Ranging Gun

It’s the 9^th of March and it has officially been 23 years since the tragedy of Exercise Swift Lion, which took the lives of Ronnie Tan Han Chong and Low Yin Tit. This was an incident which scared the youth of my national service batch. We were, as they say, supposed to be a privileged batch, - the first artillery batch to go to New Zealand (usual spots being Taiwan and Thailand) and the as was often mentioned, the first to conduct a full live firing exercise of the world’s only 52 caliber 155mm Gun Howitzer. Who would have known that our “blaze of glory” would turn out to be a tragedy?

Twenty-Three years have passed since that accident. For most of us, life moved on. We went onto build careers and start families, things which the two guys never got the chance to experience. I like to think that this is what the two guys who lost their lives would want from us. Every year, without fail, there is a moment of remembrance across social media.

Yet, as the intensity of emotion fades and we move on with our lives, I believe it becomes all the more important to remember the incident and the two that died. At the very least, we should do what we can to ensure that we don’t have a repeat. No more boys should be cut down for the sake of it.

Unlike the late Aloysius Pang, who was killed in an accident in New Zealand last year (2019), Ronnie and Yin Tit did not have the privilege of being famous. They were ordinary guys who were cut down for doing their jobs. My memory of who Ronnie was, is very clear – he was the guy who followed every instruction to the letter. He was the guy who gladly burnt his weekends to come back to ensure that work was well done (his boss had to threaten to charge him if he didn’t take a break). This wasn’t a guy who should have been killed like that.

I also need to stress that this was not a war situation. Had it been, we’d accept the deaths that took place. People die in war and I guess, you just do what you need to do to get the job done.

Even after 23-years, nothing will erase the fact that Ronnie and Yin Tit died needlessly and the reasons for that was down to faulty fuse as was discovered by the Committee of Inquiry that was convened a few weeks later. The results of the inquiry can be found in the following press release issued by the Ministry of Defense (MINDEF)

https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/data/pdfdoc/MINDEF_19970628001.pdf

In a curious way, this tragedy hits on one of our current day’s biggest issues – outsourcing. The summary of the findings can be summed up as follows:

1.      Chartered Ammunition Industries (“CAI”) supplied MINDEF with the fuses;

2.      CAI bought the fuses from Island Ordinance Systems (“IOS”), which did issue a certificate of compliance and a certificate of conformance to show that the fuses were up to par and CAI did do sample testing;

3.      CAI found out that IOS bought their fuses from Xian Dong Fang Machinery Factory in October 1994 but never notified MINDEF;

4.      It was found that around one-point three percent of fuses were defective (to put that in perspective – we fire around 100 rounds in a live firing exercise, so around one person becomes the victim of a faulty fuse).

5.     
MINDEF no longer buys fuses from IOS of Xian Dong Fang Machinery (“XDFM”)

You could say I’m making a mountain out of a molehill in as much as we haven’t had a similar accident in 23-years. You could say, what is it exactly do I expect to happen when MINDEF has argued that it has done everything possible to ensure the safety of our servicemen (let me reiterate the point that Singapore has a conscript army – our boys don’t choose to wear that uniform and the risk that it entails)

The answer is that I want some answers as to why my friend had to die? From reading the press release, the only thing I’m reading is that we got screwed by greedy American corporate interest that outsourced its manufacturing to China because it was cheaper. Shoddy workmanship is China’s fault. Greed is America’s fault. I wonder if the powers that be are asking us to accept that we got screwed by the two elephants of the global economic order?

Look, I don’t have an issue with outsourcing. Business is about making profit and if someone else, somewhere else can do the job at the fraction of the price, you should take advantage of it. You get to keep more money and you may even create a consumer. So, I’m not against outsourcing of doing a job. For example, if I want to take on freelance work but can’t do it per se, I find someone else with the bandwidth and share the takings.

While I’m OK with the outsourcing of doing the job, I do not get the outsourcing of responsibility. The initial contracting party is the one that gets the first bit of the customers money and as the party facing the customer and if they get the lion’s share of the money, they should likewise take the lion’s share of the responsibility for the customer’s wellbeing. I remember the time when plastic toys were found to have high levels of lead and other toxins. The American manufacturers (specifically Mattel) were quick to blame their Chinese OEMs, who promptly replied that they were merely doing what their principles had instructed them to do.

Likewise, the same was clear in this instance. IOS may be greedy American corporate entity and XDFM may be a cheap and shoddy Chinese manufacturer, but the entities facing the end user are CAI (which is incidentally government owned) and MINDEF. CAI was aware that IOS had outsourced the manufacturing of fuses to XDFM in October 1994. The incident took place in March 1997. CAI had nearly three-years advance warning to step up the checks on the fuses it was buying.

Perhaps I’m just biased here because this incident was and is personal. However, of all the instances and “accidental” deaths in the SAF, this was one where there was clearly no fault on the part of the operators. Ronnie as a commander stuck to the letter of the rules. He didn’t mess around or do anything silly (as most 21-year old boys are bound to do). He took his job seriously. From what I know, the commanders on the ground did their part.

My friend had to die before he could bloom because organizations needed money and didn’t want to take responsibility.  Yes, there was “Compensation.” It will never be enough for the lives that were lost. Yet, to date, we never heard of anyone paying for lacking responsibility for their jobs.

When a serviceman was drowned, the Chief Commando Officer was removed, the CO of School of Commandos was demoted and the officers responsible were court martialed. Yet, by comparison there hasn’t been a sound of a law suite filed against IOS of XDFM.

I don’t get it. When it comes to the guys on the ground, we talk about honor and responsibility. We rightly hold the chain of command responsible. Yet, when it comes to the guys selling us the equipment and making the money, we conveniently forget that such things like responsibility and accountability exists too.

CAI has gone onto become part of the ST Kenetics Group. It continues to thrive on our ever-increasing defense budget. IOS and XDFM continue as they’ve always been, doing well in a world that is increasingly nationalistic and bellicose. Somehow, the well being of these organizations is more important than the fact that two young guys were cut down because someone in these organizations could not take responsibility.

I don’t get that.