When a person tells us about something that someone else told him, it has little or no value if he does not identify the third party.
So it is with Mr Chew Kok Liang's letter "Don't Underestimate Female Soldiers" in today's The Straits Times:
"When
Singapore confronted the Communist Party of Malaya, it had to deal
with female communists.
They were mainly
Chinese and physically smaller and weaker than their male
counterparts.
But what they
lacked in strength, they made up for in dedication and ability.
I knew a Malaysian
military intelligence officer who fought the communists. Part of his
duties was to turn them to gain intelligence and to aid in search and
destroy missions.
In his experience,
the women were more deadly.
It was possible to
crack or turn a male communist, given time and incentives, he said.
However, try as he
might, he could never turn a female communist. They were prepared to
die for the cause 'no matter what', he said.
He once led an
ambush of a communist patrol and a heavily pregnant communist charged
at one of his soldiers with a parang.
He knocked her down
with a shot but she got up and tried to charge again. He had to shoot
her again, this time, to her death.
In his opinion,
female soldiers are as good as male soldiers. They may even be better
as they can be more focused and ruthless.
There are many
reasons for and against enlisting women, but their fighting
capability should not be one of them."
If Mr Chew cannot remember the
Malaysian intelligence officer's name or doesn't want to tell us his
name for whatever reason (even though the purported event probably
took place half a century ago), he should tell us why we should
believe him.
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