SINGAPORE, Aug 31 — A 25-year-old man was jailed for nine weeks yesterday for defaulting on his National Service (NS) obligations for more than four years to pursue university studies.

Tsai Yi-Hsuan pleaded guilty to three counts under the Enlistment Act for remaining outside the country without an exit permit, becoming the 19th NS defaulter to be jailed after the High Court in 2017 set out a new sentencing framework for NS defaulters.

Tsai was born and grew up in Taiwan but was registered as a Singapore citizen when he was aged about 18 months, the court heard. His father is from Taiwan and a former Singapore permanent resident (PR) while his mother and sister are Singapore citizens.

Tsai has since completed his full-time NS in April 2022.

Sometime around August 2013 after he turned 16.5 years old, he received a registration notice informing him he was liable to register for NS, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nicolle Ng said.

Tsai returned to Singapore in late May 2014 to register for NS at the Central Manpower Base (CMPB) and also to collect his Singaporean identity card.

Tsai was found to have remained outside Singapore without a valid exit permit for the bulk of the time from February 2010, when he turned 13 and needed to apply for a permit to remain outside Singapore for periods of six months or more, to May 2014.

On June 3, 2014 while he was at CMPB to register for NS, an employee there reminded him to apply for a valid exit permit while he was registering for NS.

That same day, CMPB acknowledged his application for deferment of NS for overseas studies via email and requested that he submit additional documents within about two weeks.

He left Singapore on June 5 for Taiwan without applying for a valid exit permit.

While Tsai was in Taiwan, his mother sent some supporting documents to CMPB via email but stopped responding after the CMPB requested for more documentary proof.

CMPB sent another email in July and a letter in August requesting for the required documents but did not receive a response from Tsai’s mother.

Tsai said that he was preparing for his university entrance exams at this time and did not ask his mother about his NS obligations because his university studies were his priority, DPP Ng said.

Tsai returned to Singapore in September 2014 to attend his grandfather’s funeral and left for Taiwan again five days later.

The next month, CMPB sent another letter stating that it had not received a response regarding the deferment application and ordered that Tsai report to CMPB for medical screening on Nov 11, 2014.

Tsai failed to report for that screening despite being informed that he would be considered a NS defaulter.

On May 4, 2015, about three months after Tsai reached the enlistment age of 18, a police gazette and stop-list was raised against him.

In April 2018, Tsai returned to Singapore to perform rites at his grandfather’s tomb and returned to Taiwan after eight days.

Court documents did not state why he was not stopped by immigration officers when he entered or left Singapore.

He returned in October 2018 to take the Oath of Renunciation, Allegiance and Loyalty to retain his Singapore citizenship.

“(Tsai) stated that the Singapore citizenship was better, as housing and good jobs were difficult to find in Taiwan. (He) felt that he could have a bright future in Singapore and eventually start a family in Singapore,” DPP Ng said.

In November that year, Tsai’s mother called the NS Call Centre after Tsai was unable to renew his Singaporean passport and she was directed to contact CMPB.

Tsai’s mother called the call centre a month later to say that her son would be graduating from a Taiwanese university by the end of June 2019 and would be able to enlist for NS from July that year.

Tsai returned to Singapore in February 2019, a month after an enlistment inspector informed his mother that Tsai had committed offences under the Enlistment Act.

In total, Tsai had defaulted on his NS obligations for a period of four years, seven months and 18 days.

Yesterday, Tsai’s lawyer Adrian Wee said that Tsai had chosen to return to Singapore to serve his NS and face the punishment for his actions.

District Judge Shawn Ho, however, noted that Tsai had completed his university studies before returning to serve his NS. In other words, he had chosen when to do his NS, the judge said.

For each count of defaulting on his NS obligations, Tsai could have been jailed for up to three years or fined up to S$10,000, or both.

In a statement to TODAY yesterday, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) noted that it has previously stated that all male Singapore citizens and PRs have a duty to serve NS.

“If we allow Singapore citizens or PRs who are overseas to evade NS or to choose when they want to serve NS, we are not being fair to the vast majority of our national servicemen who serve their country dutifully, and the institution of NS will be undermined,” Mindef said in the 2019 statement. — TODAY