I personally have not seen serious cases of power abuse.
However, I must point out that within the system, there is serious
potential for power abuse which can go by undetected. Let me give
you an example :
I believe that you guys know that malingering and disobeying orders
from superiors are chargeable offences. So is lying to an officer.
(WTF, everything is a chargeable offence in the army, so goes the
joke among my friends) The thing is, it is all up to the officer
whether he want to charge you or not, even for very small things.
Malingering, how would one define it? How much laziness would
define as malingering? Disobeying orders. Forgeting to carry out a
small order would also be "disobeying orders".
Few months ago, SAF just had a AHM donation exercise. We were all
given a target of 21 dollars to raise. ("Strongly encouraged to
donate", so were the words said. cannot force, because they scared
people complain in papers, which happened) We were not allowed to
request donations from the public, but from family and friends.
Basically, just want money come out of our own pockets la. In the
end, most HAM JI, come out 21 dollars. I refused, and came out with
around $3. My officer was a good officer, chose to overlook this
case. But in my friends coys, they were pressed, and they knew very
well that if they didn't get 21 dollars, will have extra duty la,
arrow sure increase. This kind of things, can you tell me its not
an abuse of power? Sure, they wont punish you explicitly for not
raising the required amount, but they will get you in other
ways.
