While it sounds good, ruveyn, it's absolutely impossible in ruennsheng's case. ruennsheng, like I, hail from Singapore and just because we have Islamic nations to our north and south (Malaysia and Indonesia respectively), our government said, OMG, we're Israel now, and implemented National Service of compulsory 2 years for all males in this country.
For myself, I had undiagnosed Asperger's and was unaware of it. The first six months of my time in the army was absolutely horrendous as I was continuously punished for what was perceived to be deliberately insubordinate behavior, until I was crippled by a stress-related headache from those unhappy six months. I saw a doctor and got myself diagnosed, and while the rest of my 2 years were significantly better once I learnt how to cope, it still was an unhappy period for me.
Also, we have no choice nor say whatsoever in what we can do in the army. They're based on several arbitrary factors, such as eugenics (family history), what ranks our fathers were and what vocation they were to determine our security clearances. They then make us sit for an aptitude test and all we can do is to blindly hope that we don't end up becoming riflemen.
As for myself, I was poking someone I knew in the manpower side of things and found that I was a Signals Operator by the virtue of my father having been a 1st Lieutenant sniper when it was his turn. It's odd, because they decided my 'trustworthiness' based on my eugenics, and not asking what my personal motivations were. Who knows, if I could easily give away any sensitive information that lands onto my hands (and plenty of it did because of my vocation)?
Those vocation allocations are also arbitrarily decided based on race and religion. For instance, because of the perceived Islamic threat from overseas, there are no Malays (who are 99.5% of the time, Muslims) in the Air Force, or Commando and Armor formations. There are no Malay Signal Operators. Chinese intelligence analysts are made to learn Bahasa Melayu (the Malay language) to read the newspapers of our apparently hostile neighbors. Our government deems the Malays (the indigenous race) untrustworthy of sensitive positions and allocates them overwhelmingly in logistics and cannon fodder infantry positions. The very top-heavy Army in Singapore is overwhelmingly led by the majority ethnic Chinese group, and it was considered a big deal when only very recently, a Malay officer made it to General rank, about 45 years after our declaration of Independence and our commitment to racial equality.
It's not just this facet of inequality that our conscription faces, but also in how Singaporeans who were born here are treated and expected to defend the country, yet fresh immigrations are granted absolute freedom within this country without the responsibilities of defending this country, and are free to participate in national pride parades back in their home countries without repercussion.
Conscription is more of an issue over "it's morally wrong", because it's also a useful tool of social engineering to ensure an endless continuity of an obedient population drilled and schooled into believing that their superiors are always right and to question their orders and word was to invite the harshest punishment possible. That sort of attitude translates into civilian life and reinforces itself in the upbringing of fresh generations.
25 Nov 2009, 3:21 am
