Stand By Religion

Stand by one's religion or the inspection of religion in the SAF? This has been going on for some time and there are a few versions to this story and the thingy is where the SAF should draw the line in the sand that religion can be an excuse e.g. Sikhs can wear turbans (but not any rainbow colour and must have the ward off evil spirits blessed insignia in front like a beret).

Some people think that Madana is chao keng and that his malingering is uber lame. I don't think it is that simple. SAF pushing that it is a case of clear insubordination. Not that simple either. However, daddy and son were trying to blow the issue up into SAF against Hindus. Naughty naughty. Some Hindu bodies stepped in and objectively distanced themselves a bit from the case instead of circling the wagons blindly. Kudos to that. Anyway, the SAF is a big bad rigid behemoth, and asking it to bend over via a web campaign outside of chain of command is a lost cause right from the time of its net open mob.

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July 25, 2009
NSman drops protest
Teen punished for disobeying orders despite counselling
By Melissa Sim

A FULL-TIME national serviceman, who objected to having his hair cut and refused to eat camp food, claiming it was against his religious beliefs, was charged and sentenced to five days' detention.

In response to media queries, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) confirmed that Private Madana Mohan Das, 18, a trainee driver, was tried on Friday for refusing orders to cut his hair according to SAF requirements and eat military food, despite being counselled and given ample opportunity to comply.

The sentence was backdated to Monday, when he was sent to the SAF Detention Barracks for repeated misconduct which undermined discipline in the SAF. He was released from detention on Friday afternoon and returned to his unit, after he complied with orders.

His father, Mr Sundar Gopal Das, described himself and his son as priests at the Sri Krishna Mandir, a Hare Krishna temple in Geylang Lorong 29.

He maintained that as priests, they could not cut all their hair and had to keep a tuft at the back of the head. As for meals, he said they could only eat food prepared at the temple as prayer offerings.

He said his son was initially allowed to keep his hair and have temple food delivered to him, but this was stopped later. While in detention Pte Madana ate only uncut fruit.

Mr Sundar said his son dropped his protest only after he found out that he could face three years in detention.

He said his son became a priest when he was 15 years old, after two years of training here. The temple is a registered society but does not come under the purview of the Hindu Endowment Board, which manages several Hindu temples and organises major Hindu festivals here.

Mr Sundar's views are also not shared by all Hindus. Mr Shriniwas Rai, the Hindu representative of the Inter-Religious Organisation in Singapore, said Hindu priests can eat food prepared outside a temple, as long as it is vegetarian. He added that priests should be trained in India, and not everyone can claim to be a priest.

Mindef said Pte Madana was treated like any other serviceman and all personnel had to follow orders and abide by rules on military turnout and bearing, and discipline. 'The SAF cannot allow deviations from its rules and regulations for any serviceman as this weakens military discipline which could compromise the SAF's operations effectiveness and safety of SAF servicemen.'