Those who are liable to serve national service but refuse are
charged under the Enlistment Act.[11]
If convicted, they face three years' imprisonment and a fine of
S$10,000. Controversy arose when the penalties were increased in
January 2006 after Melvyn Tan, who was
born in Singapore, received a fine for defaulting on his National
Service obligations. Tan left for London to study
music during his enlistment age and later acquired British
nationality. In parliament,
Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean
provided some illustration of the punishments defaulters would
face:[12]
1. Where the default period exceeds two years but the defaulter
is young enough to serve his full-time and operationally ready NS
duties in full, MINDEF will press for a short jail sentence.
2. Where the defaulter has reached an age when he cannot serve
his full-time NS in a combat vocation or fulfil his operationally
ready NS obligations in full, a longer jail sentence to reflect the
period of NS he has evaded may be appropriate.
3. Where the defaulter has reached an age when he cannot be
called up for NS at all, a jail sentence up to the maximum of three
years may be appropriate.
Each year, a small number of people are convicted for their
failure to enlist or refusal to be conscripted.[13]
Most of them were Jehovah's
Witnesses, who are usually court-martialled and sentenced to
three years' imprisonment, but they are usually held in a
low-security detention facility and separated from other
conscription offenders. The government does not consider conscientious
objection to be a legal reason for refusal to serve NS. Since
1972, the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses have been outlawed in
Singapore.[14]
This is commonly misinterpreted to mean that Jehovah's Witnesses
themselves are outlawed in Singapore.
