This article touches subjects on sexual misconduct and getting drunk

Army life during Basic Military Training is tough especially when you are a recruit, although Tsin Tsu's Kwan Tsi is not the worst unit.

Our Trainers (including corporals, sergeants and officers), have all rights to order us to do anything, be it reasonable or not. They always gave good reasons, or excuses, for their orders or actions. Anyway, even if they had no good reasons for their orders, it was not up to us to ask or to question about them. We simply did not have the right to ask. To summarize, life there seemed to be just mental and physical sufferings.

It was said to recalled that whatever we did, particularly in the first three weeks, were not up to the standard required by our trainers. I got punishment quite a number of times, so did Jimmy Lin and every one of us. The punishments came in various forms. They could be group punishment or individual. They could be push-up exercises, run here run there, show parade (where individual or a group of soldiers will be asked to dress-up in smart uniform for inspection unnecessarily), stand-by-something (such as standing steal under the hot sun, besides the bed etc... for a long period of time), extra drills, extra duties and etc. etc...

Because of his being famous, our poor little Jimmy Lin was always called upon to perform certain drills (such as handling rifle, field movement, first aid procedures and so on) upon the trainers' completion of a session. If Jimmy Lin did the drills well, the trainers harass to us that, when Recruit Lin can do it why not us. Jimmy Lin was normally quite intelligent in learning and performing those drills, some recruits (i.e. new soldiers attending the training) thus accused Jimmy and made his days miserable (as far as they could) after the training and regarded him as a Sabo-king. (Note: Things always happened this way, when some recruits could do something but others could not. Those who could not perform the drills well would be punished or at least being scolded. These recruits thus put the blame on recruit like Jimmy as being Sabotage. They felt that if Jimmy could not do as instructed, they will probably not be punished. Such though was definitely naļve, but yet they were so many naļve people among the sixty of us).

What happened if Jimmy Lin could not do a drill well (of course, it happened a number of times). He would then be asked to redo the drill, or just got scolded.

Being scolded are not considered as punishment. We all learned to take them not too seriously. However, during the first few weeks, most of us thought that the words used to scold us were not tolerable. Trainers all like to include "three worded sutra" (more accurately translated as four letter word) whenever they were not happy with us. Moreover, the complete phases they used normally include your mother, grand mother, sisters and even your father, grand father, brothers and all your 18 generations of relatives. I shall probably include such phase in a later article where it is more appropriate (so that readers who would be insulted by such phases might elect not to read the article).

There was one fine day, when our Platoon did quite well in a rifle range shooting test. Our Commanding Officer rewarded us with a Special Evening Off.

We happily changed to our civilian clothing after the dinner, and check-out of the unit. The night was short, and to all of us, we should not waste any second of which. The recruits then formed into groups themselves depending on their personal relationship (built up over the first few weeks of training) and interest. A small group suggested and went to look for prostitutes. A larger group headed to a nearby drinking house for beer and other toxicant. Yet some when for movies, and those who were lucky that their home were not far from the unit got a chance to go home. Whilst, seven of us, including Jimmy Lin, have decided just to go for some soft drinks and chit chat at a coffee shop located within walking distance from the camp.

"What miserable life we have! Life is just suffering." Said Ong during the Chit Chat session.
"Now, do not take it too personal Ong, but I agree that there is suffering." Jimmy continued the conversation.
Jimmy: "There is suffering, and there is the origin of suffering."
Han: "There is the cession of suffering and there is the Eightfold Path - the way out of suffering."
Wei: "Recruit Lin and Recruit Han, you two sounded like talking about the Four Noble Truths".
"Yes" we happened to answer together.
Ong: "Talked cool ! But I can remember how said you looked when you were being punished lately, I meant both of you on separate occasions."
Tan: "Recruit Lin and Recruit Han, is that the reason why you two were not with the beer drinking or sensual pleasure seeking group tonight ?".
Han: "Yes for me, but I do not know Recruit Lin well. I cannot speak on his behalf."
Tan: "I though Recruit Lin is with us tonight just because he does not want to be associated with someone whom may affect his image. In the local scene, his career will be finished, killed by the media, as we would then have solid proof of what a person Recruit Lin or rather Jimmy is. "
Jimmy: "Yes, I dislike to be associated with the so called bad guys. But the second part of what you just said need not be true. Being a popstar, I have been, and will continued to be attracting all sorts of rumor, whether there is any proof or not."
Han: "So what is more important to you is the Five Precepts."
Jimmy: "Yes, I respect myself."
Ong: "I am getting confuse now, What do you meant by five precepts?"
Jimmy and Han: "Being abstinence from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech and intoxicants."

© By: H Han 10 Jul 98