Death in NS has always been a big issue that cannot be ignored. Thanks to Internet forums, the authorities may be worried about not divulging it in the media. (At least the good, reliable mainstream media won't be . . . hostile. ) On the other hand, it also seems to me that NS deaths must never become to big an issue at least in the mainstream media. At least I think no one working for the mainstream media will try to kick up a Mas Selamat fuss about NS deaths.

NS deaths are a threat to the powers that be. It is not whether there was negligence or not. After all, there are always, to use Catherine Lim's words, "little people" to blame, charge or discharge (unfortunate lame pun intended). NS deaths pose a threat because every time it happens, it could stir people's repressed sentiments towards the very policy of NS, towards compulsory conscription, towards the whole myriad of issues that NS raises, including how local men are disadvantaged by NS in various ways such as employment.

Compulsory conscription is an atrocity against mankind. This is my personal opinion. The state may decide to have a military, but it should not have the right to decide who to draft. In Singapore, I feel that it is an atrocity against mankind. I don't usually use the word "mankind" here, but since it most directly affects men, I thought the term would be nice. In every country, there are prohibitions. I mean, there are rules everywhere that tell you what you shouldn't do. Sometimes, these rules are repressive (e.g. if there is a law saying that you cannot criticize the government, it is repressive). But the most horrifying rules are those that say what you must do--rules that, instead of preventing you from doing something, tell you to do something. Perhaps these rules can be minor. But the worst of these rules violate basic liberties of people.

NS is not one of these must-do rules. It is many of them put together. You must register for NS. You must serve NS. You must take fitness tests. And so on. There are so many musts. Each one of them is already bad enough in itself. Put them together and you have an orgy of horrors.

Imagine what happens if one day there is a rule saying that all fertile women are obliged to be impregnated by men (or some sperm-injecting machine), that it is their responsibility to ensure that they give birth to the babies safely (otherwise they would be charged), that they have to bring up the bodies they give birth to for 21 years.

Oh, that won't happen. Such things are only found in dystopian fictions such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. But the truly disturbing aspect of dystopian fictions is that they are often set in the future, but they parallel contemporary horrors.

Who says that it is not possible for a law requiring women to be impregnated? The exact justification for NS can be used. The word I hate most in public discourse: necessity. NS is necessary because . . .

And given the ageing population and declining birth rate, the law requiring all fertile women to get themselves impregnated is necessary because Singapore will not be able to survive without more babies and there will be economic decline. We need to protect and maintain Singapore's way of life and it is therefore necessary for women, as citizens of Singapore who are born with wombs, to do their part. Defaulters have to be severely punished. Over the years, people have come to accept that the policy is necessary and important - for this thing we call Singapore.. It has become accepted as a rite of initiation for every Singaporean woman whereby girls become women.

Singapore is a small (yada yada) island and is vulnerable (yada yada), so National Service is necessary because the economy will suffer. We need to protect and maintain Singapore's way of life and it is therefore necessary for men, as citizens of Singapore who are born with penises, to do their part. NS defaulters have to be severely punished. Over the years, people have come to accept that NS is necessary and important for Singapore. It is a rite of initiation for every Singaporean man whereby boys become man.

Stuppid cliches.

There is primarily no difference in the two scenarios except that people's weak minds have been conditioned to see them as different. The horror is that no one finds it horrifying. OK, not no one. Just too few. This is just a personal opinion. Slam me if you wish. I doubt I will change my mind about it.

But of course people will hate Molly for saying things like that. How irresponsible! How insensible! How ignorant of the harsh realities of the world! Singapore will be attacked if we don't have NS. And and ... the nation will suffer.

I don't care.

I don't fucking care.

Even if there are undesirable consequences, there is no reason to oppress people, to deny them of the right to choose. You can't tell a segment of society to be sacrificial lambs just because it is deemed necessary for some ridiculously valorized ends. You can't say that just because I'm born with a womb, I have a duty to get pregnant because if I don't, there will be Bad Result X. What if I would rather suffer the possibility of Bad Result X than be raped, abused and treated as a means to an end - and end up being disadvantaged by it? You can't say that you are raping me for my own good.

There is absolutely no acceptable justification for oppression. If you want babies, you jolly well let people make babies out of their own free will.If you want a military, by all means have one. But let people join it out of their own free will.

Ah, ah, ah. Molly is joining the ranks of those people like Chee Soon Juan, always talking about abstract things like rights, freedoms, liberties. Tsk. Tsk. Not in touch with the ground. Must talk about bread and butter issues.

Fuck bread and butter. Wait till something that really matters to you gets taken away from you by law. Just wait till you are required by law to become a free whore. (I don't even want to use the word "prostitute" here.) The violence of conventional wisdom. The horror...

Why must people be conscripted against their will? Why must people be conscripted against their will, with the knowledge that a few random ones would die? "Despite thorough health screening, safety measures and medical support in training, such deaths 'cannot be completely prevented', he [Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean] said then." ("SAF suspends physical training for three days", Straits Times, June 13 2008) Yes, they can't be completely prevented. So?

Half the population has to be conscripted. They have to be conscripted knowing that they might just be the unlucky (or lucky?) ones to die. It doesn't matter when one takes risks willingly. But it matters when they have no choice but to take the risk.

The NATION vs. the individual

How selfish it is for people to put their individual interests before the interests of the nation.

Men have a responsibility to protect their mothers, their women, their children.

Women have a responsibility to be impregnated.

Governments have a responsibilities to respect individuals as individuals and not treat them as pawns to achieve a supposed good for the nation.

OK, no one will be caught dead saying the last sentence in the context of NS. No one except irresponsible, irrational and subversive bloggers.

Perhaps that's where people call it their responsibility to be irresponsible. No one is forcing them to, at least.

What is Singapore's glitter, its economic growth, its prosperity built with? The ashes of dead soldiers who never got to choose whether to "sacrifice" or not? The bones of the most unwilling modern-day slaves (paid an "allowance")? No wonder Singapore ghost stories are always so popular and NS ghost stories are a sub-genre that is especially well-liked.

I heard of the story (probably grossly distorted from real events) of the Tekong Charlie Company recruit who strayed from his company. The most intriguing version of the tale is the evisceration version. (Everyone wants to adapt a version of horror for himself.) One version of this version: there was a head miscount during a route march and the recruit was left behind; by the time he was found, he was dead. With his internal organs placed beside his body - neatly. Some versions may suggest the work of a pontianak. And I think there are versions about how the recruit haunted his bunk: rumbling cupboards, etc. Eventually, the bunk was converted to a lecture room and a third door built to ease his spirit's passage into the next world.

The best army ghost stories are really charming. There are a mixture of horror and mournfulness. They often reek of an inexplicable sense of irrecoverable loss. And irony. In the evisceration story, the organs could have been arranged by a commando pontianak. She lays the organs neatly (probably there is a standard layout to follow). Scary and funny at the same time, this perhaps unintentional parody of military regimentation. Skeletons in the closet. We must suppress. We must repress. Build a third door. Send the ghost away so that we can continue life as per normal. An allegory of how we get worried and critical each time a soldier dies and how we will eventually open a third door in our hearts to send him away? Goodbye. I'm sorry, but we have get back to our (ab)normal lives, to building our economy. We cannot afford to have you around. We have to remember that NS is necessary and good for us. The state will triumph.

Pity those who are somehow unable to open a third door in their hearts or their minds. No one believes them when they talk about ghosts.

The fuss about the two NS deaths this week is already on its way to the third door, which will disappear the moment it has served its purpose.

Goodbye.

There's nothing wrong with Singapore.

Despite being a small island with no natural resources, we have managed to overcome difficulties and become a developed country.

There are no ghosts in this country.

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"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive." (C S Lewis)

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