First Warrant Officer, Rajendran Pachemuthu, 51, was found hanging from a tree yesterday in army training area in Lentor. The reason for his apparent suicide is unclear as he was only 4 years from retirement.
Officer Rajendran is believed to have rose from rank and file in the Combat Engineers formation. Currently known to be a trainer at the Engineer Training Institute, he was a former "encik" at 30the Battalion Singapore Combat Engineers. His former charges described him as "hard on the outside, soft on the inside", "friendly" and "does not throw his weight around".
Last May, another SAF regular, 2nd Sergeant (2SG) Suresh S/O Seluras, 24, was found hanging from a rope in Changi Airbase. He was a military policeman from the 608th Squadron.
RIP.
More than just a clean ceiling President Scholar
"Politics is a contest for power. But you know the key principle when you have power is: don't take advantage of people under your charge and always be honest and upfront with your people. When a mistake is made, just come clean and say so. But don't cover up."
Sounds familiar? Knn almost every newspaper on this damn island carried the Minister with the little girl's name quote in full. It's not just about a clean ceiling ok.
But is this consistently applied throughout the government? Why was Captain Sherwayn Tan, 27, discharged from military service when his Commanding Officer never check the training programme and let all the men book out!? Did his Commanding Officer and MINDEF take care of him?
Captain, who is also a President Scholar, was charged for falsifying official document when he signed a paper saying that his men had went for range practice when they had actually booked out. The unit's CO had let the men book out for good performance.
SHIT Times had the cheek to ask why Captain did not recall the men for range practice. That means the Captain would go against the order of his superior and piss off his whole company by asking them to come back. Sure, he was stupid and made a mistake by covering up. He knew it was wrong and he admitted it but he didn't know it would end his military career.
Subsequently, he was charged, fined $2000 and discharged from a glorious military career and a plush Temasek-listed firm directorship when he retires. And all this while there was no mention of the responsibility of his CO and superiors.
Luckily, he has one more chance now that a retrial was ordered by the military appeal court after they said he didn't know that he would be discharged when he pleaded guilty to the offence. Sherwayn Tan's discipline record is clean is near to the end of his six year bond.
Then you would wonder, who was advising this Captain all this while? Or left him in the deep?
Now this is where the plot thickens, because according to his lawyer, his superiors had asked him to plead guilty so that he could resume his SAF service without any obstruction. Quite obviously, if he knew he would be discharged if he pleaded guilty, he might as well contest the charge.
Captain is in the wrong, there is no doubt about that. But was there any pressure or advice from his superior to plead guilty and move on? DId they ask him to get lawyer as this could be a serious charge? Were they honest and upfront with the Captain?
MINDEF should investigate and give a dossier to the public like what Minister had done in parliament.
