Dear Madam/Sir,

I REFER to “Military school, to curb delinquency” (Dec 6).

A military school will not meet the needs of our society, and will only result in us fighting fires as opposed to preventing them.

As part of my full-time National Service in 2002, I served as an instructor in the now-defunct Singapore Armed Forces Education Centre (SAFEC), the successor to the SAF Boys’ School.

SAFEC was an alternative educational pathway for the boys – not an institute to reform delinquent children per se.

The stories which many of the boys told me always had the same root cause: physically- or emotionally-absent parents.

The lack of parental guidance and supervision resulted in the wayward behaviour of the boys and therefore, their inability to focus on their studies.

This led to a vicious cycle of poor academic performance and further waywardness, resulting in them having to choose SAFEC over other less desirable options.

Hence, I agree with Mr Chua that the root cause of poor parenting is due to parental cluelessness and/or irresponsibility and should be dealt with in a commensurate and progressive manner as follows:

1. First, we as members of our individual communities need to take it upon ourselves to correct inappropriate behaviour, both on the parts of the parents we know, as well as their children.
2. Next, the ethnic and/or religious communities we belong to must step up to the plate by working with parents to implement parental-training clinics to instill appropriate values and understanding in our parents and parents-to-be.
3. Last but not least, the government can consider instituting compulsory, co-paid parental-training programmes via the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. While tax-payers need to acknowledge the sacrifice that parents make to contribute to our Total Fertility Rate, parents also need to acknowledge that their children are a responsibility that must not be shirked.

With these measures, youth will be placed on the right path from the onset, thereby removing some part of the present and future burden of having to “steer juvenile delinquents back to the right path”.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Laremy LEE (Mr)

(Published as “Put youth on the right path via parental involvement” on 8 Dec 2011 in TODAY.)

Picked up SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century by Ng Yi-Sheng and could not stop reading the book because the stories are so compelling.

Here’s a nugget that made me chuckle:

The word [that the interviewee was gay] spread higher and higher up the command chain until it reached my course commander, who was this Senior Warrant Office. He was this big Indian man, a really old-fashioned conservative fella, very regimental. Everything had to be in tiptop shape, our boots had to be shiny, our bunks had to be clean all the time, and he was always telling us, “Fucking hell. You all better run faster! You all so slow!”

I realised this could turn into something big, and I was really afraid for a while. But then once, during a lecture, he was saying, “The weekend’s coming. You all are booking out. Why don’t you all go get yourself a fuck? So how many of you got girlfriends?” Various hands went up. “Boyfriends?” Then everyone turned and looked at me, and I was thinking, “Shit you!”

Then the course commander said, “Why? What’s wrong? Why? Who’s anti-gay here?” A few people put up their hands. He pointed his finger and said, “Okay you. Get out of your seat. You also, get out. You go sit over there one corner. You all can form the anti-gay corner over there. (p. 133; emphasis mine)

Go read it if you haven’t already done so!

This is one of the downsides of not having a mobile data plan – being unable to share my very interesting thoughts (yeah, right) with all of you ON THE FLY.

However, the corollary of that would be permanent cyborgism i.e. if I had a mobile data plan, I’d probably be Tweeting and Facebooking non-stop like some of you losers (wei… just kidding).

So in no order of merit but in some order of chronology, here is what has happened over the last two days:

• Was travelling along Upper Thomson Road yesterday, on my way to Khatib Camp, when I went past Nee Soon Camp. Both sides of the road were lined with cars. I was like: WTF? Is there some large-scale mobilisation or something like that going on? Was simultaneously worried and intrigued at the same time.
• I realise I have a very deep fascination with military camps – so long as I’m not forced to have to stay in one.
• Military facilities e.g. camps, live firing areas, etc. in Singapore have some of the most beautiful architecture or scenery in the land but unfortunately, the majority of the people who have the privilege to appreciate this beauty are Philistines. Philistines, I tell you!
• I have a newfound love and appreciate for the word “Philistine”. Other words I love but rarely have a chance to use: zeugma, anthropomorphic and bond-free.
• On my way back from Khatib Camp, travelling along the same road, I discovered the reason for the rows of parked vehicles: Friday prayers!
• It’d be nice to work for PIONEER again. That way I can write and live out my concurrent fascination/repulsion for all things military in Singapore. (There are downsides to this but I shall not discuss them today.)
• I’ve finally learnt how to work the Closed Stacks system at the National Library. It may be a tad premature to make this judgement, but IMHO, the NUS Closed Stacks > National Library Closed Stacks system.
• In any case, the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library experience, much like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, has been quite good and user-friendly, so far. Good work, the two librarians – yes, you; the ones who Googled my name.
• I miss being a student! Somewhat.
• Munshi Abdullah is hilarious. For some good chucks, please read The Voyage of Abdullah (959.51 ABD).
• Popcorn. To be elaborated on in a future post (hopefully).

That is all. You may now express your adoration for me by clicking the ‘Like’ button below this post.

It feels like an eternity since I’ve posted anything, so maybe I’ll start with something short.

I wanted to share this with everyone but I was having an In-Camp Training which just ended two days ago.

In any case, I’ve finally been promoted – after six long years.

It doesn’t take so long for most people, but it was yet another example/reminder of my stupidly hilarious National Service life.

More details in my biography, to be released in about 50 years… LOL.

3:44:21 PM Laremy: hey
3:44:26 PM Laremy: wanted to ask you
3:44:31 PM Laremy: what is the ***[redacted: number of days]*** call-up for?
3:44:36 PM Melvin: lol
3:44:38 PM Melvin: ***[redacted: military activity]***
3:44:40 PM Laremy: oh
3:44:43 PM Laremy: i must go too?
3:44:58 PM Melvin: yah
3:44:59 PM Laremy: oh
3:45:07 PM Laremy: so even the ***[redacted: sub-unit]*** does ***[redacted: military activity]*** ?
3:45:13 PM Laremy: i thought we should be doing ***[redacted: more appropriate military activity IMHO]***
3:45:18 PM Melvin: yah so they say
3:45:32 PM Melvin: if nothing is done for us i will express disappointment
3:45:37 PM Laremy: how?
3:45:43 PM Laremy: shake your head and tsk very loudly ah?
3:45:44 PM Laremy: hahaha
3:45:52 PM Melvin: hahaha perhaps

Why? For context:

1. I think most people should know by now that I have a keen interest in issues that deal with the Singapore military and with National Service.
2. I’ve also been reading David Boey’s blog quite a bit.
3. Mr Wang’s latest post provided the impetus to write about something close to my heart.

So I was once a PIONEER writer too.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it didn’t happen during a posting while I was serving my NSF. I managed to score an internship with PIONEER under the Singapore Civil Service Internship Programme in the ‘summer’ of 2006.

According to Edgar Lee, one of the Senior Editors then, the choice was between myself and another girl. We weren’t shortlisted; we were just two kukubirds who were interested (or silly) enough to apply for that position.

Well, I thought I got it because I sounded earnest enough during the telephone interview. Actually, I got the gig because the other girl didn’t pick up her phone.

Oh, well.

The internship was one of the best things to ever happen in my life. I had just finished my second year of University, and was somewhere between being willing to write well and being able to write well.

I thought I was destined for academic mediocrity, but the stint at PIONEER was the turning point.

Being forced to write coherently – and consistently – helped me to see what I was doing wrong before, and provided me with more self-awareness when it came to improvement.

You can check out a list of the articles I wrote here. There is a distinct immaturity in each article but I improved at a very rapid pace.

To illustrate: this is the first article I wrote, this is an article from the second month of my internship, and this is the last article I wrote. See the difference?

Anyway, unlike many other people, I haven’t cancelled my PIONEER subscription.

I still read the magazine every month with a fervour: ripping open the plastic sheet that PIONEER comes wrapped in; devouring the publication from page to page.

Is it because I am a military nut? No. I follow what the SAF does  “out of a desire to ensure the system is accountable for the lives of Singaporeans who step forward to serve in uniform”.

That is my only motivation, and PIONEER provides me with one of the few links that I have to a military system that has much room for improvement.

In fact, PIONEER magazine itself provides the most apt example of the change that needs to happen.

The publication is a symbol of how the Singapore Armed Forces wants to portray itself – a glossy, polished, professional entity.

But silences speak the loudest words, and the features that are missing from PIONEER are the very same ills that plague the SAF.

For example, there are no critical commentaries from learned individuals that analyse and evaluate military policy. Neither is there a forum page for soldiers and citizens to air their views.

In spite of this, I will continue to subscribe to PIONEER.

I believe the day will come when more citizen/soldier involvement and engagement takes place. PIONEER, like Singapore and the SAF, has evolved slowly, but surely over the last few decades.

This evolution isn’t going to stop – unless something happens to derail progress, of course.

Change will happen, and I look forward to being able to thumb through an issue of PIONEER and feeling like it’s worth more than the forty cents per issue I’m paying now.

or caught the film yet:

I watched it last weekend and actually managed to finish reading the book in camp during periods of lull – while waiting for my turn at the firing range or for CAT 1s (inclement weather for the civilians) to clear.

I can’t stop thinking about the action and the plot during the small moments I have to myself. It’s a beautiful book and it’s a beautiful story, and I’m glad to have had the chance of experiencing both because I’ve learnt a bit more about love and life.

Sometimes, I wonder how I made it through 2.5 years of full-time National Service.

Just watched OTOT and I thought it was wonderful. Each of the four characters in Full Tank! remind me of someone I know from my NS days. Thank you for a good night.

~

…I guess people use the Army Daze thing because they have nothing to compare it to. If someone else wrote a play about transsexuals, the audience might compare it to Private Parts too.

That’s true. People are always looking for familiarity and something to relate to so they can make sense of the world. Hence the use of stereotypes, which we are both also guilty of using in our plays… Hehe

But as a friend of mine said, there is space in the hearts of most people here to accept another play about the NS experience. If people can’t open their hearts and minds enough to accept that OTOT is different, then they’re missing out on a lot.

NS is experienced by every person here (for every guy that enlists, his whole family and circle of friends go through it with him in their own way) – surely it deserves to be shared and celebrated in more ways and more plays than Army Daze!

P. S. If we’re getting this comparison now, think how terrible it must be for the next person who comes along and writes something about NS!