354 / 409
EPILOGUE
338
SIXTEEN
the National University of Singapore and Duke University, North Carolina, for (eventually) two
batches of officers to do a part-time degree course in History in Singapore over three years,
followed by a one-year residential phase in Duke, leading to a Masters degree in History. Three
First Batch officers were included in the programme, which was also extended to several pre-
First Batch officers including Winston Choo, who had been promoted to Major General in his
appointment as Chief of General Staff when he left for Duke. The First Batch officers then
Colonels, were Ng Jui Ping, Kwan Yue Yeong and Ha Weng Kong. General Choo, Jui Peng and
Yue Yeong made up the first cohort and returned successfully. Weng Kong was in the second
cohort and also completed the programme successfully. There wasn’t enough enthusiasm for the
three-year local slog on a part-time basis for the programme to become a mainstream activity
and it was dropped. Instead, MINDEF instituted a far more popular local scholar scheme for
regulars who were interested in getting a tertiary education. In the meantime, another programme
was also put in place. Regular officers rated as consistently good performers were classified
by the Officers’ Personnel Centre (OPC) as ‘Wranglers’ and were generally groomed for early
promotion and critical appointments, with professional courses such as SATO and SCSC and
their foreign equivalents, which OPC solicited with increasing frequency.
Several ‘farmers’ from the First Batch were to eventually break through the glass ceiling, while
in addition to Brigadier Campbell, Brigadier Kirpa Ram Vij and Lieutenant-General (LG)
Choo, another pre-First Batch officer, Sim Hak Kng also became Brigadier General (BG). In
addtion, COL M. S. Gill was appointed Deputy Chief of General Staff (DCGS) in the rank
of Colonel, although Brigadier General Tan Chin Tiong, a National Service officer who had
signed on had already overtaken him as DCGS and Acting Chief of General Staff (CGS)
while then Major General (MG) Choo was in Duke University for a year. Apart from the
fact that the scholars were not senior enough until the early eighties, MINDEF instinctively
appreciated that the actual battlefield threw up issues of personality and psychology that
had no direct correlation to academic qualifications. For example, it was recognised that the
Gurkhas were ferocious fighters but their field officers and rank-and-file were apt to be lowly
educated. Likewise, the same applied to elite forces like the Commandos and anti-terrorist
teams. Moreover, even at the highest levels of command, charismatic field leadership in
operations was not identical with modern management excellence, which had much to do
with education, networking and general knowledge—matters that usually did not exercise the
imagination of warrior-types.
By 1975, the First Batch Officers were being given senior appointments. There were not
enough field appointments above battalion level in the operational chain of command, such as
Brigade Commanders. In promotion exercises, pre-First Batch officers were not discriminated
against and many senior field appointments went to them. But, there were opportunities in
training establishments such as SAFTI. e.g. CO, Officer Cadet School, CO, SATO, Commandant
SCSC and Commandant SAFTI. Some plum appointments began to open up in MINDEF,
of which the highest level was that of Assistant Chiefs of General Staff (ACGS), or G1 to
G6. These appointments, directly answerable to the Chief of General Staff (successor to