NS is slavery.
To preface, slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regard to their labour. It is an economic phenomenon and its history resides in economic history. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage.
Our servicemen are held, without a choice, in a camp where labour is forced and any defiance leads to charges and they could be subject to being held in the detention barracks, our military's way of spelling prison. They work full time, with their pay being incredibly unfair in comparison to the time and effort that gets put in. A starting pay for a full-time McDonald's worker here is around 2500SGD per month, whereas the starting pay of our full-time servicemen range around 500SGD, 5 times less than what the McDonald's worker makes.
This is a system where our servicemen have no choice but to be forced into 2 years of full-time labour while being severely underpaid, and being disallowed from having an opinion on the matter as the legal age to vote in Singapore is 21 while most servicemen enlist beforehand. In what universe is this not slavery?
The forced labor of black people picking cotton in the United States was a foundational element of the American economy from the late 18th century through the mid-20th century. If, today, our government took every black person and forced them to pick cotton for two years, wouldn't it be racist slavery? What makes that different from our government taking every male person and forcing them into the military for two years? Wouldn't it then be sexist slavery? Similar to a person's race, sex can't be controlled when you are born. National service, by definition, is objectively sexist.
In parliament, while discussing the fairness of our servicemen's pay, Chan Chun Sing mentioned that NS "is a unique civic duty and contribution by all able-bodied Singaporean males, not a transaction". How is national service a duty? A male being born into being singaporean makes them carry the duty of 2 years in the military? Is that not a violation of a basic human right?
The people in parliament treat NS like every male has a duty to serve NS, deserve being paid peanuts for full time tedious jobs, and using words like "allowance" instead of salary to highlight how they believe that it should be out of every male's heart to serve and that they don't deserve any compensation for their loss of two years.
With our own government believing that our males shouldnt have reasonable compensation for their compulsory work, NS IS slavery and IS inherently sexist. Why is slavery being normalised and seen as "okay" by our own people just because it has existed for decades?