I REFER to the letters by Mr Edmond Lo ("Wrong to equate gender
inequality with national service") and Madam Koh Chin Chin
("Women's 'national service'"; both Jan 5).
Without national service, our security may be threatened due to
the likely critical and chronic understaffing of the military.
In the same way, there is a chronic understaffing of a number of
government agencies, leading to regular complaints of slow or
inadequate service by members of the public.
Therefore, there are grounds to explore the idea of "drafting"
women to serve in government services full time for a number of
years, and later calling upon them regularly to serve for a short
duration of time.
This would greatly bolster Singapore's economic defence.
Jeremy Chen
