Prologue

So a recent list by Globalfirepower.com ranked Singapore as having, at No.26, one of the strongest militaries in the world. I am not so sure. According to a local article by Todayonline.com in 2014, an estimated more than half of NSmen above the age of 30 fail their annual physical proficiency test. That’s some serious lack of motivation and commitment. We may have the gear, but it doesn’t look like we have the guts.

I can think of 3 main reasons why a Singaporean would be in the military. First, compulsory conscription under the law; Second, for the money and employment benefits; and Third, out of true passion. Of these 3, soldiers who are serving for no reason other than the first have motivations most out of alignment with the ethos of the army. This has led to an adversarial relationship between this subset of national servicemen and the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces).

One of the ways in which this has manifested itself is in the fervent efforts by some of these individuals to risk as little of themselves as possible, be it through frequent sick leave, psychosocial excuses or sophisticated manoeuvres to evade NS (national service) altogether.

Most, however, simply comply albeit in resignation rather than in persuasion of the cause. Behind the swanky national day parades and glamorous recruitment campaigns, lurks the taboo topic of the reluctant citizen soldier. I should know – I am one of them.

How large is this subset of servicemen? Nobody knows, because nobody dares to ask. But I dare reckon that we are not a minority. Take a look at the comments to any news concerning NS on the internet, or whenever a male candidate for the general elections comes under the scrutiny of the people, and you can see that it is both a source of pride and a source of pain.

And the pain is not small.

What could have culminated in this disaffection?

“Peace”

A man with a strong enough “Why?” can withstand almost any “How?”, and for Singaporeans the “why”s are fast becoming a distant memory. NS was set up in reaction to the lessons of WWII. However, unlike the two Koreas, or China and Taiwan, or Israel in the Middle East, we no longer have a clear and present threat that we feel the need to be ready for.

Sure, during our fledgling years, one of our neighbours called us a red dot, and another used to threaten to cut off their water supply to us whenever we were having a tiff. But nowadays it’s business as usual, with trade agreements, bilateral investments, and an upcoming high speed rail link right into the heart of our country.

“Prosperity”

The richer we become, the higher the opportunity cost of being drafted.

Male university enrollees lag behind their female/foreigner peers by 2 years since they are usually required to complete their NS first. They matriculate 2 years later, graduate 2 years later, and start applying for jobs 2 years later, most likely with no relevant experience to speak of, NS vocation notwithstanding.

Employers lose whenever a male employee is called back for reservist. Economic fundamentals dictate that a worker is paid less than the money he earns for his employer, otherwise it was pointless to hire him. But since the government only reimburses the nominal value of the salary paid to the employee and not the true value he produces, the employer is left to shoulder the difference somehow. Any wonder then that there is a niggling suspicion amongst the people that companies would rather not hire Nsmen?

“Progress”

We used to fear that Malaysia would try to retake us. Now we find it more profitable to simply invest in each other’s land, and build a railway.

We used to be a juicy target because of our strategic location at the intersection of major seafaring routes. Those heydays of the maritime era have come and gone.

What is left is the war against extremist ideology and terrorism, an enemy that respects neither boundaries nor rules of engagement, and which a conventional army is thus poorly suited to combat.

Perdition

Stories abound of the disillusionment and the ugly experiences of our older brethren in the early years of NS.

“If Singapore goes to war, first I will collect my M16, then I will shoot my OC (Officer Commanding), then I will board a boat to Malaysia with my family.”

What injustices or inhumanity did they suffer at the hands of their superiors to trigger such zealous hatred instead of loyalty?

Then there was the food, if you could call it that. Legend tells of the “rubber fish”, inedible portions of fish cooked to such leathery perfection you could play ping-pong with them.

Even today, sporadic cases of needless NS deaths from sheer negligence or deviation from regulation continue to surface, with the latest well known case being the case of one Private Dominique Sarron Lee.

First impressions last. Despite improvements, NS continues to appear more like a legally sanctioned abuse of her men than a noble call to defend the country.

Pressure

Each week day, the average Singaporean man commutes for 2 hours and slogs for 10 more at a job that might not even pay enough to support his family, let alone retirement. Unpaid overtime has become commonplace, and employees are expected to remain contactable beyond office hours. Oftentimes the wife has to help supplement the income. The Singapore Family which used to get by with one breadwinner now usually needs two. Already fighting a daily battle for financial survival, who got time to keep in shape for the real thing?

Paradigms

There is a stark difference between joining the army because you don’t want to go to jail, and joining the army because you want to, be it for personal gain or love for country. Even if we doubt those who join for money, at least we cannot doubt their conscious volition. Besides, they have a name – Professionals. And if our government can find it defensible to blur the lines between politicians who would enter office for top dollar pay and the ones who serve out of true conscience, I do not see why the same principles cannot be applied to something as equally important as national defence.

As long as Singapore continues to rely on a conscript army, we will never know the true size of our effective fighting force. While we can compell a person’s physical compliance, we can never compell the heart. All we probably have right now is a core of the dedicated diluted amongst a cynical horde of the disenfranchised who are simply going through the motions. Do we want to wait for a real attack to hit to differentiate the two?

Is a large draftee corps still superior to a more compact volunteer corps, in an age of hi-tech warfare? Are we afraid that if we made NS voluntary, that no one would stand forth for the country? If so, don’t we then have bigger problems, like why her people don’t believe she’s worth fighting for?

In kopitiams, within the barracks, between buddies-in-arms, there is a word in the local vernacular that is often used whenever the topic of our army is brought up – “Wayang” – that we are mere pretenders of all show and no substance, that we make up for our lack of true grit by the crispness of our foot drills and the calibre of our cannons. I would say we have at least a few true warriors, enough to handle the likes of a hijacked SQ117, but a far greater number are just numbly biding the days till our dues are done.

How different could it be if the world knew that everyone in the SAF chose to be there? Would it at long last confer upon the SAF soldier the recognition and prestige that no amount of glossy advertising and primetime propaganda have managed to achieve? Would it counter-intuitively shame those who choose to back out, and make our boys consider the possibly heavy moral and social cost of going through with an option that didn’t exist before? Or would the SAF degenerate into a dumping ground for society’s rejects, and become known as a place for people who couldn’t find work anywhere else?

I don’t know either. But perhaps it’s time we dared to talk.