MINDEF takes PM Lee's son to task for contravening orders
By S Ramesh/Gamar Abdul Aziz, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 12 July 2007 2348 hrs
SINGAPORE: The Defence Ministry has formally charged and reprimanded a full-time National Service officer after he contravened orders by broadcasting a letter of complaint to other servicemen.
Second Lieutenant Li Hongyi, who is a son of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, had apparently sent an email to the Defence Minister to lodge a complaint against another serviceman.
2LT Li is believed to have copied the email to other servicemen who are not directly under his command and are not in an official capacity to deal with the matter.
His action has been a subject of several on-line discussions here.
MINDEF says there are proper channels within the SAF to address grievances or concerns.
And in this incident, 2LT Li is said to have written a complaint against another officer whom he alleged had been absent without leave on two occasions.
According to a statement by MINDEF, 2LT Li had also said in his letter that he had reported the matter to the officer's supervisors but disciplinary action had not been carried out.
MINDEF adds that arising from 2LT Li's complaint, an investigation was conducted and appropriate disciplinary action has been meted out to the officers concerned.
The officer who was found to have been absent without leave will be court-martialled.
Two supervising officers have been issued warning letters for poor judgement in administering inappropriate disciplinary action.
MINDEF says to maintain organisational discipline, all SAF servicemen with complaints or grievances should take them up through proper channels for redress.
This is to ensure due process and to protect confidential information.
All complaints which are not anonymous are investigated and dealt with properly. - CNA/ir
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The email that was sent out can be viewed (albeit with some names edited away) on tomorrow.sg
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Two supervising officers were issued letters of warning for administering inappropriate punishment.
Think about that.
This means at least two senior officers were aware of the problem and had decided to ignore 2LT Li Hongyi’s complaint.
If 2LT Li had followed the “proper channel”, what makes you think the 3rd senior officer up the chain of command will do anything?
MINDEF needs to clarify what it means by “proper channels”.
Will Li Hongyi be charged if he merely sent his letters to everyone directly above him (ie, Defense Minister, CDF, CoA, Chief Signal Officer, etc)?
The problem with that approach is that all these senior guys may still decide to ignore his complaint. What can he do then? In my opinion, his letter to everyone (including the unit storemen, cook, etc) directly causes the AWOL LTA to be court-martialed.
Cos the SAF leaders are now aware that justice must be seen to be done. Otherwise, they cannot no longer maintain effective discipline among the men.
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