I'm a PR below the age of 18, and I will have to serve national service after I graduate from junior college next year.

I hope people will stop thinking of me and other young men and women in my plight as "children of PRs", as if we are chattel objects, as if it "doesn't count" that we do serve NS. My father did not have to serve national service because Singapore wants to maintain a young citizen army. He was too old to serve in the army.

I am fully willing to serve in the SAF, to learn to protect the country I grew up in. This in spite of the fact that I NEVER enjoyed the most important benefits that current articles say PRs enjoy. I had to pay up to ten times the school fees of what the majority of my peers pay because PRs are not considered for The Edusave Entrance Scholarships for Independent Schools (EESIS). Also, I do not have an edusave account, the credits from which could have helped pay for many wonderful educational experiences.

I do not know why there are people who say PRs enjoy the same benefits as citizens but don't pay the price. We paid the price of leaving behind all that we knew off, all that we owned so that we could come live in Singapore. Native Singaporeans were simply born here. Who paid a greater price?

Yes, I concede that the majority of immigrants who become PRs are above the stipulated age for enlistment for the SAF. But only because the SAF wants young men. Military defense aside, the contributions that immigrants make, towards economic growth, towards social cohesion, towards civil and psychological defense are immeasurable and ultimately invaluable towards Singapore's existence and sustained growth.

I think what I'm trying to say is this: Please do not punish us for what we did not do. Damn if we all have to serve NS to gain citizen/PR-ship, the old and the young, men and women, fine. We'll do it. But don't skimp on benefits like Education and Heath care that goes to innocent children and the ill.