The Sky Vayden Lim PES E9 case

Hello again everyone! There has been a lot of talk today about the Sky Vayden Lim PES E9 case and I thought I'd just weigh in on the discussion. Now I would like to add my voice to the discussion because I have been through NS myself and now the whole issue of PES status has come up recently as I contemplate what kind of PES status my disabled nephew will get when he does enlist. Now in Sky Vayden Lim's (I shall abbreviate it to SVL) case, it was his neck injuries that have resulted in his E9 status.

There have been a lot of calls for MINDEF to re-examine his case and reclassify him as many have seen his interview and did not think that he looks so disabled that it warrants a PES E9 status. (What were they expecting, for him to turn up in a wheelchair?) Many have assumed that he was malingering without actually knowing the details of the case - let me offer my insight into his case and analyse the public's reaction to SVL.

Your PES status will determine how you spend your time during NS.

Firstly, I think it's utter bullshit for people to start weighing in and trying to ascertain what SVL's PES status should be based on what they hear or see on the internet. Good grief. If you guys really want to be doctors, then you should have enrolled in NUS medicine. And if you guys can actually diagnose someone over the internet just by looking at them, then that's a new revolution in medicine: a e-diagnosis over the internet. So really, shut the fuck up you idiots already and let MINDEF do their job. Now, SVL made the following points in his interview:

1. Sky declared his medical condition upon his medical check up for enlistment at CMPB.
2. He was referred to Alexandra Hospital for a detailed examination upon CMPB's instruction.
3. After a detailed medical check up (MRI scans, X-rays etc), the panel decided that  he was to be downgraded.

We don't have a say in our PES status as soldiers - that is left to the doctors!

That sounds pretty much like standard operating procedure - now, you can't fake a neck injury or any kind of spinal injury. If you complain that your back hurts, the doctors will examine you carefully and any kind of real injury will be revealed in a MRI scan or X-ray. You can't fake that, you can't forge an X-ray. What are these people accusing SVL of doing is just ridiculous - are they suggesting that SVL either bribed his way to his desired PES status - or did they suggest that SVL deliberately injured himself just to obtain a much lower PES status?

Any kind of corruption or bribery would have been impossible as SVL wouldn't know which doctor in Singapore would eventually reveal his case. The doctor would merely do an evaluation, write a report with his/her recommendations and then pass the case back to CMPB - at that stage, the report would then be revealed by a panel of experts who would make the final decision as to SVL's status. There are just too many people involved in this process for SVL to have been able to bribe every step of the way. As for him deliberately injuring himself to get that PES E9 status, well he would have had to do a hell of a lot of damage to that neck - again, I find that implausible. National service is only 2 years of his life whilst a badly damaged neck is something he would have to live with for the rest of his life. It's simply not worth it, when you consider just how much pain and discomfort a severe neck injury can cause you.

It's just 2 years of your life...

What shocks me is this: many of the men who accused him of malingering have been through NS themselves. So this begs the question: how can you go through NS and not know how the system works? I have been very critical of some aspects of NS in Singapore (and I have voiced that opinion on my blog in the past), but certainly the business of PES status is one aspect that I am not critical of. If anything, they have been overly strict in terms of the PES status of some soldiers in the past and this has led to accidents which have resulted in injuries and even death - such as in the recent case of Private Dominique Lee who died as a result of a severe asthma attack brought on by smoke grenades. Given Private Lee's existing asthmatic condition, he should have never been put in that situation in the first place which ultimately led to his death. His PES status was wrong - he should have been given a much lower PES grading.

Cases like that illustrate that in most cases, the SAF is likely to be unsympathetic and harsh when it comes to the assignment of one's PES status (which makes me worried for my disable nephew's sake). I have been through the system, paid my dues and served my 2 years 4 months (yes in my days it was up to 2 year 6 months) and have witnessed plenty mistakes made by those in charge. There were people who were clearly in the wrong PES status but were given all kinds of notes from the medical officers to excuse them from various duties just so that they can remain in the same vocation when really, they should have been downgraded and assigned a different vocation where they can contribute more productively without putting their health at risk.

The problem with NS is that there is just so much focus on physical training and physical strength and virtually no heed is paid to one's brains. Good grief, are we just a bunch of coolies who are there to perform manual labour? Are our brains not at all important to the SAF? Oh this is especially ironic in a country obsessed with academic excellence. So the boys are bludgeoned through a ruthless education system, only to be told to turn off their brains for two years rather than apply their already well trained brains during NS. Oh the irony. I found it so weird not having to study at all in NS after my A levels that I actually read the complete works of Shakespeare and then proceeded to study French in my spare time. (Yes I was very lucky to have had that privilege that many of my peers didn't.)

I was lucky in that I had time and space to do all that - I knew of many of my peers were so exhausted from their duties that they barely had enough time to sleep, whilst I had the time to curl up in a corner with my French books and study. The fact that I had relatively more time on my hands to study French already caused displeasure amongst my peers who didn't have that luxury. They complained, "it's not fair - why does he get to relax and read books whilst the rest of us are still working?" The reply was simple, "you cannot compare yourself to him lah - he's doing a different vocation from you." It was the simple answer to that question, but it was not a satisfactory one for them. It wasn't just jealousy - they were angry because they felt the situation was grossly unfair. This begs the question: why is everyone assuming that SVL won't be making any kind of useful contribution to the SAF just because he is PES E9? It is entirely possible that he would be placed in a clerical vocation where he may work diligently and contribute very positively - but he would be using his brains, rather than his muscles.

Yup, whilst they're in the jungle, I was on my bed reading French books...

There is actually something quite immature going on here - all these people who accused SVL of malingering are clearly jealous of the fact that he will have a much easier time in NS given his PES E9 status. SVL will be able to spend time running his business, socializing with his friends and book out every night whilst the vast majority of his peers will not have that privilege. Is this fair? Well, the system afforded SVL those privileges on the basis of his medical condition and if you are not happy with this system - then the only alternative is to remove yourself from that system: leave Singapore for good, get out, move to another country, stop being a Singaporean.

If you're still unhappy with the system, then it should be the system you should criticize, rather than SVL. Of course, SVL has made himself an easy target here: he is arrogant, he isn't particularly articulate even during that interview, he has a ridiculous sounding name and his hair looks equally ridiculous. It is not an image that is endearing at all, but even if I don't like the way he looks or conducts himself, I still would not accuse him of malingering. It irks me that people are picking on SVL to focus their anger on, rather than actually criticizing the system that has delivered this result.

It is very much a knee-jerk reaction, but an immature one nonetheless. Life simply isn't fair, you win some, you lose some. NS can be a scary experience because you don't get a say in what you do - you have to hand complete control over to your superiors and they pretty much get to determine what kind of life you have there until you ORD. So there is an element of luck there - some people find NS a breeze (and have kind superiors who take good care of them) whilst others loathe every moment of it and really suffer. And luck plays a huge part in determining what your experience is. So really, when people with bad luck see someone like SVL celebrate a stroke of good luck with his PES E9 status, it is understandable that they are angry and upset - but accusing SVL of malingering is hardly the right response. You people need to think about why you are so unhappy about the whole situation.

After all, in life, you're always going to see people who have better luck than you - somebody will win the lottery despite having been a total evil bastard, somebody will get the promotion despite not being the best performing member of the team, somebody will get a scholarship despite not being particularly deserving. Well guess what? SVL may not go through what most Singaporean men went through in NS, but probably will suffer - albeit in a different way. If his neck is so injured it warrants a PES E9 status, then his neck will cause him plenty of suffering for the rest of his life, particularly when he is older. There will be many exciting and fun activities that he probably won't be able to partake in because of his neck injury - but he is not going to go on TV and beg the public to feel sorry for him. That's hardly the dignified thing to do - anyone with any kind of disability or injury would usually carry themselves with pride and hold their head up high when dealing with the public. That is his right to do so and he doesn't owe anyone an explanation - his PES status is a matter for CMPB and no one else. I suppose the reporter could have asked him more about his neck injuries  during that interview and I am sure that if she did, he would have gladly answered that question.

In any case, I do know a case of 'chao geng' in my NS days. I knew this guy... let's call him Ed (not his real name). Ed came from a rich family and NS was a huge shock to the system for him. So he decided to convince the medical officers that he was having serious psychological problems and he found out from a friend how to convince them because there was a checklist that they go through as part of the diagnosis. (Eg. seeing things that are not there, hearing things that are not there, hearing voices in one's head, inability to distinguish between real people talking to you and voices in your head, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, exhibiting signs of self harm, is he likely to harm himself, is he likely to harm others around him, that list is long...) Armed with this checklist, he then proceeded to give the performance of his life and he got his downgrade. So yes, it was possible for him to 'fool the system' and some people like Ed do slip through the net because it is possible to feign a psychological condition - but anything to do with bones that can be picked up on an X-ray or an MRI scan? You can't fake that. If SVL wanted to chao geng his way to a lower PES status, he could have done what Ed did rather than pick something you can't fake.

Most people wouldn't do what Ed did because the risk of failure is just too great - you could get into a lot of trouble if you were to be caught malingering and if the SAF certifies you a psycho too screwed up in the head to function as a soldier, then it could affect your future career in Singapore should your prospective employers take an interest in what you did in NS. Ed was a bit reckless and over-confident, but he got away with it and as he came from a rich family, he didn't worry about having to struggle financially in the future as he was an only child who stood to inherit all his father's wealth. So he rolled the dice, took a risk and it paid off. So yeah, people like Ed do chao geng and get away with it - but Limpeh would strongly advice you against trying to do what he did.

Is the system fair? Can you cheat the system? Ed did. 

SVL's case illustrates the way many Singaporean men feel this strange mix of emotions about the NS experience: nobody actually said anything like, "poor SVL is going to miss out on the greatest experience any Singaporean man could ask for - it will teach him so much, nurture him, show him things he never knew about himself. In being PES E9, he will miss out on the best aspects of NS, which was the best time of my life." Hell no. The response was far more like, "bloody chao geng, I want him to suffer the way I suffered in NS. It's not fair, I had to put up with so much shit in NS, why did I have to suffer like that and that chao geng guy with the stupid name be spared the suffering?" Their reaction does tell you a lot about the way the majority of Singaporean men feel about their NS liabilities.

After all, the nature of chao geng does exist in the SAF - that is why we have that term in the first place. Most soldiers don't take it to the extremes that Ed did to get a lower PES grading, it usually attempted in small doses to siam smaller tasks. For example, if there is a long grueling road march, a soldier who wants to avoid it might stage a little accident or start showing signs of an illness a few hours before they are due to set off, eg. fall down the stair, induce a vomit (drink a lot of water then stick two fingers to the back of your throat), faint or make it look like he had a heat stroke/exhaustion attack so as to be excused from the road march. If executed in small doses and in a convincing manner, you will get away with it - it is only if you try to do this too often that you would be accused of being a malingerer.

"Who wants to go on a 20 km road march?!" 

On that note, I am so glad I have given up my pink IC and as I am no longer a Singaporean today (I hold a British passport), I have no more reservist obligations. If you have any thoughts on the issue, please leave a comment below.