court martial

It was 9am on 16 january 2012. that was last monday, as well as my first day of school. it was a pretty normal morning, and i was kinda stoning as i had just woke up. i was planning to go town with jia yun after school to shop for cny clothes and so was wondering if i shld wear my office wear there so that i can look for a suit set or blazer.

then, my handphone rang. It rang with an omnimous and haunting music that sends chills down the spines of many (like literally cos my ring tone is from a horror movie lol) And so, i picked up the call. It was a male voice, and he asked if i was me, to which i said yes. And then he dropped the bomb by saying:

" hi im calling from CBRE HQ, do you know that u are due to be court martialed tomorrow?"

I was momentarily stunned and asked him to repeat wad he said and his identity. It then came all back to me. right, my ippt cheating case. i asked him why i was not informed of this charge and court martial earlier and he said that i should have gotten a letter. i asked him how serious was it and he said: " since this is court martial, its pretty serious". he then asked me if i wanted to get a lawyer or anyone to represent me. I told him i dun know wad to do and he told me that it would be best for me to represent myself, as no one really knows wad happen. He then told me to meet him at the court martial place at kranji camp II and to call him if i have any other further questions.

After i hung up, i immediately messaged king and my dad to see if any of them recieved the letter or call. my dad said he never and king say he did not get any call. it felt as if someone had suddenly kicked me in the face. the incident was so long ago and there was no news of anything for like 4 months. I even tot they had forgotten about it! So i cancelled my date and went home straight after school to work on my defense, polish my boots, iron my uniform. could not sleep. too stressed

so anyway the next day i went to the kranji camp 2, which is where the court martial center was, and coincidentally where my brother was posted to. before i left, my father passed me 1k in cash in case i need it to pay the fine (maybe to bribe too? lol). I reached there at about 9am and waited till about 10 30 before the trial commenced. The captain and 2nd lieutenant from 39 sce who accompanied me were quite nice. after sorting out the details with the prosecutor, they told me that by book i shld be fined only about $500. the officer also volunteered to pay the fine for me first since they do not accept cash payments.

Anyway the place basically looked liked a common court room, with a special holding area for criminals such as myself and a jury stand for family members. So apparently i was to stand trial with king, but his unit never informed him. the prosecutor sounded very angry when she was told that. anyway i stood trial with another guy who assulted his officers. He was cuffed and came from a holding cell with bars. he even had to sit on the floor of the holding cell. i dunno why he kept smiling at me though i wanted to smile back, but i told myself i needed to give the super humji act repentant face just in case so i keep looking down.

anyway after all the talking and yes sir no sir i accept sir, i was sentenced to a fine of $500. despite it being a hefty amount, i was kinda relieved that it was not more. so i went to the office and waited to make payment with the officer who agreed to pay for me first. There i heard like 3 ppl talking very angrily. after listening awhile, i gathered that they were probably talking about king's camp. apparently its not the first time they fail to respond to the letters they sent or smt, and they were quite pissed.

so yea after the whole deed was done, i cabbed backed to school for lesson from 12 to 5.30pm. It was a long day indeed. everybody kept asking me if i reservist (cos i was wearing my army uniform) and no one believed me when i said i kena court martialed. its not really a proud thing to boast about but hey, i dun see a point in hiding it, in fact i think hiding it will make me feel worse.

well, this is a lesson learnt though. I returned my dad the 1k he passed to me cos i could not accept paying for my own mistake with his money. On the bright side, i wonder if one day i am gonna look back on this whole incident and laugh lol

but for now... sigh...500 dollars..