Basket.

It's been a rough week. As they forewarned us, time became more precious a commodity than it ever had been for me. Yesterday night was particularly bad; after suffering through punishment and sai-kang (shit job, literally) I had ten minutes to change out of full uniform, boots and all, shower, change into my sleeping attire, tidy my area and then jump into bed, failing which I would be hauled up again for not sleeping on time. I made it, amazingly enough. If I was to totter up the total number of push-ups I did during the week, it would go to around 200 or more; 40 alone today. My section mate reached the century mark in one day.

The irony is that in attempting to ensure our welfare, MINDEF is actually making things worse. Take, for example, the strict requirement of seven hours of uninterrupted sleep. The lights out timing of 10.30pm is so strictly observed (because our superiors will get it if it isn't) that we have little time to do all the stuff we need to do. And no prizes for guessing what would happen if, the next day, what needs to be done is not done: we get fucked. So what is the solution in this case? Wake up at 5am or so to get everything done. And in the end, do we get the "seven hours of uninterrupted sleep" the SAF so sonorously proclaims as part of its "Care for Soldiers" core value?

For sure, a lot of things are rotten in the military. But the main disease is the so-called Eighth SAF Core Value: "Cover your own ass". Everyone is basically trying to do that all the time, from the CO to the MO right down to the sergeants and of course, I am not ashamed to admit it, us. I'll just say they don't actually give a fuck for your well-being - only their own. Because HQ ties their well-being to yours. And why does HQ do this? Because HQ will get hell from the population if they don't, and manpower is the SAF's best asset. It's all very cynical and calculative. The lieutenant-general and the lowliest pond scum of a recruit share a common aim: to avoid getting fucked.

The result is that, despite one of the Seven Core Values being "Ethics", there is a distinct lack of honesty in the SAF. The books and videos they show pre-enlistees are honeyed words of deceit. It's all one big show. I really wouldn't mind sweeping roads despite being sick and on medical status, but I dislike the fact that they hide us all whenever parents come along on their tours, and how the sergeants put on plastic masks of kindness on Enlistment Day. Or how loopholes in the punishment guidelines actually allow them to fuck us harder than they should be doing. Not to mention how much safety is emphasised in huge posters and signs but we are forced to run down slippery stairs to meet cutthroat fall-in timings.

I'm certainly not hating the military for this, and I did not write this because the week was so tough. I was prepared for things to get worse. The military always has a function in any sovereign nation-state, and I understand that the only way for Singapore to raise a significant armed force is through conscription. It's just that something is rotten in the military, like in most of Singapore society even - all they want is "face". To put on a good show. Only appearances matter.