Great and surprising expectations

2004-07-23 10:38 p.m.

Tuesday, 20th of July was a wonderful experience for me, though in the eyes of the others around me, it was just another dull routine action. Yeah, I was at the SAF Court Martial Centre, to clear up a General Court Martial that could have been completed a long time back, but due to the handing over to various personnel, it was delayed until this month. Technically, I’m not suppose to be handle disciplinary cases at all, but some how, my pervious AS 1 had the perception that I was the only one who could phrase documents properly and coherently, I was roped into it. I had my reservations initially, but I very well couldn’t pull out half way through it, not especially since I wrote a mitigation plea for an earlier GCM. In this instance, we (the unit) was prosecuting the soldier so naturally a whole different set of documents had to be prepared.

As I finalized the charge sheets, conduct sheets, service records and other data pertaining to the case at hand, the accused seemed to be in quite a hopeless position with a history of many civil offences before and during enlistment as well as serious military offences from the start of enlistment. A normal clerk would simply just put aside everything else and get the paperwork over and done with. As for me, I had mixed feelings about this serviceman, both that of sympathy and contempt. The contempt was mainly due to the massive amount of corrections, editing and such just to perfect everything so that the case would flow smoothly. I still remembered that at the last minute that the heading of the convening orders was still wrong and it must have been the umpteenth time my Brigade Commander—who is based somewhere else—ad to sign those few copies. Yes one small mistake can cause a hassle indeed. I suppose in the end it taught me that be it civilian or military, work can never be slip shop. The sympathy part was the result of traveling all the way up to a prison just to visit the serviceman. The first trip or so was for the Investigation Report and it took up my whole afternoon. So I got to see a civil prison, something most people don’t see in their journey through life and something that most people won’t want to see. The security wasn’t at tight as I expected, but what struck me were the inmates. Some had a blank look on their faces while others bowed their heads as they shuffles along. Yet they were all cooperative and they were given control of the daily running of the complex. The person I had to meet had little of these characteristics, instead drifting away from our questions. The second visit was with someone more senior and this time the inmate appeared more dejected but at the same time mentioned how he wants to throw the past away and start afresh. He was more actively involved in community projects organized by the prison and helped his comrades focus of life. At that point, I felt that there still could be some hope for him, even thought I hear that his sentence would be around six to eight months.

This glimmer of hope would soon brighten after I met his Defending Officer (refer to my previous post for some other details.) In a proper legal case, one meets his opposing lawyer only to negotiate a deal but in my cases it was actually to provide him with the background information on his client. Sounds peculiar but that’s the way it happened. There was something special about the DO, something that I’ve seen before but I just couldn’t figure out what until I say him with a sheet of ACS (I) foolscap paper. Ah, definitely ACSian I thought, I was most certain about my prediction for he had the look (well almost) and the voice of one. I never got round to confirming that, but the serviceman’s seemed to have more than just a thin thread of hope on his side.

D-day was the date mentioned above, and I don’t know why but I prayed for the poor private the night before. I wasn’t really that emotional over the case, but I just taught maybe the outcome would be something magical and unexpected. So at 0830 I set foot for the second time on the grounds of the SAF Court Martial Centre with my Chief Clerk and a DXO. Law courts ignite this certain fire in me, something that burns excitement, adventure and trepidation all at once. Although I don’t see myself in that profession anytime in the future, the subject itself is something mystical and worth exploring, something that runs along the lines of debate. It’s probably this reason why I signed up for two law attachment programmes back in my school days. My excitement was revealed on my face, but to the other two around me, it made no difference.

The proceedings started pretty late due to few obstacles posed by the other units at the scene. The main legal prosecutor, a giant Caucasian with a booming voice was visibly upset with most of the junior officers at the scene. It turned out later that one of the other servicemen on trial was bed ridden due to a last minute illness while another couldn’t be released from prison. The President of the Court gave the respective Defending Officers a long reprimand and I tried to picture a similar instance in a civil court. Oh yeah, talking about DOs, I discovered that the DO for my case was from RJC. Wow, that’s like a real blessing for the accused alright, I thought, thinking of the stereotypical image of an RJC student: Intelligent and strong in almost every subject. This was further reinforced after my reading of his mitigation plea, which was five full pages long. I recalled my own one earlier this year which my AS 1 forced me to summarize from two pages to one and a half—a far cry from this one alright. The content showed great depth of research and it reflected a true masterpiece. “Don’t worry about the length, I’ll make the speech as lively as possible” he quipped to me just before we stepped into the chambers. Definitely ACS and RJC breed, I thought. How come I’ve never seen you before?

Our case was third in line with the first two providing a picture of the whole sequence of events. In these two cases, the DOs took around 3 to 4 minutes to deliver their plea which was almost identical in subject. Then came our case, and I held my breath, waiting for the long winded speech to commence. Ok, so the plea began, with the DO touching first of the extreme remorse the defendant felt towards his crimes and the usual stuff. Nothing spectacular. Then, he launched into great detail over the person’s social life, his family background and so on, painting the picture of an extremely troubled person cornered with no way out at each stage of his life. At the end of every paragraph, he paused for his words to set in and he clearly stress on certain key terms he underlined on his sheet. That took like four minutes and gosh he reminded me of a debater delivering his arguments. No just any debater, but his speech quality was akin to that of star debaters from ACJC or RJ and even that of the World School team. The next four minutes went straight into the transformation the person underwent, from a delinquent to that of a new person, improving himself through computer courses and reading the bible, while lending a helping hand to those in trouble in the prison. It was so moving and convincing, that I saw no points that I could properly rebut if it was an actual case where the defendant did not plead guilty. At one point, the DO brought up the Law of the Child as mentioned in the UN, trying to convince the court that the bearing of two young children must be taken into deep consideration when sentencing the accused. The President however, mumbled something about Singapore not ratifying that Law and struck it out of the plea. It did seem sort of irrelevant look back at it, but even then it was amazing that the DO bothered to research that much for a simple matter like a military court martial. At the end, the President of the Court congratulated him and mentioned ”We’ve been getting many complaints about DOs not performing well and her is one who went far beyond the call of duty to put in effort and zeal in his work. Congratulations young man, are you planning to read law next time?” The answer was no, I’m pursuing a science degree but gosh I would have taught he could have made a classic lawyer in any court anywhere in the world. If it wasn’t a court , I would have jumped up, applauding him. Yes, his work did pay off in the end, for the Private got only three months (a remarkable sentence for a second time offender) and in civil prison and not he dreaded SAF detention Barracks, a place you won’t even want to hear of.

I thanked the DO profusely. Gosh, I wish I could obtain a copy of his speech. It just reflects what a true Officer is, one dedicated to his work and never faltering in anything he does. It displays the mark of a well bred person, leaving no stone uncovered in his quest for greater heights, viewing nothing as a hurdle, seeing each task as a task to excel in. The DO left lasting impression on what we NSFs should be, not viewing our two or two and a half years as a burden and performing everything as it is will be regarded as waste. Whatever it may be seen years down the road, however people view it at the beginning or at the end, we should treat it with utmost pride. What I’ve learnt that day is the true mark of profession, that which is inculcated inside the vision “Every ACSian, a scholar, officer and gentlemen.”

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