Grassroots work attract the clever foreigners as well as the not so bright ones. The ones inbetween are not interested in toadying up to appointment holders for small benefits. Guess which group TS belongs to?
I am glad that I did NS. Giving two years of my life and some extra time for annual ICT in return for a safe and secure environment is worth it. Thanks to the opportunities provided in a Singapore environment, I had done well professionally, have a good home, nice family and lots of money. The time spent in the army was well worth it. Many people in Third World countries do not have to do NS, but in spite of the 2 year headstart, they still end up doing far worse than the average sinkie male who has to do NS.
If your living environment is pathetic and does not invest in allowing you the freedom to succeed, then with or without NS, you are most likely to do poorly in life. That's why I thank PAP for coming up with the idea of NS. If not for NS, we would have long ago been eaten alive by Indonesia and Malaysia. They are our biggest trading partners, but they are also our biggest security threats.
We have many foreigners who are keen to take up our citizenship. They too are more willing to do give of their time back to society. It's their form of service to their new nation. We would prefer local sinkies, but many of them are too self-centred. They serve long enough to gain preferential balloting chances for their kids' primary school, and then they disappear after that. We want stayers, not quitters.