theres a saying: dun make a mountain out of a molehill…i am nt
saying tat SAF shld leave offences unpunished…i agree
tat harsh punishments shld be given when serious offences have been
committed. however, my pt is tat its human to err n which human
being on earth has nvr made mistakes by accident??? deliberate acts
shld be severly punished but wad abt accidental offences? is there
a need to go to the pt of breaking the soldier’s rice bowl n ruin
his entire future by sending him to jail? if it was due to a
deliberate offence, then he deserves it, but wad if it was purely
accidental? accidental means tat no one would have expected it to
happen…nw accidental shld still be punished, tat i agree but to the
pt when he loses his job in the army n have his entire future
ruined wif an “ëx-convict” tag to his name, is tis necessary???
i understand the implications of some of such minor offences
leading to sth major…but my pt is: y must we always magnify the -ve
stuff n blow it out of proportion? wad abt the gd stuff? do we
magnify them n reward handsomely? i have an acquaintance who spent
2 wks rehearsing for NDP…mind u, he wasnt arrowed to
do it, he volunteered…at the end of the “shiong” rehearsals, guess
wad? no incentive!!! they even had to ask for the reward n in the
end onli got 1 miserable day off!!! is tis how the proportion of
rewards n punishments shld be like?? no wonder so many ppl refuse
to sign on n serve the nation…
having said tis, if offences r to be magnified n punished
severely, then shldnt good acts also be magnified n rewarded
handsomely???
a few things here...
1. the "practice" of magnifying the bad and ignoring the good is
not an SAF trait. if u haf noticed, it is a singaporean or
asian trait. look at wat u r doing now - u r magnifying the
bad, but ignoring the good of the saf disciplinary system, yes?
2. as we go about magnifying the bad, we tend to focus on
extreme, outlier cases, and forget that they are the rare cases,
rather than the norm. in most if not all cases, wrongdoings
are investigated and punishments meted out that is proportional to
the wrongdoing, and does not go to the extent of destroying one's
career or life. having small punishment for small offences is
necessary as punishment as with training needs to be progressive so
that the wrongdoer can be given a second chance while serving a
light punishment. and all these applies again not only to the
SAF but our society in general.
3. if u r talking about punishments being unfair here, then the
issue about rewards is separate. in any case, there can be
thousands of possible reasons why the reward as u have mentioned
was as such. are u sure u have given the saf a fair hearing
or u simply heard a one-sided story from the person who was most
negatively affected by the situation?
