Why do some guys think that just because they served NS, they are somehow more Singaporean than any other Singaporean?
There are just statistically more Singaporeans who have not served NS than those who have. Many convicts and derelicts in society have also gone through NS.
Many guys end up contributing little to nothing significant to the country post NS.
There has to an income below which the amount of transfers one receives from the SG government in all forms (including from public infrastructure) exceeds the amount one pays in taxes.
At what point does one receive more from the society than can be compensated by two years of full-time work? You’re telling me a construction worker from Pakistan who work 18-hour days contributed less to the progress of this country than an unemployed bum of an ex national serviceman on benefits?
The point is, NS shouldn’t make you more or less Singaporean. It is not a reliable measure. Neither is the amount of contribution one makes to the country.
The clearest line of Singaporean-ness is one’s citizenship. I don’t see the point in splitting hairs among citizens in an futile exercise of determining who is more deserving to be here.
Because fundamentally you have no legal right to revoke anyone’s citizenship based on that exercise. Doesn’t matter if one immigrated from Ukraine, if one is a woman, or if one served NS, ICs are all pink.
Stop this NS makes me true-blue crap. It doesn’t. Some have to serve, some don’t. Just like some have the brains to go to RI, others don’t.
Just like some have the competence to make $1 million a year, some wash dishes. I served and I don’t think NS made me more Singaporean. I was basically as Singaporean today as I was since the moment I was born.