That Malays are not present in many departments is common
knowledge. What I meant was, "How do you, Beavan, know the Malays
don't mind being discriminated against in SAF?"
The Malays who have the qualifications to make officer, certainly
don't fit this slacker image that you have of SAF NS men.
Even the Malay Pte and Lcpl in my PDF reservist platoon, didn't fit
this slacker image. Certainly not the Malay Sgt Sec Cmd. The whole
battllion was made up of many former drivers, cooks and storemen.
These were "slacker" jobs. If I were a storeman I, too, would be a
slacker cos these jobs creates this attitude.
But everyone, especially the 5 Malays in my platoon, were proud to
be riflemen at last, and morale and performance was incredibly high
amongst everyone.
Apart from the rest periods where the different races congregate
amongst themselves, otherwise the Bengs, the Mamas and the Mats all
worked together like brothers.
One Malay reservist trooper in my platoon was suffering from piles
during a 1 week Tekong deployment excercise. It involved building
defences and making nightly patrols and assaults. He kept mum about
his condition cos he "didn't want to be sent home". His condition
was reported to the PC by his fellow Malay buddy and he was
ambulanced out.
"Slack their NS life?" Jeez...
The distrust may really exists (or not)... But in a well-led and
high morale combat unit - even a 2nd line unit like ours - the
Malay soldier can be as good as anyone.
