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For army regular, award goes a long way to ease family’s burden

SINGAPORE — For Lieutenant (LTA) Muhammad Alfian Aman, being awarded the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Merit Scholarship has helped to relieve his family’s financial burden.

Lieutenant (LTA) Muhammad Alfian Aman, who was awarded the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Merit Scholarship on Monday (July 24). Photo: Wee Teck Hian

Lieutenant (LTA) Muhammad Alfian Aman, who was awarded the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Merit Scholarship on Monday (July 24). Photo: Wee Teck Hian

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SINGAPORE — For Lieutenant (LTA) Muhammad Alfian Aman, being awarded the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Merit Scholarship has helped to relieve his family’s financial burden.

His father, who is the sole breadwinner, was diagnosed with intestinal cancer a few years ago and the medical bills are mounting.

“Sometimes, the bills can get quite bad, but we have managed it,” LTA Alfian, 20, said stoically.

“Still, this scholarship, in sponsoring my studies, has really eased my parents’ financial burden.”

He will be studying for a bachelor’s degree in business administration as well as a master’s in public policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS) next year.

LTA Alfian is one of 15 recipients of the SAF Merit Scholarship, presented at the inaugural Defence Scholarship Awards ceremony held at the Istana yesterday evening.

He believes that studying public policy will be key to what he wants to do at some point in the future, that is to help form policies to better the lives of national servicemen.

“One example I was thinking of is to simplify the IPPT (Individual Physical Proficiency Test) process,” he said.

His time in the military service got him thinking of ways to improve the army experience Appointed platoon commander of the 1BMT unit in January this year, one of LTA Alfian’s tasks was to engage his recruits.

“One of my challenges was to reach out to each one of the recruits ... to pull them together as one platoon,” he said.

“So I believe this opportunity to be able to meet people from a variety of backgrounds will also enable me to learn (more about) their issues and (make changes) on the ground.”

But first, after he graduates, LTA Alfian will be eyeing an Officer Commanding role, and he would like to take the company tactics course to train for it. Serving the country is in his blood. “I hope to continue my military career till the day that I retire,” he said. 

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