Although Israel is permanently in a siege situation and it regularly uses reservists for dangerous punitive expeditions in its so-called "backyard", ahem the Palestinians would be pissed that their home is someone's "backyard", the compensation for IDF reservists' duty however doesn't match the SAF's. Those who serve more than 15 days IDF reserve duty get NIS 4,000 in tax benefits. That is about $1,500 for us if I did my conversion right. Shite. Either we are paying too much for our reservists (of coz not!) or the IDF is short changing theirs (looks like it).
Heh. We gripe about our ICT and IPPT callups coz we don't feel the pressure for defending the motherland like Israel. There doesn't seem to be a need for playing soldier until we're 40 years but yet we have to endure it. BTW why didn't RECORD V reduce the age band for reservists to 35 for the bulk of us? Anyway to make me less unwilling to do ICT, just show me the money! A FT boss is itching to get rid of us using ICT as an excuse coz of the downtime. Now as internet connection and laptops are allowed in camps, the unreasonable woman or FT boss is just going to say you can still do work during ICT. Riiiiiight. Another golden handshake excuse that you could not deliver and meet deadlines altho you were doing your ICT. Back to compensation, RECORD V missed the plot. Show me the money and I won't even bitch about women and foreigners not doing ICT. Promise. Reaaaally.
BTW anyone knows about the Switz reservist benefit and compensation policies?
After 5 years of debate, reserve soldiers get regulated benefits
By shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent
02/04/2008
After five years of debate, the Knesset approved on Wednesday the "Military Reserve Law" which, for the first time, regulates benefits for reserve soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces.
The law stipulates that reserves duty will now be limited to a time frame of no more than 54 days in three years, and that those who serve will receive compensation of at least NIS 3,500 per month in addition to tax breaks.
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said that the law had been debated for many years and that Defense Minister Ehud Barak was the one who finally put it into motion, because he was willing to invest hundreds of millions of shekels.
MK Tzachi Hanegbi, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee which approved the law in the second and third readings, said that the new law is the remedy for the sense of growing inequality and the frustration shared by many of the reservists.
The law contains many important, and some controversial, clauses. The most important provision allows for affirmative action in favor of reservists in such areas as tax benefits, university scholarships and university dormitories.
"The government and any other body may hold activities and set regulations rewarding reserve soldiers or demonstrating esteem toward them. Such an action...will not be seen as forbidden discrimination," the law says.
Vilnai sees this clause as "the heart of the law." MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz), who fought for the legislation, is far less enthusiastic. "It's very problematic constitutionally," he said. "Why should someone who served in reserve duty have priority over an Arab who has no money?" he asked, referring to the fact that Arab citizens in Israel do not serve in the military, and do not get called up for reserve duty.
The Military Reserve Law began as two proposals, cabinet and private, submitted by 30 Knesset members. The initial cabinet proposal said that an army veteran who is not called for duty within two years will be exempt from reserve duty. This meant eliminating the reserves as the people's army and turning it into an army of one fifth of the people.
The hurdle was eventually bypassed and the bill now stipulates that the IDF may release those it does not need - the same as today. The bill still heralds the end of the people's army, Vilan said, because the more benefits are granted to more reservists, the more expensive it will become to call them for duty, so the army will call up fewer men. "Only the good regiments will be called up. This is already happening," Vilan said.
Vilnai said that one of the law's main innovations is requiring the defense minister and the IDF chief of staff to report annually to the cabinet and Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee about the reserve force, its size, fitness, equipment and number of reserve days expected during each given year.
Currently, the minister and chief of staff can mobilize all the reservists with an emergency callup order, requiring no supervision. From now on, the law stipulates that they will need the cabinet's, or at least the prime minister's, approval as well as that of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee within 48 hours.
One of the proposal's goals is to limit the number of reserve duty days each man must put in per year - 54 days per soldier in three years (an average of 18 days a year); 70 for a non-commissioned officer (23 a year) and 84 per officer (24 a year). Some of this time must be spent in training.
This appears at first like a great improvement. But Itay Landsberg, of the forum of regiment and brigade commanders and pilots, says that holes in the law make it possible to call for a 36-day service a year - which would leave today's situation unchanged.
Vilnai's people said this would only apply to special professions such as pilots and doctors.
He said the law adds NIS 800 million a year to the military budget. About half a billion shekels will be financed by the Defense Ministry, following Defense Minister Ehud Barak's decision, which enables passing the legislation.
Vilan said some of the money has already been given to some reserve soldiers, so only an additional NIS 400 million needs to be budgeted. Even he admitted that "this is quite a bit of money."
Currently, reservists who don't work, or earn a very low salary, receive compensation from the National Insurance Institute equivalent to minimum wage. Once the legislation goes into effect, they will get paid 68 percent of the average wage, some NIS 5,300. The reservists asked for 100 percent of the average wage, but Landsberg says this, too, is an improvement.
Those who serve more than 15 days a year will receive from the Tax Authorities a sum equivalent to two credit points, which could reach NIS 4,000 a year. This is a substantial benefit.
However, Landsberg found that the state intends to charge them 25 percent income tax.
The defense establishment says the new system doubles the payment for some reserve days by 1.4, thus improving the reservists' situation. The reservists say these sums are negligible.
-----
Related Articles:
The NS Issue Revisited - Singapore Skeptic
Showing posts with label singapore reservist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label singapore reservist. Show all posts
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
RECORD V: More of the Same Useless Rewards and Recognition for NSmen
I read with great interest (and amusement) of the recommendations by RECORD V to recognise NSmen's contributions to Singapore Defence.
In case you don't already know what RECORD is, the cute acronym represents "Recognise the Contributions of Operationally Ready National Servicemen to Total Defence". The "V" is not for victory but to denote the fifth committee comprising 20 individuals this round who represent, "different sectors of society".
Let's examine how useful (or useless) some of the 18 recommendations are from a perspective of an ex-Reservist who has served his 2.5 years of full-time national service in operational armour unit and 10 years of annual in-camp training in a people's defence force battalion.
Record V Recommendations
Record's recommendations fall under the following themes. Full report here (opens pdf file).
1. Enhancing the rank allowance increments and combat allowance for NSmen and Full-time NSFs (Specialists)
In Singapore, money talks, so overall more money is always better than less, all (other) things being equal. However, for NSmen, it doesn't make much of a difference because most of us are compensated for loss of wages. Hence, if I'm a CEO making $1 million a year, it doesn't help much if the SAF calls me back to become a clerk. But then, the money could be useful to reservists who are in-between job where rank pay does help them somewhat.
But if you talk to reservists, the grouse is by self-employed who under-declare their income tax or CPF contributions as Mindef uses these to compensate for loss of wages. Self-employed small business operators get hit more relative to wage earners who have IR8 and company pay slips to substantiate their specific wages lost to the SAF.
For full-time NSFs, more money is good. They are already earning below minimum wage (which Singapore doesn't have) of about $600-$800 for basic cleaner job in the marketplace. Hence, any upward revision is welcome.
2. Family recognition vouchers to attractions such as the Singapore Discovery Centre and SAF chalets
Is this a way to help boost up poor utilisation and take-up rates at Singapore Discovery Centre and SAF chalets or what? This is so lame. If they were serious about family recognition vouchers they should do what the Red Cross did which was to sponsor a pair of tickets for family members to go to the Jurong Bird Park. Seriously, Singapore Discovery Centre does not appeal IMHO.
Globalisation and increasing work demands:
3. NSmen be allowed to bring in company-configured laptops and mobile devices for use during In-Camp Training (ICT).
This recommendation is way behind the times. The SAF is now in the 2009 and IT was hot in the mid to late 90s and prior to dot-com crash of 2001-2ish. In addition, I witnessed first hand how officers and key appointment holders could bring their own computers into camp without much scrutiny but the specialists and men had to jump through many hoops to get clearance from RSM etc in the name of "security".
In today's 24x7x365 business world, not having your 3.5G phone or blackberry equivalent device is to cripple your effectiveness as a corporate warrior while you are off playing SAF warrior.
Encouraging fitness:
4. Improving the equipment at existing fitness corners in public housing estates, as well as building new fitness corners if needed
This is missing the point. Most NSmen lack not facilities to train but rather TIME to do so. If you are working 60 hours a week and overtime nights and sometimes weekends, how much time can you have to go and train for your IPPT? It's not the facilities, to its credit, the Government through NParks has invested lots of taxpayers funds in the park connectors. I myself use to run along such connectors near my home to train for my 2.4km run.
It's not the facilities, it's about time! But hey, Singapore's approach is to throw money and facilities into the problem. The problem should be tackled by telling employers to look into work-life balance issues for NSmen so that they can have enough time to train so as not to fail IPPT and not have to go for RT which wastes the company's time as well!
Building cohesion:
5. Create online social network for NSmen to strengthen camaderie
This is lame. There is already a few social networks, they are hardwarezone thread on NS knowledge base. Many blogs in Singapore e.g. Singaporedaily and theonline citizen touch on NS issues (in a non-flattering way to the gahmen).
6. Develop a new clubhouse in Punggol
Again, building another Safra clubhouse using Safra and taxpayers (Mindef) money. Please come up with something more original that costs less. Mind you, Safra facilities are not free, they charge memberships that are lower than commercial country clubs but they are not free.
The recommendations to me doesn't break much new ground.
In the area of education, the recommendation only go so far to ask for letters of support to augment university applications for NSF commanders. In our meritocratic system, these letters mean little because grades, grades and to some extent CCA and/or interview make or break your application to popular faculties such as medicine, accountancy, law. Everything else is decoration.
There is no mention of subsidies to NSmen/NSF to study at local universities. There is no mention of medical subsidies for NSmen/NSF by public hospitals.
Education and health, important things to NSmen since you are behind by 2 years to foreigners and Singaporean women in studies and also you risk your life and limb but gain no real commensurate benefit medically.
Personally, you don't need to have a 20 person committee putting up all these common sense items that talking to 20-30 NSmen/NSF will yield. 1 Admin officer plus 2-3 MXOs can put up these recommendations in 2-3 weeks. Better yet, put up a real survey online for NSmen to tell you what they really think and feel and you can forget about RECORD.
Majullah Singapura.
P.S. I just took a look at the members of RECORD. It is chaired by Assoc Prof Koo Tsai Kee, Minister of State for Defence. How independent can such recommendations be? Enough said.
In case you don't already know what RECORD is, the cute acronym represents "Recognise the Contributions of Operationally Ready National Servicemen to Total Defence". The "V" is not for victory but to denote the fifth committee comprising 20 individuals this round who represent, "different sectors of society".
Let's examine how useful (or useless) some of the 18 recommendations are from a perspective of an ex-Reservist who has served his 2.5 years of full-time national service in operational armour unit and 10 years of annual in-camp training in a people's defence force battalion.
Record V Recommendations
Record's recommendations fall under the following themes. Full report here (opens pdf file).
- Rising aspirations
- Importance of leadership
- Encouraging fitness
- Globalisation and increased work demands
- Building cohesion
1. Enhancing the rank allowance increments and combat allowance for NSmen and Full-time NSFs (Specialists)
In Singapore, money talks, so overall more money is always better than less, all (other) things being equal. However, for NSmen, it doesn't make much of a difference because most of us are compensated for loss of wages. Hence, if I'm a CEO making $1 million a year, it doesn't help much if the SAF calls me back to become a clerk. But then, the money could be useful to reservists who are in-between job where rank pay does help them somewhat.
But if you talk to reservists, the grouse is by self-employed who under-declare their income tax or CPF contributions as Mindef uses these to compensate for loss of wages. Self-employed small business operators get hit more relative to wage earners who have IR8 and company pay slips to substantiate their specific wages lost to the SAF.
For full-time NSFs, more money is good. They are already earning below minimum wage (which Singapore doesn't have) of about $600-$800 for basic cleaner job in the marketplace. Hence, any upward revision is welcome.
2. Family recognition vouchers to attractions such as the Singapore Discovery Centre and SAF chalets
Is this a way to help boost up poor utilisation and take-up rates at Singapore Discovery Centre and SAF chalets or what? This is so lame. If they were serious about family recognition vouchers they should do what the Red Cross did which was to sponsor a pair of tickets for family members to go to the Jurong Bird Park. Seriously, Singapore Discovery Centre does not appeal IMHO.
Globalisation and increasing work demands:
3. NSmen be allowed to bring in company-configured laptops and mobile devices for use during In-Camp Training (ICT).
This recommendation is way behind the times. The SAF is now in the 2009 and IT was hot in the mid to late 90s and prior to dot-com crash of 2001-2ish. In addition, I witnessed first hand how officers and key appointment holders could bring their own computers into camp without much scrutiny but the specialists and men had to jump through many hoops to get clearance from RSM etc in the name of "security".
In today's 24x7x365 business world, not having your 3.5G phone or blackberry equivalent device is to cripple your effectiveness as a corporate warrior while you are off playing SAF warrior.
Encouraging fitness:
4. Improving the equipment at existing fitness corners in public housing estates, as well as building new fitness corners if needed
This is missing the point. Most NSmen lack not facilities to train but rather TIME to do so. If you are working 60 hours a week and overtime nights and sometimes weekends, how much time can you have to go and train for your IPPT? It's not the facilities, to its credit, the Government through NParks has invested lots of taxpayers funds in the park connectors. I myself use to run along such connectors near my home to train for my 2.4km run.
It's not the facilities, it's about time! But hey, Singapore's approach is to throw money and facilities into the problem. The problem should be tackled by telling employers to look into work-life balance issues for NSmen so that they can have enough time to train so as not to fail IPPT and not have to go for RT which wastes the company's time as well!
Building cohesion:
5. Create online social network for NSmen to strengthen camaderie
This is lame. There is already a few social networks, they are hardwarezone thread on NS knowledge base. Many blogs in Singapore e.g. Singaporedaily and theonline citizen touch on NS issues (in a non-flattering way to the gahmen).
6. Develop a new clubhouse in Punggol
Again, building another Safra clubhouse using Safra and taxpayers (Mindef) money. Please come up with something more original that costs less. Mind you, Safra facilities are not free, they charge memberships that are lower than commercial country clubs but they are not free.
The recommendations to me doesn't break much new ground.
In the area of education, the recommendation only go so far to ask for letters of support to augment university applications for NSF commanders. In our meritocratic system, these letters mean little because grades, grades and to some extent CCA and/or interview make or break your application to popular faculties such as medicine, accountancy, law. Everything else is decoration.
There is no mention of subsidies to NSmen/NSF to study at local universities. There is no mention of medical subsidies for NSmen/NSF by public hospitals.
Education and health, important things to NSmen since you are behind by 2 years to foreigners and Singaporean women in studies and also you risk your life and limb but gain no real commensurate benefit medically.
Personally, you don't need to have a 20 person committee putting up all these common sense items that talking to 20-30 NSmen/NSF will yield. 1 Admin officer plus 2-3 MXOs can put up these recommendations in 2-3 weeks. Better yet, put up a real survey online for NSmen to tell you what they really think and feel and you can forget about RECORD.
Majullah Singapura.
P.S. I just took a look at the members of RECORD. It is chaired by Assoc Prof Koo Tsai Kee, Minister of State for Defence. How independent can such recommendations be? Enough said.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Duty, Honour and Country: National Day Reflections
As an ex-reservist conscript in the Singapore Armed Forces, I've served in combat roles in both active and reservist battalions.
The longer I serve and the older I get, the more reflections come to me as I mull over what I had to sacrifice for national service.
My memories of my time in the SAF get softer with age because I have completed by 2.5 years of full-time and 10 years of annual in-camp training ranging from 2 days to 21 days of reservist duty. But I can never forget how even as the years past and the hairs turn greyer, the meaning of what I did degrades with time.
Duty without Rewards
The whole concept of National Service duty is that it is a service to the nation. It is not something you WANT to do but you HAVE to do it. Some people willingly and happily embrace NS. Most just want to serve and f*** off. Others sign on and become regulars. The unfortunate few die during NS.
Duty means to serve without reward, without benefit, without fair remuneration. In my stint as a full-time conscript, I was paid then $200-300 for a Corporal in active full-time NS. The money was sufficient as I was staying with my parents then and subsequently I put myself through NTU through a local government scholarship. But if something had happened to me, all my parents would have gotten was $50,000 NTUC Income insurance which I bought for $21 a month out of my own NSF allowance. The SAF didn't have the group insurance scheme then and the $20 increase in NSF allowance to pay for it like they do now.
In the US, if you volunteer to serve in the US military, you can get some benefits under their GI Bill and also health care at Veterans hospitals. For us Singaporean male citizens, no such luck. Go queue at polyclinics with everyone else as serving your country has not much additional benefits except for addition $50-100 during some GST credits/top-ups and $1,500 or $3,000 tax relief (not rebate).
You get SAFRA membership which you have to pay as it's not free. Ain't really that great if you are dead as free swimming doesn't appeal to corpses.
Honour without recognition
Was there honour in serving the country in the Singapore Armed Forces. Unlike other countries, the general population (i.e. women, foreigners, first generation PRs and newly minted citizens) who don't serve NS don't really respect the uniform. I've not heard of many discounts for NSFs or NSmen in F&B establishments. In the US, servicemen are recognised more than what we see in Singapore.
There are anecdotal stories of NSmen in uniform being asked to get out of food & beverage establishments in country clubs by members who are not Singaporean. That is galling to say the least.
Many of my female peers in university didn't really "get it" that you can die in NS. I've seen my share of 1 case during active days and 1 during reservist so I "get it" fully well that death is a risk in NS even though safety standards have improved over time.
How was I "honoured" by being called names and treated like a piece turd of the lowly Corporal that I was during my full-time national service? They call you "gentlemen" but treat your worse than a foreign domestic worker during full-time NS.
Clean bunks, clearing drains of leaves, even scooping up detritus from a manhole in camp. Been there, done that. Was it honourable to do this for duty? You have to decide for yourselves.
Country without Rootedness
Singapore in 2007 comprises of 3,164.4 '000 citizens and 478.2 '000 permanent residents. 65% Singapore citizens and 35% permanent residents. Mind you, this 65% citizens also included newly minted Singaporeans who are not born in Singapore. So we are slowly becoming the minority in our own country that I defended with my life.
What was I defending? My own people? Other people? Singapore Inc? Temasek's losses? CPF Life scheme?
What really are the values and ethos of this country?
Even MM Lee says we are not a nation yet. I truly agree with him. Perhaps my 2.5 years + 10 years of annual ICT makes me even more sceptical about our nationality as people.
All I hear is "GDP at all costs"... GDP GDP GDP. Money money and more money.
Taking care of one another, being gracious and being accountable and transparent to the people, citizens and countrymen all take a back-seat to GDP growth and money.
As we move nearer to Singapore's 44th National Day and celebrate getting school children to burn their weekends along with NSmen/NSF, People's Association and groups' "volunteers".
I wonder truly, what it was all about.
Majullah Singapura.
P.S. Check out Mr. Brown's latest podcast on your mother's army. Very funny!
The longer I serve and the older I get, the more reflections come to me as I mull over what I had to sacrifice for national service.
My memories of my time in the SAF get softer with age because I have completed by 2.5 years of full-time and 10 years of annual in-camp training ranging from 2 days to 21 days of reservist duty. But I can never forget how even as the years past and the hairs turn greyer, the meaning of what I did degrades with time.
Duty without Rewards
The whole concept of National Service duty is that it is a service to the nation. It is not something you WANT to do but you HAVE to do it. Some people willingly and happily embrace NS. Most just want to serve and f*** off. Others sign on and become regulars. The unfortunate few die during NS.
Duty means to serve without reward, without benefit, without fair remuneration. In my stint as a full-time conscript, I was paid then $200-300 for a Corporal in active full-time NS. The money was sufficient as I was staying with my parents then and subsequently I put myself through NTU through a local government scholarship. But if something had happened to me, all my parents would have gotten was $50,000 NTUC Income insurance which I bought for $21 a month out of my own NSF allowance. The SAF didn't have the group insurance scheme then and the $20 increase in NSF allowance to pay for it like they do now.
In the US, if you volunteer to serve in the US military, you can get some benefits under their GI Bill and also health care at Veterans hospitals. For us Singaporean male citizens, no such luck. Go queue at polyclinics with everyone else as serving your country has not much additional benefits except for addition $50-100 during some GST credits/top-ups and $1,500 or $3,000 tax relief (not rebate).
You get SAFRA membership which you have to pay as it's not free. Ain't really that great if you are dead as free swimming doesn't appeal to corpses.
Honour without recognition
Was there honour in serving the country in the Singapore Armed Forces. Unlike other countries, the general population (i.e. women, foreigners, first generation PRs and newly minted citizens) who don't serve NS don't really respect the uniform. I've not heard of many discounts for NSFs or NSmen in F&B establishments. In the US, servicemen are recognised more than what we see in Singapore.
There are anecdotal stories of NSmen in uniform being asked to get out of food & beverage establishments in country clubs by members who are not Singaporean. That is galling to say the least.
Many of my female peers in university didn't really "get it" that you can die in NS. I've seen my share of 1 case during active days and 1 during reservist so I "get it" fully well that death is a risk in NS even though safety standards have improved over time.
How was I "honoured" by being called names and treated like a piece turd of the lowly Corporal that I was during my full-time national service? They call you "gentlemen" but treat your worse than a foreign domestic worker during full-time NS.
Clean bunks, clearing drains of leaves, even scooping up detritus from a manhole in camp. Been there, done that. Was it honourable to do this for duty? You have to decide for yourselves.
Country without Rootedness
Singapore in 2007 comprises of 3,164.4 '000 citizens and 478.2 '000 permanent residents. 65% Singapore citizens and 35% permanent residents. Mind you, this 65% citizens also included newly minted Singaporeans who are not born in Singapore. So we are slowly becoming the minority in our own country that I defended with my life.
What was I defending? My own people? Other people? Singapore Inc? Temasek's losses? CPF Life scheme?
What really are the values and ethos of this country?
Even MM Lee says we are not a nation yet. I truly agree with him. Perhaps my 2.5 years + 10 years of annual ICT makes me even more sceptical about our nationality as people.
All I hear is "GDP at all costs"... GDP GDP GDP. Money money and more money.
Taking care of one another, being gracious and being accountable and transparent to the people, citizens and countrymen all take a back-seat to GDP growth and money.
As we move nearer to Singapore's 44th National Day and celebrate getting school children to burn their weekends along with NSmen/NSF, People's Association and groups' "volunteers".
I wonder truly, what it was all about.
Majullah Singapura.
P.S. Check out Mr. Brown's latest podcast on your mother's army. Very funny!
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