Alvin Phoon
Being Singaporean means experiencing a lot of things. Good food. High prices. SPGs. It also means constantly receiving some excellent reasons for why things are; reasons that may or may not (mostly not) justify fallacies in the current political system. I’m sure we’ve all heard some amazingly creative comments and justifications for shortcomings in our society, most of which have been provided by the beloved leaders of our country. Just recently, I was subjected to a talk during my reservist training in which the speaker, whom I shall address as Mr X, provided some interesting viewpoints.
Mr X is eloquent, intelligent and charming. In fact, he manages, within the first five minutes, to capture the undivided attention of the room, and it remains that way for a good hour. How he does this is simple. First, he makes it clear that he understands the predicament of everyone in the room. Complete with hand gestures, a passionate tone and a slightly higher volume than normal, he questions the intelligence of those who put us in the room. Next, he likens himself to the group –working men pulled out of their busy schedules by a higher power to attend unnecessary activities. That one garners him even more support from the group. Finally, he tells the group that instead of having a normal presentation, he is going to make it a discussion, just so that it’s more interesting for us. That completes the group’s transformation. They are now relatively contented, wide awake and ready to debate, when before it was mostly a propensity to swear.
Now, Mr X is ready to serve up the main course. He asks the group if there is anything they are unhappy with as Singaporeans.
ERP Gantries
The issue is raised by one of the guys, who says he disagrees with the government’s decision to increase the number of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries. The opinion is echoed around the room. Some say it isn’t fair that they have to pass through the gantries several times.
Mr X’s response: The ERP gantries help regulate the flow of traffic. They are there to discourage Singaporeans from driving so that the roads will stay clear. Public transport in Singapore is efficient enough to provide alternative means of travelling. He then compares the prices to the London Congestion Charge (£8 a day) and tells us how much better we have it here.
National Service
The inevitable question surfaces relatively early. Why are Singaporean men subjected to National Service? Is conscription really necessary?
Mr X uses a brilliant lock analogy to justify the necessity of National Service. He asks us if we lock our front doors when we go to sleep at night.
“If you don’t lock your doors, you might wake up at 3am to find someone pushing your plasma TV out the door. If you ask him why he’s doing that, he’ll tell you it’s because your door was open.”
He then explains the analogy: Everyone serving national service, including those who are Operationally Ready NS men, are considered the country’s lock. We are the guys who lockdown the nation so that the rest of the population feel safe enough go to sleep.
Foreigners
Mr X brings up this next point himself, which implies that he had prepared himself thoroughly for such a question. Why are there so many foreigners in the country? Why do we need to import so many of them?
Singapore is targeting a population of six million, so as to ensure that the country maintains a progressive long-term economic order. Everything sounds right. Then, Mr X begins his tirade.
First, he questions if it is wise that Singaporeans are refusing to have more than one child, if any at all. He is backed up by statistics which show that Singapore has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world; about 1.25 per resident female compared to about three in the 1970s. He wants to know if we will remain economically stable if our population dips to three million. That is the reason, he claims, why the government is importing foreigners: Because Singaporeans refuse to help solve the problem.
“At the rate we’re going, in about a hundred years’ time, Singaporeans may not even exist anymore. By then, the only place you can see one is in a museum!”
He continues by saying that Singaporeans are feeling threatened, and uses the reactions of Singaporeans towards news of our top PSLE student being a Chinese import as an example. He talks about how foreigners working as sales personnel in local malls have better attitudes that their local counterparts. He emphasizes that Singaporeans were all children of immigrants anyway, and so why shouldn’t we welcome foreigners?
Corruption
By now Mr X has stopped taking questions. He begins talking about how the Singapore government has done such a good job resisting the lures of corruption. Despite my best efforts, he didn’t hear me snigger. He then asks if it is possible that the government will one day succumb to temptation. Raising, as an example, the rise of the Philippines as one of the world’s top trading centres and their fall from grace, leading to women coming to Singapore to work as maids, he asks if our women might suffer that very same fate one day.
He ends his talk with two stories. The first is about an Australian family he encountered while on holiday. After a barbeque, the Australian family replaced the charcoal before driving off. Mr X emphasizes that although there was a sign telling users to do so, there was no one around to enforce the rule. But they did it anyway. Subsequently, he drives into a small town where he sees a table full of fresh fruit with no one manning it. He notices a tin labeled ‘50 cents’, and says that there is no way something like this could ever happen in Singapore.
The second is about an incident he observed while in a local supermarket. After finishing a food sample given to her by promoters, a young girl was instructed by her grandmother to throw the toothpick on the floor. According to him, Singaporeans have been spoon-fed by the government so much that we now expect them to clean up after us.
“Throw it away and the government will send someone to clean it up.”
He adds that there isn’t a strong sense of community and trust in Singapore, and finishes off by saying that it is up to us, and not the government, to be civic-minded.
Later, I discover that Mr X served as an Army regular for 30 years, before setting up his own company to provide leadership programmes and “National Education” talks to various organizations. His clients include the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Defence and the Singapore Civil Defence Force. Explains a lot doesn’t it?
The condescending manner in which Mr X delivers his points suggests that he considers the men in the room to be intellectually inferior to him, thus rendering them incapable of making their own decisions and opinions about their own country. Visualize a kindergarten teacher talking to her students about evolution and you’ll get an accurate picture. Besides being a complete waste of time, it is an immense insult to our intelligence.
The question remains though: Why us? Is the whole thing an elaborate set-up manufactured to exploit whatever feelings of patriotism an In-Camp Training session may incite? Are we easy targets because we are old enough to vote and young enough to be considered easily influenced? Or is reservist training more about feeding us false information and justifications, than making sure we maintain our physical fitness?
Mr X epitomizes everything the government is: intelligent, cunning, articulate, and committed to the cause. The question is whether we have what it takes to identify their methods. Judging from the reactions of the other men in the room as they trek off to lunch, it seems like we have some way to go.
Photo 1: http://beconfused.com
Photo 2: http://military-life.blogspot.com
Editor’s note: After some consideration, we decided to remove the previous two photos because of the feedback given. We appreciate your views but we’d also appreciate if readers would send us alternative photos if the existing ones are deemed inappropriate. Thanks!
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This is true, the government is actually very intelligent and very good at what it does. If you think about it, the Singapore government’s propaganda machine is so subtle and actually so reasonable in its argument that you forget that they’re actually promoting a few fallacies that are very self-serving.
Take for example the act of National Service itself. I am actually proud that I served in the army but when you look at the army the way it’s organised, you realise that it has very little to do with actual defense of the nation than keeping certain people in well paid jobs. I like the fact that we actually had a competent general that proved himself by leading a UN Peace Mission to Timor Leste. Now, when you realise that the SAF has no combat experience, the common assumption is that you would lionise the one general who has something resembling combat experience and get him to bring his real experiences into the doctrine. What does MINDEF do? They take away a star and push him out to pasture….the reason is…he’s “old.” It is more important to have a young schoolar in the job than someone with the necessary experience and can do the job.
Remember, without the SAF there would not be a Singapore Technologies and ODE. Where would they find the extra profits from
Red or the Blue pill. Just how deep is the rabbit hole? People tends to put themselves in the comfort zone and feel good about it. Very human and denial in it normal form.
EPR
In Edmonton, the trains are free during lunch hours in the city areq to encourage people to use the public transport; have Singapore thought of this?
National Service.
Why can’t Singapore just maintain s 50,000 strong professional army to defend the island. Another 30,000 of volunteer reservists.
It has been proven time and again that conscripts are no match to voluneer professional soldiers. In the Fankland war, the Argitinian conscripts were easily defended by the bBritish full-time soldiers, then in the Operation Desert Storm, the Iranians suffered the same fate under the U.S. army.
Can the Singapore N.S. men fight the professional and experienced army of another nation. Take a good look at those professional army in your neighbouring country and then look around your reservist mates and officiers.
OK if N.S. is the lock then why not the FT s have the same responsibility?
Foreigners
Who’s fault it started with?
Was it not the PAP govt’s “Stop at Two” policy that started the downtrend….all the disincentive to have more than two children. Don’t blame Singaporeans, they are just following the govt…blindly.
Corruption.
Define “corruption”.
In Canada, by the way the GIC, Temasek Holdings are handled by the father anbd daughter-in-law and the son (husband) is the PM and NO official audtiing and not even the President (One Ting Cheong) knew how much reserve he is “protecting” , and mony news of the investment transactions by Temasek are not made know in the local media but can only be found out in foreign new …like the sell off of the US bank shares at peak in Jan 2009 and how it help China’s premier son to start up the investment company by pumping in hundreds of millions of dollars of Singapore state fund…we call it “conflict of interest.” What better words can be used in Singapore?
Using analogies to explain away the need for conscription doesn’t cut it anymore.
It’s not a question of $ anymore, we can afford to spend $13billion annually on defence. What amount of them goes to salaries of regulars and make-up pay of reservists and full time NSF? Very small.
Most of the $ goes into huge conventional combat systems e.g. Primus SP, Leopard MBTs, F15s, F16s and stealth frigates. The Navy and Air Force are staffed by professional navy/air-force regulars supplemented by a relatively small NSF and reservist pool. Why can’t the army professionalise itself to be leaner?
Even Taiwan who faces China has steadily decreased its conscription period from 2 years down to close to 12-13 mths soon. What more Singapore that does not face any obvious major threat?
I am not talking about abolishing the SAF or doing away with defence. It’s not an all or nothing argument.
The question is that the SAF (particularly the Army) has evolved into a endless bureaucracy that sucks in public resources in the name of defence but really to sustain itself in terms of providing careers and jobs for many in the “system” while the average NSF and NSmen gets hit with the social costs of defence and getting relatively little in returns (i.e. tax reliefs and SAFRA benefits won’t count for much when you are killed or injured during NS).
Conscription is an anarchronism kept by the current administration to perpetuate the “sheep-like” control of the male population. The benefits accrues more to the investors, business-owners and elites here since our blood, sweat and tears defend mostly their share of the wealth in this country relative to our share in the wealth of this nation.
Majullah Singapura.
NS = lock???
lololololol…. Ask Mr X if he will buy a cheap lock to lock away his plasma tv??? or will he buy an expensive one that comes with performance guarantee???
likewise, singapore shld spend on a professional army and cut down conscription. hell, even the old lee does not trust singaporeans but have gurkhas guarding his house.
mr x is bullshit, plain and simple.
I usually just sit down and laugh with my friends at this kind of events. If you really want to break down this kind of talks, all you have to do is to ask why. Why is it like so, what caused it? why why why. Theres only so many ways of smoking us until he tries to evade the question.
Here’s a crazy idea.
1) Abolish National Service. How much money do we save? Buckets.
2) We have buckets of money. Where do we put it? A professional volunteer army. Better equipment. Professional rear-echelon services, as opposed to surly, uncooperative NSFs.
3) Suddenly, a military career is immensely lucrative – suddenly the army doesn’t have to make do with floor sweepings and other drooling rejects (not to cast aspersions on the regular population as a whole, but I’ve encountered a fair number.)
4) Response? Raise training standards. Perhaps to ludicrous heights – SAS, GSG 9. Participate meaningfully in peacekeeping missions and regional whatnots = combat experience, the perception of glory and building bridges with the neighbours. Oh yeah – more planes, less infantrymen.
5) And another point about combat – what’s more effective advertising, some nancy poster about things we know to be false anyway, or your friend’s brother’s story about how he once ran out of bullets and had to tear out the throats of his enemies with his bare hands?
So, we get a small core of the best, baddest ass-kickers around, who have earned a lifetime of wealth and privilege. Come on.
You know you want Sardaukar.
The MIWs did not even have the ideas for this country to bring it from 3rd world to 1st, it was Albert Winsemius. Believe it or not, he was advising the govt from 1961 to 1984. Yes, I have entered the correct year 1984! For more than 20 years he has helped developed Singapore. He was the one to persuade MNCs to invest in Singapore thru his personal contacts and even came up with the public housing policy. Check all this from wikipedia, Mr X, before you start talking about the wonderful things the govt has done for us. For all the talents it has, SBS is still following height limits before giving concessions to kids and it has been around for more than 30 years! Trust the MIWs to come out with good ideas….I don’t think so.
Yes, Dr. Albert Winsemius also advised MIW to keep Raffles statute so that company like shell will be more acceptance to start business in Singapore.
As a matter of fact, he is the one that brought Shell in. Only when such major giant came in to Singapore, the rest would be more comfortable coming in. Do remember, majority of the people at that time is still communist, abundant raffles statutes will give a wrong impression after independent.
@Agents Provocateur: oh wow, a Dune reference.
I agree, the presence of NSF deteriorates the performance of our regular army, causing over dependence on relatively untrained men and creating a culture of shifting blame. There is also not enough independent oversight on the efficiency and spending habits of the army. Most officers during my time would rather waste national resources than to co ordinate their logistics because of paperwork. Why bother when you can just call the cheap NSF to clean everything up?
Also, Singapore needs a better developed military industrial complex to properly equip our army for it’s money. As of now, our over reliance on Singapore Technologies (as they adapt everything to their own specs so that we have to pay them to fix everything instead of their original manufacturers), we’re being charged ludicrous amounts of money for little to no return (ie…$300 to use a scissors to cut away a torn rubber foot grip instead of replacing it). Personally, I think its just a conspiracy to divert the defense budget back into temasek holdings but thats just my theory.
@anakin; @RED-man: yes, Dr. Winsemius is a national hero that I place above ‘he whose name i will not mention’ who sits around all day forecasting stuff.
For ‘good’ reasons, creating materialistic world enables the powerful to control as well. Keep the people entertained, keep them in front of their TVs for long periods watching programs that only deals with basic emotions, make them identify themselves with their acquire possessions, let them be obsess with material success. More negative by-products like poverty, distrusts naturally emerge.
Perhaps we should teach people and ourselves not to be sucked into materialism for this government certainly wants us to continue biting the carrots that they dangle.
If we don’t have plasmas, we don’t need to buy locks. If our obsessions are books and good knowledge, instead of the latest mobile phones, life would be much more interesting and fulfilling.
My reservist last year also received similar brain washing session from our new CO. He is actually a district judge I heard. He told us to serve our time faithfully and die for our country if necessary. We were actually shown with a Japanese occupation video footage to remind us why we need to serve. Best part of the speech was that he want us to leave the room convinced! LOL
Looks like MIW is in the mode of full steam ahead! Makes me wonder when is the election coming to give us a chance to show “how” convinced we are to vote them out!
This writer is so miserable.. He tolerated Mr. X’s shit and claw back to his little internet nest to write a scathing article.. If he’s so good, why not articulate himself against the speaker?
Speaking of forecasting, wouldn’t it be great if we had a regular TV spot for our pre-eminent forecaster? Kind of like 80′s era weather forecasts, with the green screen and the dodgy graphics.
“Today, there will be severe communism in Venezuela, lightening in midafternoon but taking a turn for the worse by evening.”
To stay on topic, I think it’s fairly easy to spot glaring flaws in our model of conscription – this is only true if we assume that its raison d’être is national defence and deterrence. If we question this fundamental assumption, it seems quite likely that NS has nothing to do with defence, and everything to do with standardising the character of the population.
My opinion is that we ship a quarter of the folks in SAF into the police force, where the severe headcount is leading to lapses, and so that they can do more constructive work. We fire the remaining guys and with the money we are saving, we can work an arrangment with Obama to park an aircraft carrier here in our waters, and subsidise part of their costs.
The benefits are obvious: (1) Superior and more vigilant (hopefully) police force, (2) no more feeding of SAF idlers, (3) our shipyards, local pubs (and SPGs) etc. have more business, (4) Obama gets a presence in SE Asia as a deterent to the JI and also to support his troops in Asia and (5) who dares to mess with us (and the aircraft carrier)!
NS = LOCK ?????
No need the lock liao, if you had already rent out the bedrooms to foreigners, they are inside your HDB now.
Why don’t you just stand up and walk out of the lecture? Scared to get charged?
Agent Provocateur
Speaking of forecasting, wouldn’t it be great if we had a regular TV spot for our pre-eminent forecaster?
ROFL
But I dissent. Redifusion should suit his era more.
Why our MInisters not worry that in times of war, our NS men kena bribe by enemies?
Shouldn’t our NS men be paid according to private sector top X% so that they will not succumb to corruption?
3G soldier, stand for Gong Gong Gu Ni Hoon soldier (blur blur milk powder soldier).
Hi Alvin,
I wish to point out that your second photo is a photo of the Bak Tai incident. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4374728.stm.
In this incident in 2004, the Thai army rounded hundreds of Thai protesters and tied them with hands behind their backs and stacked them up on top of each other to transport them elsewhere.
At the end of their journey, 78 of them at suffocated to death!
Do you think it is appropriate to use this photo for your article without pointing to the context of the picture?
If so- you think our Mindef’s behaviour is no different from the Thai army’s?
Awaiting your clarification.
Best wishes
anyone who thinks the Singapore government is devoid of corruption is either ignorant, apathetic or, quite frankly, a moron..
Wake up and smell the thorns..
Hi Dr Huang,
Usually the photos and format of the publication are chosen by the editor – Alvin didn’t have a clue which photo would be up as he didn’t send up any. I merely did a quick google search on Singapore NS and came up with this site: http://military-life.blogspot.com/2007/10/crime-and-punishment-in-singapore-armed.html where I grabbed the photo off from. I noticed you also commented on that post.
Having said that, the image of people who look like recruits, lying on the ground, depicts what many think about National Service – that it essentially breaks human beings down into obedient soldiers.
Hi Shihan,
I am glad that you had grabbed a photo and used it without knowing the context of the photo. Now that you know that the photo is actually of a very controversial abuse by the Thai army and not just a bunch of NSF doing pushups, do you think the next thing to do would be to delete it and perhaps post a clarification? Some of the men you see in the photos could possibly have been part of the 78 who died.
Thank you
With all due respect Dr Huang,
I really don’t think Shihan thought at all that it was a picture of recruits doing push ups. It is fairly obvious, what with the guns and all. A little too presumptuous of you to say that, no?
Consider that perhaps you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Yes the incident(Tak Bai, not Bak Tai) was serious, and paints a picture of death,cruelty and abuse. But it is important to note that the picture was used, at most, as a metaphor, a depiction of the general consensus.
Also, I feel like you’re not giving our readers enough credit. They seem to have been able to take it in stride instead of doing as you have, and viewing it as a direct insult to the memory of those who passed on. Or are you subtly suggesting that our readers weren’t even aware of what happened that fateful October’s day, and thus saw no harm in the picture being used?
Awaiting your clarification. Doctor.
Cheers
Hi Alvin,
Thanks for taking the time to clarify and for correcting the name of the incident. Yes it was indeed Tak Bai. It is important that we do not forget names such as these. Like My Lai etc.
Shihan seemed to imply that the editors may have inserted the photo of Tak Bai without you knowing it.
Can we confirm that you did know that a photo of Tak Bai was to be inserted into your story and without any proper captioning to put it into its proper context?
If you knew or even if you did not know then but know now, you feel that it is very appropriate to use the photo whilst talking about NS in Singapore?
I suppose the last question is rhetorical as you already said that I was creating a mountain out of a molehill.
Thank you and best wishes
Hi Doctor,
It’s my pleasure.
I can tell you that I was unaware that the picture would be inserted. I can also tell you that it doesn’t matter whether i knew. Such is the amount of trust we have in our editors. In reference to the lack of captions, I can tell you that the metaphor was obvious to me. And apparently to our readers since none of them have taken offence. Can’t help but notice that you used the word “we” instead of “I”.
I’ll give you an answer anyway, doctor. A picture of a gun aimed at a kitten with it’s hands up could be used in the same context to describe how helpless Singaporean men are when it comes to being enlisted. But it doesn’t necessarily mean we advocate the use of violence against small domestic mammals. PETA can take offence, but the picture is still only a metaphor.
Thank you and best wishes to you too.
Hi Alvin,
Let me assure you that I am very much alone in this ( as you have already pointed out).
It is just a silly personal crusade (sensitive word in the Middle-east context) of mine that one has to be fair as possible to all when writing about anything. Amongst thousands of photos about NS- the editor chose this very one which have touched a very raw nerve in me as I abhor racial and religious intolerance that goes on even in our neighbouring countries.
Anyway, my (or our) shrink says to ignore all the other voices that were trying to impersonate the real me.
Hi Dr Huang,
I understand completely. Everyone has a particular topic/issue they are especially sensitive about. Mine is regarding perception.
No worries, i knew from the very beginning which was which.
Dear Dr Huang,
If you think there’s a better photo to replace the second photo, please give a suggestion on a photo that TOC should use. There’s no use talking, and talking, and talking. I am expecting and hoping a Doctor can give solutions rather than just talk. You can do better than this.
Thank you.
China is unhappy at being at the mercy of the Big Three iron ore producers but with Chinese steel mills having to import more and more iron ore it is the miners who hold the upper hand in the current price negotiations.
Hi all,
For the records, someone “connected” to TOC has communicated with me that he/she agrees with the inappropriatedness of the “Tak Bai” photo and has hence removed it.
Why can’t the editor make of mention of this someone on this post? I comment here so that those who read the thread would know what my above comments was about.
I consider this issue closed.
Like they say, “Let’s move on”
Happy New Year everyone (esply the one who had the sense to make a decision).
A large population of foreigners have already come in. They are in our midst.
Lets embrace them and ensure they succeed in life and prosper .
Rebuttal,
conflict of interest is it but a more appropriate term would be poiicy corruption of the highet order..
PAP has mastered it to the point that they would not understand what policy corruption means as TI does not include them in their index determination.
I am sure singaporeans are smart enough to decipher what that means in the context of how Singapore is run under PAP.
When they tried that same tactics overseas for example in the Shin Corp deal they got bitch slapped so hard that they wrapped their tail behind their crotch and bapo walk like a LHL and have been keeping as silent as a church mouse ever since.
I wonder how articulate and intelligent is PAP on that count. I can’t say much about staying with the cause on this sorry episode but others see through our cunningness so much so that they really feel great estacy in taking money from right under our nose?
So it all depends on who PAP can bully and how taxpayers monies are spent for what purpose – to indoctrinate Singaporeans towards dictatorial party or to simply improve the life of taxpayers.
I remember the British used to have conscription back in the 1960s. This was eventually abolished and from time-to-time you here a lot of talk about bringing back conscription.
What’s interesting about the British experience is that the group that are most AGAINST brining back conscription are the regular professional soldiers. As far as they were concerned, they were wasting time and resources in training unwilling louts for nothing.
motivation of conscript in army:Serve and f**k off
Motivation of regular in army:next payday,who is the chio madam/sergant/NCO.
Motivation of conscript in times of war:oh god i dun wanna die!!!
motivation of regular in times of war:I’m not going to die for a jus a few thousand of dollars….
seriously,where is the patriotism?
lol…dead the moment pap came into power.
why?
why die for a country whose main aim is:
NS for SGREANS
JOBS for FOREIGN
these little anecdotes are a lot less than representative of the perceptions, attitudes and ultimately behaviours of the people of Singapore and other nations..