D99

Stands for December 1999, the last batch of CIs trained in the last millennium.

I can still remember the strange experience. Being a new CI was the most scary and contradicting thing. The Sirs and Ma'ams who made us do push ups until one of our friends fractured his arm urged us to stop calling them 'Sirs and ma'ams'. The other old CIs alternate between telling us that we must take our own initiatives and shouting "why don't you listen to us??? we're your seniors!!!"

I fell under the wings of 4 great mentors, Jason, Hengene, Yvonne and Haoqiang. They were different from the other seniors who treated us like kids. They forged the image of what I wished I could become, though four of them had completely different styles.

Jason was the charismatic leader. He was able to influence. Teachers, officers, CIs and cadets alike. Hengene was the silent killer, keeping quiet all the while but everyone held great respect for him. Yvonne, the devil, except that at the end of her guidance she'll lead you to heaven instead of hell. And Haoqiang, The senior who approached us as a friend.

In the end, I absorbed a bit of each but never excel like them. I soon evolved into my own style and made my combination with Weiguang. It never became popular with the other seniors.

"You are not fierce enough, we must really teach the cadets what discipline is about," one of the seniors always said with his shirt tucked out. I had never seen a hypocrite until he appeared in my life. I figured that there's a bit of hypocrisy in everyone but he was truly a representation. We called him circle.

Back to the D99 batch. This was the batch caught in the transition of time. The old idea of leading and managing through coporal punishments and harsh trainings was still popular among many seniors. The other group believed in management in the modern fashion. Both are very different and they work for different groups of people. The first kind of management is effective for training soldiers. It works through fear, and demands absolute obedience. The second kind trains leaders. And the person in leadership position will find followers questioning him of his instructions.

And because it was a time when things were changing, The D99 had to choose their stand. Nobody appreciated anyone standing on neutral ground. On either side, they had half the CI population criticizing them of their leadership and attitude. In almost every debrief sessions, most of the comments were directed to the D99s for not taking initiave, for not being good leaders and for having bad judgment.

It became clear after a while. On either sides, the seniors dared not attack one another. Instead, we became their outlet of frustration. If i've ever tried to pacify anyone, it must have been at this time. We learned alot of PR skills in the process.

Soon enough, the D99 batch became a different kind of leaders. Instead of managing cadets, they spent more time on managing seniors. It was then I realised something important, too much emphasis on seniority hinders progression. The lesson was to be humble.

Those were the silly games we played at that age.