MINDEF defends PAP

In a sign that the entire PAP establishment is throwing its weight behind its presidential candidate Dr Tony Tan, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) has released a press statement to defend former PAP defence minister Dr Tony Tan over the ongoing controversy about his son, Dr Patrick Tan Boon Ooi’s NS stint.

In response to queries from the state media, MINDEF said Patrick’s posting as a defence medical scientist was done ‘according to vocational guidelines’. He completed his full-time NS on June 19, 2002.

However, MINDEF did not reveal the number of NSFs who were enrolled in the unique vocation of ‘defence medical scientist’.

Dr Patrick Tan served his NS from 2000 – 2002 as a ‘defence medical scientist’ at the Defence Medical and Environmental Research Institute (DMERI, then called DMRI) where he continued to work till 2004, two years after his ORD.

MINDEF added that while in NS, Dr Patrick Tan received an NSman’s salary and fulfilled all requirements of NS, such as the Individual Physical Proficiency Test. It did not explain why Dr Patrick Tan was not sent to serve as a combat medical officer (MO) despite being combat-fit.

It also told the state media that prior to 1992, there were 86 NSFs who were disrupted for overseas medical studies, but did not reveal the duration of their disruption. Some netizens have pointed out that it is unusual for a NSF to be disrupted for 13 long years.

Despite the feeble attempt of the PAP regime to exercise damage control over the PR fallout, Dr Tony Tan and MINDEF’s incomplete clarifications brought more questions than answers.

For the sake of transparency, MINDEF should come clean with the number of NSF medical doctors who disrupted for their medical studies and returned to serve as ‘defence medical scientists’ instead of combat-fit MOs over the years as well as its vocational guidelines on combat-fit NSFs.