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Reflection on 'The Soldier'

Q - Young man in Singapore, including you, will have to National Service. Why do you think National Service is compulsory in Singapore and why is it important? In the poem, the speaker expresses his love for his country, England. Do you find this same spirit of patriotism for Singapore? Why?


National Service was introduced in 1967 at an aim of building up the defense of the country. In the early years after Singapore independence in 1965, when the British army completely pulled out from Singapore, It needed urgently to build up its own defense capability. However, Singapore could not afford a large army of professional soldiers and thus manpower of the locals were required. Till now, National Service serves the purpose of enabling Singaporeans to have the skills to fight to defend Singapore. It also helps in providing social cohesion among different races of people in Singapore.

In the poem, the speaker expresses his love for his country. However, such spirit could hardly be found in Singapore. around 90% of Singaporeans hated National Service and hoped that such exercise does not exist. They feel the practice as burden. Nowadays most teenagers in Singapore have no sense of defending the country. They take the comfort and peace we are having now for granted.

Am I having this same spirit of patriotism for Singapore? To say the truth, obviously not! Although our primary school teacher always teach us that we must protect our country, who cares! We are force to participate in National Service without having a choice! It would not only delay our study and I am so sure that the poet was well influenced by his country and he volunteered for the military like some (very little amount) of Singaporeans who feel the need to protect and love the country.

4 comments |

4 comments:

  1. ℕⒿℕ
    July 18, 2011 at 7:21 AM

    Hi Yuet Tung,

    I am Jia Neng. To start off, i would suggest you to do the blog prompt on malaysia (because you are from malaysia). But nevertheless, i agree with the fact that national service is very important and serves the purpose of enabling Singaporeans to have the skills to fight to defend Singapore.

    You obviously do not have the same spirit of patriotism for Singapore. What about Malaysia? Do you have the same level of patritism for Malaysia? I agree with your point that no one really cares about defending the country and everything is taken for granted. I quite agree with the statistics that many people do not like national service. Although many people claimed that they are willing to defend singapore, with the fear of losing their lives, i feel that that is not the truth. In fact, Singaporeans are very scared of death... Hence, i would like to hear your opinions on malaysia instead.(because you are more familar with there)...

    Thank you. Please comment on mine. http://literatureviewed.blogspot.com


    Best regards,
    ng jia neng

  1. chessGM
    July 18, 2011 at 11:42 PM

    Hi Yuet Tung Li Yuan here. I do agree with you that National Service is actually wasting our time from a degree, but the way you say about it is a bit too straight away. It creates an impression that we do not get any benefit from National Service(well, at least we know how to handle guns). Anyway, since we live in a country, we have the responsibility to keep it safe, so defending our country is actually a responsibility, but not you want or not.

  1. yuetung55
    July 22, 2011 at 7:20 PM

    Dear Jia Neng, to tell the truth, i know nothing about the Malaysia's national service. However I have learnt something about Singapore national service during conversation with Singaporean friends and thus I tried to write it in their perspectives.

  1. Lim Jerome
    July 28, 2011 at 3:06 AM

    Dear Yuet Tung,

    I am Jerome. I agree with you that National service is important as it aids in social cohesion. It helps bring people of different races together as they have opportunities to help each other in times of need.

    I agree with you that National Service is a complete waste of time, neglecting part of our studies but to some extent. Please bear in mind that all male citizens who are also studying halfway in Singapore will also go to the National Service too. So if you cannot have time to study, other people are in the same situation as you. So why study when you will not lose out to others who are also not studying? Alos, National Service is necessary like what you said earlier, to get along with other races and also to let people have a sense of loyalty and patriotism to Singapore. If not, in times of crisis and danger, no one would want to defened Singapore and Singapore will suffer. Therefore I feel that there is good to go to National Service.

    Overall, a good blog prompt with many good thoughts. Keep it up!

    Thanks.

    Please comment on my blog too!:) (http;//the-world-of-volkswagen.blogspot.com/)

    Regards,
    Jerome

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