Speech by Outgoing Chief of Army Major-General Perry Lim Cheng Yeow at the Chief of Army Change of Command Parade

Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant-General Ng Chee Meng,
Singapore Armed Forces Sergeant Major, Chief Warrant Officer Tang Peck Onn,
Service Chiefs,
Senior Officers,
Sergeant Majors,
Distinguished guests and fellow soldiers,

First of all, Melvyn and I would like to thank all our soldiers on parade today and our Sergeant Major group for putting this parade together. Our Army was coming out from a very intense and high-key period. All of us were looking forward to some time with our families. But when given a task to do what is required, our people pulled through once again. Not only do we just do it, we do it very well all the time. I would also like to thank Commander 3rd Division and his premier division for organising this Change of Command parade. It is indeed a great honour for me.

Three years ago, under the leadership of Major-General Ravinder Singh, our leadership group came together to chart out a vision for our Army. Our Army - ready in peace, decisive in war and respected by all. This shared vision has guided our leaders to do what is required for our Army to fulfil our mission which is to deter aggression, and should deterrence fail, to secure a swift and decisive victory; and to be ready and capable of conducting a spectrum of operations to defend the security interest and sovereignty of Singapore. It has also guided us to do what is right to safeguard National Service and our Army as a trusted National Institution, and uphold the strong support that we have for National Service.

Over the last 12 months, our Army has demonstrated what it means to be ready in peace. Last December, our Army was activated to work with our friends from the Malaysian Army to provide relief to the flood victims in the state of Kelantan. At short notice, we deployed a team of 34 Army servicemen and four Water Purification Units. Over the course of two weeks, our detachments provided 136,000 litres of clean water for the people in Kuala Krai and Machang. Following the devastating earthquake in Nepal in April, our Army deployed a 16-man element from our Regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Coordination Centre, or RHCC, and a 22-man medical team to assist in the search and relief efforts. Our RHCC element performed a useful role in the Multi-National Military Coordination Centre to provide situational awareness and updates to the representatives from the other militaries, IOs and NGOs. Our medical team treated more than 3,000 locals from across nine villages, using the town of Gokarna as their base.

In March, our Army organised the State Funeral for Mr Lee Kuan Yew, with guidance from the State Funeral Organising Committee led by CDF. Our Army endeavoured to give the most fitting farewell for our founding father and first Prime Minister, and we did. Out people rose to the occasion, adapted to the challenging and unexpected circumstances and provided relief and direction to the hundreds and thousands of Singaporeans who endured the long queues and hot sun to pay their last respects to Mr Lee. In June, our Artillery Formation successfully organised the opening and closing ceremonies for the 28th South East Asian Games (SEA Games) at the new stadium. Less well-known, but no less important and impressive, was the excellent work done by our Transport Formation in organising the transportation of 9200 athletes and officials shuttling between 20 hotels and 46 sports venues. As well as the medical coverage provided by our medical teams from HQ Medical Corps and Army Medical Services. Just as we closed up on the SEA Games, our Guards Formation, with units from across the whole Army, went on to organise the biggest event in our history, National Day Parade 2015.

To commemorate and celebrate our nation's golden jubilee, we put together over 170 military and Home Team vehicles in an impressive mobile column as a demonstration of strength and commitment to our nation. Commander CSSCOM (Combat Service Support Command) rallied his people to accomplish the massive task of packing 1.2million NDP funpacks, which were then distributed to every household in Singapore. Together with the Singapore Police Force, 2PDF undertook the mission of crowd control in the Marina Bay area, enabling over 200,000 Singaporeans to join in the NDP celebrations at the bay. Each time we organised a national event, our High Readiness Core Forces were also stood up to respond to any security contingencies.

Even as we committed resources and focused our effort to performing this national-level task, our Army continued to roll along and move forward in the areas of operations, training and capability development. We are on track in meeting our milestones in the third spiral development of our 3rd Generation Army. We continue to raise and generate units for our Army's full force potential and bring in our NS units for their annual In-Camp Training. Our soldiers are deployed 24/7 in Jurong Island, Sembawang Wharves and Changi Airport to keep us safe. That our Army is able to fulfil our core mission and accomplish our assigned task over such busy periods, it has got to do with one thing - leadership. Our Army is blessed with strong, capable and highly committed leaders at every level of our organisation who will do the right thing and do their jobs to the best of their abilities. I would like to put on record my sincere appreciation for our former Chiefs of Army present here today, General Neo Kian Hong and General Ravinder Singh, for laying the foundations of the 3rd Generation Army that we are proud to have today, and setting a strong culture of excellence and stewardship where our leaders make the effort and invest their time to develop and groom the next generation of leaders for our Army. I would also like to thank CDF for his clear guidance and trust that he has given me to command and lead our Army. And thank my fellow Service Chiefs, Major-General Hoo Cher Mou and Rear-Admiral Lai Chung Han, DMI BG Mervyn Tan, and COS-JS BG Chia Choon Hoong, for their strong support to the Army and for their friendship.

Our Army is a very large organisation. To run our Army effectively, it has to be based on collective leadership, everyone plays a part. Nevertheless I would like to highlight five individuals who have supported me in my time as Chief of Army. Chief of Staff, General Staff BG Lim Hock Yu, who delayed his own career transition to help me run the Army Headquarters and direct our efforts in capability development, information management and organisational excellence. Commander TRADOC, BG Chan Wing Kai, who directs the training hub and takes care of all matters concerning our training, the lifeblood of our Army. Director National Service Affairs BG Tung Yui Fai, who advises me on matters concerning National Service and the largest constituent in our Army, our NSmen. Assistant Chief of the General Staff for Operations BG Siew Kum Wong, the point-man in our Army leadership group for operations - whenever he's in charge I know that everything is under control. Last but not least, Sergeant Major of the Army Chief Warrant Officer Ng Siak Ping, my right hand man and my Army buddy, who together with our Sergeant Major group, keeps our Army leadership in touch with the ground. These five individuals have been the pillars of strength in our Army leadership and exemplary role models for our people. With their experience and willingness to speak their minds, my decisions for Army were more assured and our solutions more robust. My sincere thanks to all five of you and to all my other colleagues in the Army leadership group.

Today I'll be handing over command of our Army to Brigadier-General Melvyn Ong. As we all know, Melvyn is a highly professional and capable commander and leader, driven by his sense of purpose, passion and duty to his country, organisation and people. This will be the third time that Melvyn is taking over my appointment. Each time he took over from me, he went on to do much better. I know our Army will be in very good hands and I'm confident that all of you will give Melvyn your strongest support for our Army to succeed.

My fellow soldiers, our Army at 50 is a capable and credible organisation that is confident of achieving our mission. As part of the SAF, our Army has safeguarded the peace and enhanced the security of Singapore over the last 50 years of our existence as an independent nation. Our Army is in a strong position today because we have strong political support, we have good people and Singaporeans understand and support the need for defence and National Service. These are things we know we must never take for granted. This is why in everything we do, we put our soldiers in the centre of our consideration. We must continue to train our soldiers hard, challenge them in realistic conditions, train them safely and support and equip them well to do their jobs. Even as we focus on training them to be war-fighters, we must value-add to their learning and growth and develop them to become better citizens, better sons and eventually excellent fathers. For the two years that our soldiers are with us, and for every In-Camp Training that they attend thereafter as NSmen, our soldiers experience the real substance of our Army. There is no hiding anything from them, so we must work hard to uphold and strengthen the substance, culture and character of our Army, and strive to be an Army that is respected. If we can do that, public support for National Service will be strong. When our National Service is strong, our Army will be strong, and when our Army is strong, we can then ensure that Singapore will be safe and strong for the next 50 years.

Yang Pertama dan Utama.

Thank you to all of you for your presence at the parade today.

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