Our Gurkha

[scroobal]

Gurkhas are professional soldiers and they take pride in their vocation. They operate with high honour. Mindless killing, shooting unarmed opponents are myths. They are not bandits. Their code of honour is so strict that they will ostracise their own for dishonourable conduct and that includes cowardice. The people who lead them share the same.

Bruce Niven lives a Spartan life and give away his money liberally to build schools, stock them with books in villages in Nepal. A man like that won't be leading bandits and the Gurkhas have not brought shame in any of the armies that they fought with. They also have garnered the most VCs on a per capita basis. The Victoria Cross is not given out for thuggery. Outside their duties hours, they are no different to any other person. They land in trouble for fighting, for being drunk and for silly things.

 

[Ramseth]

Outside their duties hours, they are no different to any other person. They land in trouble for fighting, for being drunk and for silly things.

That's true. I've drank with some of them before when I was with a pal at a Joo Seng coffeeshop. That's long after I've left the force. Just strangers next table striking up conversation and talked about old police days. These Gurkhas were several batches younger than me of course. They do drink but they don't get drunk.

 

[GoldenDragon]

They were also the fastest runners ever.

Fastest yes but over long distances. They were never known to be sprinters.

 

[GoldenDragon]

Outside their duties hours, they are no different to any other person. They land in trouble for fighting, for being drunk and for silly things.

Yes, some shoplifted in the past at Mustaffa. They are human beings too. On the 12th of each month, being pay day, the bachelors would be calling chickens - low end category.

 

[Annoyed]

Very true, that bit about them not being sprinters. I remember going for track and field meets as a secondary school kid; they typically won the middle and long distance races. Good memories, those days...

 

[Nice-Gook]

and they paid for that dearly during the early days of the Emergency, it was only upon the formation of VAT 69 (with the help of SAS) that they were able to turn the tides on the MCP.

Ah,the most famous Malaysian Police elite team formed in 1969....they were mostly Malays too and by 1969 MCP was no more a national threat and VAT 69 completed mopping them out of their northern jungles hideouts.

I am talking way way back in history and how the British handled different races differently.The Dutch had their 'kapitan' system whereby they appoint 1 prominent among them as their leader and it was their responsiblity to police their own community.It was best of the arrangement but the liberal thinking British thought otherwise.It was for this reason that we owe it to the British for the racial unity and harmony we now have.PAP has no part in this.

The early policing of Singapore was the most thankless job; underpaid and overworked.The biggest problem and crisis was the Chinese clans.The Hokkiens vs Teochews.For the matter of the price of some rice Teochews fought against Hokkiens in 1854.More than 400 died officially but some historian put the figure well over a thousand.Again in 1927 the Hainanese Kuomingtang rioted in Kreta Ayer.The British were at the end of their wits because recruiting Chinese as police meant no one clan can arrest another clan publicly---which spelt an instant riot.Besides the Chinese were again divided and identified by their membership of a secret society-

The British experimented with other races as their policeman.However,the Malays were in a unique position because their loyalty lies with their sultan and the British did not want to arm or educate them too much.Finally,the British settled or the Sikhs.

Interestingly,the various races lived quite harmoniously amongst them.Except for some typical behaviour and idiocracies.One interesting poem presumably written by a Malay trader about Chinese and Indian dirty tactic in trade comes to mind.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

actually it were mt vernon and bartley secondary schools. when mt vernon was closed in 1991, most of them enroll to bartley secondary school which also one the few reason bartley change from an all boys secondary school to a mixed school in 1993.

whether they are loyal to singapore or not, i not so sure as we ever were shut in school in a lock down situation because the gurkhas riot inside the mt vernon camp in maybe 1989/90. bartley was only one lousy fence with a single coil of bard wire on top to seperate us and them. many of them were staring menacing at us from across the fence, big hooha, several "ang chias" were park outside both mt vernon sec and bartley sec front gates.

So you're from bartley sec? 1989/90 was quite a long time back. Bartley had lots of malays and boy was it some type of pai kia school unlike maris stella. Upper aljunied sec also another pai kia school.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

Fastest yes but over long distances. They were never known to be sprinters.

The reason for that is cos of the mountains that they grew up in that allowed them to have strong lungs. That was mentioned in some fighting show gurkhas vs french foreign legion.

 

[sleaguepunter]

There is some truth in your post but i could not agree with it entirely.Because the Scotts had their own regiment too.And they were almost always posted in conflict zones.Besides the former Royal Fusiliers and R Guards during the Malayan emergency were vastly Scottish....they were shited between Malaya and Aden in matter o hours--both being hotspots of conflicts.

er.. this that post WW2?

from the 1800s, the gurkhas were in constant combat by the fact they are always posted to the northwest frontier. It a good place for young junior officers to be promoted as there a good chance their superior being hurt in combat leaving the post vacant for junior officers to fill. It not easy to be posted to gurkhas rifles, applicants must pass the interview by high ranking former gurkhas rifles officers before being selected. The spoken langugue of gurkhas rifle regiment is not english but nepalese. So junior officers have to learn the languague fast or risk being transfer out.

 

[sleaguepunter]

So you're from bartley sec? 1989/90 was quite a long time back. Bartley had lots of malays and boy was it some type of pai kia school unlike maris stella. Upper aljunied sec also another pai kia school.

bartley do have many malays, about 35-40 per cent. In those days, chinese will still majority but barely 50%. Like the malays and tamils going to another classroom to combine for 2nd langague, even us chinese also have to do the same. One of the class with the least chinese will be split to join other classes.

How can u label bartley sec as paikia school? bartley are no more paikia than most neighbourhood school. Of course when compare to the sissy of maria stella, bartley student dont look good. But bartley students dont like maria stella as their student who walk with their nose in the sky, but we do get along well with mt vernon sec even though fights do broke out between us in the abandoned building that was once bartley primary. Something can be very serious that police car park at the primary school compound at 6pm which all three schools students have to walk past to get to payer leba road.

 

[sukhoi-30]

I agreed with many of you here. They are a highly disciplined and very professional force. You can see them running in PE attire but i did saw them in British or Bruneian army fatigue once. In fact their camp is just right beside my school in Bartley and students like us will be very excited whenever the big red riot buses moved in or out of their camps. They also drives in blue police jeeps with their beret or side tilting hat on.

They are mostly small build( that's explains why some thought they are young boys) but very fit and mascular. They look like Tibetan with slit eyes though. I had a friend who had witness their training before and was amazed at their physical strength and endurance. They were extremely good in jungle navigation and weapons handlings. They were the ones who caught the Indonesians intruders few years back in Tekong whereas our local Commandos and Guards were unsucessful.

I had chance talking to some of them during my N days when they came to my air base medical centre for checkup. They spoke English with Indian accent but were extremely friendly and nice.

I was told by an uncle who worked with them in the 1970s in Mount Vernon that when these Gurkhas are not on duty, they loves to drink. But they were never drunk and this may be due to their inherent discipline. My uncle has high regards for them.

I think the Gurkhas will be present in spore for years to come. They guarded the most sensitive and most important installations that even our SAF did not.I don't think they are here just as normal policeman. In times of war, they will be call to service just like during the Confrontation with Indonesia. They are the elite force in Singapore besides our Commandos.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

bartley do have many malays, about 35-40 per cent. In those days, chinese will still majority but barely 50%. Like the malays and tamils going to another classroom to combine for 2nd langague, even us chinese also have to do the same. One of the class with the least chinese will be split to join other classes.

How can u label bartley sec as paikia school? bartley are no more paikia than most neighbourhood school. Of course when compare to the sissy of maria stella, bartley student dont look good. But bartley students dont like maria stella as their student who walk with their nose in the sky, but we do get along well with mt vernon sec even though fights do broke out between us in the abandoned building that was once bartley primary. Something can be very serious that police car park at the primary school compound at 6pm which all three schools students have to walk past to get to payer leba road.

sissy of maris stella? Well yeah maris stella did have a good number of nerds. Then again it's a very good school compared to the likes of bartley but next to acs or raffles or chinese high not that good.

What about upper aljunied?

 

[shittypore]

Scob, Back in the 70's they won all the Boxing titles held in Spore,
our regulars in the SAF and Police Force were no match to em. I
remember there was a Pastana at Mt Venon who was in charge of
the Gurkhas in the early 70's, had a daughter by the name Patricia
and voice like Connie Francis and two sons both box well. They
left for Aussie in the 80's, u remember em?

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

Are they still as good in boxing today?

 

[wikiphile]

Ah,the most famous Malaysian Police elite team formed in 1969....they were mostly Malays too and by 1969 MCP was no more a national threat and VAT 69 completed mopping them out of their northern jungles hideouts.

I am talking way way back in history and how the British handled different races differently.The Dutch had their 'kapitan' system whereby they appoint 1 prominent among them as their leader and it was their responsiblity to police their own community.It was best of the arrangement but the liberal thinking British thought otherwise.It was for this reason that we owe it to the British for the racial unity and harmony we now have.PAP has no part in this.

The early policing of Singapore was the most thankless job; underpaid and overworked.The biggest problem and crisis was the Chinese clans.The Hokkiens vs Teochews.For the matter of the price of some rice Teochews fought against Hokkiens in 1854.More than 400 died officially but some historian put the figure well over a thousand.Again in 1927 the Hainanese Kuomingtang rioted in Kreta Ayer.The British were at the end of their wits because recruiting Chinese as police meant no one clan can arrest another clan publicly---which spelt an instant riot.Besides the Chinese were again divided and identified by their membership of a secret society-

The British experimented with other races as their policeman.However,the Malays were in a unique position because their loyalty lies with their sultan and the British did not want to arm or educate them too much.Finally,the British settled or the Sikhs.

Interestingly,the various races lived quite harmoniously amongst them.Except for some typical behaviour and idiocracies.One interesting poem presumably written by a Malay trader about Chinese and Indian dirty tactic in trade comes to mind.

The Capitan system was also practised by the British, especially in Perak and Selangor where tin mining was done mainly by the chinese. The leader of the strongest dialect secret societs (Ghee Hin/Hai San) would be the appointed Capitan Cina. Like this fella here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Keng_Quee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapitan_Cina

But do remember that in those days, the British did not employ native security forces, it was always their favourite strategy to bring in Sepoys from India and not arm the 'unreliable' locals.

The Perak war was a good reason why not to employ Malays as security forces as their loyalties were to the local chiefs and Sultan and not to the Mat Salleh from overseas.

 

[sleaguepunter]

What about upper aljunied?

never heard of them.

 

[sleaguepunter]

I agreed with many of you here. They are a highly disciplined and very professional force. You can see them running in PE attire but i did saw them in British or Bruneian army fatigue once. In fact their camp is just right beside my school in Bartley and students like us will be very excited whenever the big red riot buses moved in or out of their camps. They also drives in blue police jeeps with their beret or side tilting hat on.

UK provided a battlion of gurkhas rifle to brunei for brunei defense needs which expenses paid by the sultan. the sultan further raised another battlion or two from ex british army regulars who were honourable discharge from British Army. Some of former singapore gurkhas contigent also found employment in brunei after retiring from singapore.

They are mostly small build( that's explains why some thought they are young boys) but very fit and mascular. .

Those new recruits i saw at pasir leba range are at most 15yo boys. I too from bartley so i know a nepalese teenager when i see one.

I think the Gurkhas will be present in spore for years to come. They guarded the most sensitive and most important installations that even our SAF did not.I don't think they are here just as normal policeman. In times of war, they will be call to service just like during the Confrontation with Indonesia. They are the elite force in Singapore besides our Commandos.

they are elite alrite but they are not supermen. They maybe the best light infantrymen the world but their primary purpose in singapore is not to fight overseas enemy. Their presence is to ensure the lee dynasty will not be overthrow by singapore peasants. If u notice, they are under the MHA command, not Mindef. MHA portfolio is always given to the most trusted member of the familee. with 2000men, even with a few hundred deploy at instalations, there still 1500 rifles between the mob and the familee. 1.5k is 3 battlions strength so will enable the familee to crush all oppositions.

 

[wikiphile]

they are elite alrite but they are not supermen. They maybe the best light infantrymen the world but their primary purpose in singapore is not to fight overseas enemy. Their presence is to ensure the lee dynasty will not be overthrow by singapore peasants. If u notice, they are under the MHA command, not Mindef. MHA portfolio is always given to the most trusted member of the familee. with 2000men, even with a few hundred deploy at instalations, there still 1500 rifles between the mob and the familee. 1.5k is 3 battlions strength so will enable the familee to crush all oppositions.

A few thermobaric bombs, 4 AH-64s, a cordon of GPMG and 0.5 HMG and some 120mm mortars (no need big guns) should be able to flatten Mount Vernon Complex. Like you said they are the best light infantrymen around, let's see whether they can survive an assault on them and their dependents.

 

[Nice-Gook]

er.. this that post WW2?



from the 1800s, the gurkhas were in constant combat by the fact they are always posted to the northwest frontier. It a good place for young junior officers to be promoted as there a good chance their superior being hurt in combat leaving the post vacant for junior officers to fill. It not easy to be posted to gurkhas rifles, applicants must pass the interview by high ranking former gurkhas rifles officers before being selected. The spoken langugue of gurkhas rifle regiment is not english but nepalese. So junior officers have to learn the languague fast or risk being transfer out.

Yup,we are both talking about different era.

But before we blow up the Gurkhas glorification as the super fighting machine let us ask ourselves if Gurkhas are perfect warriors where is their conquest before the arrival of British and why have they not built an empire of their own ?

For that we must look at how the British Raj operated in India.The British generally divided Indians into 2 categories.Martial races and non martial races.Gurkhas,Punjabi Sikhs with few others were classified as martial races whereas other races were classified as seditious agitators.But a closer scrutiny reveals that those races classified as martial races were the ones who refused to take part in the Indian mutiny and remained loyal to the British.As a British scholar general noted--'it is only necessary for the feeling to arise that it is disgraceful to serve the British for our empire to crumble like cards'.

The other interesting aspect is that those classified as martial racial are considered intellectually challanged or lacking leadership qualities to command large troops.The biggest losers of this British martial race theory were the native infantry and cavalry of the Madras Presidency after the 1857 uprising--they were disbanded.

True,the Gurkhas are brave fighters but it is also true that the British thought of them as lesser human---as they did not want educated and intelligent native leadership within their ranks.

 

[Nice-Gook]

The Capitan system was also practised by the British, especially in Perak and Selangor where tin mining was done mainly by the chinese. The leader of the strongest dialect secret societs (Ghee Hin/Hai San) would be the appointed Capitan Cina. Like this fella here


The Perak war was a good reason why not to employ Malays as security forces as their loyalties were to the local chiefs and Sultan and not to the Mat Salleh from overseas.

There is more to what than written as history.

The so called Chinese mining community in Malaya were almost entirely Hakkas---and they are by nature quite untamed.

They were no gentlemen either.In a dispute over tin mining royalty payable to a sultan---a horde of them burnt alive the entire royal family .The irony was that this particular sultan encouraged Chinese migration to Malaya and was known to be the most hospitable.