Reply by Minister for Defence to Supplementary Questions on Dr Patrick Tan's Disruption from Full-time National Service and Deployment to the Defence Medical Research Institute (20 Oct 11)

Dr Lim Wee Kiak: Speaker Sir, I would like to thank the Minister for clearing the air about this particular issue. I have one supplementary question as regards to Dr Patrick Tan. When he was serving in the DMRI, he was serving in the capacity of a non-uniformed officer. You mentioned that he is currently deployed to the Combat Support Hospital. Can I just check with the Minister, did Dr Patrick Tan undergo the officer medical cadet course? Did he undertake the necessary training as a military medical officer? If he did not, how is he going to perform in the Combat Support Hospital currently and in what role is he currently performing his duties? With regards to the two other doctors that were disrupted, similar to Dr Patrick Tan, did they also serve in the research position or did they serve in the uniformed medical officer position?

Dr Ng: Sir, MINDEF decided to deploy Dr Patrick Tan to DMRI for reasons that have already been stated. After deploying him to DMRI, it was left to those in charge of DMRI to decide, for all those 32 NSFs that I talked about, on how to deploy them and what they would wear.

So I do not have details of what he would wear on any particular day and I do not think Parliament should be concerned about what they wore, unless there are reasons that Dr Lim Wee Kiak thinks otherwise. Dr Lim asked about the other two cases. As far as our records show, the two were deployed as medical officers so I think they underwent the medical conversion course. Dr Lim asked why in this particular case Dr Patrick Tan had not undergone the conversion course and the specific reason was having being deployed to DMRI, there was no need. The medical conversion course is to convert medical officers so that they could serve as medical officers in the camps. Having made the decision to deploy him to DMRI, there was no need for that conversion course for him to function in DMRI. There were questions related to what was Dr Patrick Tan's deployment after he finished his full-time national service. I think I have answered that in the main reply where I said that after serving his full-time national service, Dr Patrick Tan was deployed to the 3rd Combat Support Hospital and served his remaining NS liability till 2009.Dr Ng: Allow me to make some clarifications in my previous reply. Dr Lim Wee Kiak had asked for Dr Patrick Tan's service during his operationally ready national service. Dr Patrick Tan served as a laboratory officer in one of the SAF Combat Hospitals. This is a standard designation in the combat hospital. The role of the laboratory officer is to assist in blood and plasma storage and supply and to conduct clinical analysis of blood samples. I presume he was deployed there because of his qualifications.

Yaw Shin Leong: Minister, how does MINDEF ensure that there is no preferential treatment? Is it through the "White Horse Stamp System" like Minister of State had shared with the House several years ago?

Dr Ng: Sir, just on a point of correction, I have never spoken of any white horses or any other coloured horses in this House.

Yaw Shin Leong: If I recall correctly, it was Mr Cedric Foo, then Minister of State.

Dr Ng: The question was how does MINDEF ensure that there is no preferential treatment. That is a very important question. As I had said in my reply, MINDEF is acutely aware that for NS policies, to be successful and get buy-in from the general public, equity for NS must remain a cardinal principle and we do it through a variety of ways. Some explicit policies, which means that in this case for disruption for medical studies, a different treatment for a select group of medical undergraduates whom SAF needs, to make sure that the criteria is upfront and explicit. To the extent possible, we list them. So for instance, we said they must produce documentary proof on admission to a medical school recognised by the SMC. In case of the US policy, when we allowed overseas medical studies, we said that the pre-medical course does not lead to any other professional degree such as engineering or accountancy. They must furnish documentary proof from the university that the pre-medical course leads to a medical degree. So it is possible that we explicitly state so. Then there are signalling mechanisms, where our commanders understand that if we do not uphold this principle of equity, we are going to undermine your authority because people feel that if I have connections and preferential treatment, it will be very hard to train men in a group or make them feel committed to serve NS. I want to assure members that MINDEF understands this. We do not ignore that there are different strata but we hope that we can gel the men regardless of their background into one unit. And from time to time, and let us be realistic, Singapore is small, we have anecdotes that because so-and-so's son is in this particular unit that the unit will be treated better and when they are punished, the converse is true, that this unit is punished because so-and-so' s son is in this unit and they want to make the unit an example. We understand that but overall we deal with it on a day-to-day basis and we tell our commanders, make sure if you apply a policy, you give good reasons why it is applied, maintain the principle of equity and lead by example. If members of this house know of specific cases where there is preferential treatment, I have open access to you, write to me and we will deal with it.

My last clarification was on what Mr Yaw brought up in terms of the White Horse. I said that Mr Cedric Foo had answered the question previously and to refer to the reply. If you check the record of the reply, he made it clear that the White Horse policy was initiated to ensure that there was no preferential treatment given to anyone in regard to NS.

Pritam Singh: Thank you Mr Speaker. To the Minister for Defence, thank you very much for that clarification and I am sure Singaporeans appreciate the restatement that equity in national service is a cornerstone of the national service policy. The question that was asked by the Member of Hougang Mr Yaw Shin Leong was with regard to the White Horse policy. If I can, may I ask the Minister, whether medical dockets continue to be stamped today with the White Horse stamp, in view of his comments on equity in national service. Thank you Mr Speaker.

Dr Ng: Sir, I think there have been previous questions filed on the White Horse that has been answered. But in direct answer to the Member, the answer is no.