Vocabulary Notes:
Ah Beng - an affectionate term used by locals to call those male (delinquent) teens similar to typical teens of developed societies
Ah Lian - the female counterpart to the above definition
References: http://www.mindef.gov.sg
Singapore faces the problem of compulsory enlistment and (attempts to) solve it by making an compulsory enlistment of all capable young males into its military to serve at least 2.5 years of service. For young male teens like myself, we have no means of to discard of this "obligation".
The Singapore Government has banned our group from traveling without permission, and must require a bond of S$75,000 or half of one's parent's combined annual salary, which ever has a higher amount. This comes up to a substantial amount of money, making good the temporary bondage. Few had attempted to evade and even fewer had succeeded.
Those who failed will have to enjoy free lodging at the jail, and still have to serve. The local media, which many claim fears the government, never speaks about these people. Some people, for religious reason, refuse to fight in the military. "Very well", said the religiously tolerant Government, and sent them promptly to do other (usually mundane) stuff for the 2.5 years.
Yesterday, I had visited an Air Force Exhibition. I have no particular interest in weapons of mass destruction, and find the air shows involving supersonic fighters making a hyperbolic curves super-deafening. In fact, I adhore the concept of wars and conflicts, especially over some silly issues such as for religion, apparent injustice, or women.
However, since I must meet my fate someday, I had better make some preparations. I looked around the fighter planers, and the "unjammable" ground to air defense missiles and those huge transportation craft that many had chosen to rest under the shade.
Quietly, I know how pathetically primitive these weapons would appear from the perspective of space-faring aliens, and quietly smiled when certain people label these "high tech". I wonder why, over such mundane issues humans choose to fight, when we can instead visit the entire universe to visit.
Along with the many Singapore parents looking at the items that their young sons may control one day, one can sight some possible Eurasians and even people from China, who speak with a peculiar kind of Chinese accent that most Singaporeans will immediately recognize. In fact, when visiting I met a man from China who told me that he came because he heard of the advanced Singapore military.
Singapore has one of the most powerful militaries in South East Asia. Some say it fears its closest neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia. In the past, Singapore had suffered many problems, and quite a number we can trace to these two neighbours, so the fear, if it exists (and most likely does), has adequate justification.
The Singapore Government, with many decades of careful diplomacy on its resume, claims that it, in fact, only wants to deter potential adversaries and points its weapons at no one in particular. A very smart move indeed, for Singapore had made only friends without any enemies. It managed to even make friends of two apparent adversaries with many great differences, the US and China.
Singapore recognizes that, with such a tiny nation like itself with no natural resources, it needs the talent of its own people to continue its success. With the recognition came a different set of government policies, which aim to pay top money for top talent, earning the ire of the Singapore Opposition Parties when the Government applied this doctrine to itself. It also placed a huge emphasis on developing human talent, including the educational system.
While I see many great inefficiencies and improper implementation of these policies, I shall not speak on them (esp. the educational system) for this article. Yet, despite this policy, it has refused to abolish or make this service into multiple chunks one can take instead of one concentrated dose. It claims that it cannot compromise on such policies because it would compromise Singapore's "security".
The ban merely masks the unpopularity of this policy, that in stopping those who wish to leave from leaving, it stops a exodus of young teens that could contribute to itself in the future.
While it remains true that the Singapore, as a state, had indeed provided resources to bring up these children, and that it can only feel self-righteous to demand these people to pay up, however, how the current way it chooses to demand such "payment" does not necessarily maximize the returns.
BTW, if you ask where how females "pay off the debt", the famales like argue that, by making babies for Singapore, they had done their job. Yeah right, when you can fly freely to any country, when you can continue your research uninterrupted, and when you can choose not to "perform your duty", well, it sounds rather like a rather good idea. Maybe I should travel back in time and demand that my mother make me a famale instead.
In Singapore, you can find an amazing number of people who never question what the Government tells them to. During important events like National Day (celebrating the independence of Singapore), the Government always makes an extra effort to show off its military capabilities and tell the people to "do their part".
Quite a number of Singapore male teens, not known for their deep insights and logical analysis, actually liked the idea of "playing their part", if you believe what they say. They claim that the air-conditioned Boot Camp feels like a holiday vacation to them. They then state that, since one must undergo military service then one should participate with a positive attitude. Excuse me, maybe you need to check your logic?
For one thing, taking such a serious topic such as the defense of a nation in such a carefree manner smacks of inconsiderateness or at best, imprudence. For another, complying with requests by justifying it with itself only exposes the cognitive dissonance beneath the chatter, and of course, our favorite dictator Hitler would love it.
Those more mature would say that those Ah Bengs needs something to keep them off the streets and instil discipline in them. They further claim that I consist of a special case (hey, must all boys always like to make wars?) then the rules cannot provide for me or it would not treat others unfairly.
I heard this argument too often. Hello, can you check your logic please? I thought rules exist as a means to an end, and not as the end itself. Maybe society had rather gone insane from the Y2K bug, insane enough to argue that about the actual year of the millennium. If the rules don't work, obviously the fault lies with these rules, not with your differences. Anyway, knowing of Godel's Incompleteness Theorm, only the fools or the ignorant would dare to say that.
I know very well the problems of human resource wastage (and in fact I think it would pose a tremendous interruption to my research work when I may just need a year or two to make some breakthroughs) just to go for military training that we can easily find substitutes.
I thus suggested that certain foreigners who aspire to live in Singapore get citizenship in return for:
1) discarding any other citizenships with other countries
2) serving for part-time military service in the Singapore Army such as during weekends
This easily provides a good source of willing military labor for Singapore. I thought that the Government wanted Singaporeans to reproduce to prevent our society from ageing (i.e. with too many old people putting a strain on its health resources). A quick change of immigration policy would solve that too.
Some may question the loyalty of foreigners, however, we already have difficulty ascertaining the loyalty of Singaporeans. The media tells of Singaporeans not having a sense of identity, which hints at the problem. In fact, I think one would consider it ridiculous that those Ah Bengs would consider it the right thing to do to defend Singapore, given that they might prefer to flee with their girlfriends to "enjoy life" as they normally do.
In addition, if we don't feel a sense of identity with Singapore, there exists no reason to defend it from an overwhelming adversity. I think that any attempt to promote nationalism would only work in peacetime, but in wartime only then would the wolves shed their sheep's clothing.
If Singapore has an ideology that we can identify with, then it would definitely solve the problem. Yet, Singapore does not seem to have a clear sense of identity or even vision, with the latest "Vision 21" mentioning nothing about what Singapore could achieve that would, say, fulfill one of Humanity's aspirations. In fact, I think the Singapore leaders face the immediate danger of losing focus of the future of Singapore's direction, if they had not.
As analogous to the phrase "A life not worth recording is not worth living", I can paraphrase that a nation not worth defending does not worth to exist. As history had shown, nations usually arise from small, humble beginnings with a visionary or some visionaries to guide it. For Singapore, most would point out Mr. Lee Kwan Yew as that visionary.
Inevitably, these nations would reach a peak, and then they enter some kind of apathetic state where their citizens engage in frivolous entertainment instead of pursuing further progress. With no new challenges to motivate them, they slide into apathy and uphold social stability via maintainance of the status quo above all. They then slowly erode back into nothingness, or face an external problem (such as an enemy invasion) so large that now they, now in their ageing slumber, cannot handle.
Indeed, it was the best of times, it was the worse of times. For prosperous Singapore which seems to had reached its peak, to the extent of massive public apathy, one must start worrying now.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:24 MDT