One of the long-standing rules of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is that you cannot bring in a camera into an army camp. The ban on cameras also means that soldiers cannot bring in camera phones into the camp.
As any National Serviceman or reservists knows; this ban on camera phones is routinely ignored. People bring in camera phones all the time. During my reservist, I know of a guy who brings in a blackberry even. Frankly, there is just no effective way for the SAF to enforce the ban as handphones are so small nowadays.
So in the face of this, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) has now announced that it is “exploring ways” to allow soldiers to use the camera-equipped smartphones. It looks like the ban on camera phones are going the way of the dodo and my feelings on this are mixed.
I can understand why the SAF is reviewing the rules but if they are going to allow camera phones, then they should also allow cameras in as well. The reason why camera phones are not allowed in base is due to the cameras inside the phones so if cameras phones are allowed; why not cameras?
It makes no sense right? If Mindef reverse the ban on cameras phones, then they should reverse the ban on cameras as well. If they don’t intend to reverse the ban on cameras, then they not reverse the ban on camera phones! It’s that simple.
7 comments:
frankly, no one really cares abt the ban on cameras lahh.. just do a NSman poll.. its the phone that is impt. and becoz all phones these days comes with cameras, NSmen are caught in no-man's land... most, if not all NSMen obey the rules and dun even bother to take pics during reservist. pls lah. we just wanna get out of trouble, out-pro and M.R. dats all... do our time for doing the crime - be a singaporean..
I've always thought that this ban was not only stupid (typical MINDEF policy) but ridiculous. If you talk about security, what about the Indain or Bangladash cleaners that MINDEF employs to clean the camps? It seems that locals with a camera phone is a high security risk and foreign workers in camps are not.
No. They are only considering allowing camera phones, but with the camera function disabled.
Not true that one can always bring cameras in. In my reservist training centre, they spot checked frequently and press the units to charge those who were caught with the camera phones.
I think it is not realistic to have the camera phone rule given that we are an army with the bulk of its servicemen coming from the reserves. Most phones and smartphones come with cameras and how many of us want to detach the camera. There should be better ways such as a seal or tape over the camera which can be detected once it is tampered with so servicemen can opt for such seals or tapes during ICTs. Everytime a serviceman leaves camp, the RPs are free to spot check. The seals should only be removed at the end of the ICT by the RPs at the guardhouse or someone assigned by the camp RSM.
Frankly when there are so many satellites up in the sky, what purpose does a camera ban really serve ? And have they never heard of pinhole cameras in the form of so many camouflage gadgets ?
What matters most is just to designate certain highly sensitive zones as "camera-restricted areas". It is not as if the whole camp is that sensitive, isn't it ? Those in charge of the rules must really have "man head pig brains" ?
The thing is; even if you want to detach the camera, how you do it? I'm sure there are some people out there with no idea how to detach the camera. There are so many makes & models of HPs, I'm pretty sure there's no way one person can know how to detach the camera of all the phones out there without at least some risk of spoiling the phone.
www.noncamerasmartphones.blogspot.com
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