One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

OFFICER CADET TRAINING

206

ELEVEN

The latter was to prove most useful in the course of unit life and advanced training as there

were numerous exercises and the operations overlay was the main reference document for

the Orders Group.

Military Law.

Most cadets recognised the importance of a working knowledge of Military

Law. The objective of the Military Law lessons, if limited, was clearly stated (as it had to be,

given the complexity of the subject and the overall time available during the cadet training

phase): to teach officer cadets how to refer to the Singapore Army Act and the Manual

of Military Law. The relevance of the subject in the military stemmed from several facts.

The military had delegated judicial authority by Act of Parliament (The Singapore Army

Act) to deal with a fairly serious range of typical offences within its own turf, including

detention of offenders in unit guardrooms and detention barracks. Discipline was a major

consideration in the daily life (and during operations) of military installations because

of the inherently onerous nature of duties. The authority of those of higher rank over

their subordinates had to be managed through a legislated process such as summary trials

so that they would not be exercised arbitrarily. And, last but not least, there had to be a

supervisory body such as the Legal Department of MID, later MINDEF, to ensure not

only due process but also recourse to appeal. The problem with the Military Law lessons

was that precisely because of the profound issues involved, the way they were presented to

an educationally heterogeneous audience left the impression of a checklist for dealing with

disciplinary issues. But, they were a start and it was expected that in units, there would be

qualified people like the Adjutant to guide young officers. Of immediate practical value to

the cadets, were the scales of punishment that could be ‘inflicted’ on officers and soldiers.

Training Safety Regulations.

The paucity of Training Safety Regulations when SAFTI first

started training, is amply demonstrated in the fact that the entire syllabus for the subject was

covered in four hours, of which two were for a case study of training accidents and the last

was for a written test followed by a summation. There were hardly any documented safety

regulations other than internal memoranda within the units and SAFTI. A cryptic entry in

the minutes of the General Staff Fortnightly Conference held on 21

November, 1966, sums

up the situation: “The Director (General Staff) will appoint a committee to study the Safety

Regulations some time next week, before sending it up to P. S. These Safety Regulations are

provisional and shall come under review once every six months. They will continue to be

so for two or three years”.

Of course, it was too early in the life of the SAF to have any

comprehensive and tested Training Safety Regulations and whatever there had been from

the British forces was rapidly overtaken by the fact that the system of training in terms of

pace, subject matter and especially the intensive use of live ammunition and explosives was a

quantum leap. What was remarkable was that no one—cadets and trainers alike—thought too

much about it and indeed found what was actually practised in the field appropriate, in so far

as acquiring military combat skills was concerned. There would be accidents and serious ones

at that, but fortunately for the cadets in the first few batches at SAFTI, there were no fatalities.