"Acquiring knowledge and skills for the New Economy cannot be a one-off process. I hope none of you believe that you have completed your education once you leave school."

- PM Goh Chok Tong, National Day Rally Speech 2000

The SAF Professional Reading Programme (PRP) was first published in 1998 to guide SAF officers in their professional reading needs. The following year, a second edition incorporating Asian heritage culture, serious fiction and personal development was published. With this third edition, the PRP has been further updated to maintain currency - new titles on terrorism, transformation, knowledge management, military technology and other relevant topics have been recommended.

It is timely that this new edition of the PRP is published. In this time of uncertainty, professional reading has become even more important as it can broaden our horizons and help us cope with the present complex security situation. September 11, the Bali and Jakarta bombings, the Iraq War and the SARS outbreak have reminded us that fundamental changes can be forced upon us suddenly. If we are unable to respond quickly and to adapt to new changes, our effectiveness will be undermined. This is where professional reading comes in. Reading about the causes and implications of significant events will help us understand them better and we will be better prepared to deal with the resulting changes. Our capacity to change will be enhanced if we draw on knowledge beyond our own limited experience and resources. Professional reading is a painless and more cost-effective way to learn from others without having to experience their mistakes or failures.

Since the end of the Cold War, the SAF has been operating in an uncertain security environment with new challenges posed by terrorist threats, peace support operations and other non-traditional security issues. The SAF has to take on multifarious roles in times of increasing budgetary constraints, manpower limitations and greater public scrutiny. To achieve our conventional and non-conventional missions successfully, we will have to transform our organisation. Professional reading has a role to play in our transformation effort. It will help us gain useful insights from the military transformations of other armed forces. We need to understand the strategic, social, political, economic and technological contexts in which past transformations and how these contexts helped to contribute to their success. Professional reading can fill in this gap in our knowledge and reinforce our commitment to transformation.

I am aware that our organization works everyone in it very hard. Thus I often hear that many SAF officers and warrant officers have "no time" to read beyond what is required for their day-to-day tasks or course assignments. We all know that it boils down to priorities and choices. If something is sufficiently important, we will somehow make the time for it. Given that learning is a constant and ongoing process, even an hour a day of professional reading, to supplement experiential and reflective learning, can accumulate into a formidable arsenal of knowledge over the course of one's career.

Let me reiterate that professional reading is not merely "good to have" but is, in fact, a professional duty. The SAF core value of 'Professionalism' stands for proficiency and reliability in all that we do. It is a continual striving for excellence, which includes improving our ability to reshape and evolve new perspectives and frameworks through reading and debate. I strongly encourage all of you to explore the titles recommended in this PRP as you will find them useful in your journey towards organisational and personal transformation.

MAJ-GEN NG YAT CHUNG
Chief of Defence Force