Speech by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen at the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College Command and Staff Course 2021 Graduation Ceremony on 14 October 2021

Chief of Defence Force,

Service Chiefs,

Senior Commanders,

Graduands of the 52nd Command and Staff Course,

22nd Command and Staff Course (National Service),

16th and 17th Command and Staff Course (Executive),

Firstly, a very good afternoon and I am very happy to join you on this very happy occasion. I must apologise that because of COVID-19, we cannot share a meal or be with each other face-to-face for an extended period. The end is in sight we hope, and hopefully things will resume back to normal.

It is gratifying and reassuring that despite this pandemic, this Command and Staff Course (CSC) was conducted and completed successfully. Not only that, we also have the largest number of graduates on record this year in the College’s history – 237 graduates, comprising 164 regulars, 53 NSmen, one Singapore Police Force officer, and the international participants too were significant – 19 International Officers from 11 countries, namely Australia, Brunei, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States of America. Let me thank our foreign graduands for their commitment and participation. I know it took a lot to join us during this pandemic and congratulations to all graduands. I also want to acknowledge our NSmen, who had to juggle both work and family demands, while attending this course. I know it took a lot because you had to have your work as well as your families and I want to thank them and your employers for their support. And of course, the staff and commanders at the GKS Command and Staff College too deserve our appreciation and commendation. I know that things could not have been easy and the fact that you kept yourself healthy as well as successfully ushering and completing all the modules, speaks of your good leadership and your skills.

I am also told that in addition to the 237 graduands who now join the GKSCSC prestigious alumni, that 17 honorary members were also added – 17 new babies during the course. Well done, indeed!

That the CSC could be successfully completed reflects resilience and maturity of the College. That senior officers from other countries joined us, reflects the good and strong military ties we have forged with them. As a microcosm of the larger world outside, it underscores the need to continue to pay attention to security challenges, which of course continue to confront us, COVID-19 notwithstanding. Time marches on, and with it, new situations evolve which we as custodians of our nation’s defences must adjust and adapt.

One clear and recent example of this truism, were the developments in Afghanistan. The SAF had joined other militaries in Afghanistan because we recognised that terrorism exported from that country could eventually threaten our lives here. If you recall it, the Jemaah Islamiyah cell members here who were exposed and detained by the Internal Security Department, had extensive links with Al Qaeda in other countries, including the Middle East. And so for that reason from 2007 to 2013, we deployed close to 500 SAF personnel in support of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and it was called Operation Blue Ridge. It was part of Singapore’s contributions to the multinational stabilisation and reconstruction efforts. Our SAF personnel were also involved in building health facilities and infrastructure, whether it was providing dental, medical and surgical treatment, as well as enhancing the security of the ISAF with the weapon locating radar, UAVs and imagery analysts.

As it turned out, deployments for counter-terrorism was the longest commitment for many militaries since World War II – two decades – which included dealing with ISIS in Iraq and the other situations that evolved. The SAF participated there too, with assets and SAF liaison officers, intelligence fusion officers, imagery analysts and medical teams. All of us know the recent events, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and of its allies, which marked the end of that chapter. But suppressing terrorism in Afghanistan and in Iraq for 20 years did buy us time to build up our counter-terrorism capabilities here. And that is crucial, if that kind of terrorism was not stemmed in Afghanistan for 20 years. I think it would have gained momentum in South-East Asia and we can well expect that what we saw as the Bali bomb blast would have had many more attacks here. Many more lives could have been lost.

The SAF’s Counter-Terrorism Training Unit deployed to Iraq in 2018 and it was there that they enhanced their operational skills and worked with the Australian Defence Force and British Armed Forces and through teaching the Iraqi military. Our special forces got to refine their tactics, techniques and procedures, and acquired new platforms to strengthen their CT response. This facilitated and culminated in the establishment of the Special Operations Command Centre in 2019 with now the capability to centrally plan, monitor and manage multiple counter-terrorism and contingency operations. Our multilateral cooperation also remains crucial given the transnational nature of such terrorist threats. The Counter-Terrorism Information Facility (CTIF) that was set up in Singapore this year will increase the collective intelligence and surveillance capabilities of ASEAN and other partners, and bring together like-minded countries to share intelligence, as well as provide early warning monitoring and analytical skills in a centralised and coordinated manner. So all was not lost, and in fact, we gained much from that 20 years of respite from the coalition’s presence in Afghanistan.

And I am also glad that the SAF could play a small role in evacuating Afghan refugees from Qatar to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The RSAF and Army were mobilised with little prior notice, and were airborne within 48 hours of notice. The mission crew flew straight to Qatar, picked up the first group of evacuees and brought them to Germany, all within 23 hours. I am proud of them, the men and women of the SAF, because they understood the urgency for every evacuee that was waiting at Qatar. Every evacuee that they successfully moved from Qatar to Germany, I expect their lives will be transformed. It reminds us that terrorism continues to be a clear and present threat to all democratic nations, and is one that seeks to rob us all of our liberty and freedom through force and violence, whether as individuals or countries. We must expect that terrorists and their networks in South-East Asia would be encouraged by the events in Afghanistan. We must therefore redouble our efforts here to protect our way of life.

Just as the CSC continued, the SAF too was determined to maintain its operational readiness. Training and exercises continued, including the conduct of high-end overseas exercises such as Exercise Forging Sabre and Exercise RIMPAC with the Navy’s participation alongside nine other nations. Locally, the rigorous courses for Officers and Specialist Cadets were completed, as with ATEC evaluations for our Army units. In terms of capacity, hardware, we continued our march despite the pandemic, and commissioned the Army’s new TPQ-53 Weapon Locating Radar and upgraded Belrex Advanced Mortar System. The RSAF’s A330-Multi-role Tanker gained its Full Operational Capability, and we also expect the RSN’s unmanned surface vessels to be operationalised soon.

I am sure that each of you, for Singaporeans as well as our overseas participants, would have your own stories about how your own individual countries are coping and adjusting to COVID-19. But the realisation is that nearly after two years, with this COVID pandemic, our world has changed. Yes, the situation today is improving, primarily because vaccinations are clearly effective against serious illness and deaths, and this, coupled with acquired infections among its citizens of various countries, has reduced transmission for many countries. So despite endemic infections, hospitals in many countries can handle the load as serious illnesses fall, and countries are therefore opening up. Singapore is in a slightly peculiar situation, as only a small proportion were infected since the pandemic began – less than 2% compared to countries like the US, Scandinavian countries or our ASEAN neighbours which report infection rates many more times ours. It may take a few more months for Singapore to reach that stage of opening up but the world is unlikely to return to a pre-COVID status. Some changes will be irrevocable. What lessons are to be learnt and how should us as militaries adjust to the post-COVID world? Let me state one obvious one – bioterrorism. Bioterrorism is a serious threat and one which all militaries must build capabilities to protect our countries because they can see that biological threats can degrade their capabilities significantly, to the point where you cannot operate – whether it is supply chains or just manning the stations in naval ships. Learning from the pandemic, MINDEF will further build up our laboratories and capabilities to deal with biological threats, such as upgrading our facilities within the DSO National Laboratories to the highest bio-safety level. It is called BSL-4, Bio-Safety Level 4, so that we can provide Singapore with our own capability to safely handle, assess and develop countermeasures against more severe forms of viruses. DSO is also a designated lab by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, one of only 12 globally, capable of verifying chemical agents in both environmental and biomedical samples. Being part of this internationally-recognised network is testament to DSO’s standards and competence.

Second lesson I think, militaries and defence establishments too will have to adjust to a hybrid way of working. The Commandant of the College told me how you conducted many of your lessons in a hybrid manner. I do not think even after this pandemic is over that we will give this up. Some of the things that we are doing today makes absolute sense – cutting down on travel allows you to have even more international participants because of this hybrid way. Basically, the pandemic has forced us to find alternate ways to communicate and train. And some processes are indeed more productive. So we have found new ways of doing old things, such as modifying our naval Passage Exercises with partner navies to be planned virtually and conducted without any physical contact. We have since done with the Chinese, Indonesian, and Indian navies. At home, given the need to adopt remote work arrangements, MINDEF/SAF decided to move ahead. We have implemented more flexible options to support our staff with secure remote work devices, virtual meetings, and shared workspaces set up in selected MINDEF/SAF premises for some to even “Work-Near-Home”, to improve productivity and reduce commuting time. FIT@Home, a virtual NS Fitness Improvement Training programme, was also introduced this year to allow NSmen to participate in fitness activities and IPPT-specific training guided by our fitness trainers over a commercial video conferencing platform. This will aid them in fulfilling their annual fitness requirements more conveniently.

The third lesson, the pandemic also showed how pervasive and dependent we are on the internet. But it also brings home the realisation and truth that the digital domain is a battleground, because if I can dominate it, I can control communities, even societies. And militaries must build capabilities and systems to guard our digital domain. This is why Singapore will establish the ASEAN Cybersecurity and Information Centre of Excellence to enhance our preparedness to combat threats from the cyber and information domains, and to promote cooperation and information-sharing amongst international partners.

After graduating from this course, each of you will return to your units, your home countries, your families that you have missed and your friends to a changed world. As you take up greater leadership positions, I hope that the time spent at the CSC would have sharpened your leadership skills and provided the wherewithal to lead your commands well. But beyond that as many of you have already realised, I know that lasting friendships and the professional ties were also forged during your time here. I hope that these lasting bonds between graduands will prove invaluable and enjoyable in the years ahead.

Congratulations to all of you once again on the successful completion of your course. Thank you.

More Resources

237 Leaders Graduate from Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College