One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

OFFICER CADET TRAINING

199

ELEVEN

I. REPORTING TO ‘A’ COMPANY

The nine days of break between the Section Training passing out parade on Friday, 18

November and Sunday, 27

November, when the cadets returned to ‘A’ Company on the

eve of the new phase, whizzed by so fast that for some, it seemed no more than a figment

of their imagination. But, it had been real enough. Many of the cadets made use of the

railway warrant that each had received to go as far as Thailand and they had plenty of stories

to tell, and some documentary evidence as well. There were many mini-reunions in Kuala

Lumpur, Penang and Hadjai, the three most popular destinations. For others, especially

the few married ones, it had been a blessed opportunity to be with their families. For the

majority, the bachelors, it was a blissful time with girlfriends, fiancés, and/or their old ‘gangs’

from whom they had been estranged and seemed to be drifting further and further away,

a prelude to what would eventually be the way things were as the army took over their

lives. There was however, a sense that this was the home stretch, distant as next July was at

November’s end. For some, the anxieties were greater than others because oral and written

self-expression, higher intellectual processes and most of all, spontaneous leadership traits,

would be demanded and graded. It was far from certain that whatever had qualified them

for selection as officer cadets was a guarantee that they would make the cut. They could not

even be sure that their natural instincts would serve them faithfully when they were placed

under the microscope of leadership role-play. So far, the skills that had been imbued during

basic and section training had been essentially methodical and manual. Especially for those

with lesser education, they could only hope that their guardian angel would not desert them

at the critical moment.

For another group, there was a high degree of fatalism: having made it so far, they had already

exceeded what they deemed their fair entitlement in life, given their socially conditioned

expectations. If they graduated as officers, it would be a bonus and even then, they would

not have gone beyond the rank of Captain. If not, they were certain of a fast track in the

NCO ranks, where they would probably not have been out of place, perhaps even more at

home. There is a strong likelihood that this was also MID’s calculation. Many of those who

deferred at the end of section training—or so it seemed to their colleagues—should have

been selected for officer cadet training. But, if the entire cream of the crop had been sent

as the first intake in ‘A’ Company, it would have been difficult to justify a hundred percent

success rate at the end of the course. In the meantime, those who had been deferred, would

have been uniformly of second order eligibility and would, theoretically, have created follow-

on batches of officer cadets of lesser calibre, as it were. On the other hand, by mixing and

matching, all batches would average out and those who did not make it to a commission in

any officer cadet frame, would go on to become very highly trained NCOs. Given that merit

OFFICER CADET TRAINING