Is it sufficient to check physical training procedures?
Last week, after the incidents of the NS Men on duty, I wrote my opinions while they were still fresh in my mind. Somehow, the next morning, my blog was infected with a virus that caused me to restore my page to an earlier backup, losing that post. How coincidental.
Nevertheless, I read the papers in amusement as Mindef conducted their useless checks on procedures of physical training. Check? Are you kidding. Would the officers be so dumb to keep records of how they punished the soldiers? I have a friend from the same batch of the guy who died in BMTC and learned from him that running activities are still on even when it’s supposed to be a complete halt of physical training.
And as I have said in the lost post, checking on physical training is bullshit. The problem lies with CMPB. The way they conduct the medical screening is utterly ridiculous. The medics are so complacent with the checks that sometimes they do not bother checking properly. For example, for urine tests, they do not even check the strips. Electrocardiogram tests were nonsense as well. I was repeatedly told to redo my tests until I passed. What kind of crap is that? Any medically trained professional would not do such a thing. I was given a PES C1L1 when my doc specifically stated no combat + no IPPT. If not because CMPB had been dragging my enlistment since the day I returned to Singapore, I wouldn’t even accept this to enter the service as soon as possible.
I would therefore urge Mindef to study the situation from ground level up to prevent further misfortunes from happening. Deepest condolences to the families of our men who passed on in service.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
how do u study the situation from ground level? NS men are just there to serve their time off in CMPB, they wont be so stringent as to whether ur tests pass or fail.
imho, deaths cannot be avoided when it comes to NS. there is bound to be injuries, there will surely be deaths. important thing to note is that feedback from soldiers should be taken more seriously.
MOs should not disregard soliders’ injuries by thinking that people geng all the time and send them back to the battle field. yes many ppl geng but then its cuz of ignoring those that are really injured that causes all these “accidents”
June 17th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
That’s exactly why people are dying. Complacency has been an issue these days with government organizations. Deaths could be avoided. This is not a time of war. If proper measures were taken, why should there be deaths? In my opinion, to train our men to the extent that deaths could not be avoided is ridiculous in this era of “press a button and off to the other world you go”.