Back as a civilian, it does feel good to be free to do the things you want to do at your own time and pace. Sad to say, my military commanders during the recent In Camp Training, were terribly inefficient and delivered mixed instructions, causing less than seamless execution of our training program. I guess it is a vicious cycle that has to be nipped in the bud. The vast majority of NSmen or reservists, do not look forward to being called back up to 40 days a year for training. This may include a physical fitness test or involve military manoeuvres under war like conditions (ie. lack of sleep, night training and movement, etc). Because of this reluctance to come back for training, the commanders look lackadaisical in front of the men. When the attitude is wrong, who will follow the leader?

This recent training became a breeding ground for commanders to maximize the pulling of their rank. When some of the commanders got their instructions wrong, they placed the blame on the men; When the commanders mis-counted the strength of the men, they blasted us; When the Officer wanted to make an example of someone, he picked a couple of unfortunate fellas, verbally abused them and made them stand in the sun or rain.

Yawn....juvenile tactics, perhaps, to display this certain officer's displaced authority in his home?

While our country has a strong citizens' army, the underlying current of suppressed mumurs are ever present --- 'Who will fight a war for Singapore?'; 'Hah? Go to war ah? I take a sampan and escape to Indonesia!'; ' Trust my officer in war? Yeah, trust my officer to take me to war to die!'

(by the way, it is my understanding that Officers in the US and Russian military go through 4 years of training before being commissioned as an officer. In Singapore, very fast ------ 9 months can oredi)

These comments will always be present to serve as a reminder that Singapore's strategic 'posion shrimp' position may backfire, unless its citizen army of Officers, Commanders and Men fights as a united front.

That being said, there were a few bright moments during training that made my day.

Initiative - my platoon mates, though low in educational qualifications, displayed great initiative during some of the training and did not instructions before doing what they needed to do.

United - When that certain officer wanted to make one of the soldiers look silly, he interrogated him with many questions such that they confused the poor soldier. Naturally, poor soldier could only offer answers in muted whimper. When officer asked us whether we could hear his answers audibly, we men roared back with a firm 'Yes', just so that we could spite officer.

Anyway, all said and done, I do have faith that as a nation, we will rise to the occasion. The history of mankind has shown this to be true. Above all, let us hope that war will never come to Singapore.