Serviceman punished for urinating on officer's bed
Soldier gets detention and demotion after video of him goes public online
A screengrab of the video showing the soldier urinating on an officer's bed. The Singapore Army said another soldier who filmed the act was punished as well.
By LEE JIAN XUAN
A SOLDIER who deliberately urinated on an officer's bed has been disciplined by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
The soldier, believed to be a full-time national serviceman holding the rank of Third Sergeant, was court-martialled.
His punishment was detention and demotion. the Singapore Army said in a post on its Facebook page yesterday.
It did not specify the period of detention.
Another soldier who filmed the act was punished as well, according to the post. No details of his punishment were given.
"The Singapore Army takes a serious view on the conduct and discipline of our soldiers. The soldiers... have both been identified and disciplined under military law," it said.
The incident first came to light two months ago, when a user uploaded a post of the soldier committing the act on citizen journalism website STOMP. The post has since drawn close to 68,000 views.
The Straits Times understands that the SAF launched investigations to identify the soldiers who were in the video after it was made public.
The soldier had apparently been celebrating his last day in camp by urinating on the bed of his officer, who had given him a hard time, said the Stomper.
Screengrabs of the video showed the silhouette of a male soldier urinating on a pillow, and posing for the camera after the act.
"You deserve more than this, but I was in a really good mood," it stated.
Most users on the Singapore Army Facebook page roundly condemned the soldier's actions.
One user called Lawrence Lim deemed the offence "totally unacceptable".
"No reason can justify such an act of disrespect," he said.
But others like operationally ready national serviceman (NS-man) Marvin Ong felt that the soldier must have lashed out at his officer for a reason. "Maybe the officer did treat him poorly," said the 25-year-old. "But he should have gone to the officer's superiors instead of behaving like this."
Six out of 10 NSmen whom The Straits Times spoke to also said that they felt the punishment meted out was appropriate.
"No soldier should be doing such things when he is in uniform. The fact that he went so far as to upload it makes it even worse," said 28-year-old NSman and logistics analyst Sherman Lim.
Top of the news, The Straits Times, Tuesday, November 12, 2013, Pg A7