[Defending the Lion City] "What the army taught me about the rights I have in S’pore"

Fresh recruits at Tekong

Written by Goody Feed Team

I still remember clearly the day that I first stepped into Puala Tekong: I knew once I was there, I’d lose many things, from my pink IC to my hair and most importantly, my freedom. I was expecting a regimental lifestyle for the next two years, but the first three months took me by surprise.

Called the Basic Military Training, or BMT for short, I felt like I had lost all my rights as a human being: I’d have to ask permission for almost anything, my cupboard had to be arranged in a way that I didn’t want it to be and I had to follow whatever instructions passed down from my instructors.

Some of them could be pretty unreasonable—we were told to crawl in a watery mud, and later realized the mud was not created by any rain, but by instructors who poured water on the ground.

During admin time (break time), we would sit together and complain, but we knew one thing: we were treated that way because we must earn our rights, not ask for it.

Soon, things became better. One of our instructors, close to the end of our BMT, came into our bunk and told us about life after BMT. “Things would be better,” he said. “You’re experiencing this because you need to have suffered the worst and build up to be a stronger soldier.”

He was right—in training schools after BMT, we got to grow our hair, we got more freedom and we were treated more like “humans”. After passing out from our training schools and turning ops, I finally understood everything.

I had not lost my rights right from the start. I was just learning how to earn them back again, because eventually, three months would pass, two years would pass and I’ll have my rights back.

You see, what I’m trying to tell every reader is this: there’re certain rights that you hold on to, but very often, we might have forgotten the simple fact that although we have it, we haven’t earned it yet. I want a good job with a high pay, and I’ve got it with an interview plus a good degree, but that’s just some rights that I’ve got—unless I go and earn it (prove myself in my job), I’ll still lose that.

It’s pretty easy for us to devalue something that is given to us and not earned. Some of us like to just demand respect instead of earn it. Some of us just want to get something without working for it.

Sometimes, I wonder: haven’t NS taught them some lessons about earning your rank instead of wearing your rank?

So next time, when you go for a job interview, remember this: don’t just say you get the job. Say you’ve got past the first stage, and now, you’re earning the rights to the job.

Source:  http://www.goodyfeed.com/what-the-army-taught-me-about-the-rights-i-have-in-spore/