Senior Commanders,

Graduands of the 23rd SAF Senior Military Expert Course,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Introduction

A very good evening and congratulations to all 93 newly-appointed Senior Military Experts. The course has indeed been a challenging but meaningful journey, which is a critical milestone as you step forth as Senior Military Experts and leaders in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).

Let us first take this opportunity to appreciate that we are able to have everyone here in this hall. It has been a tough two and a half years since we experienced the Circuit Breaker and we can see how far we have come in our nation's fight against COVID-19. We must never forget the unwavering support and encouragement that your family members and loved ones have given you as we celebrate your achievements today.

The SAF's efforts in the fight against COVID-19

The SAF stepped up to play our part in the nation's efforts when we were called upon to support a myriad of Whole-of-Government operations such as mask-packing, the Home Recovery Programme, staffing the MOH call centres and the home vaccination teams.

And to this end, I am pleased to highlight the contributions of ME4A Theerthana, a graduating Air Force Engineer. During the height of COVID-19, she was attached to Ministry of Health as part of the Home Recovery Programme team where she assisted patients whom were unable to self-isolate at home. Faced with long hours and daunting number of cases, she was consistently calm and patient as she alleviated the callers' concerns.

There are also our Military Medical Experts. ME4A Sheela Eroyna Wan Li Ting was deployed to the COVID-19 Treatment Facility as a Patient Liaison, handling patient discharge cases and post-treatment care. Despite the arduous tasks and immense stress, she was able to rally the team to establish systems to be more streamlined and focused. She also reached out to the patients to provide a listening ear and supported them well in their time of recovery.

As we adjust to living with COVID-19 in Singapore, we should not forget that it remains a global challenge.

Remaining future-ready

We cannot let our guard down. We must remain vigilant and nimble to any changes in the COVID-19 situation, the risk of any other virus or another pandemic coming out of Asia or Africa, I think it is quite high still, can be seen with Monkeypox and anything else that comes out . But at the same time, we must remain focused on our primary mission, which is to defend Singapore and defend our sovereignty. Therefore, it is important that we continue to train in relevant and specialised domain areas to maintain high standards, and cultivate new batches of senior military experts to take up the mantle of protecting Singapore.

One fine example is ME3 Cheong Teck Min. With his rich experience in Armament Systems, he ensured that Army was ready for overseas exercises such as Exercise Wallaby and Exercise Panzerstrike. Challenged by the harsh conditions and training tempo, ME3 Cheong demonstrated strong leadership qualities as he led his maintenance teams to ensure mission success.

I would also like to mention ME3 Gunaseelan from the RSN. He is a Staff Officer in NDU Headquarters, in charge of ensuring that the usage and maintenance of the C4 systems are well planned out. Last year, leveraging his technical expertise in C4 systems, ME3 Gunaseelan helped to adapt the RSN's systems to ensure that the bilateral Exercise Pacific Griffin with the United States Navy was successful despite the complications that COVID-19 had introduced. These demonstrated the professionalism and excellence of our military experts who have performed their roles to a high degree.

Beyond the pandemic, there are many other security threats looming. We have seen clearly from the Russia-Ukraine conflict that the fight can go beyond the physical realm and into the cyber and digital domains. We have seen critical installations being targeted, which affected the provision of power and energy to more than two million people. We have also seen the spread of fake news, disinformation and misinformation as tools to divide and mislead.

This conflict has taught us that MINDEF and the SAF must always be ready for an evolving security landscape, including disruptive cyber and digital incidents. Through our various Military Expert schemes, the SAF is actively recruiting and training military experts in these specialised domains to strengthen our skills and knowledge in non-traditional areas of defence. The Military Intelligence Experts (MIEs) and Cyber Defence Group (CDG) have to play an active role in detecting the presence of network intrusions and protecting MINDEF/SAF networks from cyber-attacks.

ME5 Quek Chin Peng is a mid-careerist who joined the SAF at the age of 45 after working for 14 years in private sector. Throughout his career, he had acquired many relevant skills before joining as a Senior Military Intelligence Expert in C4I. These skills ranged from hard skills such as technological literacy to soft skills including communication, people management and problem-solving. Being adept in his field of work, he is able to bring a fresh perspective to the current systems in place in the SAF. And this is the uniqueness of the MDES Scheme – its ability to train and promote able specialists through the ranks, and at the same time being able to bring on mid-careerists like ME5 Quek who can bring value to our organisation.

Conclusion

I would now like to extend our gratitude to the families and loved ones of our graduands. Thank you very much for supporting our graduands as they shoulder their heavy responsibilities. It is due to your support that they are able to be here today as successful graduands of the course.

As we celebrate your graduation, this day commemorates the commencement of a new phase in your career with the SAF. During this time you will face new challenges and uncertainties in the fast-evolving operational landscape, but I have the utmost faith that you will continue to serve with heart, great vigour and acuity. I challenge all of you here today, to display the ‘can-do' spirit of our Military Experts to lead and empower the men and women that you have under you, for them to be inquisitive and innovative, and examine how we can continue to build a future-ready and sustainable SAF in everything that we do.

Once again, my heartiest congratulations to all our graduands to the 23rd Senior Military Expert Course. I wish you all the best as you push forth to build and fortify new frontiers for the SAF.

Thank you and have a pleasant night ahead, congratulations!