Its no point serving NS if one's heart and soul is not in
it. The need is to believe in NS and its purpose. Like
others, I served my National Service, during that time, its 2.5yrs
for us. And I am very resentful because I feel extremely DL
that I hve to disrupt my studies and waste 2.5ys of my most
important part of my life doing nothing useful.
And when I exit the service, I have to fight with gals who are
two years ahead, foreigners who came here to work and for all sorts
of reasons, and not needing to serve NS. The question I am
asking is, if serving National Service is the duty and
responsibility of singaporeans, are we being recognised by
this? In today's cut-throat competitive society, having a 2
year lag is a significant setback in pay. So, you serve NS,
do you then pay less utilities, less telco bills, less for
food? You go to in-camp every year for the next 13 cycles,
does your children get priority in enrolment to schools over
foreigners? Does your employer grant you faster promotion
over FT or someone else?
Sure, you say, come on, compete based on your abilities, I am
fine, ok, but I am not being able to compete on an even playing
field, is it fair? I am all for protecting the land and
country - you must believe in it and its when you are fighting for
what you belief that you will fight harder in times of
conflict. Throwing a group of men together and suffer is
building unity - yah, but that happens in NPCC and NCC during my
secondary school days too, i also feel united. When I am
playing for my school team, I feel united too. Unity comes
when everyone believe in it. if one individual or collective
group does not believe in something, its useless.
If one have to serve NS and especially in our context today
where more and more foreigners are coming to compete, how can
Singaporeans be made to feel special and belonging to the
country? Its only when I believe I belong here and have
something at stake that i will serve wholeheartedly.
Definitely not when i am camped out in the middle of night digging
trench-hole when my schoolmate from China / Malaysia or India are
moving ahead in their career and life.
No one owes me aliving, at least put us on a level playing
field. I am not selfish but I ask why must I protect these
foreigners when in the slightest sign of trouble, they will scoot
off back to their country?
