MINDEF, SAF investigating boast on how Singaporean avoided serving NS
The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are investigating claims made by an unidentified person on Facebook that he was able to discharge himself from national service (NS) by feigning a mental illness.
On Friday, a submission posted on the independently-run Facebook page “SAF Confessions” claimed that an enlistee to Singapore’s compulsory conscription programme was successful in discharging himself from it by pretending to be mentally ill.
In a status on the Singapore Army Facebook page on Sunday afternoon, they described the lengthy brag as “regrettable”.
“His dishonesty undermines our system of managing servicemen who genuinely suffer from mental illness. This (serviceman) had taken the care and consideration given to him by the SAF for granted. The SAF is looking into this matter,” said the statement, while stressing that proper care and assistance will continue to be given to servicemen with genuine psychological conditions.
In the post, the anonymous author, who signed off as “A PES F-ed Recruit”, said he was successfully diagnosed with depression after visiting the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) a year before he was due for enlistment “to build up a case to down PES (physical employment status)”.
“True enough, I got downgraded to E9L9 from A,” he wrote. “To me, my business and career is more important than NS. We can leave the NS to those who aim just to be a mediocre person in life… I was not going to give up my freedom for a national duty.”
The writer claimed he avoided shaving his head by curling up into a ball and sobbing as loud as he could, and that he only spent an hour in camp throughout his entire NS life. After that, he “started a spree of MCs (medical certificates) from hospital A&Es (accident and emergency departments) and polyclinics”, ranging from one to five days in length.
After escaping military police and civilian police visits, he said he checked himself into IMH once again and claimed he wished to kill people in army uniform. This, he adds, secured him an appointment with an SAF psychiatrist, who gave him “the most honourable award the SAF can issue”: PES F, which essentially declares a person unfit for service, and a two-month MC that exempted him from returning to camp while the status change was being processed.
“They said it was impossible to PES F and avoid hair cuts, but I did it nonetheless. So go out and get your PES F and let the world see,” the author concluded.
The post received more than 260 likes and 240 shares by Monday, with more than 280 comments, many of which were from readers doubting his story or criticising his actions.
“I always believe that if you fail your duty to serve your nation, you probably won’t last in the business world or even as a salaryman,” wrote Sam Mauris Yong. “Good luck to your ‘business’,” he added.
“NS is a challenge, yet you cheated and lied your way out of it,” wrote another user named Zacqary Chan. “This tells me one thing: that when push comes to shove, you run away from the difficulty. You cannot be depended on. I pity your family when crisis strikes.”
Comments on the SAF’s Facebook page expressed anger at the writer’s story as well, with even National University of Singapore computer science professor Ben Leong urging the army to “throw him into DB (detention barracks) for a couple of years”, should the person’s story be true.
The “SAF Confessions” page allows contributors to post anonymous “confessions” on a Google spreadsheet for an administrator to pick up and post for public viewing. The page, in its description, says it is not affiliated with MINDEF or the SAF.
