I would openly urge Mindef to publish all the names of those who have disrupted for 12 year medical course in US. I also urge Mindef to publish the colleges which they attended and indicate whether the medical courses of these colleges were recognized by Singapore Health Ministry to practice medicine in Singapore or not.
Apparently, Mindef, at the very least, has committed negligence in carrying out the deferment policy with regards to Dr Patrick Tan because the college which he chose to study did not qualify for Singapore Medicine practice.
If the idea of deferment was purely to supplement SAF with medical doctors, to act as Medical Officers, then SAF should make sure that the courses its officers took as well as the colleges they went, would be recognized by Singapore Health Ministry to practice medicine. I don't think SAF is that stupid to overlook such finer details. In fact, SAF has been very stringent and selective in giving deferment to individual soldiers, scrutinizing their courses and colleges chosen in the past.
Furthermore, the Minister of Defence has just contradicted himself. Such deferment is to get enough MO for SAF but in the end, Dr Patrick Tan did not complete his officer cadet course to become medical officer. Please publish the names of those who have been granted under the same scheme for Medical Officer but eventually did not complete their OCS.
Goh Meng Seng