Photo of Mdm Halimah Yacob’s swearing in (ST Photo)

by Simon Lim

I express my opinions as a Singapore citizen.

I have served my full-time National Service almost 40 years ago and yesterday when I chanced upon the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) pledge on-line again, it drawn on me a very different meaning and feeling, one that I have not given serious thought to over the decades. Let me explain.

“We, members of the Singapore Armed Forces, do solemnly and sincerely pledge that we will always bear true faith and allegiance to the President and the Republic of Singapore. We will always support and defend the Constitution. We will preserve and protect the honour and independence of our country with our lives”- SAF Pledge.

This is the SAF Pledge that generations of SAF personnel have recited but I seriously wonder how many of them truly, truly digest, understand and concur with every single word in that pledge.

I take strong issue with the part that says, “We will bear true faith and allegiance to the President.”

The reality in Singapore today, very, very unfortunately, is that our President is a controversial President, whether we as a people are honest and courageous enough to admit it or not. I stress, firstly, the President is not a Malay President even though the Elected Presidency (EP) criteria for that election clearly stated that the EP was Reserved for the Malays only.

Next, it was a walked-over and nobody, absolutely nobody cast a vote for her even though that was supposed to be an Elected President. In other words, she was engineered and manoeuvred into the Office of the President of the Republic of Singapore by this People’s Action Party (PAP) government.

Given all that, I ask myself when I read the SAF Pledge very slowly and digest it word for word how could I be expected to bear true faith and allegiance to such a President and preserve and protect it with my life? Wow!

My allegiance and loyalty should be and will forever be with my country and the Constitution but to such a president??? My answer to my question is that I do not think that I would like to be an unthinking or even a fat pawn. Think.

This was first published on Simon Lim’s Facebook page and reproduced with permission.

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