My name is CPL Marcus Choo from SCDF HQ 1st CD Division, Public Affairs Branch. I ORDed about 6 months back. The reason, I am writing this article is to share my experience as a NSF which resulted in losing my patriotism for Singapore. Before I serve my NS, I always thought I will be serving my country with pride, but my experience changed that. I am not talking about The Ex Commisioner Peter Lim, but my Officers. Most of them have no integrity or sense of responsibility and are unable to do work assign to them.
The following points are based on my opinion and point of view.
1)My Officers Attendance.
Their attendance is absolutely terrible, not only they can't come to work on time but unable to account for their attendance.
One of my officer a Sergeant, lets name him S can't seem to come to work at the stipulated time of 0830hrs. His reason is because he is not a NSF but a regular. Since all regular are a Public Servant and carrying a PS card where is there integrity as a uniformed officer and public servant? But he sign in at the attendance book before 0830hrs. My thought is since you are not a NSF, why are you afraid to state your actual time of arrival at camp?
The other Officer a Staff Sergeant, Lets name him L. L disappear most of the time from office. Even if he come to work , he will come around 1000hrs. He instructs us each day to switch on his computer to give the appearance he is in work. Same as S, their attendance book stated otherwise.
Not only them, who can't account for their attendance, but other officers as well.
2) Petrol Claim Form.
In order for their petrol claim to be valid, they have to travel to work, let's say point A and to other location where their Attendance is required . For example a site reccee for our exhibition. Lets say this is point B. In order for the claim to be valid, they have to return to camp . But this is not what they did, they return home, and state in the claim form they return office.
3)Unable to do simple work assign to them.
Some of them, are simply not interested in doing work to them . Remember L, in point 1. He is not interested in doing work assign to him, he simply pushes all his work to the NSF and this result in great discrepancy in the work done. As a result he gets his performance bonus each year for doing nothing.
This are a few, reasons why I lost faith in Singapore and lost my patriotism for Singapore. Enough is enough and the people need to know the truth. Lets look at the Definition of National service under the National Service Act:
“National service” means service under Part III in the armed forces and service in such other force, body or organisation as the Minister may designate for this purpose by notification in the Gazette.
Our rights to be heard is still available. There is no where mention that I have to give up all my rights. If such a sentence exist, kindly point it out to me.
Marcus Choo
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