Final analysis on Pte Ganesh suicide

I had blogged about the tragic suicide of Pte Ganesh a couple of times. The traffic logs suggested that they were not very popular, not that I cared. Nevertheless traffic numbers are useful information to me giving me the pulse of our society. I had also blogged about how doctors abused health insurance to inflate fees and again there was little interest. From this I know bad days are coming. If society will not act some of us who are more aware are forced to find other ways to face the future challenge of runaway medical costs. If you think it is bad now, you ain't see nothing yet.

Some schizophrenia vulnerable guys have developed the illness triggered by the stress they endure in NS and I know of at least one personally. He is my former classmate youngest brother. I think most mentally ill guys should not be drafted into NS, not even in non-combat roles. The SAF is not toyland but an organization with perhaps the most serious mission of the nation. Can it accommodate, slow down and carry with it those who cannot handle the stress? Lt. Jessie Goh is now Capt Jessie Goh and in between the NSF Pte Ganesh under her charge committed suicide. Helping Pte Ganesh to adjust to military life is not in Capt Goh's critical KPI - the same for teachers dealing with bullying in schools versus completing the syllabus.

I have this against Capt Goh. I find it incredulous she knows so little about schizophrenia. Does she read the papers, watch TV or listen to the radio? What a frog in the well officer.

Oh, do more for servicemen with mental health issues say experts. Do more here, do more there., everything needs attention but our resources aren't infinite. I am amazed experts are not unanimous about excluding people suffering from schizophrenia from the SAF. The seriousness of its mission means it cannot carry anyone along unless he or she is sufficiently fit to an adequate level.

I wonder when they are making Jessie Goh into a major. Would she be willing to bo-chap and accept another death? Look, she was defensive rather than filled with regret for the loss of a man under her charge during the coroner's inquiry. She was more interested to save herself first. What sort of officer and values do the organization have?

Most people do not care too much about Pte Ganesh because they or their families aren't schizophrenics. To them this is a rare and somebody's else business. If a soldier were to commit suicide because he was bullied or sodomized in camp there would be public outrage because you immediately sense that your boy is at risk. That I concluded was why in my two previous posts there were few interested readers.

Pte Ganesh father forgot that in Singapore you have to look after yourself first especially when your circumstances is special. He was a patriot for nothing.


Update: April 14 7:25 am

Opened the Sunday Times this morning on my iPad and discovered that Andy Ho also thinks they should not be drafted.

Update: April 22 10:15 am

Lee Chiu San letter to the Forum was spot on. Planners and psychiatrists should just get out of their offices and understand what is happening on the ground.