Continue the following story: I had enough of this...

THE BULLYING NCOS

I had enough of this. I did not know why but it seemed to me that every one of the NCOs were picking on me. The noisiest were Corporals Ahmad and Tan. I seemed to have become their ‘favourite’. In fact they even announced that I was. I found out soon that the word favourite’ is not used in the army in the same sense that it is used everywhere else. It means that they pay special attention to you.

When we went running, one of the corporals was sure to run right beside me and keep bugging me to keep moving. If I slowed down a little, I would be taunted.When we were on the range, a corporal was sure to be just a metre away and watching me like a hawk. I noticed that only a few of us had this ‘privilege’ of receiving special attention from them; all others were left alone. At first I thought that this was because we were the weaker recruits; then I realised that this was not true. Others who were worse than us were left alone.

I thought and thought about this for a long time and at the end of it all I was convinced about one thing:These NCOs were bullies and for some mysterious reasons, they were victimizing us. I decided that I had to do something. As usual I decided to consult my father.He was a captain in National Service. I was sure he would know what to do.

“A real warrior does not complain,” he said with a faraway look in his eyes. “Your NCOs are professionals,what they do will be for your own good,” he finished,slapped my back, laughed and disappeared behind the newspaper. I was a little mad. I thought that he was behaving like a typical officer; protecting the NCOs. Anyway,I took his advice grudgingly and decided that I would just go along with it. In fact I just decided to do my training well, but the pressure never let up to the end of Basic Military Training.

At the end of the course, we were assembled at the hall and the Officer Commanding was there and the Sergeant Major announced where we were posted to. I was shocked at hearing that I would be going for the officers’ training course. In fact I was sure I had done badly and would be dumped in some God forsaken unit to the end of my National Service. “If I was such a good soldier, then why were the NCOs pushing me so hard?”I wondered. I plucked up enough courage and went up to my Section Instructor, Corporal Ahmad, and asked him why. He called the other corporals together and they all started to laugh at me. I looked from one to the other in puzzlement. “Private”, said Corporal Ahmad, “ some of you will do best if left alone, others need to be pushed to do their best. If we had not pushed you, you would not have been good enough to go for officer training.When you become an officer, come back here and take us out to dinner. Remember that we were the ones who made it possible. Now get out of here!”

I walked back to my bunk, thinking of what he had said. Then I realised that he was right. If they had not pushed me, I would have been just average or worse.My father knew.

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