Two months' early disruption saves full-time NSmen a year

depressed SG

Two months' early disruption saves full-time NSmen a year

I REFER to Mr Evan Ong Chin Wei's letter regarding national-service disruption (ST, Nov 29). It is not only ITE graduates who have to wait 10 months and delay their entry to polytechnics by a year because they are not allowed to disrupt two months earlier.

My son was enlisted in early January and needs to serve 22 months so he will ORD early next November. He has been given a place in an overseas university whose academic year commences in early September.

I wrote to Mindef to appeal for early disruption so that he could enter the university next September. I was given a similar answer as Mr Ong. This means my son will have to wait 10 months and can enrol only in 2007. There are many others in his batch who are in the same predicament. With the reduction of NS from 2 1/2 to two years, it would make sense for them to continue their studies sooner.

YO! wheres the SAF 7th Core Value Care For Soldiers? Another example of how NS men are treated like slaves of the country.

dragg SG

see the part i highlighted in red.

SAF cant possibly allow the many others in the batch to disrupt right? it will set precedence and the next thing you know everybody will be asking for early discharge.

i think it is difficult, if not impossible for SAF to response positively. there are so many people serving at any one time. such occurences are inevitable.

depressed SG

I disagree. Since we pay our ministers mil dollar salaries, I don't think its hard for our dear Teo Chee Hean.

Look for solutions before condemning the question.

meleagent SG

It will be an administrative nightmare if every single nsf were allowed to disrupt for further studies. Further to that, we need bear to in mind that both local and overseas uni have different admission date. For local uni, admission is usually around June/July. Overseas uni start around Sept.

dragg SG

who condemned the questions?

depressed SG

from an administrative point of view, its even more paperwork to conscript every single male in singapore that is eligible for NS. And while it says,There are many others in his batch who are in the same predicament, what exactly is the definition of many?

if its only a few hundred soldiers in that definition, I don't really see a big problem with it if you consider the amount of soldiers in the army.

BillyBong SG

I know of a couple of guys in my batch who had one more month to serve and successfully deferred their NSF (1 month balance) so they could enter University on time.

They completed their NSF after 4 years and officially ORDed then.

It's possible, but on a case by case basis.

Salman SG

Ask your MP for help lah. They are at your service.