The young man in the wheelchair is Lawrence Leow. He suffered a tragic incident during his NS training.Lawrence is now paralysed and he can't talk either. His condition is probably permanent. The Ministry of Defence is "compensating" him with a grand total of $500 per month.
Lawrence, who communicates by using small finger movements to type out words on a digital pad or handphone, wrote: "The $500 is not even enough for me to hire a maid!".
This case illustrates one of the points I made, back in September 2006. I wrote:
"Singapore forces its young men into military service, which in turn necessarily entails some degree of risk of death or injury. It is bizarre to me that the SAF has no standard insurance plan in place for NSFs. I think that it is only reasonable that the SAF buys life, disability and personal accident insurance for NSFs (at least for those in combat vocations, and for something significantly more than a few thousand dollars). In fact, the coverage should extend to active NSmen as well. As a fringe benefit, NSmen should have the option of continuing with the coverage (and paying for it themselves), when their NS liability is completed."If you would like to help Lawrence in any way, please click here and contact his friend Edmund Ng.