The nightmare of the iron rice bowl

The nightmare of the iron rice bowl

Originally posted by Ernie25:

I ORD on 1/1/07 after a 6yrs bond with the SAF as a infantry Leader or as a NCO. Join Army because of the JPSDS (join poly scheme) program to finance my studies.

After my 'O' levels which was about 10yrs ago, I got a job in the factory as a machine operator earning 1.5k from 3-11pm. Few months after leaving the Army (had some savings) , I started looking for some jobs as sales co-ordinator and other sales post but was only offered $1.5k due to the lack of experience. A company I went to from the refer of a job agent said that the job market value from the job agent is only $1.5k-$1.6k for fresh ploy grads where I was asking for 1.8k (I didn't show them my education background). It is sad as in the factory job I had which need no experience or education can land me on a $1.5k where now after 10 years a job with my diploma land me on a 1.5k also. I thought that only a sales job can land me back to where my pay was at but the so call market rate made me very disappointed.

A friend of mine who left the RSAF 10years ago had a job of a tech for $1.5 with his poly dip and now another friend of mine also a dip holder just got a job also as a tech for 1.8k. To me its like our average chicken rice have rised from $2 to $3 for the pass 10yrs and the starting pay have not increased 33% but lower.

It sad to me that after having a last drawn pay of almost close to 3k that I was push down to getting 1.5k by the employer. Some may say that who ask me to sign on in the first place, but there is little choice at that time for me in order to make ends meet. Some guys was laughing at me when I said I was offered 1.5k as a diploma student, they said that they have yet to hear 1.5k for such a long time.

If you guys have notice that I had only gone through a 6 yrs contract and not a 10yrs PP plan. Some friends had advised me to go through for another 4yrs with it at the end i will get a bigger sum of money. My greatest fear came true as in last year, many at age 30+ and 40+ warrants were given golden hand shakes. Although they did get a sum of compansion but how long are they going to surive with all their commitments and pay cut if they work outside. Moreover if I do not get the PP2 which is the fear of most young regulars now the age of me coming out of the force will be even older.

Have anyone seen under performing regulars getting PP2 and performing regulars not getting, this maybe personal views. BUT there is some rumor that someone asked CPC the reason and they said 'we need good people to be on the top and some to be on the bottom, if everyone we take are good than who is going to be on the bottom?'.

8-9yrs ago when the PP1 was introdued everyone in the force was offered the chance to convert from contact to PP1 or 2. I didn't believe in the 10years PP1 and was called in for an interview. In interview I spoke to a captain or a major which I can't remember, he said that PP2 will be offered to most people if they don't make major mistake and maintain performance during their service and ask me why I won't want to take up the plan. I reply that I believe that I be earning better when I go out from the force and that 3-5k is not enough for me. He looked a bit angry and told me that he believe that he will can get about 1/2 a million in his account when he leave the force at age 45.

Today I feel a bit pettiful for the young officer that his 1/2 a million may not be as good as he think, due to the last 10 years the performance of the fund was not doing that well and he maybe the next one been offer the golden hand shake.

I never regrat for spending my 6yrs in the SAF, after all they paid full for my 3yrs of study in poly. Anyway I did enjoy the job sometimes esp when I'm getting paid better than most of my schoolmates. But the idea of not having a iron rice bowl in the force and maybe broken after the 4yrs is too much for me to bear.

In my memory there was a CDF or COA who visited my camp for some Q&A some years back . A question was ask by a platoon sgt,
'Sir, is there a scheme for the specialist for a degree course which we can take and be sponcer by the SAF.'
'no, we do not need degree specialist in the force, a poly diploma is enough for the specialist.'
'Sir, can we go on unpaid leave?'
'no, its like you can't go for unpaid leave and leave your appoint and have someone replacing you. When you come back where is that person going to go? Just like me I have a masters but I always wanted to go for my doctorate. Someone must take out my place in my absents but when I come back what the person going to do?'

As it been years back I can't remember word to word but thats the idea of the conversation. That point of time maybe the force don't really need a degree specialist but it be always good for anyone to upgrade. We have so many people waiting to be a platoon sgt and we can replace him anytime with someone after his tour. A senior officer is not so easily replaceable esp when he is a COA or CDF even after his tour.

Pls excuse me for many spelling and grammar mistake, had not been practicing much after leaving school. Now I had found a sales job with a even lower basic pay as what was stated above but with very high commission. I hope that some people can learn from my story. PLS DO NOT ASK ME WHERE I GET MY RUMORS FROM AND WHO TOLD ME WHAT. If you think that its just another story I made up then just forget it and treat it as some junk.

MINDEF takes PM Lee's son to task for contravening orders

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

---

The email that was sent out can be viewed (albeit with some names edited away) on tomorrow.sg

PM's son's army gaffe and why we have to worry

Taken from here:

PM's son's army gaffe and why we have to worry

Read this from the HardwareZone's forums and confirmed the story with a friend in the military. A few bloggers have blogged about it too.

2LT Lee Hong Yi, better known as PM Lee's son, had fired off an e-mail within the military network lambasting the "quality of leadership" in the SAF to the top brass, including the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Force.

He had done it after being punished for an error that was largely not his.

What was his fault, however, was involving just about the entire military force of Singapore in this one small matter of his, by addressing the e-mail to entire battalions of people. Committed by an ordinary serviceman, the offence would have warranted a formal military charge - and in an officer's case, his rank may be stripped.

Nothing so far (or so I hear) has been done to 2LT Lee, save that the Commanding Officer of his unit gave a speech to the entire unit the next day about "following the chain of command".

While one might argue that the e-mail comes from the military intranet and should not have been circulated in the general public (i.e. in HardwareZone), 2LT Lee surely could not have expected the matter not to leak out when he addressed it to so many people, most of them National Servicemen rather than full-time regulars.

If you looked through the thread, what's worrying is not the blatant abuse of family ties, by a person who is highly likely to take up an important position in our society in future.

Neither is it the fact that he is being given favourable treatment on two counts: first, the lack of punishment for his offence, and second, his pending disruption from the army (which he mentioned in the article), despite not being bonded under a government scholarship, which, as far as I know, is the only official way of obtaining disruption.

And of course, it's definitely not the "quality of leadership" in the SAF that 2LT Lee questioned that worries me.

No, it is the perceptible sense of fear in the Hardwarezone thread where the topic was discussed. No one dared to give the full details: one had to sieve through several pages of the thread before getting the full picture. Nicknames like "Bored Dragon" and "Golden bar" were given to the persons involved. There were even warnings given by concerned forum members about the ISD and MSD surveilling the thread.

If it were in other democratic countries like the US, such an incident would have been a scandal and generated a media frenzy. Questions would be asked about his conduct and his suitability for an important position in future. The public would have a field day airing their views on his actions.

What would have been the effect? 2LT Lee would learn a painful lesson in humility, and the transparency of the government would be highlighted, because they did not shield even the son of the most important official when he had done wrong.

The resulting fire of the public would simmer and die down, and the public would have been satisfied that their views were heard and their indignation expressed. That fire would have been a cleansing one.

Instead, the entire deed is hushed up. The original thread on HardwareZone was deleted. But perhaps the worst thing of all is that the public is censoring itself. People dare not to speak up about the topic.

Instead of fire, the incident is met only with self-defeat and fear. The public has lost its voice and its own opinion, and surrendered its position as the main critic of the government. And as we know, the local media surrendered its own position a long time ago.

It shouldn't be this way.

Governments should fear people, not the other way round.

It's just a minor incident - after all, there've been worse offences committed by officers in the SAF - but it speaks of a larger, darker, and insiduous problem.

"It does not do to rely too much on silent majorities, Evey, for silence is a fragile thing...one loud noise, and it’s gone...Noise is relative to the silence preceding it - the more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap.- V, V for Vendetta

Errata: Li Hongyi does have the PSC Overseas scholarship, my bad.