National Service @ S$5000

Read an article on TODAY "Dodging National Service - Confusing Signal". The arguement has been ongoing for the past few days, about this Singaporean pianist, who did not served his National Service (NS) by going oversea, then decided to return and was fined S$5,000.

What interested me was the law in Singapore is common law, which we have adopted from our past colonial rulers, of course, there are slight variation due to the passing of time. Hence, it means future judgement can be based on present or past judgement and can be used as a case study in court. Quoting from the article:"....justice is a servant of precedent." In this case, if anyone of our male citizen decided to skip NS and go oversea, when he reaches the age of 40 (same age as the pianist) and decided to return, he could just be fined S$5,000, which he could easily afforded. Imagine if he lives in England, S$5,000 is only £1515, with a conservative exchange rate of S$3.3 to £1, a amount he could have easily saved if he lived in England for 10 to 20 years, which works out to £160 every year, £14 every month (for 10 years). Wow! I am amazed and think that it is an awful cheap price to pay for skipping the two years (two and a half for me).

Let's try another method of calculation. In business, we always talk about oppotunity cost, meaning the loss of income by doing or not doing something. Since, in the calculation in previous paragraph, I have used pounds. To give it a common ground to compare, I will also used pounds again.

Say if I skip two years of NS and the cost of this is S$5,000 = £1515. That works out to £757.50 per year and £64 per month. If I take up a job within this two year that pays me conservatively £100 a week (actually more from the word of my friend), then that put me £400 a month, which is actually very low and working only part-time., but minus the £64 per month, it still leaves me with £336 per month in revenue. Why i use revenue? Because there are still other costs like living expenditures etc. But the oppotunity cost of serving NS is the £336 (S$1,108) every month and more if the pay becomes better.

Of course, many times, we cannot measure the serving of NS in monetary terms, but still the pianist is fined, then it should have being a reasonably calculated sum. Presently, I do have a son, unfortunately (or fortunately) I believe he will not need to serve his NS in 17 years time, due to some illness, but if I do have another son, I may consider this option because S$5,000 is not a hefty sum to pay for missing the two years of NS.

On the hind side, I must say that I am glad that I have serve my NS, I will not forget the tough, but happy times that I share with my army buddies. I have to admit that this is the time when boys become MEN and prefer my son to serve his NS. Hmm....S$5,000 in savings, but ........ in oppotunity cost (losses). HAHAHA!