A VETERAN warrant officer from the Singapore Armed Forces collapsed and died yesterday morning after completing a 3km run at the annual SAF Commanders’ Sports Day. Master Warrant Officer Palani Jegathesan, 45, of the Republic of Singapore Air Force, was taken immediately to the Safti Military Institute Medical Centre, less than five minutes away from where he fell at the Safti Military Institute Sports Complex. When doctors there failed to revive him, he was rushed to the National University Hospital, but died about an hour later.

Source:  The Straits Times

Our hearts go out to the family of Mr Palani.  Such sudden deaths seem to be getting quite common in the SAF.  Just last month, another warrant officer – 52-year-old Second Warrant Officer Lim Kian Hong – also died during a training run. Before that, I believe there could be at least 2 or 3 more over the last couple of years?  And after each incident, Mindef conducts an inquiry which apparently hasn’t produced any effective measures to protect our servicemen. 

Whilst it would be unrealistic to expect Mindef to stop all physical activities pending the results of the inquiry, we hope this time it would initiate a more comprehensive and rigorous inquiry that involves the relevant national health authorities and medical experts.  The problem is evidently larger than the SAF, one that could even be a national health issue.

Mention the name Lo Hwei Yen and nearly everyone will know who she is, and perhaps even have a mental picture of her face.  Within Facebook, there are at least 3 groups dedicated to Ms Lo, with one group comprising 15,554 members. Now mention the names Noraini Kasim and Aminah Samijo and what do you get?

Ms Lo was Singapore’s first terror victim so that may explain the media interest and exposure given to her, versus the deaths of Madam Noraini Kasim and Mdm Aminah Samijo who died of food poisoning from eating Indian rojak. That is a story for another day.

For now, I am just amused by how much resources are put into national defence and security, versus public health. I do not know the numbers, but I am sure the total number of Singaporeans who have died from food poisoning is significantly large enough to warrant more and better ministerial oversight and a greater allocation of budget.

As a related point, anti-conscription activists may take issue with the number of servicemen deaths (and women; not forgetting the 4 who served on RSS Courageous) resulting from routine training or peace-time operations despite the huge investments made in perfecting a snazzy ‘3G’ army.

Singaporeans must be discerning on what this top class government ought to be offering its citizens and not be distracted by PAP’s weapons of mass distraction and shadow-play.

Mr Wang Says So publishes an email on how SAF find ways to fine people, for not fulfilling certain requirements for IPPT retraining.

We find the “money-centric” mentality behind policy considerations of our government disturbing.

On another topic for this website.

I feel there is a need to highlight the social breakdown between the gap of a Singapore man and Singapore woman where the problem become one of the contribution factor to local couple divorces, foreign marriage etc. Would appreciate that you could give me your idea on this issue.

Personally, I feel the gap between the thinking of Singapore man and Singapore woman start when the man go for their National Service (NS) and the Singapore woman start working in the society. Imagine a both Singapore man and woman of the same age at the same starting line where the man serve the NS and woman start to work:

2 to 2.5 years later after the NS:

1. The Singapore man CPF ZERO and the woman would accumlated approximately around $20K to $40K. (Start of the first problem, finance security). Especially when the couple going for a HDB flat, it would seem the man just can’t bridge this gap fast enough to share the burden.

2. I still remember the last week of my NS, everyone is so stressed up because no one has any idea of what’s lying ahead of them when they are about to make their entry into the society. However at this point of the time, Singaporean woman of the same age might already have in mind what they want.

3. Day to day social interaction between the Singapore man and Singapore woman also prove to be a problem when often the aspects of life from both parties are pretty much far apart. While the woman is concern about her work problem (the man at this point can’t offer her any solution), because the man is still adapting to the society (which explain why early part of a Singapore man life after the NS alway seek friends from the army for help or talk to when they face a problem).

Therefore, I suspect Singapore might have already face problem in baby boom as early as this stage. Of course, other future problem that involved standard of living will be at the final stage where we have come to a point of no return (standard of living will not discuss here).

Baby Bonus? Does it really helps?

We help ourselves. Don’t expect others to help

Tom Wright painted a bleak picture of Singapore’s property sector going forward at The Wall Street Journal. His article ended with the following:
“I’m yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel [for Singapore],” says Mr. Tan, the high-end broker.
We would expect people to continue to dig the dirt and tell it to [...]



Our skin isn’t as thick as it should be

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) organised a seminar on March 4 to discuss Singapore’s political blogosphere.  Tan Tarn How, Senior Research Fellow and Research Assistant Tan Simin presented their paper on trends observed in the blogosphere.  As reported in the TOC, the researchers identified the following limitations:

The online-offline firewall, while somewhat alleviated by offline [...]



Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew – The answer to the African problem?

Recently, I followed a thread “Democracy and Economic Growth” which started in PoliticsForum.org.   Apparently, members there often question the role of democracy in a developing nation. “During the wave of democratization in Africa during the 90s, many people had renewed hope for the continent, immediately equating newly established democracies to economic growth. Are these democracies [...]



Tell Singapore government: Ask them a question or give a suggestion

We informed people about the “Tell Singapore Government” subsite and have received some interesting reaction at some forums.
See: 3in1 Kopitiam, Sam’s Alfresco Coffee, Singapore Kopitiam, SgForums
Our responses to some of the comments are listed below. If we are not answering some other specific questions, that is because we do not know how.
 

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