Speech by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen at the 42nd Command and Staff Course and 12th National Service Command and Staff Course Graduation Ceremony

Senior Commanders,
Graduands of the 42nd Command and Staff Course and 12th NS CSC,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening.

It gives me great pleasure to be here with you at the graduation ceremony of the 42nd Command and Staff Course and the 12th NS Command and Staff Course. You are the first batch to graduate from the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College, renamed in honour of Singapore's first Minister for Defence, the late Dr Goh Keng Swee. I ask that you bring honour to that memory by building up the SAF through your leadership.

Your alma mater, the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College, should set high expectations for itself. Though small, I believe that this college can be a world class institution in some niches. The quality of its staff and students, including visiting lecturers and international students, is key to the success of this college. I know that the college already maintains links with foreign command and staff colleges through regular staff exchange programmes that help us to benchmark the GKS CSC globally. I think we should expand the pool of international officers to help broaden our perspectives and I am pleased to know that in this course, there are 15 international officers from 12 countries. Apart from the friendship extended in the form of armed forces, I think it allows us to take a global view and to set high standard. It is in your interest to build up this alma mater so that your cache increases with time. Many of you already know that graduands of this college can look forward to a 7-month full-time SAF-NTU Masters programme, and I know that some of you are moving onto that. This is part of our Continuing Education initiative and 12 officers in fact, are moving on to complete their Masters in this fully sponsored programme.

On a more personal level, graduating from the Command and Staff course should have adequately prepared you for the various leadership roles within the SAF. The course would have given you the rudiments in military knowledge, competencies in operations, our national and security interests and the changing geopolitical environment. But the reality is that there will be many gaps to fill when you assume your command and staff appointments.

Because if you look at operations around the world, professional militaries in the last two decades, the scope and requirements of military operations have indeed expanded. It reflects transnational security challenges all countries face as we live in an increasingly connected world. So whether we are talking about global war against terrorism, piracy, counter-proliferation, pandemics and natural disasters, no single country has the capability to provide solutions on its own, no matter how well resourced.

The SAF too has had to play its part in international efforts, within the last decade. Currently, the SAF is deployed in Afghanistan in support of the multinational stabilization and reconstruction efforts, and the Gulf of Aden for counter piracy operations.

I visited our men in Afghanistan last week. Chief of Army was with me. I say men but this includes women too because one of the pilots who flew us there was a woman and they are also exposed to the risks of operations.

Our SAF soldiers there do not need to be reminded about the complex and protracted nature of this campaign against terrorism. In a geographically desolate and harsh physical terrain, the moment you entered from the south through Pakistani's air space into Afghanistan the terrain is unchanged. There are just mountains and valleys and patches of greens. Soldiers there do not need to reminded, they are thousands of miles from Singapore and sometimes the immediate outcomes of their mission are not always easily identified with the desired long-term goals. But our soldiers who are in theatre do us proud because they are highly committed and disciplined through professionalism and duty. Despite the risks, their morale is high and they are punching well above their weight. The commanders of the various multilateral forces I met sang high praises for their important contributions in all the tasks assigned, whether it was in imagery analysis, medical support, or early detection of rocket fires and training the Afghan National Army. The SAF, though small, is making a difference and our mark as a highly effective modern military force.

Paramount to all our efforts is the desire to bring peace to Singapore and this region. We recognise that this is possible only through an inclusive regional security architecture which promotes strategic trust and confidence between countries to reduce the risk of conflicts. We want various stakeholders to deepen their interactions through military exchanges and exercises. Through joint exercises such as that in the Five Power Defence Arrangements and the Western Pacific Naval Symposium, we are building up these professional ties and reducing the likelihood of misunderstanding or miscalculation. These cooperative efforts assist us in tackling the complex security challenges more effectively. So when you have intellectual representation in this GKS CSC, if ever, there was a problem to solve, I think it is much easier to call the other person when you know one another. You are a phone call away and you can call the other person to know how you can help to resolve this. It makes a big difference.

We are making progress in ensuring the peace and stability of this region. One key example is the Experts' Working Groups or EWGs arising from the inaugural ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus or ADMM-Plus in Hanoi last year. The Ministers of ASEAN and the plus 8 countries of Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States, have achieved consensus to promote more military to military cooperation. As a start, EWGs were established in five non-traditional security areas of maritime security, counter terrorism, military medicine, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) and peace keeping operations. All the EWGs, co-chaired by an ASEAN country and one of the Plus country have held their first meetings or will be doing so and you can expect to see more cooperative activities like these in the next few years. Japan and Singapore are co-chairing the working group on Military Medicine and due to the synergies between Military Medicine and HADR, we have plans to also work closely with China and Vietnam. Why are we doing this? Why are there so much efforts and activities? It is simply because more militaries recognise the value of international dialogues and cooperation and the SAF will do its part to work with more international and regional partners.

We saw this in July this year, when Indonesia and Singapore co-hosted the first ASEAN military exercise, a table-top exercise on HADR operations.

How do these developments impact you as senior officers? First, it will require more skill sets to lead in a wider spectrum of missions and participate effectively in multilateral cooperation and exercises. Our officers will need to be more sensitive politically and be media savvy. They must possess cultural adeptness and the ability to build trust and confidence with their counterparts from other armed forces, national security and civil agencies, as well as non-government organisations. So as the Chief of Army said when he is relating to our chaps training in Afghan National Army Artillery School. It puts through about astronomical figure of sixteen-thousand a year. These are Singaporean led by Canadians, Australians, and Americans and there also Mongolians and none of them speak the Afghan language. So how do you teach somebody else to fire safely in an Artillery machine when only 15% of the population are literal? We do literacy tests. So when you put professional officers to stand in line, it presents quite a challenge and I think that the friendships and professional ties that our commanders build with various armed forces and agencies help strengthen trust, understanding and mutual learning between countries.

With the completion of this course, you will move on to hold key command and staff appointments. I say this to both Singaporean graduands and those overseas and I assume safely that your military has chosen to invest high qualities officers. In these appointments, you are expected to lead from the front, to motivate the servicemen under your charge to effectively complete their mission. You will have to train them and weave soldiers from different backgrounds into a cohesive and discipline force. You will also have find better ways to communicate effectively to your soldiers to bring the best out of them. Bear in mind that the younger generation operates daily in a networked and multi-sourced environment where the flow of information is massive - not all of it always accurate. As Commanders, you must navigate this communications landscape to get your message through and clearly. I am confident that each of you will strive to be outstanding and forward looking leaders as you impart the military knowledge that you have acquired, and lead your units to achieve excellence in training and operations.

I want also to thank your spouses. I know that some spouses had to do extra-lifting, in your absence. For example, Mrs Ng Wan Yee, wife of MAJ (NS) David Ng Chee Chin, discovered that their first child was due in July 2011, mid-way in the course. David's first thoughts then, naturally, was to defer. Mrs Ng, however, persuaded him not to and supported her husband to complete the course.

I want to thank all the spouses and family members of the graduating officers for your continued understanding and encouragement as they take on heavier responsibilities in their command and staff appointments.

Thank you.

More Resources

151 Officers Graduate from Command and Staff Course