Originally posted by Atobe:
The action by PM's Lee son
simply shows the arrogance that permeate down the Family Tree into
the little boy's head.
His action simply reveals his own petty minded value system without
the broader vision of the good to his Unit and that of the
SAF.
Where is the sense of 'Esprit de
Corp' ?
Comradeship ? Brothers-in-Arm ?
All for ONE, and ONE for ALL ?
Is the SAF 'Esprit de
Corp' now torn to shreds with the ability of a [b]'Super-White Stud' getting
the better of the Superior Commanders, and pulling a thicker rope
over the peers in the Rank and File ?
The 2Lt is no more then a 'Young
Upstart KID' - with total lack of respect nor tolerance
towards anyone lesser than his own superior lineage.
Such a cynical attitude towards anyone else's authority smack of
sheer arrogance - as can be seen in his Grandpa's intolerance
towards anyone who dare obstruct his value judgement.
In more mature Army that has established traditions and history,
such action from a Junior Grade Officer is termed simply as
INSUBORDINATION'.
Such behaviour is no better than an arrogant Kim Jong Il giving his
Superiors a hard time, when his father sent him to the North Korean
Army in preparation for the Future.
When this 'Super-Stud'
could not get the Commander to correct the supposed errors, the
'Super-Stud' took matters
into his own hands by writing to the Minister of Defense - who
afterall is his Father's Minister.
How many 2Lt will dare to stand up to his Superior Commander and
tell him to mend his ways - OR Else ?
How many 2Lt will dare to write to the Minister of Defense and make
such a grand expose of the
seemingly disciplinary errors of his Unit and his Fellow Officers
?
For MINDEF to take the word of the 2Lt and proceed to investigate
the complaints, and was able to confirm the accuracy of the
complaint, surely will indicate a failure in the regular review of
the Unit and the manner in which Efficiency and Performance are
judged.
The reprimands and disciplinary actions as a consequence of the
investigation to the 'irregular' complaints made, should
rightfully bring more questions of concerns then putting a stop to
the debate with the findings made.
It brings into question the Leadership Quality in the Officer Corp,
when a young-upstart 2Lt can work against Fellow Officers, and
bring an institution of Senior Leadership into question.
It brings into question - if the Competition for the Best SAF Unit
is nothing more then a 'sham' ?
One will need to ask - how many ''off-springs'' will the Lee Dynasty
need to provide the ground level feedback to the Ivory Tower
?
When LKY was PM, from an analogy which he gave, he seem to have
depended on his daughter feedback to implement the Speak Mandarin
campaign. He had claimed that his daughter had trouble
communicating with a dialect speaking elderly patient, while a
non-Chinese nurse was of no help in clearing the matter, and
another Chinese nurse from a different dialect group could not
resolve the desparation that his daughter faced.
LKY declared that since his daughter could not cope with the
situation, it was only logical that everyone should learn Mandarin,
so as to facilitate cross dialect communication amongst the
Chinese.
The consequence of LKY's anecdote of his daughter's difficulties
was a raised tempo to teach Mandarin as the natural mother tongue
to all Chinese, and dialects were to be eradicated.
At least two generations of Chinese had to endure the forced
learning of a seemingly alien mother-tongue, in which some of
Singapore's best had to seek foreign tertiary education when
Singapore university admission required a good pass from Chinese
whose mother-tongue can only be Mandarin.
What will the future hold for the SAF ?
Can only the First Family move the rocks amidst the shifting sands,
while ordinary Singaporeans are only allowed to more the granules
under the rocks ?
[/b]
I beg to differ on this one, Atobe.
You are making it sound like Lee junior is the bad guy here. Is he?
Essentially what he did was to write a complain letter that
addresses an ill-culture within the military of leniency towards
regulars and broadcast the letter. Was such a move based on
personal interest?
Note that until the penning of the letter, no injustice whatsoever
was done upon 2LTA Li. His superior, although irresponsible, did
not in any way harm 2LTA Li personally. He could have just kept
quiet and went on to MIT, nobody will need to know about this and
there won't be any trouble at all. But he choosed to pen the
letter, for what? Will he gain anything out of this? Hell No! He
did not complain based on a personal grudge, but for the greater
good of the organisation and the country.
If we would recall a few years back, the commando units were
suffering from certain ill-culture within the military too and
there was a large cover up and general acceptance to such cultures.
It took a 3rd Sergent armourer to blow the whistle via similar
methods, alerting the public and everyone! I personally knew this
3rd Sergent and he was never punished for blowing the whistle and
hell I bet everyone here would be very angry if he was ever
punished.
This is not a case of the so-called first family abusing their
powers as you would like us all to believe. It is the case of a hot
blooded 2LTA attempting to change things at a cost of his own and
end up being blamed by the very people he hoped to help.
People. asked yourself, if 2LTA Li had been the LTA in the complain
letter and a normal "peasant" as we like to call ourself, is the
person who broadcast the letter, would your respones be the same?
Would we not be complaining the SAF for punishing the whistle
blower and "restricting the freedom of speech" and not having and
"Official Information Act" and such?
And mind you a "reprimand" in military terms is not as light as
some of us might thought. It is not just a scolding, it will be
recorded and has an impact on future careers, it is a defined
punishment and is above extra duties in the hierarchy of
punishments.
People, let's not be bias and see him for who he is and not just
who his father and grandfather is, and for goodness sake give him
the credit of the whistle blower that he deserves!
