If you want to read Chapter 3, it is found here:
http://forum.channelnewsasia.com/viewtopic.php?t=400798&highlight=chapter
One night during his BMT one of my friends along with the rest of the recruits were taken up to a hill to be shown the skyline of Singapore. His OC then told them "This is why you're doing NS. This is what you're defending". My friend was very "ti-ki" (stubborn, literal : "iron teeth" ) and said, "Hong Kong one nicer". No need to say what happened to him after that.
In a recent forum at NTU last year a student who did his NS as an officer stood up to say "I don't know what I'm defending anymore". His remarks caused quite a stir on the Internet and the next few days the newspapers was filled with articles saying Singapore is worth defending blah blah blah. I think many people did not find the answers they were looking for in those articles.
In an interview for the book Hard Truths, MM Lee was asked with we need to defend Singapore. He said that neighboring countries are hostile towards us cutting our sand supply and want to cut our water supply to cause us all to die of thirst. He also said, "If we are not vulnerable, why do we spend five to six per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) year after year on defence? Are we mad?". If Malaysia is so hostile, why did MM Lee want to get Singapore married (merged) to Malaysia? Now that we are divorced, we are so hostile to each other. If Malaysia is so hostile, how come his minister Khaw (who came from Malaysia) asked the sick to go Malaysia for treatment and want us to send our old parents to Malaysia nursing homes. If they are so hostile to want to kill us with thirst are we not afraid of they will ill-treat our old and sick?
Why did I have to serve 2.5 years, when I could have worked and made some money to make my life better . I searched deep in my heart for then reasons. Then I remembered my buddy in NS Thomas who stayed behnd to do his NS because he refused to emigrate with the rest of his family to Australia. He didn't want to go because he didn't want to leave his close friends he loved so much in Singapore - the people he played soccer with, the people he can talk cock sing song with and the only people in the world who can fully understand his language which is peppered with strange words like chiobu, waliao, sabo, nabei and alamak. It is not possible to love a country without loving the people. Singapore is the only place in the world where you can find Singaporeans like yourself in large numbers. Wealth can easily be moved to another part of the globe these days with a push of a button, if you want democracy, equality and justice, you can simply transplant yourself to another country enjoy their system. But the Singaporean identity, the people similar to yourself, you can only find in Singapore. This identity that so many of us treasure in our hearts is getting destroyed by the PAP importing foreigners in large numbers..... I thought the whole idea of defense is to prevent a foreign invasion of your country. We must defend our country, reclaim our future but it is not defense against hostile countries attacking us but the people in our country that is destroying what we treasure most in our hearts for the sake of money.
http://forum.channelnewsasia.com/viewtopic.php?t=400798&highlight=chapter
One night during his BMT one of my friends along with the rest of the recruits were taken up to a hill to be shown the skyline of Singapore. His OC then told them "This is why you're doing NS. This is what you're defending". My friend was very "ti-ki" (stubborn, literal : "iron teeth" ) and said, "Hong Kong one nicer". No need to say what happened to him after that.
In a recent forum at NTU last year a student who did his NS as an officer stood up to say "I don't know what I'm defending anymore". His remarks caused quite a stir on the Internet and the next few days the newspapers was filled with articles saying Singapore is worth defending blah blah blah. I think many people did not find the answers they were looking for in those articles.
In an interview for the book Hard Truths, MM Lee was asked with we need to defend Singapore. He said that neighboring countries are hostile towards us cutting our sand supply and want to cut our water supply to cause us all to die of thirst. He also said, "If we are not vulnerable, why do we spend five to six per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) year after year on defence? Are we mad?". If Malaysia is so hostile, why did MM Lee want to get Singapore married (merged) to Malaysia? Now that we are divorced, we are so hostile to each other. If Malaysia is so hostile, how come his minister Khaw (who came from Malaysia) asked the sick to go Malaysia for treatment and want us to send our old parents to Malaysia nursing homes. If they are so hostile to want to kill us with thirst are we not afraid of they will ill-treat our old and sick?
Why did I have to serve 2.5 years, when I could have worked and made some money to make my life better . I searched deep in my heart for then reasons. Then I remembered my buddy in NS Thomas who stayed behnd to do his NS because he refused to emigrate with the rest of his family to Australia. He didn't want to go because he didn't want to leave his close friends he loved so much in Singapore - the people he played soccer with, the people he can talk cock sing song with and the only people in the world who can fully understand his language which is peppered with strange words like chiobu, waliao, sabo, nabei and alamak. It is not possible to love a country without loving the people. Singapore is the only place in the world where you can find Singaporeans like yourself in large numbers. Wealth can easily be moved to another part of the globe these days with a push of a button, if you want democracy, equality and justice, you can simply transplant yourself to another country enjoy their system. But the Singaporean identity, the people similar to yourself, you can only find in Singapore. This identity that so many of us treasure in our hearts is getting destroyed by the PAP importing foreigners in large numbers..... I thought the whole idea of defense is to prevent a foreign invasion of your country. We must defend our country, reclaim our future but it is not defense against hostile countries attacking us but the people in our country that is destroying what we treasure most in our hearts for the sake of money.