No NS deferment for violinist Ike
Poor Ike. He will have to go thru NS like every other guy, and forgo what might be the best thing that ever happened to him. I have this to say to him. Blame Melvyn Tan. If not for him and the furore he caused with his famous $3000 fine for draft dodging, I dare say that Ike will have a much better chance of getting the deferment he craved.To be fair, I believe no matter what the Ministry of Defence did, there will always still be people that will disagree with them. If the ministry allowed the deferment, no doubt there will be accusations that the Melvyn Tan incident has not caused the Ministry to 'wisen up', yet now that the Ministry decides to uphold its stance, people are accusing them instead of not being flexible, not contributing to Singapore's art scene. Its really a difficult job for them to perform.
Personally, I was one of those that was incensed by what Melvyn Tan did, and how lightly he got away with it. $3000, plus whatever it is that his parents managed to cough up as collateral to buy the blood, sweat and tears that I and thousands of other singaporean males have to put up with. It mocks the system in that those rich enough can just pay money as their way of 'national service'. No doubt coming back to serve the army might cause him to miss a chance of his lifetime, but many of us had our 'chance of a lifetime' taken away through national service, albeit not all of our 'chance of a lifetime' would make us world-reowned but I believe that was besides the point. For someone in the lower income class, their chance of a lifetime might have come in the form of a job offer for a stable job paying enough to lift the family out of the proverty trap. It might not mean anything much to rich asses like Melvyn nor does it make him famous, but can you not agree that it is that person's chance of a lifetime that might not come again at any other point of time? Why should another person be given preferential treatment just because he is richer, or precieved by the society to be more 'gifted' or smarter? It doesn't seem fair to me. I firmly believe that every individual should be treated equally regardless of race, language, religion, social class, or even his intelligence. As long as he is a Singaporean, he deserved to be treated as one.
My point is, yes, I pity that Ike have to suffer for the mistakes of someone else. But then again, he really might just turn out like Melvyn Tan, we never know. In this case, I applaud the decision by the Ministry of Defence to preserve the idea of equity among all males for once (remember the white horses?)
Tough luck Ike, but thats life, its never fair. They say army makes you a man, see, you are already starting to learn even before you are enlisted. :)
posted by Nutcracker @ 12:45 am
2 Comments:
I've generally noticed that the boys in NUS are often more capable and accomplish more than the girls, by virtue of having been in army for two years. Some people seem to find that in the long run, it's much easier to just get things over with.
From my own personal experiences, army really does help a person grow. I used to dread going in initially, I still think 2.5 yrs was a waste of time, 2 yrs now is just about right I guess.
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