-
Quote
-
0
login to like this post
Post
by hkslegends » Wed, 28 Dec 2011 7:40 pm
Hello all,
I've been charged as a defaulter by MINDEF, wondering if anyone has an idea of what might happen. I am mindful of taking information with a grain of salt, so dont worry if you feel you might be misleading me.
I'm 22 years old, born and lived in the US since birth. Parents applied for Singapore citizenship when I was young, but I do not believe we ever renewed my passport. The NS registration forms were not forwarded to us properly so neither my parents nor I knew anything needed to be done. (My dad had served NS when he was young but that was many years ago, and my parents had moved to the US for college since). When I turned 22 we received a letter saying that if I did not take the oath, I will lose my citizenship. No problem there - I did not take oath and they sent a letter asking me to surrender my passport. In a 2nd section it said I have to address the crimes I committed as a citizen, namely failing to serve NS, thus the defaulter charge.
De jure, there's no question that the law was broken, albeit there were mailing issues. De facto, however, it's obvious that I grew up American; it wasn't my intention to ignore Singapore law, I was just unaware of what's to happen. Had I known though, I would have registered for NS but deferred it until 21, when I would have renounced the citizenship. In the end, I would still not be serving NS.
My question is what is the likely outcome? Is there a possibly that the issue can be resolved without significant penalty, or is it likely that I will still have to serve NS. We have been contacting MINDEF and so far they've requested my biography. Other than that, I haven't really heard anything from them.
For the record, it's not that I'm scared to serve NS, it's just that it will be very disruptive to my life. Growing up without planning to set aside 2 years will no doubt impact your goals if/when that changes. I'm currently doing research in neuro imaging which will likely get me published. If I have to go back for NS I will have to give that up and put my grad school plans on hold