NS Cut

Read in the papers today that NS has been cut by 6 months, which means that the “air level” NSFs don’t have to serve those extra 6 months which have given so much mirth to the “hokkien pengs” (who only serve two years). One of the purported reasons for this reduction in the hard labour sentence is that the SAF now relies more heavily on technological expertise than on sheer manpower.

Now, while the Apache helicopter, the Primus mobile big gun thingie and the pride-and-joy-of-the-SAF SAR 21 may represent war craft at its best, it’s not until you step into your HQ’s office, flick on the PC and find that it’s running Windows 95 that you know your self-indulgent defence force is truly on the cutting-edge of technology.

Another reason stated in the papers for the reduction is higher education levels. This explains why the “Join the Army” propaganda ad plastered on the front of double-decker buses needs to inform the target audience that “The Mud on My Face is Soil… Our Soil”. Wow, what advanced R&D lab did the SAF use to discover that? A helpful tip, the other ingredient is most likely to be water.