my new found friends

Its 6.33pm and its all quiet and cold in Room 517. Things are usually still quite peaceful until seven or eight; that’s when the ruckus starts. Contrary to what our superiors (being the Captains) think, we do work at nights. Syndicate meetings will be called up, group meetings for other projects will be held, and even no-particular-reason group conferences can be found in every other room on our floor.

We are the MINDEF 2007 Scholars. Ever since our signing ceremony on March 2nd, the public must have thought we had become lost off the surface of the earth. I have to agree. We were all encouraged to stay at the provided apartments so that transport, projects, communication etc were easier to handle. It’s all work in our new home at MINDEF, and more work at our sleeping place (being the apartments). It is now Week 6 of our attachment and all the scholars are now very close to each other. Simply said, we’ve bonded. To what extent? We’ve yet to find out.

It took us some time to orient ourselves in our new environment and roles. The change was overwhelming. Imagine being a stay-in-the-house person one day and then having to shoulder so many responsibilities the next. There were a few glitches at first. The transition from a housekeeper-conditioned teen to an independent young adult is never easy. We’re lucky in the sense that we’re all going through the same thing, together.

under the 'camo' net

An interesting thing to note is that the 2007 batch of scholars is an unlikely mix of Islamic Studies-oriented students and A-level graduates. The culture shock has been really a shocker. I certainly didn’t expect a tudung-clad devout Muslim to like rock songs, or take an interest in software programming. This goes a long way to show how much our minds are clouded by the Western media-influenced stereotyping mentality. I’m honestly glad that this particular batch is seemingly different, because I never would’ve gotten out of that state of mind if it weren’t for these newfound friends.

I get the feeling that a lot of people don’t know exactly what we’re doing as scholars of MINDEF. I don’t blame them because we live and breathe in a pretty protected (literally) environment. The security and confidentiality is up, naturally, because the organization which ‘owns’ us deal with the defence of our country. As scholars, we are learning to appreciate what the military does. We realize how complex the organization is and the necessity to do so means we have quite a lot on our plates. The majority of the public do not see defence at work, but that means it is at work.

 The attachment program also serves as a grooming process. We are to be the future leaders of this organization. A respected officer once described MINDEF as “a country in a country”, and I hear my peers quoting the same thing every now and then. It is true. MINDEF is a country in a country. We have everything a country should have; finance, administration, public relation, policy, engineering and so on. And it is we, the ever blundering scholars, who are going to grow up into well defined individuals who will take over and continue the honorable work of our predecessors.

 For us new scholars, there’s still a lot more to learn. The self development never stops in MINDEF, and there are opportunities everywhere. This is not an ad, nor are they paying me/us to sell the organization (I can always hope but I highly doubt it!). This is the bald truth, from us. It’s awesome!

By: Nurzawanah Abdul Gapar (2007 RBAF Scholar)