Aware missed an opportunity to engage

This much is true: Singaporean men love to criticise the army. But what we love to hate are those who we think have not earned the stripes to disparage the military.

So when a deejay called our men fair-weather soldiers for not training through the episode of haze earlier this year, netizens pounced on her online post and flamed her.

Then, in August, the National Geographic Channel's publicity stunt for its TV series on the army - featuring hired actors in military attire responding to drill commands from the lunchtime crowd in Raffles Place - rubbed the men the wrong way. Commanding soldiers, even pretend ones, is a privilege civilians shouldn't get to experience, sniffed those who had served.

Now, we have Aware's petition to eliminate obscene lyrics referring to rape from the army marching song Purple Light. Those angered by what they see as the women's organisation meddling are asking: Why should outsiders tell the armed forces what is appropriate behaviour?

While citizen soldiers have turned moaning about the army into an art form, every time there is a perceived slight on the SAF from other quarters, suddenly it's all about pride and honour and the sacred call of duty.

Perhaps there is a fear that the conscript's sacrifice is somehow diminished when those who haven't walked a mile in our boots question what we do.

This attitude is personified in the film A Few Good Men, when the marine colonel played by Jack Nicholson snarls at Tom Cruise's lawyer character to pick up a weapon and stand a post before presuming he is entitled to answers about how the colonel runs his military base.

In short, "don't comment if you haven't served" is something many who have put on the uniform believe.

Aware's persistence in pursuing the matter is understandable, given its position against sexism and offensive attitudes to women.

I believe Aware had a point in raising the issue. But I also feel Aware bungled by rushing to condemn because by doing so, its message was lost completely on soldiers baffled by the sudden attention to song lyrics most don't dwell on, much less take seriously.

Instead of persuading or educating our servicemen that it is deplorable to trivialise something as heinous as rape, Aware left the men swearing at how little the women's group knows about the army.

It singled out Purple Light, although that song is far from unique. There is a whole repertoire of indecent army ditties featuring girlfriends, underwear, sex and other topics unmentionable in polite company.

Petitioning the Defence Ministry about one verse in one song seemed to many soldiers like a knee-jerk reaction and it showed how woefully clueless Aware was about army culture.

Aware has since released a further statement that it is investigating lewd lyrics in other army songs.

As if army songs are military secrets.

And what will Aware uncover next? That military instructions are often peppered with swear words in a variety of languages and the most colourful dialect cusses involve mothers and private parts, among others? Or that when bored men congregate in the barracks, the talk can drift to girls and sex, and the conversations should not be repeated elsewhere?

And then, what?

Frankly, it's hard to see the day when the SAF bans swearing and dirty talk because a women's group protested.

But who can tell. I'm in the midst of my reservist stint now, and something strange happened at the start that I never saw coming.

On Day One, a warrant officer - one of the no-nonsense enforcers of military discipline - told us plainly that obscene lyrics were not allowed in all army songs any more. "Now women love the army, they want to serve too," he said, referring to the ongoing debate about women and national service.

The roomful of operationally ready national servicemen, mostly in their mid-30s and having served almost two decades, burst out laughing. It was just too hilarious to see our stern-faced warrant officer laying down the law on something that had been a part of NS life from the day we enlisted.

Over the next few days, we heard the deep, throaty voices of younger full-time national servicemen singing military songs scrubbed of bad words.

But if I know the army, the NSFs will respect the "ban" for a while, before the newly illicit words creep back again.

After all, soldiers have long internalised the mantra "don't get caught", which we refer to cheekily as an unofficial SAF core value. NSFs might even get a thrill out of doing something now deemed illegal.

I don't doubt that Aware is genuinely concerned about vulgar lyrics leaving an indelible mark or worse, shaping the wrong attitudes to violence against women.

But it would have achieved far more by attempting to understand our men in uniform a little more, and the role army songs play in military culture.

The women could have then embarked on a more meaningful engagement process aimed at changing attitudes, perhaps with longer- lasting results.

Instead, getting all worked up over a song has just put the men on the defensive unnecessarily. It's been an unfortunate battle where everyone loses and nobody wins.

ziliang@sph.com.sg

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