The severity of going AWOL

Happy Birthday to Noodle M

Missing in action (MIA) is a status assigned to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively identified. Becoming MIA has been an occupational risk for service personnel for as long as there has been warfare.

The term AWOL is an acronym for "Absent Without Leave". Ultimate "duty" or "responsibility," however, under International Law, is not necessarily always to a "Government" nor to a "superior," as seen in the fourth of the Nuremberg Principles, which states: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

I personally don't like people who go MIA, even if it's for personal reasons. Be it school, NS or work, going AWOL for more than 3 days is a very serious offence in itself. I have seen way too many MIA/AWOL scenarios to know too well the consequences of committing such an immoral and unforgivable act. To go MIA is a testimony of the person's character and conscience. Look at Mas Selamat... he went into hiding for more than a year, only to get caught in JB in early April and retained in a Malaysian detention center for about 2 years.

Here's a good example of a MIA stint: I remembered back in Sec 4 when Mr GL, a loyal student of Montfort for 10 full years, suddenly went AWOL during the last few months, only to make a surprise comeback at the start of the O levels. Due to missing out on the compulsory prelim papers, he had scored a very low aggregate score and was in grave danger of getting expelled. Rumors were that his family had been summoned back to their native country due to unknwon reasons (something to do with not getting proper citizenship or something... and we all thought he was a Singaporean citizen by birth??). To nobody's surprise, Mr GL didn't turn up on the O level results day in March 2000, but we all know he scored very badly due to lack of revision and focus. Whatever happened to him after that, we may never know...

In ITE Tampines days, there were a few goons who went AWOL for unknown reasons, one of them even rumored to have been "stranded in Pulau Ubin due to some Outward Bound Course violation" or something. Before we knew it, people like Mr Y and Mr K had been expelled from the system for good, they went to take on part-time jobs in the streets. Not that it mattered to me anyway, I never liked them for their misdeeds...

In NS days, AWOL is considered a very serious offence, but even that rule alone is not enough to stop a few individuals like Mr A (short fella) and Mr S (Jabba lookalike) from throwing MC (feign illness). And due to continuous throwing MCs in the course of 1 year, they were demoted from drivers to something less siong, leaving us no choice but to classify them as "chao keng kia" (jabronis who would think of certain ways to escape from active duty). Or simply put, MC Kings, to quote the late Jimmy Nah who was gone too soon...

During my 2-yr work at MB, anyone who dared to go MIA for more than 3 days will be terminated with immediate effect. It had happened to 3 or 4 youngsters who didn't seem to take their work seriously. Need I say more?

The various AWOL stints at ITE Bedok I shall not comment at all, lest I incur the wraths of those who were greatly offended by my past entries on them...

As for Fiona Xie and her manager, I am very ashamed with the both of them for being such bigtime liars. I got nothing to say about the late Chris Benoit's controversial MIA stint 2 years back... what he did on the days leading to Vengeance: Night Of Champions 2007, we all already know (and it was damn unforgivable even to this day).

As for my current job... an MIA stint had taken place recently, and it was not good at all. I am frankyl quite disappointed with the individual responsible for the crime, and I am finding it rather hard to forgive her for doing a "Fiona Xie". So what if she has a family to take care of, what she had done since 2 weeks ago is totally inexcusable!! Even if she were gracious enough to offer 2 boxes of curry puffs from Old Chang Kee, that's still not good enough to make up for her disppearance and subsequent quitting. Then again, I guess we're better off without her... ok, it's best to move on already.