Speech by Second Minister for Defence Mr Chan Chun Sing at the N.E.Mation! 8 Awards Ceremony on 20 Feb 2014 at the National Museum of Singapore

Good afternoon everyone,

I was told to stick to a few words, because I know all of you are excited about the results - never mind what I say. You are here to receive your prize, and I am sure you are eagerly awaiting the results, to know who will get to go to the trip to the US, I believe? Well, let me first thank the organisers and all of you who have worked so hard behind the scenes to put this together. It is a tremendous effort. Not many people may realise it, but it took a lot of organisation, a lot of effort to get to where we are today. The organisers worked hard to find a theme, the teachers played a part to organise the students to come forward, and you students worked very hard over the holidays and during the term to get the script up, and also, at the same time, to organise your creation.

I got woken up at four o'clock by my son this morning, and I decided that since I could not sleep, I might as well look through all the videos that you all have done. I was mightily impressed. Many of you put a lot of thought into the things that you have done, and I must congratulate you on that. But let me tell you a secret. While I was impressed with the stories that you have done up, I was even more impressed with the stories behind the stories. Because it was the stories behind the stories that actually convinced me that all of us play a part in this entire venture called Total Defence.

I am not about to say which story I saw at 4 o'clock this morning, because that might just give away let the cat out of the bag, to let you think that you might have won the prize because the organisers sent your little clip to me. But I am going to share with you some of the stories behind the stories that so moved me. I was told there was one team, where one of the members gave up an overseas trip to a prestigious organisation just to complete the clip together with his fellow teammates. It was a once in a lifetime chance for that team, and for that person to go to that overseas trip and to be exposed to an entirely different experience. But the fact that this team member stayed back with the team and completed the project in time - that was outstanding. It says a lot about the team spirit within that team.

Yet there was another story behind the stories. There was one particular team member who had problems completing the project together with the team because of some family circumstances. But what enabled her to complete the project was the fact that the teachers and the fellow students chipped in to help out in the family situation to allow her to complete the project on time. These are the stories that are more important to me than the actual stories that were produced in the clips. These are the stories that are the testimony of a commitment that all of you present here today have towards Total Defence. That it meant so much to you that you will sacrifice a once in a lifetime trip to an overseas institution for exposure, that all of us would demonstrate the spirit to chip in in our little ways to help a fellow member to get the job done on time. So these are the stories that moved me.

And if I may just share one final story with you, about what I learnt about Total Defence many years ago, when I was still in service with the Singapore Armed Forces. Once upon a time, there was a foreign delegation visiting Singapore. So as usual, we were trying to impress the foreigners with the capabilities and the might of the Singapore Armed Forces. We brought them to see the Air Force and our F-16s. He was not impressed. We brought them to the Navy to see our frigates. Again, he was not impressed. By then, we were quite depressed. What more can we show him? We brought him to an armour formation to see our locally produced vehicles with all its advanced gadgets. He was still not impressed. We were mightily depressed. So on our way out of the camp, and this was one evening about this time, about 5-6 o'clock in the evening, we were about to give up and surrender from trying to impress him. And we passed by this particular fitness centre, where quite a few obese soldiers and NSmen who did not pass their IPPT was having their training. In the military, they call this the Remedial Training (RT). So this visitor stopped, and said, "Who are these people?" So we were quite embarrassed, and said, "Well, Your Excellency, these are the people who could not pass their fitness test.""What are they doing here?" "Oh, you know, we are quite stringent about fitness. They could not pass their fitness test. That is why they are here on remedial training."So he said, "Ahh, these are your conscript soldiers?"

Again, we were quite embarrassed, we said, "Well, actually, Your Excellency, they are not the conscript soldiers. These are my NSmen, some people call them the reservist soldiers. They are actually working adults, and now they have been called back in the evening to complete their training so that maybe they will improve their fitness, and hopefully pass their fitness test." He turned around, and said, "Wow, you guys are that serious? You actually call back civilians to train to pass their fitness test?"

To us, it was the natural order of things - anyone who did not pass the IPPT would get called back for remedial training. So he walked out of camp, and this time, we noticed there was a visible change in his expression. And he whispered to his aide de camp-his assistant-and said, "I think these guys are serious. If the obese soldiers took it so seriously on themselves to come back to keep fit, then, this must be a very serious armed forces. And this must be a country who mean business, because even the last soldier down the line will take it upon himself to fulfil his responsibilities so seriously."

And lo and behold, it was not the F-16s nor the frigates, nor the tanks that impressed this informed observer. But it was the attitude of the soldiers that so impressed him. That sent the deterrence message that we all meant business. And as the conversation went on, he realised how much effort it took for these unfit NSmen to come back. It took the support of the employers to come forth and release them from their work; it took the support of family members, who come forth to cheer them on, and having even some of them running or jogging with the NSmen to encourage the NSmen to stay fit. All these little things added up to send that larger message of how seriously we take our defence, and what it really meant for us to say that we have a concept of total defence where each and every member of our society will play our part, regardless of our station in life.

You too, you in the audience, have similarly demonstrated this same spirit. And it is this same spirit, by each and every one doing our part, which gives us confidence that we truly are able to demonstrate this concept of total defence. What you have done with your actions speak louder than words. The stories behind your stories say much more about your commitment to this concept called Total Defence for our country, than any other actions that you have done.

Your own stories behind the stories are the best testimony of the entire concept of Total Defence in action. And for that, I thank you, and I applaud you for your effort. May we all get inspired by your examples and go forth to each play our part for our country so that we will have many more years of peace to come because you have played a part. Thank you very much.