Why Not?

Recently the Straits Times had an article about 3 Singaporeans who wanted to give up their Singapore citizenships but can’t because MINDEF want them to do their NS first.

Looking at the article, it seems like a simple case of young men running overseas to avoid NS. But reading the article carefully, I am struck by a simple thing. The 3 brothers have dual- citizenships in Norway and Singapore. They have a Norwegian father and Singaporean mother. I mean when you are born, you take your father’s name right? So the men wanted to be Norwegian instead of Singaporean. What’s wrong with that?

Seem fair and right to me; why not let them give up their Singaporean citizenship. It’s not as if we asked every Singapore PR to give up the citizenship of their home country, why not let the 3 brothers give up their Singapore citizenship.

What was even funnier was Singapore insistence that the 3 brothers served their NS first. Why should they serve NS when they have no intention of ever fighting for our island? It’s not as if they are afraid of the army life, one of the men is a career soldier in the Norwegian army for god sake!

The Singapore government has been known as a pretty inflexible juggernaut but this decision by MINDEF that the brothers must serve their NS first before giving up their Singapore citizenship is amazing! Let them go; they are Norwegian, not Singaporean.