What Walsh said ...

(the below refers to article linked to by previous post)
... was probably very true. It's telling enough that Armour and Signals camps don't have halal cookhouses. There are probably some antiquated mindsets lying around regarding promotion and the role of women in the military, which would take rather a bit of time to change. And inexperience will always be a problem until the day, heaven forbid, war actually breaks out in this Most Serene Republic.
But taking a broader, possibly rougher, view, the problems mentioned read like a list of problems that Singapore faces as a putative nation-state, writ small in the military arena.
We are a small Chinese-majority dot in a Muslim sea. Hence the peculiar issues of ethnic politics involved. The Scholar has been the highest caste, so to speak, (and the soldier one of the lowliest) in Confucianist society since time immemorial. And probably will be for some time, even after the liberation of Gen X has messed up 'traditional mindsets'. Hence a somewhat unreasonable prominence of Scholars in the promotion scheme, a large and inordinately prestigious officers' corps and a mildly hackneyed attitude towards women in the military. Hierachy and deference to authority, also, figure prominently here and take on an even harder dimension in the military -- hence the extreme focus on doctrine. And Singaporeans proudly proclaim themselves kiasi -- hence the scripted live-firing exercises and what Walsh describes as an inordinate focus on safety.
And so really, barring half-measures and perhaps broad organisational changes that I am absolutely not qualified to comment on (someone further down in that thread linked to suggested shrinking the officers' corps and expanding the WOSPEC corps, for example), these weaknesses will only be remedied slowly, incrementally, at perhaps no more than a snail's pace, as Singaporean society changes, perhaps as the world around changes and forces Singapore to change.
Meanwhile, we're stuck with low security clearances for Malays, the absolute rule of doctrine, parachuted lesson plans, scripted live-firing exercises and continued scholar-farmer conflict.
Wonderful.
Meanwhile, this quote from the thread was probably more meaningful than all that crap I just wrote:
'Stupid people start wars, stupid people run wars, and stupid people won't listen to those who fight the wars' - Gen. (Retired) Robin Olds, USAF.
Sort of reminds me of how our sergeants are attacking the Officers' Corps all day for planning on paper and holding higher authority for it. 纸上谈兵, in a way.