I'm not sure if servicemen from other units feel the same way, but at least in my unit, it seems that the officers always think that the men are always trying to find ways to slack, while the men always think that the officers will only throw the physical work to them while they themselves sit inside their air-conditioned office and slack.
Had a chat with Jia Wei, who is a commisioned officer, that night regarding this issue. Does he really think that men are always trying to slack? Yes and no, he claims. Yes, because he has seen many cases of men who tried to "chao keng" (malinger). No, because he understands and their mentality and doesn't blame them for that.
"They'll do only the bare minimum. After all, they are only NSFs being paid a measly amount of allowance a month. They don't see a need for them to work extra hard."
Is such mentality justifiable? National Service is supposed to instill a sense of loyalty and belonging to the coutry, but ironically and truthfully speaking, most of us don't feel that way. Many of us try so hard to acquire a downgrade in their PES status so that they need not serve their National Service in a physically-demanding vocation, or to evade coming back in future for in-camp training. Many of us bear so many grudges against the relevant authorities for making us "waste two years of our time". Many of us just want to "serve and fuck off", equating National Service to a debt that we incurred to Singapore the moment we are born in this country.
The fact is, no one is willing to serve National Service.
We certainly did not choose to go through National Service, and neither is there any form of attractive monetary incentives to motivate us. We are merely men. We take instructions. We have no say in a lot of things. We have no honour. We are treated like dogs because our supreriors only know how to push work to us. So why should we be obliged to put in our best?
That's our mentality.
Now, if we examine how the officers feel. They go through 9 months of course at Officer Cadet School (OCS). 3 weeks of confinement at the start, followed by unknown amounts of surprise SOL, confinements and burnt weekends from various training activities, weekly outfields, monstrous physical trainings, jungle survival, navigation courses in terrains where comfort seems like an urban myth, erratic bookout timings.
9 months of that. It's probably like the male equivalent to pregnancy.
So when they get comissioned, it's time to compensate them. They get to stay out if they want to, they have their own messing lounge, they are well-paid (comparatively speaking to NSF men), they get their own office cubicle, they get respect (even 50 year-old Warrant Offciers have to address them as "Sir").
So they also get to order people around, delegate jobs, issue out instructions which people must follow lest they get charged with insubordination.
And no longer are they needed to perform physical labour in their new unit after commissioning. They got men to do it, so their new task is to supervise.
And that's where my bone of contention arises. Should the officers lead by example and help his men, or should he be compensated for all the "sufferings" he had been through?
I brought up this issue to my platoon commander before. He argued that (and so do my platoon sergeants) different-ranked soldiers have got different job scopes. The officers have got a lot of admin and logistics issues to worry about. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes action going on, especially during an exercise. So while he's preparing all this stuff, we are responsible to do the physical work. Or rather, while we are doing our work, he has no time to come and help us.
The next day when we are preparing to move out for our exercise, we saw him having his breakfast and smoking with the other regulars at the Officers' Mess.
That's besides the point. Now, if we agree on the point that officers deserve their post-commissioning "entitlement" to compensate for their hardwork, must we therefore accept the fact that men should continue to do all these physical work (sometimes more affectionately known as "sai gang", literally shit job) and even accept the fact that their officers are not obliged to help them because the men themselves did not go through any form of trainings tougher than what the officers had went through, and so this is a form of compensation?
Perhaps that's why the officers are thinking when they arrow "sai gang" to his men.
They did not go through tougher training than me, so it's only fair for them to do these work, the offciers may think.
And when men resents doing these "sai gang", the officers view it as another attempt to slack off. Maybe the officer himself is truly a "garang soldier", perhaps he's just feeling unfair that how some NSFs can get away so easily without doing much in National Service.
Whatever that is, there's a rift between the officers and the men, which I think is worth exploring for both the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the academic. SAF can look into how to build a stronger working relationship and foster a stronger bond between the officers and his men, which is vital if we want our forces to have a high morale.
The academics can look at how people behave and respond when they are given different positions of power, probably through the perspectives of psychology and sociology.
For me, it's only six more months before I can stop doing all these "sai gang".
Death Age: 82