The Letter from 2Lt Li - as posted by one
blogger
:
And from internet sources (for which the
accuracy and completeness cannot really be
determined):
From: 2LT Li Hongyi, _____ PC,
_____
Sent: Thursday, 28 June 2007 9:36 AM
To: ___ ____ ____, Minister, MHQ; MG ______ ____, CDF, CDF Office;
BG -___ ____ ____, COA,
COAOFF; COL _______, CSO, _______; zz All in ____, _________
Cc: zz All in ________, _____; zz ALL IN ____, _____; zz All in
_____, _____; zz All in ______, ______
Subject: A complaint about the quality control of SAF
officers
Dear Sirs and alI,
I am about to disrupt my national service to pursue further
studies, and this will likely be my last email sent out for the
next half a decade. Unlike the common "ORD letters" that you read,
this letter unfortunately cannot be as cheerful. I am using this
last opportunity to issue a letter of complaint against the quality
control of officers in the SAF, more specifically against LTA X.
During my time as his subordinate, LTA X was AWOL on at least 2
counts, attempted bribery, and lied to his subordinates and his
superior officer. The battalion HQ has effectively given no
punishment, and has not even made these infractions known to the
rest of the battalion.
It seems that the matter had festered
for some time and 2Lt Li only took action as his national service
is being disrupted to enable him to pursue further studies.
Did 2Lt Li not bring this matter to his parents' attention and
sought advice from them - knowing that his father is the PM, and
the mother is head of Country's Investment Body ? If LHL, his
younger brother and sister had discussed matters with LKY - as was
revealed in LKY occassional willingness to allow some glimpses into
family ties when there are political reasons to do so - are there
no opportunities for LHL to know the workings his children
?
Let me first give you some background. I am the ____ ____ platoon
commander from __________. In order to maintain operational
readiness my duties are performed at _____ camp where our ops bus
and servers are instead of at stagmont camp where our battalion is.
The company is structured like so
OC
Centre Head
PC
The duties are therefore shared between the PC's, PS', and the
Centre Head. LTA X is the centre head of the __________.
LTA X, was originally supposed to be on duty at _____ Camp as the
duty commander for the _______ on the 20th and 22nd of April, a
Friday and Sunday respectively. I was on duty on the 21st of April
that Saturday, to minimize the changing over, I contacted him and
asked if he would like to swap duties for the Saturday and Sunday.
To this he agreed, and thus he was to be on duty on the 20th and
21st of April.
On the Friday however, LTA X called to inform me that he was busy
during the day, and if I could cover for him until the evening. To
this I agreed to do so. At about 1600 hours, I received a call from
LTA X, informing me that he was on the way and that I could leave
first, thought this would result in a time where there would be no
duty commander in camp, he informed me that this had already be
cleared with our OC. I therefore left camp.
On Sunday the 22nd of April I arrived back in camp to take over
duty from LTA X. After he had left camp the men informed me that he
had not arrived in camp on Friday at all, and that he only arrived
in camp at 1800 hours on Saturday the 21st of April. On Saturday
they had tried to contact him to ask his whereabouts, to which he
told them that he was in fact in _____ in ______ camp getting some
work done. The men contacted their counterparts in ______ camp to
verify this, however no one in______ camp had seen LTA X. 1 further
confirmed with the ______ duty personnel on Saturday that none of
them had seen LTA X, this was also with confirmed with that day's
BDO.
This news obviously was very distressing, I confronted LTA X
regarding this information to which he confirmed that he only
arrived in camp on Saturday at 1800 hours, but that he was at _____
for a while then left later to run some errands. Upon learning that
I was to bring this information to our OC, LTA X then made an offer
to do some of my duties for me to which I declined, his words were
"You know if you need me to help you do some of your
duties.."
On Wednesday after I had completed my personal investigation and
confirmed that these events had indeed transpired, I informed our
OC of these offences. Our OC spoke to LTA X regarding these issues,
and let him off with a warning.
I would like the story to end here, however LTA RX was again on
duty at ____ Camp for _________ on the following Saturday the 28th
of April. At 0030 hours on Sunday the 29th of April I received a
message from the duty personnel. The duty personnel of the platoon
had just spotted LTA X's car, a white Mitsubishi lancer driving out
of camp. I responded by telling them to check all the car parks and
look for LTA X in camp. I received a call at about 0115 hours, the
duty personnel informed me that they had checked the whole camp,
and that LTA X's car was no where to be found. They also informed
me that LTA X was no where to be found, not in any of the bunks nor
any of the offices.
On Monday the 20th of April when I arrived back in ______ Camp for
work, I confirmed with both the guard commander and the duty
officer for Saturday the 28th of April, that at white Mitsubishi
lancer had indeed driven out of camp at about 0030 hours on the
29th of April. This latest information was told to our OC.
When confronted by our OC, LTA X told him that indeed it was his
car driving out of camp, he claimed however, that it was not him
driving the car but that he had lent it to friend to drive out of
camp. After checking with the person in question this was
established to be untrue. Finally, LTA X admitted that he had lied,
and that is was he who had left camp.
I have been informed that LTA X was to be given 10 extra duties,
though this may be considered an extremely light punishment there
is a further problem. To date, which is to say, 2 months from the
incidents, none of the duties have been published in the battalion
RO, in addition, LTA X has not served any of the extra duties he
was supposedly awarded. In addition, this system of leniency is not
consistent throughout the battalion, or even the company. The
following was published in the RO on 1 1th of June 2007:
SXXXXXXXX CPL _____ ________ Non-compliance with a lawful duty or
order. stoppage of Leave for 7 days
This was the punishment for CPL ______ for leaving camp an hour
before he was supposed to. This was published less than a week
after his infringement. If you were to calculate the time AWOL
alone, LTA X was missing for a minimum of over 20 hours. This does
not take into the account the fact that he repeated the crime less
than a week after being reprimanded the first time. This does not
take into account the lying to his superior officer. This does not
take into account the fact that he is an officer, and thus should
be even more liable than corporal.
Is there some bad blood between 2Lt
Li and LTA X ?
From the tenacity that 2Lt Li pursued the matter of LTA X's absence
from his post of Duty, should one have thought that 2Lt Li is
running his own military ?
Is there a gross shortage of Officers in the SAF Signals Unit, when
Officers has to be on Duty for 48 consequitive hours ? Even if the
SAF do not subject itself to Singapore's Labor Laws, surely it
should have the best practise in health care of its personnel ?
What is the quality of the Duty Officer's condition being On Duty
for such long hours ?
