Overseas scholars who did not make Lieutenant Colonel for the man or Director for the woman (did the woman get demoted in appointment from Deputy Director to Assistant Director even if she kept her grade?) within their bond period means they didn't make it in the first place.
You are correct. Anyone didn't leave after bond as LTC (8 year bond) is a failure with a capital F stamped on, but 30 year old LTC is for SAFOS only, not SMS. This is the same reason why earlier it was said that he is not a SAFOS and as mentioned by a few others, they're not the same.
After eight years to retire from the SAF as a Major is a major embarrassment, that is totally disgraceful, even by SMS standards. SAFOS hit MAJ at 27-28, and LTC by 30, and this guy left the service as MAJ after 8 years is a total disgrace by even by SMS standard.
Add to the fact that unlike SAFOS, SPFOS and OMS scholars, SMS don't get to disrupt at 19, with most getting the scholarship at the end of their national service, thus most of them leave Singapore to study at 21 and come back at 25 together with the stat board scholars. This means when he left the service as a MAJ he was 25 + 8 = 33 years old and still a Maj, which is a total and utter laughing stock.
There is no need for RP to get overly excited. I doubt any of the PAP leaders have broken a sweat.
And for the woman, it seems like she broke her bond after 4 yrs in MOF or was seconded to a GLC, if she wasn't a bondbreaker. In her time, all scholars had to serve 8 years. After 4 years and she was only an AD, she had failed spectacularly (compared to other scholars, if she is indeed an OMS, the report only states that she's a PSC scholar, which SGS is under).
They very clearly left the civil service after doing poorly. The guy is some 2nd rate SMS that no one in SAF cares about. I'm not even sure if the woman is an OMS, because she might not be. Its well known, the principle of dong jia bu da da xi jia. Their knocking on opposition's doors is very probably their hopes of becoming ministers after the incumbent route turned them away.
These two are better than the current crop of opposition members, but they're not good enough.
I hope to see really good people.. people highly regaded by the incumbent or who were big guns power players in the establishment when they were there and well-regarded by the political masters, like SAFOS BG Bernard Tan or Wong Ann Chai, now MD in DBS Bank, joining the opposition out of their own accord because they had a choice, and not people who had no choice because they were expunged by the establishment eons ago (leaving in defeat IS being expunged), and now the boss of a 10-chain tuition centre, before I could consider giving the opposition more credit. I'd really like to vote for another party than the incumbent, but they are not proving themselves or justifying my vote.
These are no more than rejected crap of PAP who are trying to play the game and get 'new life' 2nd round, when they actually died in the game like 15 years ago.