A Taste of Unfairness

When discussing it in theory, there is something obvious about how NS could act as a social equaliser and serves its function as one of the nation-building tools. The exposure to people of vastly different backgrounds, working with (or struggling with) people we don’t understand or like, sharing a common experience …… While I do see some flaws in the functionality of this system because NS intakes are still inherently segregated by education profile, and some form of discrimination and elitism still exists, if not racial in nature at least between the two different rank structures, personally experiencing how NS could shape people convinced me that it still functions rather effectively from the perspective of a privileged JC kid. It popped the bubble we have surrounded ourselves with and suddenly I am seeing a different kind of Singapore.

It really puts things into perspective – how easy it is to whine about getting 70 RP and bury ourselves into an elitist bubble – and how naïve we are to the other kinds of realities – I still remember being childishly shocked that underage smoking/working everyday in tandem with studying was so prevalent – and so many small things that we didn’t spare a thought for amidst our canteen talks of half-hearted “I’m going to end up jobless”. This is not to trivialise the kinds of problems and stress that we faced in our bubble nor is it to preach about how we should feel grateful for our circumstances, but it means a lot to realise that there exists a completely different set of equally stressful considerations that a good majority of Singaporeans are facing. What we choose to do with thus information is a personal decision.

It is also really nice to share about the NS experiences so far when I do meet up with friends – even if half of them is about flexing who has had the worst experience – and that common experience bond is real. Even though I have only interacted with the mostly “JC batch”, it had already confronted me with a much wider demographic of people and made me realise that I was guilty of unconsciously selecting the group of people I hang out with to be those most similar to myself. It made me uncomfortable or even irritated to have to interact with people I struggle to understand because it meant learning a new kind of communication and forming a different kind of relationship. Only through discussing about these struggles did I identify how a quite frankly elitist mindset had already set in due to the few years of my sheltered education. TLDR: even though there are imperfections, I believe that the social mixing in NS is still present.

To me, what was most vital in opening my eyes to the ground realities was the fact that I had a taste of unfairness that we will never experience quite the same way if we had continued down the same elite track. By giving us a taste of unfairness, a lot of us apathetic people who ignore issues of inequality learn how uncomfortable it is to be on the receiving end of it and it forms the very basis for understanding and empathising with the issue. In the military context, our day to day are given in orders and time is a resource controlled by our commanders. It removes the autonomy that we are so used to and we are at the mercy of whoever plans for the CET. This lack of control gives us a dose of what it feels like to be restricted by our circumstances no matter how unfair a given context is. Say, my platoon did duty platoon job for a few consecutive times while others get to wash up and chill in their bunks, or my section did trash duty more than any others, or all our outfields “had it worse” because it rained so many times compared to none at all for other wings – some of these inequalities are results of phenomenon beyond our control (the weather) and some due to planning issues or resource limitations.

There is no point for people of different backgrounds to be forcefully gelled together without empathising with how it feels like to be slighted as the connections is either superficial or limited to hearing about other people’s experiences. What makes it visceral and connects us emotionally to what inequality feels like is experiencing it for ourselves. Not only does it now make us realise that it is also our problem, but it also demonstrates how we all will have a lot to say if we drew the shorter end of the stick (then why do we not say anything when we drew the longer end instead). Nothing about inequality is imagined. More importantly, it also makes us victims of an apathetic onlooker – all will be fair if the other platoons decided to volunteer their help instead of thinking “lolz I’m glad we managed to escape all that”. Every section could also have a relatively even distribution of labour if everyone decided to stop thinking of how “I’ve already done a lot already this shouldn’t be my job”. When caught in something difficult and when we wish people would help us, the apathetic “it isn’t me” really gets on our nerves.

To me, I have always known that inequality exists but have regarded the issue with a sort of academic coolness, try as I might to empathise with what it means. However, there is a limit to where feeble arms of human empathy can reach. We simply aren’t capable of understanding the implications of elitism outside of the context of a GP discussion when we ourselves are buried in the midst of similar types of concern (what university should I go to) with similar types of people. Through experiencing how unfairness feels like, and hearing people who normally wouldn’t complain about unfairness say things like “it’s damn bullshit I really wish they would suffer together with us”, we inhibit the psyche of a victim of inequality and believe in the problem.

Even if there are shortcomings to the nation-building function of NS, it still exposed me to the effects of apathy and the emotional response to unfairness. That is a first step to breaking out of our privilege. A taste of unfairness was what brought me to this realisation – not the many anecdotes I hear from people airing their grievances, not the figures we were exposed to when writing an academic paper, certainly not reading about someone else’s blog about their own epiphany regarding inequality.

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

Oscar Wilde