Three days ago (Mar 7), Mervyn Chan Ping wrote to The Straits Times about how he lost a job in Manila because he could not apply for an exit permit.

Chan wrote about how he had tried repeatedly to apply for deferment, but was unsuccessful. He said "red tape has cost me a valuable opportunity in today's challenging economy."

When ST published the letter, "Unsuccessful reservist deferment costs NSman a job", comments from netizens were mixed.

Some commiserated with Chan:

While others believed that deferment should not be difficult and there was more to the story:

Mindef subsequently responded to Chan's letter and ST carried it - Past history of NSman taken into consideration in deferment requests.

Mindef said that "Chan's request was rejected because he had abused previously granted deferments based on similar grounds."

Mindef went on to say that "Corporal (NS) Chan" (you know shit just got real when Mindef calls you by your NS rank) had applied Exit Permits for overseas work thrice previously and was granted the permit all three times. However, Mindef said Chan was "found to have returned to Singapore for an extended period of time, which was not consistent with the terms for which the Exit Permit was granted."

Mindef went one further and shared that Chan had "an unresolved disciplinary offence."

Reactions from netizens were a bit more uniform this time:

Since you're here how about another article:

They say we can buy anything online, so here’s a life-sized gummy snake

Watch out, paper qualifications. Real life experience is coming for you.

Top image adapted from Mindef

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