier going tru his BMT at such an age is still useful, but it would be pointless to take his words out of context and attack them.

By: WT

WT — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:15:54 +0000

The government had always claimed that policies are decided collectively. Is this a collective view that the defence of this nation can only depends on those in their 20s? A BG and also the C-in-C (as the PM) of this nation had said that he would not want to be a commander of those in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Looks like in time of crisis, these NSmen priority are to their families for they are not fit to report to their commanders? What he had just said would demoralised the bulk of the reservists. Is it still safe to invest in Singapore? For Singapore to continue as a nation state , we need a government that consider her citizens first and trust in their people.

By: theforgottongeneration

theforgottongeneration — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:58:16 +0000

@325) gemami on October 9th, 2009 1.57 pm

Appreciate your clarfication; perhaps I was also rather narrow with the interpretation.

I totally agree that alternate roles should be possible for any “older” FTs. After all I understand these are of “considerable” intelligence so they should be able to pick up new non-strenuous roles per mentioned to Jas earlier (about Total Defense).

Again, another page from WW2. During the Battle of Brtiain in 1940, the British Observer Corps performed admirably. These were men too old for active service and may not have prior military experience/training. Yet they were trained hastily after the defeat France (1940), to observe & report on enemy aircraft intentions. In areas without continuous radar coverage, they were a gold mine (e.g. plotting aircraft nos, direction, etc). They were probably in their 40′s and 50′s, Ok maybe some PES “E”s. :-)