Movement for change How to deal with flexibility in national service
Over the years, Singapore has lost many sporting and artistic talents due to inflexibility in the administration of national service. The people in charge of granting exemptions were afraid to grant exemptions as it might lead to a floodgate of applications.

I suggest the following approach to deal with this issue.

a) There is no harm in allowing 1% of each cohort to be exempted. This could be 200 exemptions in a year. We still have 99% that have to serve NS.

b) The exemption could be temporary, subject to performance. If the performance in the special field is not up to standard, the exemption can be withdrawn and the subject has to return to serve national service within a year.

c) The candidates for exemption can be recommended by the organization that is involved in the special field of sporting or artistic excellence.

I hope to see a more flexible approach in granting temporary or permanent exemptions from national service. We should not adopt an inflexible approach towards dealing with a difficult problem.

Tan Kin Lian

Vote - should we be more flexible in granting exemptions for national service?


 

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