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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>No room in forces for divided loyalties
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Monday's article, 'Give up citizenship? Brothers must do NS first'. I am in agreement with the compulsory national service policy.
It is the Government's responsibility to provide a working military to serve and protect the people, especially in such a small country as ours, and NS has, over the years, become an integral and honoured part of Singapore life.
However, surely it is unwise to force those who obviously owe allegiance to a country, other than Singapore, to be part of our military?
Even more, isn't it a duty to ensure that those in our defence force actually love and care for our nation, which it is their duty to protect? One reason dual citizenship is disallowed, is that the dual passport holder may have divided loyalties between the two countries, should they come into conflict. Then doesn't the practice of forcing citizens who have openly stated that their allegiance to another country, to join our military, undermine the very security the military is supposed to provide?
Citizenship is a privilege, not a sentence, and NS is a duty for those who want to retain it, not a debt that must be paid before one is released from it.
Singapore may be running low on population, but surely we want to attract people to come and live in our beautiful country - not enslave them within it?
If nationalism is forced on us with the threat of the whip, or bound to us with shackles - is it any wonder people do not wish to have children here, and our best and brightest flee for other places?
So honour and reward Singaporeans who do serve our nation in this way - for a nation cannot be better served, than by those who love her.
Tim Begent