Ladies and Gentlemen,
Once again the Singapore dictatorship shoots themselves in the foot! This time it is national service. The Singapore state controlled newspaper Straits Times reports today, Feb 11, 2016, "NS dodger gets 1 1/2 months jail after appeal by prosecution". See http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/ns-dodger-gets-112-months-jail-after-appeal-by-prosecution
It is the same old story. Young man had gone to Australia when he was 14. Refused to come back for national service. Finally did last year. Was arrested and convicted and sent to jail.
This is another instance of the absolutely idiotic policy of Singapore military, jailing national service evaders. Although on the face of it, it may not seem so silly, after all national service is the law and law breakers should be punished, the Singapore case is rather different.
A little background. Singapore is made up overwhelmingly of ethnic Chinese. And Singapore ethnic Chinese in culture and tradition hate anything military. They rather make money, do business or work in a bank in white shirt, tie and spectacles.
And in comes our little dictator, Lee Kuan Yew in 1959 and thinks he knows a little more than anyone else. Some way along the line, he decides that national service is best, so he introduces it. As with anything else, no one dared to question him, as with anything else he does.
So some time in 1968 he introduces mandatory national service. Every young man of 18 had to serve whether you like it or not. Of course there were exceptions for certain elite Chinese who did not want it. Exceptions were made as it when it suits him. But the general philosophy among all Chinese was to resist it at any cost, which meant, if they could send their kinds abroad they will, if they could pretend to be insane, they will, if they could pretend to be girls instead of boys they will. So a great many young men never served if they could.
My own son now lives in the United States. Some years ago I received a notice for him to return to Singapore to serve. I tore up the notice and deposited it in the garbage. He told me that he has no interest in ever returning to Singapore island nor to do their stupid national service.
Although the entire concept of national service in a Chinese society was a non starter to begin with, in the past when there were more babies being born, at least there were some men who did serve.
But for decades now many factors have contributed to the total collapse of their national service system. The main problem is the island having the lowest birth rate in the world, mainly because the island has lost all credibility among its people. The judiciary is corrupt and a branch of the government delivering government verdicts. There is no freedom of speech or expression and there is no free press. If you said anything they didn't like, you would be sued for defamation, jailed and bankrupted. As a result the people have been reduced to a life not dissimilar to North Korea. And who would want to serve a regime like that?
And the other main problem is the rise in education in the island and an increase in prosperity in some quarters.
English educated young men are increasingly travelling abroad and beginning to realize that living in a dictatorship like Singapore is simply disgusting. They don't see any need to give 2 years of their lives to a regime for which they have no respect.
And increasingly the local women are desperately looking for foreign husbands to move out of the island. Chinese Singapore men, they complain, not unexpectedly are dull and boring, just as they are in all dictatorships. Does not matter if the man was a German Frenchman or a Walloon Belgian. As long as they can get out of this stupid island with a dictator prince Lee Kuan Yew's son strutting around like a prize rooster. As a result many children who were supposed to be born in Singapore are being born in the West, half Chinese half Walloon or being taken away as infants.
In many cases it made no sense at all for someone to do national service but their bigoted one track mind in blinkers government insisted in punishment nevertheless. Can you imagine an infant who had been taken by his parents to live in Germany all his life, but suddenly finds that Singapore needs him to serve national service, in a country that he does not know and where he has no intention to live! So what does the Singapore military want? That he goes back to Singapore, serves 2 years in the army and immediately thereafter return permanently to Germany once again! What good does that do, for Singapore? What utter nonsense. Yet this boy if he ever returns would immediately be arrested, dragged to the courts like a common criminal and jailed.
This recent case published in the newspaper does an excellent job of destroying national service completely and once and for all and forcing even larger numbers living abroad never to return. Very successfully, this court verdict sends a chill down the spine of any young Singaporean abroad who was even remotely contemplating return to the island. Thanks to this verdict, which is a clear message to all Singapore young men living abroad, that they should never return to the island ever again. And very successfully once again, this hare brained dictatorship has once again shot themselves in the foot, that is destroying the Singapore national service system altogether.
If they thought jailing this young man from Australia is going to frighten others into returning, it has the complete reverse effect. Now even more young men will refuse to return to Singapore ever again, for fear of national service. Today for all intents and purposes the national service system in Singapore has collapsed. We can expect this government for lack of any options to discontinue the system and being forced to introduce a regular army, if they want an army at all. And since Singapore Chinese have no interest in the army, perhaps they should look for mercenaries. Perhaps some former Iraqi soldiers from Saddam Hussein's army!
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
A Singaporean in Exile
Fremont (near San Francisco) California USA
Tel: 510 491 8525
Email: nair.gopalan@yahoo.com
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4 comments:
Actually there are legal ways to avoid serving Singapore National service. My 2 nephews born in Singapore emigrated to Canada when they were 4 and 8 respectively.
When the kids were around 18 and attending university in Canada, my sister applied deferment exit permits for them. After the elder kid completed his tertiary education, he renounced his Singapore citizenship and was approved. Later on the cmpb even wrote to the younger child to renounce citizenship. Both did not have to put up any bond, and can even travel to Singapore for visits with their Canadian passports.
There u go, for whatever standards Singapore has.
Jessietan
You have mentioned the obvious. We all know that. If the child is below 13 there is no need for bond/ exit permit. In any case, a child of 4 or 8 is not contemplating emigration. It is older children or young men who have the problem. And in their case, it is not easy as mention.
Actually, even if you leave when very young, your parents MUST state your desire to defer NS until you are 21, before you reach age 11. Then you must apply for exit permits until you are 21, and of course you have to either choose to serve or renounce your citizenship at 21. That is the law. If you fail to inform them by age 11, too bad you have to come back at 18 and serve.
Thambiraj Yogalingam
To Thambiraj Yogalingam,
Are you trying to say that although a parent takes his child out at a very young age and does not do as the Singapore government says, then he or she should return his son to Singapore to serve national service. Are you trying to say that you would blindly follow any law which the government enacts even though it simply is unjust. Thank God, I don't think most of those who take their children out of Singapore at a young age intend to ever return to the island or make their child do national service in Singapore. If you have forgotten, the very reason why they have taken their children out is because they don't want to live in that Lee Kuan Yew's son's dictatorship anymore and neither do they want their children to have anything to do with the blasted island. Even though you wish to comply, I can assure that most other parents who have a head on their shoulders have no intention to comply with any of these arbitrary laws which Lee Kuan Yew and his son have conveniently put in place. No they are not worried about these laws and they have no reason to comply with any laws that this island makes on national service. I can assure you that. That is why they left in the first place.
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