Petition to reduce National Service

our minister pay themselves the highest salary in the world to attract the best but when it come to attracting the best in the world to our island we ask them to serve NS. so for themselves the best salary but for the future of Singapore they simply dont care a damn.

@Janet Tan, We need to get parents of young men, about to enter full time NS, to sign and support the Petition. It is true that they are wasting one year of precious time during the second year.

I got 2 sons. so they are going to waste 4 yrs because of NS. Girls also need to do social work or NS to help out the nation if shortage of manpower. One year is enough !

basing on the long term view , like 40 years NS has depleted entire generations of talents from our shores. So what our stock market dont have are new drivers like in the USA the land of the free where you have google and apple and amazon and netflix and 3d printing creating new industries overnight. If you want new generations biz that bang balls you need talents that bang balls so you need to abolish NS. It is so simple. More NS for Singapore means more decay and more of the same old same old and the STI will go into long term slump. NS is killing Sg.

better take up malaysian citizenship live in cheaper JB and take future MRT into Singapore to rob local singaporeans of their jobs as they like to chain and whip themselves with their reservist and NS.

12 months of NS is more than enough. Female should also serve NS doing Community Work or the SPF. Not to forget, most guys would like to continue his study by having a Degree. By then, he will be in his mid or maybe his late twenties before joining the work force with NO working experience.......

3 months BMT, 3 Months vocation conversion, 6 months operational conversion. Officer another 3 to 6 months.

I signed the petition but I admitted that i did not used my real NRIC. NS is a waste of our precious time.

They are many foreigners who are brought as scholars to Singapore at young age but avoided NS. The govt strategically helped them avoid by granting them PR after they finish university. And after that arrange them to work in GLCs and ministries with very high start pay, around $4000++. After 1 year grant them citizenship! And they expect your kids to serve?

We need to define what is NS's role. In term of current defense technology--MIssiles and Nuclear arms make NS irrelevant. If Japan were to invade Singapore again, this round, Singapore will be flated by Missiles before Japanese marines parachute in to take over. Just like US fighting Iraq war. In term of combatability: Only Full time soldier and volunteers are combat fit, NS guys are counter productive. 1,000 US marines can easily wipe out 10,000 NS because at least 50% of NS guys were being forced by laws to be there, they will panics and unable execute commander orders during war and make the whole Division malfunction. In war, you need soldiers who do not hesitate to kill instead of a troop of NS guys who are there by laws. Singapore invested 20% budget on defense or S$12B in 2013, far ahead Indonesia $7.9B and Malaysia $5B. Singapore is leader in SEA arm race. Due to its wealth, Singapore military power is far exceed its neigbour in pat 30 years, within hours, Singapore can send 10 bombs or missiles to wipe out KL or Jakarta. Malaysia foreign debts is RM540B and Indonesia Foreign debt is US$250B, Singapore reserve is S$300B, anytime Singapore can buy more arms than its neighbours. The purpose of NS is to provide our kids with weapon handling skills, thus 6 month training with BMT for boys will do. Enlist girls too for 3 months BMT, all done during JC, POly, Uni term breaks. HDB: Singapore lack of land, it is very stupid allowing new citizen to buy new HDB, HDB should be reserved to our boys and girls who had completed 3 months BMT training. Singapore need to define what type of NS it wants to produce? Combatability NS or just basis training in line with modern defense technology, leave the serious stuff to full time professionals. If a NS guy is not volunteer, he is not committed in actual war, his action likely to jeapardise the troop. How SAF know who is combatability after 2 years training?

I think the limiting factor for reducing NS from 2 years to 1 year as pointed out by some others is that the duration of training (both in courses like OCS and "on the job" in operational units) for officers and some other specialized groups cannot be feasibly completed in 1 year. I believe a feasible system is compulsory service of at least 1 year with voluntary extension to 2 years with serious benefits offered to those selected for these specialized vocations. The offer of extension should come probably within the first 6 months of the compulsory service period and can be accompanied by the possibility of disruption of service to pursue higher studies as an added incentive (in particular so that those who are going to university don't end up behind their cohorts if they opt for this). In addition this has several advantages: - the candidates who are disrupted may actually learn skills in higher studies relevant to their duties on their return to SAF - it can result in a substantial differential in maturity and knowledge between the officers (who disrupted and returned) and the ones they are leading - the 1.5 years of remaining service actually serves as work experience for those returning from disruption, where they can at least claim to have led a team of men Correspondingly, the extra 1 year of service should be paid something close to market rates pegged to the qualifications and position of the candidate. The above scheme is actually very similar to what is happening for medical officers currently, where they are disrupted in time to enter university with the rest of their birth cohort, and return to serve with their professional skills as officers for the remaining 1.5 years, although, the notable difference is that, for these medical officers, all 2 years of service is compulsory. I believe a similar scheme is not operationally difficult to implement, and achieving sufficient uptake on a voluntary scheme is mostly a matter of tweaking

we should follow the example of the most important scientist of the last century and AWOL from NS. -------------- Einstein persuaded a doctor to write him an official note diagnosing him with "neurasthenic exhaustion." This provided him with an excuse for leaving school and moving to Italy. Einstein may also have been motivated by the desire to escape military conscription, since German law stipulated that if a boy left the country before the age of seventeen, he would be exempt from military service.

tony tan son try to escape NS by being outside Sg for 15 years to become a great scientist solve the world medical problem. But his father got presidential ambition so selfishly recalled his son. What kind of Singapore do we want ? the kind that want to solve the world problems or the selfish kind that kill off their own sons to futher their own ambition. NS should be abolish to get our foundation right else we end up with more selfish people with their own narrow self interests,

If our boys are spending the second year doing tasks like NDP hampers, storemanship or waiting on VIPs - basically non-combat or non-strategy related jobs - why not outsource these to PRs, new citizens etc? It will certainly help the latter integrate, maybe it will help remove some of the so-called "xenophobia" we are always being accused of, and offload some of the burden from our boys. In fact, this would be a true test of how much immigrants wish to "give back" to Singapore in return for all that Singapore has given them. It will not compromise our security to outsource specifically these non-military jobs, it will also serve to level the playing field for our boys. It is high time we thought about our own youth first.

As someone has pointed out, more young Singaporean lives have been lost in NS than in actual combat!

Fellow Singaporeans, please take note. The petition of Mr Tan kin Lian is not about abolishing NS but a reduction of the service period. Hence, for those who object to having NS, maybe you have to lodge your complaint with the Prime Minister's office.

it is sad that so many in Sg has been brain washed into believing NS is the only means of defense for Sg. maybe they still using pager.

The NS 1 year reduction happen to all NS Men currently serving NS for those who enlisted from June 2012 till April 2013.

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/indonesian-delegation-pulls-out-singapore-airshow-20140209 To those who make sweeping statements like abolish NS, read the news and think. If Singapore has no NS, the above news probably would not simply be delegations turning down invites.

That is why even Whites love nelson mandela (most of them anyway)