Serviceman punished for urinating on
officer's bed
Soldier gets detention and demotion after
video of him goes public online
A screengrab of
the video showing the soldier urinating on an officer's bed. The
Singapore Army said another soldier who filmed the act was punished
as well.
By LEE JIAN
XUAN
A SOLDIER who
deliberately urinated on an officer's bed has been disciplined by
the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
The soldier, believed to be a full-time national
serviceman holding the rank of Third Sergeant, was
court-martialled.
His punishment was detention and demotion. the
Singapore Army said in a post on its Facebook page yesterday.
It did not specify the period of detention.
Another soldier who filmed the act was punished as
well, according to the post. No details of his punishment were
given.
"The Singapore Army takes a serious view on the
conduct and discipline of our soldiers. The soldiers... have both
been identified and disciplined under military law," it said.
The incident first came to light two months ago,
when a user uploaded a post of the soldier committing the act on
citizen journalism website STOMP. The post has since drawn close to
68,000 views.
The Straits Times understands that the SAF launched
investigations to identify the soldiers who were in the video after
it was made public.
The soldier had apparently been celebrating his
last day in camp by urinating on the bed of his officer, who had
given him a hard time, said the Stomper.
Screengrabs of the video showed the silhouette of a
male soldier urinating on a pillow, and posing for the camera after
the act.
"You deserve more than this, but I was in a really
good mood," it stated.
Most users on the Singapore Army Facebook page
roundly condemned the soldier's actions.
One user called Lawrence Lim deemed the offence
"totally unacceptable".
"No reason can justify such an act of disrespect,"
he said.
But others like operationally ready national
serviceman (NS-man) Marvin Ong felt that the soldier must have
lashed out at his officer for a reason. "Maybe the officer did
treat him poorly," said the 25-year-old. "But he should have gone
to the officer's superiors instead of behaving like this."
Six out of 10 NSmen whom The Straits Times spoke to
also said that they felt the punishment meted out was
appropriate.
"No soldier should be doing such things when he is
in uniform. The fact that he went so far as to upload it makes it
even worse," said 28-year-old NSman and logistics analyst Sherman
Lim.
Top of the news, The Straits Times, Tuesday, November 12, 2013, Pg
A7