Pulling strings

From Reuters-

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A son of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has received a rebuke from the country's military for violating its chain of command with an e-mail complaint about a fellow officer, the ministry of defense said on Friday.

Li Hongyi, a 2nd Lieutenant doing his national service, had sent the e-mail to Singapore's defense Minister and hundreds of military personnel to complain that a colleague had gone absent without leave on two occasions.

Li also said in the June 28 missive that the errant officer's supervisors failed to act even after he raised the matter.

The defense ministry said Li, 20, was formally charged and reprimanded after a summary trial earlier this month.

It added that the errant officer Li had complained about had been court martialed for going absent without leave while his two supervising officers were issued warning letters for "poor judgment in administering appropriate disciplinary action."

Some politicians, bloggers and members of the MSM regularly complain that today's US military doesn't truly represent society, because children of the rich or influential, rarely join the military. If they did, would we have stories like this in the US? In today's all volunteer military, probably not. If the draft was ever reinstated, probably.

Note- I served in the Navy. During that time, I know of no one having strings pulled for them.(But I did see plenty of kissing up to superiors. LOL) Except when I watched movies, like this or this.

Li's letter -- totaling 2,000 words according to the Today newspaper -- has been posted online by several Singapore blogs, which have emerged as an alternative source of information for the city-state's Internet-savvy population, over pro-government newspapers.

Dear wife and I have been to Singapore. It's a beautiful city and we had a wonderful time there,(Except when we were ripped off by a food hawker at Newton Food Circus) but the laws and government are strict in that country. I don't know if I could live in such conditions.

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