One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

JUMPING IN WITH BOTH FEET

SIX

Martin Choo Kok Kye had been messing around Serangoon Gardens near his home in Yio

Chu Kang Road after a less than sterling performance in his School Certificate examinations.

He decided that the SAF would do him good and ended up as a recruit in No 4 Platoon,

‘B’ Company. To his utter horror, six days into the course he found his English Language

teacher from Beatty Secondary School in the bunk next to him. Being well brought up, he

started addressing the teacher ‘Sir’, but was roundly told off by the section instructor, Staff

Sergeant Tan Cheng Bong, who had strong views about who was entitled to be ‘Sir-ed’ in

the army. So he started calling the ex-teacher ‘Mamak’, which is a slightly derisive form

of ‘Uncle’ for Indians in Singapore. It was an object lesson taken to heart by Low Yong

Heng, Nadarajan Anthony and Ng Jui Ping, all of whom had occasion to be taught by this

particular ‘Mamak’ at some point in their schooling.

Lionel Stanley Thomas thought he saw an advertisement in the newspapers (possibly a trick

of a still active imagination), and the salary offered was okay at about $200, including the

educational allowance. He applied without worrying about whether he would end up an

officer, NCO or buck private and was completely satisfied when accepted. He was even more

euphoric when he arrived at SAFTI:

“Army from day one was beautiful heaven. The food, the accommodation, everything,

my highest expectation; after lunch: fruit–never heard of tea-break–after breakfast! The

Army was there for me…”

But Ram Janam Misir was duped wholesale. He was teaching in Cambridge Primary School,

a Government school in Cambridge Road, when he received an official-looking notification

from MID to report to a location for a selection test. He had asked his knowledgeable

cousin O.P. Rai who told him confidently that he was being mobilised (presumably to fight

Indonesian guerrillas involved in ‘Konfrontasi’). He went for the selection test and was told

that strictly speaking he did not qualify because he would only be 18 on 13

July, but since

he was above 5’ 2” (therefore taller than the rifle, perhaps) and fit, he would be accepted

if he passed the medical examination. When informed that if he did not make officer, he

would be appointed Sergeant, Ram was happy enough. He told his mother about it and she

did not raise objections. Instead she gave him some sage advice: when sleeping in tents avoid

the areas near the flaps as rain might come in; and be careful about barbed wire, because he

could get tetanus. After he had been commissioned, he met up with a fellow teacher from

Cambridge Primary School who confessed that he had secretly submitted Ram Janam’s name

on receiving the promotional brochure himself. Ram Janam had the satisfaction of detecting

a marked note of envy in the confession.

In the campus of the University of Singapore, several bored young men were languishing

in the lacklustre academic environment of foreigner-dominated faculties who occupied the

higher reaches of their ivory towers. These included Richmond De Souza, Anthony Lim

Poh Cheng and Raymond Soh Nang Poh. As soon as they saw the recruitment brochure, all