exemption from national service

[momentica]

.d

[sundaymorningstaple]

I can understand your frustrations and I can also sympathize with you. Those that you need to rant at however are your parents for not thinking about your future (instead of only thinking of themselves). It is for this reason that I did NOT opt out my son. This way he has the best of both worlds should he so desire.

[ianlaird]

I never knew this until i started reading the post!

I actually feel sorry for people who have this problem.

It should be an option, and not even the government should decide what you do with your life!!

I would suggest actually contacting them and asking they what will happen if you return. They can not come and get you in OZ.

[sundaymorningstaple]

It should be an option, and not even the government should decide what you do with your life!!

I would suggest actually contacting them and asking they what will happen if you return. They can not come and get you in OZ.

Why not?

If the government has the laws in place BEFORE you "or your parents" decide to smuggle you out of the country without realizing that there WAS a legal way to do it then, while I do feel sorry for the young man, I cannot fault the government. If nobody is required to do national service, then what deterrent would there be for their neighbours to stop them from just waltzing in a taking over the place. I mean, let's be realistic here. This is a small island nation that cannot even convince their population to reproduce at a rate that equals replacement. The fertility rate here is the 2nd lowest in the world (advanced or otherwise) at around 1.2 or 1.3 . They need every man jack available to do their stint. Frankly, if you have ever enjoyed the safety & security and benefits of this country and you have citizenship then you owe it to your country.

The government give you until 11 to get out without ramifications "Provided which you renounce your citizenship no later than 11" This should not be a problem unless you are just leaving because your parents what to keep you from having to take mandarin as a second language (as so many have done) then want to return to enjoy the fruits of their CPF and whatnot later in life without you having to paying your dues.

I'm afraid I'm not too sympathetic here. I wasn't too sympathetic about the US draft dodgers in the '60's & '70's running away to Canada either while the rest of us did our stints in the NAM. But that's another kettle of fish.

[momentica]

.d

[sundaymorningstaple]

I"m curious. Why didn't you respond in time? Didn't care at that point? Seriously, if it was important enough for them to give you a certain time limit and you did not respond, why should they be the ones giving our the favours? I would assume you have outgrown your asthma by now, otherwise I would think a current medical report would suffice.

But then again, I am not Mindef nor do I understand how the bureaucracy thinks here (if in fact they actually "think" at all. Which I doubt). It is a shame as they often lose good potential contributors to the economy by being so stringent. On the other hand, if they were lenient then everybody would jump on the bandwagon as I am sure you are well aware of.

It's tough.......

[ericyung88]

Hi I am new here. I am coming back to Singapore tomorrow to take care of my son's NS men issue. They were born in HK and they never lived in Singapore. They got Singapore passport as well as HKSAR passport.

I have gone through this thread and seen that a Central Manpower Board is responsible for authorizing defer enlisting but I cannot find Central Manpower Board in the google.com.sg

Would you gentlemen enlight me if that mean Ministry of Manpower?

Best regards,
Eric

[Splatted]

so my family decided to move to australia so i could have a better life, as 1. the environment here is less polluted (not saying Singapore is not clean, just I live far from the city so obviously its cleaner)

That's strange.

Usually it's the other way around. Many asians who have rarely experienced allergies in their home countries come down with rashes, hayfever, and even asthma upon being exposed to the Australian environment.

I heard Australia is high up in the top 10 for the number of asthma sufferers per capita. I'm surprised you found relief there.

[Superglide]

Well, just gut feeling, but never met so many people with asthma, as here in Singapore.

[sundaymorningstaple]

They also top the list with myopia! In more ways than one.

[Splatted]

They also top the list with myopia! In more ways than one.

I don't get it SMS - is that a rib at me..?

[sundaymorningstaple]

No, I was talking about Singapore in response to Superglide's post. Are you myopic? Over 62% of the local population are myopic before finishing secondary school and the percentages go up, up, up from there. That and the powers that be here are always a bit shortsighted as well. That's what caused the graying population so quickly (the myopic stop at 1 policy in '81).

Anyway, you an Ozzie so you don't count (here that is)!

[Splatted]

Ah, no worries SMS. I was just mentioning that Australia had one of the highest rates of asthma in the world, and thought that your comment was a follow-on from that.

[adi.color]

Can SG gov detect NS deserters using facial recognition & Biometrics, if for example:

1. The person left SG age 10, for Australia.
2. No IC made = No finger print. (Maybe bank account)
3. Not been back to SG since.

Wanting to enter SG age in 20s.
4. Using Aust passport.
5. under different name (Legally)
6. Passport shows "Place of birth" (and not "Country of birth") as not SG

Quick facts about Aust Passport.
1. it’s a biometric passport. (Without finger print)
2. *Aust passport uses “Place of Birth”

[sundaymorningstaple]

Sure you might get away with it. Why don't you try and see? Oh, and let us know so others might have the benefits of your experience.

Curious though, do you have access to a chip reader that can read everything that's on a biometric passport? Be pretty cool to have one of those as we really have no idea what is 'really' contained in them (there might even been hidden files like MS has that only are viewable with the right password/logon procedure). I really don't know. For all I know it could have your medical records, police records, school records and a whole host of other data there that we are not being told about.



Better yet stay here for let's say 2 years maybe, in the process, applying for and EP and/or PR and see what happens. If nothing then I guess it's cool.

If, however, you ever have to apply to any governmental agency and list your parents info however, you may be up the proverbial creek without the requisite paddle. (course you would have to leave your parents in Aus)

As Singapore is usually ahead of the world with IT density within the governments and Aus is now implementing similar software in conjunction with it's bio passport most is only a matter of time I'd say. According to the link you kindly provided:

Facial recognition technology is being introduced to coincide with the release of the ePassport. This technology will be used to improve identity verification and reduce identity-related fraud.

This is a reach, but this is only a discussion regarding the capabilities of photo-recognition software:

I wonder what it would take to flag a database to check on certain races coming from certain western countries within a certain age parameter when scanning incoming people? Once a dataset has been identified (profiling?) could the database automatically run a photo-aging software something like they use for missing children in the US and other countries that would age a person? If this "aging" software produced a result that gave a point spread that fell within certain parameters the passport would be flagged for further investigation.

Obviously this is all hypothetical. But with this country's penchant for all things being computerized (the latest is a nationwide medical register for all so even private doctors can access the database for any citizen/PR). How much of a stretch of the imagination would it take to say we could even check the guys date of birth and run an instant crosscheck with the Registry of Births to see how many male babies were born in Singapore on that particular day (you may change your name but not d.o.b. ) of that particular race and with parents who have immigrated to that particular country. Could narrow it down pretty easily.

This is all pure speculation out of this old man's head but looking at what is being done with computers today is it that far fetched? Do you think that those who work in the IT field in the governments tell the public everything that they know or are working on? I don't.