Many things have been said and many topics have been debated about the plight of young Dominique Sarron Lee the past couple of days.
It’s been over three years since the 21-year-old national serviceman unfortunately died during military training over an acute allergic reaction to the chemicals inside smoke grenades.
Legal battles were fought between the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Lee family in the aftermath of the incident — but it was the most recent one that absolutely broke the soul of Dominique’s mother.
After getting their suit against the SAF dismissed by the High Court, the anguish piled on for the Lee family when they were ordered to pay the legal costs to the Ministry of Defence.
The despair was palpable, of course, and provoked public outcry. SAF had to assure the public that the two officers that were in charge during Dominique’s fatal accident had indeed been punished according to military law, even though they escaped criminal conviction.
Throughout all this, Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen remained silent — until yesterday.
In a Facebook post directed to his staff in MINDEF and the SAF, he remains emphatetic to the family of the young man and wishes for improvement in the way things are being run.
Though the Minister noted that the High Court judgement was righteous — based on “sound legal grounds and precedents” — he requests that the Lee family should not endure further distress.
“…we need not add to the pain and anguish of the family of the late PTE Lee,” Ng said. “We should waive the costs to the family.”
Repeating the points already made by the SAF yesterday, he assures that his officers do indeed care for their men, and that “no one wishes for their trainees to be injured or worse still, face death.”
“We must learn from every accident, fix lapses and improve,” he continued. “This is the way we honour all those who have given their all to build a strong and honourable SAF.”
