merit-o-crazy

I've been wondering, whether Singapore is really a meritocracy society after all. I think when we were still in school, we were all influenced to think that Singapore is indeed meritocratic. That's because you see so many testimonies of meritocracy, in terms of scholarships, achievement awards in academics, aethestics and sports etc. But I don't see much of that in NS right now.

It's strange how the Singapore Government has always been placing strong emphasis on the practice of meritocracy, and how it recently accentuated this point by proposing a pay rise for civil servants in order to retain and attract talents. Is that our Government's way of recognizing the talents we have - by giving them a pay rise, and in the means of this justifying its standpoint on meritocracy? It's subjective.

This thing about Officer Cadets of Police (I aint talking about army cos I'm in no position to comment), OCT as they call it, is rather weird. Just almost everything about it is weird. How people are selected for OCT, how people from army instead of police occupies a much larger proportion of OCT cohorts, and how these people upon graduation can put up such an aloof front after assuming key posts in various police units.

Let's talk about the first 'how'. There is this huge discrepancy, as far as I see it. In a cohort of 50 officer trainees, about 48 of them will come from BMT. You see, these 48 chaps are posted to the police after their BMT in army. The other 2 will be police direct enlistees, having to put in extra hard work to do well during his basic police training and eventually the interview round in order to be selected into OCT. So you see where meritocracy applies more in this case? Is there any fairness in this? I'm not bringing this up because I'm having sour grapes at not being in OCT. In fact, I feel alot better not being part of that.

The even more pissing off thing about these OCT peeps is how most of them swell in arrogance and aloofness when they start to hold key posts in units. They hold a rank of Inspector, which is among the ranks of Senior Officers. In that sense, they deserve some respect, but they sometimes forget that respect is to be earned. What they forget too, is that they're NSF like everyone else. Holding a key post, just because you're an Inspector who was eventually posted to OCT from army on no grounds of merit, does not mean you can show your weight around.

On the other side of the coin, there are some Inspectors whom I have relatively good impression of. That's either because they are police direct enlistees who had worked hard to be selected into OCT (and that deserves my respect), or they display a humble and friendly disposition. I just got in touch with one of my primary school friend, who is now an NS Inspector at MHA. After exchanging a few smses, he called me for a chat. He sounded quite the same as before, a friendly chap without showing any signs of superiority in rank whatsoever. It has been 7 years since I last talked to him by the way, and yet we felt at ease talking and catching up on the phone.

Some people say it is all pre-determined who gets posted to where based on the medical examination months before the enlistment, which constitute a few psychometric sort of tests. Whatever it is, maybe it is time to revise this system of selecting potential inspectors, with more compliance to meritocracy.

Peace.