Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The SAF Scholar Who Fell From Grace

It's the kind of morality tale that makes you scratch your head and ask aloud, why? The army captain's route to a four month jail sentence started with the desperate need for $28,000 to repay a bank loan.

This guy was a SAF scholar (like PM Lee), he studied at Cambridge (like PM Lee), he received training at an overseas US military institute (like PM Lee). After Imperial College, he went on to a master's in philosophy at Cambridge, and a master's in Defence Technology and Systems programme at Temasek Defence Systems Institute. After all that studying, he traded classified information for cash right after school, during his stint as a weapons staff officer between 2007 and 2008.

As a SAF scholar, he was already on a accelerated escalator ride to a glorious future. With all those pieces of paper collected, he could easily end up as a general, an early retirement for a juicy CEO appointment in a government linked company (GLC), and/or possibly a seat in the cabinet.

So why did he decide to come to Jesus and tell the people interviewing him for promotion to major about his indiscretion? The clueless SAF had already sent him for courses after courses, all paid for by the taxpayers, and resulted in his spending more time in classrooms than in field training (like PM Lee). Did all that mollycoddling go to his head?

Apparently his weakness was gambling. He had reportedly racked up about $100,000 in debts on board cruise ships, the floating casinos of choice for those who prefer not to be spotted at the land based MBS or RWS dens of iniquity (built by PM Lee). As for his spontaneous confession, one assumes it was his human conscience and not his brain capacity that was at play. Perhaps he had a spiritual awakening, a realization that all the monetary attractions of mammon pale in comparison with being right with God. One thing's for sure, all those fancy degrees, masters, and doctorates won't be as deserving of adulation as before. Just look at the example of the PhD who connived his way for a 12-year disruption of his NS obligation.

10 comments:

  1. How many went undetected, or unaccountable?
    This one come from Military family some-more.
    Others come from white-house too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TODAY headline says he is jailed for "accepting loans"
    ST headline says he is jailed for 'selling classified data'
    TNP & Asia One says he is jailed for "selling SAF secrets".

    In short, why don't they all just come out and say he is "Corrupted" ?
    Do we know if he was even a grassroots or PA members for example?
    All that spin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think it's the DIGNITY issue.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Did our PAP govt not pay an army captain well enough not to become corrupted ?

    Or was it a case of not whether he is paid enough or not but rather was he greedy or dishonest to begin with ?

    See the flaws of LKY's argument that one will tend not to be corrupt if they are paid more than enough ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Paper qualifications mean nothing and those from prestige universities do not mean the paper holders are 'educated'. Real 'educated' persons may have a degree from some unknown or 3rd class university. Many graduates from ivory league university are simply not really 'educated' person. Go back to the old Chinese definition of 'educated' person, you will know what I am saying. In today's economic dominant society, it is economy and not education plays its part in defining a person's behaviour. A sick society, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This episode clearly shows that our elites are not paid enough to be above corrupt.

    Now that the elections are all over, Gerard Ee's salary committee can cite this example to safely carry the president's and ministers' bollocks by declaring their high integrity is inspite of being underpaid and henceforth he will try to increase their dignities before the next GE.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Basically, the pay is not enough for the higher mortals.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Remind me of China's idiotic Imperial examinations of which so called "paper certified as intelligent" scholars were "made"...and then "placed" in critical areas/positions of the government and its many key institutions which cause the internal rot from within and without to start...and ultimately caused irreversable damage which many try to pre-empt and repair failed...by the very same paper certified idiots "in charge" of many various critical / key institutions...

    Do you know this paper intelligent direction or ideal or BS is one of the primary contributing root causes which lead to the fall of those many dynasties in China which "believe" intelligence comes from bit and pieces of paper...and various other countries/entities that try to "hot house" intelligence...what the fark is the use of intelligence if there is no real true wisdom to using that intelligence!

    You don't get wisdom nor real intelligence from papers or being hot housed in some "test tube"/fixed boundaries of a iron clad box....or real values as what or how or why a human being should be..in being and more..for his/her eternal soul but most importantly also for humanity long term viability in the face of a hostile universe that can't wait to make man kind extinct...and we are making it too easy...

    And here we have the very same gruppe of paper certified only intelligent idiots making it just too easy...

    How truely stupid these people can be when they are in critical positions and able to make a real difference not only for all of man kind and for themselves...but for their loved ones now and in that future too.

    It is jut really too bad.

    Intelligence without wisdom is frankly not intelligence at all and you can take that to the banks!

    ReplyDelete
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