May 2002 edititon of Pioneer magazine, pg 22.
there's an article here about yet another batch of recently commisioned cadets. accompanying the article is a pix of three cadets; one local and two foreign cadets, one from the royal thai army and one from (surprise surprise) royal malaysian army.
rather than being shocked, i am actually pleasantly surprised. i've heard of ocs taking in cadets from thailand, brunei and philippines, but this is the first time i heard of ocs taking in a cadet from m'sia.
is this an unprecedented event, i wonder? does anybody here know of a previous m'sian cadet in ocs? if it this is an unprecedented event, i hope it heralds more co-operation between the SAF and the armed forces of its closest neighbour. granted, the m'sian cadet, like other foreign cadets, forego about 10% of the training syllabus for security reasons; but still, even though m'sia is our closest neighbour, i dont ever recall the two holding joint excercises together, apart from FPDA, let alone train in each other's territory (for obvious reasons). so maybe this is a step in the right direction.
true, our two countries are rivals, but i would rather our wars be restricted strictly to the economic battlefield. yes, i know we must first throw away our mistrust and what have you, but we have to start somewhere don't we? and what a wonderful destination this journey may lead to.
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RockerZ!
I think the military and the politicians who really matter on both sides know that war will only bring about 2 losers and no winners, and that closer cooperation will only benefit everyone. Its two-bit small-time politicians with their own agendas and irresponsible journalists who constantly try to beat the war drums to gain attention and sell papers, repectively.
A positive development, though.
I agree with viper and think in general that both the leaders of Singapore and Malaysia usually work to prevent any conflicts from getting out of hand. It is only rogue politicians and irresponsible journalist who try so hard to destroy the very fragile trust that both countries have established over the years. Hopefully cool heads will prevail and all the tongue-lashing and Singapore bashing will just remain as that, and not escalate into anything else.
On a sidenote, we may always complain about the behind-the-doors censorship that goes on with The Straits Times but fail to see the benefits. I can easily picture comments by the Malaysian media being exploited by irresponsible journalist in Singapore, which may cause sentiments on both sides of the straits to be stirred up, with catastrophic results. Its just a thought though. I'm not saying I fully support Singapore's censorship, but that it has its benefits and I think the benefits far outweight the cons, if you look at it in a different light.
[This message has been edited by chamenos (edited 19 May 2002).]
Ducati... no need to worry.. that's a part of training between ASEAN countries. NS also involved in survival training here.. war drum was set by sg and msia media.. i believe our gov never had intention to start a war ....
If you are surprised that OCS was reported to have received a cadet trainee from Malaysia, then you might as well hold on to your shoes with the next news:
The Malaysian Inspector General of Police was personally awarded by President Nathan with the highest Distinguished Order of Singapore for his nuturing of the close working relationship between the Malaysian and Singapore Police Forces.
This happened just about one week ago only.