More foreign-born young men are serving national
service
National service in Singapore has marched a long way from its
Hokkien peng (Hokkien platoon) days.
Take Russian-born Second-Lieutenant (2nd Lt) Vasily Chuply, with
his blue eyes and brown hair.
The 20-year-old enlisted in October last year while still a
permanent resident. In August this year, he received his pink
identity card, making him a Singaporean.
That is five years after he and his mother travelled from
Nakhodka, a port city of 150,000 people in Russia's far east, to
join his father, who was an IT programmer in a shipping company
here.
On his basic military and officer cadet experiences, 2nd Lt
Chuply quipped that it helped him pick up Hokkien expletives -
still the vernacular of many a bunk mate.
'And so long as the instructor or platoon commander was
shouting, I knew something was wrong and I just had to be quicker
on my feet,' he said.