In Continuum.

The 8th Core Value

Every morning in the army at exactly five thirty in the morning, the young recruits would be ushered down into the parade square for their water parade. A water parade is basically an act by the army to cover their butts. You see, the military hates to deal with the death of soldiers in the course of their service simply because of the amount of paper work they have to do, not to mention the media coverage that ensues soon afterwards. So every morning before breakfast, the recruits would be forced to bring a bottle of water down, so that the superiors can make sure that they are properly hydrated for the rest of the day.

During the water parade itself, the superiors will take advantage of the opportunity and remind the recruits about the core values of the army - or at least that is what they call them in the army. They are basically the values that they army tries to instill, written all over every army-issued notebooks all across the country. Written in big block letters are the following words: Loyalty to country, leadership, discipline, professionalism, fighting spirit, ethics, care for solders. The recruits would be asked to say these words at the top of their voices in unison, and that is all done with their arms forming a ninety-degrees angle to their bodies, with a bottle of water in their hands. Those are the seven core values that we are supposed to know throughout our army days, or at least what they intend to do anyway. There is however - an eighth core value that the lot of us live by in secret: You can do anything you want, just don't get caught.

I was on the bus home when I saw the news on the television mounted to the side. It was a piece of news about Corporal running away from his camp a month before the end of his service with a SAR21 rifle after his guard duty. He disappeared from camp halfway through his duties, and nobody could find him anywhere in the compounds. So apparently, there was an island-wide manhunt that involved two hundred men, all trying to find this crazed twenty-year-old armed with a rifle and bullets. I can only imagine the panic that must have struck the officers in camp that morning, finding a rifle and a soldier missing from the camp. A lot of orders must have been shouted and a lot of questions must have been asked while the guy is out in the public with intentions nobody knew about. He could have robbed a bank, hijacked a plane, or sold it to some terrorist organizations from the Middle East - who knows? Anything could have happened between the time he left the camp and the time he is found - if he is found at all.

Imagine yourself being that Corporal who stole the rifle in the middle of the night and ran away from your camp with bullets to kill people. You'd want to be discreet about whatever you are doing, because having a rifle in the middle of a shopping mall is probably not going to be the smartest thing to do. You'd want to strip your rifle down into parts so it'd be easier for you to carry around, because you don't want people to be suspicious of your actions. You'd want to stay away from places with many people, because people have eyes to look out for such oddities in strangers. You know that the people from the army will look for you at home or in the houses of your relatives, so it'd be smarter if you hide somewhere else where they are not going to find you. Of course, a place with lesser people would be the most optimal. However, this little Corporal was caught in broad daylight - in the middle of Orchard Road.

As condemned as it is to smuggle a rifle out of camp just to rob a bank, it is quite a brave thing to do - let's be honest. It sure takes a lot of guts to do something like that, and it inevitably involves a lot of planning beforehand. One may argue that it is a stupid thing to risk the rest of your life for some quick cash, but I guess it is more justified than why the Corporal decided to run away with the rifle. He was caught in the middle of Cineleisure, where teenagers go to for karaoke, food, movies and just some brainless fun. I'm not sure if he was brandishing the weapon out in the public, but I'm sure he had the intentions of using it. Here's why.

Our Corporal - Dave - broke up with his girlfriend five months ago after a three year relationship. Dave was upset about the fact, and decided to head down to Cineleisure where his ex-girlfriend usually hangs out to gun her down. Of course, the word 'gun her down' did not officially escape the lips of his mouth, but what else can a man do with a rifle in the middle of a place where his ex-girlfriend hangs out? Oh yeah, that's right. Gun her current beau down. The situation is made a little more complicated by the fact that her current beau is actually a girl, and that she has officially turned to that side of the sexual spectrum. I guess it must have been quite a trauma to Dave to have lost his girlfriend to a woman - imagine the kind of emotional trauma he must have went through to accept that for a fact. Anyway, I'm sure he had the intentions of using the gun on somebody - or maybe even himself, it doesn't matter. You start to wonder just how idiotic a human can get before he wakes up and tells himself," Wow, I AM an idiot". Because really, what he probably qualifies him for the dumbest Singaporean in the last decade or so.

Throughout his military life, he probably never heard of the 8th core value that the most of us live by in our own military life. We've broke all the rules possible in camp, and we are where we are because we were never caught doing those illegal things. We smuggled contraband items like iPod, camera cellphones, Malaysian cigarettes, porn, and even women into camp before. There was the other time when the boys smuggled a full Mahjong set into the camp and nobody knew about it at all. There were the other rules that we broke, like the one about smoking in the bathroom or bringing food out into the fields. Technically speaking, you cannot bring food other than the combat rations provided out into the fields. But of course, under those metal benches in our vehicles, we stuffed all kinds of food imaginable. We even bought an ice box for canned drinks, bought ice to keep the drinks cool, and even have buffets out in the middle of nowhere. All of those were done with some eyes closed and under a lot of discreet actions, all because we lived strictly by the code of the eighth core value. That was obviously not instill in the mind of our good friend Dave.

In the name of love, Dave was probably attempting to do something stupid and radical. He might have watched a tad bit too many Hollywood movies, because they usually have the main character dumped in the beginning of the film, then the woman is won back because he fought back evil monsters with two MGs. Most movies aren't nearly as cheesy and cliche, but you know what I mean. If Dave was thinking at all, he must have been thinking about confetti raining down upon himself as well as his reclaimed prize, standing before a sunset as they embrace and kiss. That'd be a heroic shot, and it was probably the image that was on repeat in his mind as he must have ran through the gates of his camp. Because truly, nobody in the right mind is going to throw his life away, knowing that he is going to get into a lot of troubles afterwards.

Let's mentally break down the charges that he will be facing. Running away from his duties is going to be one offense, along with going AWOL from an army camp. That is not to mention the fact that he stole a rifle as well as the magazine of bullets as well. Being in possession of firearms in public is going to be a charge as well, and I am not even a law student here. I am basing my judgment upon common sense, and those are just some of the things that he is going to get himself into trouble with. Losing a gun alone in camp is enough to get you a seven year sentence, but stealing a gun is probably going to get you seven more years on top of that. That is about fourteen years in prison for that one charge, and giving the best case scenario for every other charges he will be facing in the days to come, he is probably going to spend the rest of his life in prison. All because his girl ran away with another girl, boo-hoo.

There are levels to a person's stupidity, and to do such things for love is probably one of the dumbest things you can do. There are girls running about everywhere on the street, it is possible to pick somebody up and start a relationship whenever you want. It is not about losing your girl to another girl, but about how you pick yourself up after a break up every time. At least that is what I have learned through my own experiences, and it is never about how you get back to your old love and how to make her feel bad about the break up. Of course, even if you are one of those people who gets a kick out of making others feel like shit, stealing a rifle from your camp is probably not the brightest thing to do. Besides, Dave was a month away to the end of his service, but I guess he just couldn't wait for another month to execute his utter stupidity.

There are people on internet forums pleading for his case, saying that he sounds like a nice guy who got together with a wrong girl, or how sad it is to be an orphan living with his grandparents as well as his relatives. There are reasons to have sympathy on this crazed Corporal indeed. After all, there are always two sides to a coin in every story, and I am sure Dave has his own story to tell, if you would just sit down with him and have a nice cup of tea. However, I don't suppose being a nice guy and an orphan justifies your stupidity for stealing a rifle. After all, this is the rest of your life we are talking about, and you are barely a quarter into it. Your relatives are not commenting about it, probably because they are too ashamed to be associated with an idiot like you. It doesn't matter that part of the public sympathizes with your actions, I for one thinks that you deserve whatever you are going to get in court.

The thing about the 8th core value is that it doesn't just work in the army, but in the context of our everyday lives as well. It works in the office, in school, and every part of our society. As long as you are good enough to run away from punishment or detection, you are free to do anything you want - and that's the truth. There will be risks taken of course, but risks are merely part of the decision making for a wise man. You won't need the brain of a rocket scientist to know that Dave is going to spend a significant amount of time in the prison, so let's just hope that he remembers the 8th core value while he is behind bars. At least in that way, he might save himself a few visits to the hole.