Speech by Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr Heng Chee How at the Second Reading of the Enlistment and Other Matters (Amendment) Bill for the Parliament Sitting

Mr Speaker, Sir, on behalf of the Minister for Defence, I beg to move, "that the Bill be now read a Second time."

Introduction

The Enlistment Act passed by Parliament in 1970 was a crucial piece of legislation that enabled Singapore to build up the SAF and Home Team. The Enlistment Act entrenched National Service (NS), first introduced in 1967. The Requisition of Resources Act passed by Parliament in 1985 provided for the requisition of essential civil resources from individuals, businesses and organisations when it is "necessary for the securing of the public safety and defence of the country; or for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community; or for the conduct of exercises for any of the aforesaid purposes". Both the Enlistment Act and the Requisition of Resources Act have served Singapore well over the past five decades to build-up our security forces, to protect Singapore's sovereignty and maintain law and order.

The main provisions of the Enlistment Act and Requisition of Resources Act continue to be relevant and need no amendments. However, there is a need to amend the Acts to keep pace with a modernised, digitalised Singapore that is quite different from the Singapore 50 years ago. Hence, the amendments proposed formalise present practices as well as remove obsolete clauses.

I will now go through the amendments in detail.

Amendments to Keep Up with Developments in Digital Technology

Section 30 Enlistment Act – Orders and Notices

First, the proposed amendments to Section 30 of the Enlistment Act, concerning orders and notices that are issued under the Enlistment Act.

Under Section 30 of the current Enlistment Act, orders and notices to NS or SAF personnel are served through various means, such as through telephone calls, radio or television broadcast, and registered post.

Over the past two decades, notices and orders have also been served through electronic means. An Operationally Ready National Serviceman, or NSman for short, is now informed of his NS call-up activity via an SMS and in his NS Portal account. He can acknowledge the notice either by replying to the SMS directly, or by logging on to the NS Portal to do so. Should he fail to acknowledge the call-up notice, which is sent to him electronically, he will receive another SMS reminder. If he still fails to respond, he is sent a hardcopy version of the notice via registered post.

Around 75% of our servicemen today acknowledge receipt of their notices and orders electronically by the first or second SMS, and do not need to receive hardcopy reminders. As the practice of receiving notices and orders by electronic means is now well accepted and entrenched, the proposed amendments to Section 30 will formalise this into the amended Enlistment Act.

As with the existing modes of service such as telephone calls, radio or television broadcast and registered post, these electronic means of service come with the same deeming provisions, which presume Enlistment Act notices and orders are received and read within a fixed timeframe after delivery. Deeming provisions ensure that a recipient cannot feign ignorance of his NS obligations, when notices and orders have been duly served.

Members may worry that recipients receive many digital notifications, such as emails or SMSes in the course of a normal day, and could genuinely miss out on reading these electronic notifications from MINDEF, the SAF or the Home Team.

Let me assure the House that we will put in place multiple safeguards and be very fair to our NSmen. First, we will continue today’s practice of issuing orders and notices to individuals through various channels. Specifically, should individuals fail to respond to orders or notices issued by electronic means, MINDEF will follow on to serve them with orders or notices using existing modes of service, such as telephone calls or registered post. This ensures that we make every attempt and make every effort to have the orders and notices reach their intended recipient. Second, MINDEF will also codify in subsidiary legislation the steps which we will takein serving orders and notices on individuals, such that people have the full assurance that their attention will be adequately brought to the obligations they need to fulfil for NS. Third, as an added safeguard, we have proposed a new provision at Section 30(2A), which requires consent to be given before orders and notices sent by electronic means can be presumed and deemed to have been received and read. Those who provide such consent can withdraw the consent at any time, should they choose to do so.

Section 41 Requisition of Resources Act – Orders, Notices and Requisitions

Similar changes regarding the electronic delivery of orders, notices and requisitions will be made to Section 41 of the Requisition of Resources Act. In the same way NSmen are notified of their call-ups today, civil resource owners are currently also notified of the requisition of their resources via an SMS. Another SMS will be sent if there is no acknowledgement of the first SMS. If these two SMSes – the first one and the reminder – elicit no response, MINDEF will contact the civil resource owners via existing means of service, such as by telephone call, or personal delivery of the hardcopy notice. This requisition system has been used during exercises, and civil resource owners have responded well. Our amendments to Section 41 of the Requisition of Resources Act will therefore similarly legislate the inclusion of electronic means of service.

Similar to the Enlistment Act, safeguards will also be in place to ensure that we have made every effort and every attempt to reach civil resource owners. In this vein, the deeming provisions for electronic means of service are only meant to be applied onto the few civil resource owners who fail to comply with their obligations and remain uncontactable despite multiple attempts to reach them through the whole variety of channels. Consent will also be sought from the civil resource owners, before orders and notices sent by electronic means can be presumed and deemed to be received and read by them. Those who provide such consent can also withdraw their consent at any time, should they choose to do so.

Amendments to Clarify Existing Policies

Section 32 Enlistment Act – Exit Permits

Today, pre-enlistees from the age of 13 years old and full-time national servicemen (or NSFs) are required to possess a valid Exit Permit for any travel overseas that goes beyond three months duration. For NSmen, the requirement is more relaxed in recognition of their higher likelihood of staying or working overseas for longer durations. NSmen will need to possess a valid Exit Permit for any travel overseas over a year.

There have been past offenders have claimed that they are not liable for Exit Permit offences just because they had not received a Registration Notice for NS. So in order to make clear the intention of the law as it stands, Section 32 of the amended Enlistment Act will now state explicitly that all NS-liable persons from age 13 onwards must adhere to Exit Permit requirements even if they have not yet registered for NS or received their registration Notice. The amendment will clarify our existing policy and legal position which is that Exit Permit offences are strict liability in nature, that is a person cannot claim to not be liable, simply because he claims to be ignorant of the law or his NS obligations.

We will make the relevant consequential amendments to Section 52 of the Immigration Act, which empowers an immigration officer to act to prevent an NS-liable person from leaving Singapore, if the immigration officer has reason to believe that the individual does not possess an Exit Permit as required. This is to enable the immigration officer to enquire into this suspicion and require the person to produce a valid Exit Permit.

Section 27 Enlistment Act – Unaccountable Periods

The proposed amendment at Section 27(2) of the Enlistment Act specifies the types of periods that do not count towards the fulfilment of a serviceman’s NS liability.

The amendment will make clear the periods of time where the serviceman’s absence from service will not count towards fulfilment of his NS liabilities. This would include periods of absence due to disciplinary reasons. For example, local and overseas imprisonment or detention; pre-trial civil custody for offences that the serviceman is subsequently convicted of; and rescinded medical leave, such as when a serviceman is found to have abused his medical leave when he was actually fit for duty.

Administrative Amendments

We will remove and update references within the Enlistment Act and Requisition of Resources Act that are now obsolete. For example, references to "telex" as a mode of service of orders or notices will be removed because we no longer use this means to send out notices. We will also add references to the SPF and SCDF where necessary, to account for the fact that our national servicemen are also deployed to the SPF and SCDF. We will also update references in the offence provisions of the Requisition of Resources Act to align with other national legislation. These amendments are administrative updates that do not impact existing NS or civil resource requisition policies or obligations.

Conclusion

The Enlistment Act and Requisition of Resources Act have been in force since 1970 and 1985 respectively, and have served Singapore well. These amendments allow us to modernise and tidy up both the Enlistment Act and the Requisition of Resources Act.

Sir, I beg to move.