Chitchat Sheares - The Article

[CoffeeAhSoh]

Was Pres BHS a Buddhist ?

Bro, Old Fart had a damn myopic attitude.

When President Sheares passed on in 1981, his widow who was a very staunch follower of Chief Abbot Rev Seck Hon Choon, she immediately
invited the Grand Master to Holt Road to view the body and chant prayers.

Old Fart was terribly unhappy with Mrs Sheares for he felt that by protocol no one else, but only him could view the dead President's body first.

Thereafter until her death in an old folks home in 2012, we never heard of anything about President Sheares' widow.

 

[Papsmearer]

That Honour was by another sg Pioneer Prof S Shan Ratnam

Ratnam was trained by Sheares.

 

[Papsmearer]

Was Pres BHS a Buddhist ?

No, he was a Christian, baptised at the bethesda church in Bras Brasah.

 

[Papsmearer]

Whats the story behind Pres BHS being the chosen one ?

There was a lot of reason put up for it. The main one at that time was that the Presidency should be held by a neutral non political person. Sheares was not a member of any political party. He was also a success and well known from humble origins. They were reluctant to put up another Malay, after Yusof Ishak. 2 Malays in a row is too much. But then they were also careful not to offend the Malays by putting up a chinese. being eurasian and having a Hokkien wife made him palatable to all parties.

 

[CoffeeAhSoh]

There was a lot of reason put up for it. The main one at that time was that the Presidency should be held by a neutral non political person. Sheares was not a member of any political party. He was also a success and well known from humble origins. They were reluctant to put up another Malay, after Yusof Ishak. 2 Malays in a row is too much. But then they were also careful not to offend the Malays by putting up a chinese. being eurasian and having a Hokkien wife made him palatable to all parties.

tks for update.


Pres Dr WKW wise words and philosophy of life :

 

[CoffeeAhSoh]

No, he was a Christian, baptised at the bethesda church in Bras Brasah.

Good info. His wife a Buddhist ?


Pres. Dr WkW is a Buddhist.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Lancheow lah. Everytime he came out to inspect the field training or live firing. we have to be on the ball like shit. We have to prepare the best tanks, keep them super clean. make sure everything is in working condition. You have to put in twice or 3 times the work to prep for a live firing exercise once your unit was informed that he will be attending it. And he never came alone. Winston and other colonels and porlumpars always accompanied him. So, if any tanks break down or main gun not firing or any defect, he is fine with it. But u better believe there will be shit from wInston's Office the next day. He was happy like fuck and came out to see the tanks and talk to us peasants. But I do not think he was informed on how much extra work we had to put in for his visits, and how much terror we had to endure knowing the SAF senior officer porlumpars are around. Wait until you have a few weekend burnt and go thru some siong times for his visit, then you know what we had to go thru.

Hehe you also kena before?
His grandson Colin was in NS as Super wihite horse doing IMT in SBMT during his presidency.
Besides the usual Sop Super on extra work for usual vvip visits....
We got orders on parents visiting day for the entire camp to do Guess what?
Pick up ALL stones at the grass fields. All the instructiors and men barefooted formed a human chain, arms linked and sashay across the entire field feeling for rocks and stones. Till today I can't understand the logic for that.....scare president step on stones?

 

[zhihau]

Pick up ALL stones at the grass fields. All the instructiors and men barefooted formed a human chain, arms linked and sashay across the entire field feeling for rocks and stones. Till today I can't understand the logic for that.....scare president step on stones?

I think it is something along the line of the "Strawberry Generation"...

 

[tanwahtiu]

probably these 2 guys hate to see the bully LKY as their neighbours. With LHL running around Istana make it worse. A spoilt kid LHL make thing worse and under him you see Singapore is falling down.

Sheares when he became President he made the Istana staff to report to his house in the morning daily to do the housework and then head to the Istana in the afternoon. He preferred to stay at home and head to the Istana Office like normal office worker.

The guy who was nice and never abused the state coffers was Wee Kim Wee. He too preferred to stay in his own home. When he was President he would interact with people such as banks, utilities, home related stuff by himself and not use his assigned Istana staff.

 

[Papsmearer]

probably these 2 guys hate to see the bully LKY as their neighbours. With LHL running around Istana make it worse. A spoilt kid LHL make thing worse and under him you see Singapore is falling down.

Actually, Sheares official office and the office of Old Fart were very near each other in the Istana. The became quite close after Sheares became president.

 

[tanwahtiu]

heng ah. during my time no such VVIP visit.

Hehe you also kena before?
His grandson Colin was in NS as Super wihite horse doing IMT in SBMT during his presidency.
Besides the usual Sop Super on extra work for usual vvip visits....
We got orders on parents visiting day for the entire camp to do Guess what?
Pick up ALL stones at the grass fields. All the instructiors and men barefooted formed a human chain, arms linked and sashay across the entire field feeling for rocks and stones. Till today I can't understand the logic for that.....scare president step on stones?

 

[Papsmearer]

Hehe you also kena before?
His grandson Colin was in NS as Super wihite horse doing IMT in SBMT during his presidency.
Besides the usual Sop Super on extra work for usual vvip visits....
We got orders on parents visiting day for the entire camp to do Guess what?
Pick up ALL stones at the grass fields. All the instructiors and men barefooted formed a human chain, arms linked and sashay across the entire field feeling for rocks and stones. Till today I can't understand the logic for that.....scare president step on stones?

Yeah, I kena numeorus times. he likes to see the tanks firing. Always come out to armour live firings. He likes to see big explosions and lots of flames. So, we always put on a show for him. tanks would fire at a target, and blow the oil drums up, then mortar rounds drop on the target, followed by low level strafing runs by Hawker Hunters and their quad 30mm Aden. And then after the strafing runs, some one will blow up a a huge fireball as though the Hunters hit something big. All fake of course, but the Pres liked it. I can tell u these VVIPs have no idea of the shit that we have to do to prepare for their visit.

 

[Papsmearer]

heng ah. during my time no such VVIP visit.

U are so fucking lucky. LOL

 

[Zobolan]

Why bring dead people back? Let them RIP lah dun kacheow them from their sleep.

 

[tanwahtiu]

This may apply to you. Officer promotion exercise.

Attached to this type of exercise and can see the shit standard of SAF officers taking their promotion tests.

some fat like pig no stamina cannot charge up hill. Some cannot lead and fall into enemy traps.

what the fuck are they doing call this promotion exercise.

U are so fucking lucky. LOL

 

[scroobal]

Here is an example of how SAF operates and how the local press and establishment paints a different picture.

This was in the late 80s when Tommy Koh was our ambassador to the US and Colin Powell was Chairman Joint Chief of Staff. Wesley D'Aranjo SAF BG who was later to become Deputy Secretary Defence sends a terse note to the Singapore Embassy in the US to arrange a meeting with US Military to account for a long list of action items in regard to related to procurement that were not delivered.

Tommy is roped in to use his influence to organise the meeting with the US counterparts. Tommy contacts Powell and ask for his help with the list and organising a meeting on the outstanding issues with their respective representatives.

A meeting is then arranged. The Singapore delegation from the embassy attends the meeting at the Pentagon. To their surprise not only Powell turns up, he runs thru the list and goes thru item by item by item and provides details such as delivery dates etc. It turns out that not one single item was outstanding. The Singapore team are shocked and embarrassed but are heartened that Powell just provided the status and did not chide or screw the shit out of then which he was perfectly entitled to. Those in the Singapore team since that day never ever trusted Mindef. I don't think they even told Tommy the outcome of the meeting. They were however impressed by Tommy reach and influence and more so by how Powell handled it.

This is what happens when an Army is not run by military professionals but a cadre of wannabe politicians whose first priority is to move from Mindef to the Admin Service and then to C Suite position in a GLC and that means to impress the political elite of the country.

When the Terrex cars were seized I recalled this incident.

 

[Papsmearer]

Here is an example of how SAF operates and how the local press and establishment paints a different picture.

This was in the late 80s when Tommy Koh was our ambassador to the US and Colin Powell was Chairman Joint Chief of Staff. Wesley D'Aranjo SAF BG who was later to become Deputy Secretary Defence sends a terse note to the Singapore Embassy in the US to arrange a meeting with US Military to account for a long list of action items in regard to related to procurement that were not delivered.

Tommy is roped in to use his influence to organise the meeting with the US counterparts. Tommy contacts Powell and ask for his help with the list and organising a meeting on the outstanding issues with their respective representatives.

A meeting is then arranged. The Singapore delegation from the embassy attends the meeting at the Pentagon. To their surprise not only Powell turns up, he runs thru the list and goes thru item by item by item and provides details such as delivery dates etc. It turns out that not one single item was outstanding. The Singapore team are shocked and embarrassed but are heartened that Powell just provided the status and did not chide or screw the shit out of then which he was perfectly entitled to. Those in the Singapore team since that day never ever trusted Mindef. I don't think they even told Tommy the outcome of the meeting. They were however impressed by Tommy reach and influence and more so by how Powell handled it.

This is what happens when an Army is not run by military professionals but a cadre of wannabe politicians whose first priority is to move from Mindef to the Admin Service and then to C Suite position in a GLC and that means to impress the political elite of the country.

When the Terrex cars were seized I recalled this incident.

U don't have to go to the US to find examples of SAF stupidity. In singapore, there are many. Every exercise has a WTF moment for me. Usually, such moments are produced by scholar generals.