Sadist Trainer Killed Singaporean
Flashback –
On 14 January, 4 singapore commandos was found guilty of causing the death of an Singapore National Service man. They were given two and nine months in jail sentence.Second Sergeant Hu En Huai, 19, died during a combat survival training course on Pulau Tekong last August.
The trainer dug his nose and prevented him from holding his breath when his head went under water.
Their sentence:
Lieutenant Ng Chin Fong – 9 months
Lieutenant Divanandhari Chandrasekharan – 9 months.
They were the responsible officers.
Captain Pandiaraj Mayandi – 3 months.
He was the supervising officer of the training course.
Warrant Officer S. Balakrishan – 2 months
He was the course commander.
Tough training? With no safety? Tough training + No safety = Sadistic Pratice
This will go down into the history of Singapore Beauty.
Fraudster said
am January 16 2006 @ 2:36 am
well to be honest i went thru the POW before this ‘unlucky’ batch. Well the training was abit slack to me. All u have to do is to abide them and act weak they wont do anything to u. NEVER BE HERO! understand! One main thing is they drink alot of beer…. so get it?
Ananth M said
am February 24 2006 @ 4:27 am
Personally, I thought it was a simple mind game. Like the previous writer said , simply act weak and dying already. We were supposedly POWs in enemy hands in enemy teritories. Attracting too much attention is never going to be a good idea. Although, I must say a limited few trainees do lack discipline mentally to keep their mouths shut and act the part.
On a more serious note, many of us have been through this course over the years. I personally think it was an accident waiting to happen.
As for the case, firstly, this is POW training!!!, it is designed to put extraordinary psychological and physical pressure on the trainees. I found it very stupid when the prosecuters were trying to justfy that the trainers were at fault by citing how the trainers were disrespectful to the trainees and their behaviour.
I would agree that there should have been safeguards and better procedures to follow. But, we should take in mind that only 1 person has ever died due to this course. I do believe that there have been more trainees who died doing forced marches or heli rappelling. I dun see OCs or platoon sargeants or section commanders being charged for this. We should keep in mind that military training always comes with some risk.
Which leads to my third point. There are a lot of people in the SAF who are not competent mentally and physically for the appointments they hold, especially regulars who are pushed along the ranks and into combat units to hold appointments simply because they signed on. On the side of nsfs there are also quite a few people who are pushed into combat units simply to fill the numbers. I tink standards are being compromised and health & safety risk increases because of this.
I must add here that there are also a lot of very competent and very capable people in our forces.
Coming back to this particular case I think the judge should have consulted the military court which charged and fined the trainers, as they are more aware of the training environment and risks. The military training environment is not a civilian training environment. It can be harsh and strenuous and even quite insensible to the common man on the street. These are ultimately soldiers who are being trained to bear arms not macdonald’s counter staff.
PS: My heart does go out to the family who lost a son. I guess there will always be a price to pay to defend our borders even when at peace.