So there are some talks about reducing NS to one year.

"Isn't that awesome? I mean, I have always felt that NS was a waste of time. Anyway, it has been a really long time since Singapore has encountered a situation that requires the use of ammunition. At this rate, Singapore will never go to war, so maybe NS isn't as fundamental as they claim after all."

To begin, just a few years ago, people said that riots were history and it will not happen again in Singapore. Well, look what happened.

But this is the real reason why one year NS will not work out:

In a large sense, NS is analogous to learning to drive. In our first year as soldiers, most of us will learn basic soldiering skills and a little bit of more specialized skills. In learning how to drive, it's the equivalent of learning how to accelerate, manoeuvre a bend and apply brakes. But is that really what driving is about? For those who drives regularly, you'd know that that is just a minute part of driving. On the roads, you need to know how to react if you get into accidents with jaywalkers, learn how to top-up petrol at the gas station, how to change punctured tyres and even how to maintain your car at an optimal condition so it doesn't break down easily; You truly learn how to drive after you learned how to drive.

Similarly, while we learn how to be a soldier in our first year, we do not learn how to defend a country. You see, defending the country is not about the individual fitness of each soldier, neither is it about the proficiency of a solider to hit the target in front of him. If that were ever the case, I will personally raise a petition to reduce NS to six months. But it is not.

For majority of NSmen, we mature as a soldier in the second year. It is only in our second year when we learn that while we are aiming for the perfect shot at our enemy, he is also doing so at the same time. We learn what to do when the charges we set, in the exact same manner as we were taught, just doesn't go off. We learn that proficient soldiers only win you half the battle, while the other half depends on how you react to field situations. We learn how to make decisions that might lose us the battle but win us the war. We learn how to save our comrades with a gunshot wound through his face who is dying by the second. In essence, we truly only learn how to defend our country after we learned how to be a soldier.

Here is an analogy to our situation, take a read and I will like to know if anyone would, genuinely, still agree that NS should be shortened to a year.

Singapore is a small yet economically prosperous country. Malaysia is a much larger country but has a less prosperous economy. Now, imagine that you are Singapore, a primary one kid that goes to school every day with twenty thousand dollars in your wallet. And there is this primary six bully who lives in your neighbourhood, and you almost always have to travel the same route to and from school. And there is this secondary four student who studies 10km from the primary school and is the best martial artist in the country. There are no other relevant persons in the scenario. Sometimes, this primary one kid meet up with a secondary four student in the local heartland mall for lunch, and the latter always says, "If you ever face any problem, just let me know and I'll do my very best to assist you."

The primary one kid has been practicing martial arts since the day he could walk, and this has been one of the major factors deterring the bully from robbing the kid. But as the kid progresses into kindergarten and then primary school, academic workload begins to increase, and he has plans to forgo his martial arts training because he wants to do well in school so he can earn a lot of money next time. He even have plans to completely give up martial arts when he gets older.

Try convincing yourself that the primary six bully will not, one day, rob the primary one kid of his riches as the kid allocates more time from martial arts into studies.

Then, convince yourself that the secondary four student who studies 10km away will make it in time to the kid's aid the very moment the bully decides to strike.

Now, tell me if you still agree that NS should be shortened to a year.

For all who spared time to read this lengthy passage, thank you.

-Di Qiang

http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/resourcelibrary/cyberpioneer/topics/articles/news/2014/feb/09feb14_news.html#.Uvlyw2KSxu4

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Have we been in a state of peace for so long that we forgot what brought us peace from the very beginning?