Speech by Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, at The Committee of Supply Debates 2023

Introduction

Mr Chairman, Minister for Defence Dr Ng and SMS Mr Heng Chee How spoke at some length about the importance of investing steadily in a strong defence. They stressed the importance of long-term investment in building up our military capabilities and strengthening our National Service (NS) system, even during times of relative peace. I will add that we also need steady investments in Singaporeans' commitment to defence and our collective national resilience. This underpins our Total Defence philosophy that we started in 1984. Total Defence has helped us through crises in the past and the most recent COVID-19 pandemic. It is even more needed now to prepare all Singaporeans to withstand the ongoing disruptions, to defend against the multitude of threats that lie ahead, and for us to continue to thrive.

Reflecting on Our Geopolitical Realities

Looking back on the past year's challenges, the Russia-Ukraine war resonates with me because it shows precisely why Total Defence remains critical for Singapore's survival. The world has been awed by the sheer courage and ingenuity of Ukrainians in their spirited fight against Russia. MP Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim and MP Ms Denise Phua, as well as others have highlighted this, and I think there is much we can learn from how the whole of Ukrainian society mobilised for its national defence.

In an inspiring display of Civil and Psychological Defence, many Ukrainian individuals and businesses have volunteered their civilian support for the military effort. In the same month that Russia launched its full-scale invasion, a historian began making improvised bulletproof vests for soldiers, by taping sawed-off pieces of ploughshares and cut-up transmission belts from farming machines onto sleeveless dress jackets. Then, local business owners, specialising in everything from furniture to metalwork, came together to properly manufacture bulletproof jackets sewn with camouflage fabric and tool pouches. Bulletproof jackets are common apparel in Ukraine now, and there are reports of farmers wearing them while working fields that are peppered with unexploded munitions, and parents preparing them for children in the event of evacuations.

We also see the interplay between Military, Civil and Digital Defence in how Ukrainians have applied their computer and information technology expertise to help counter Russia's aerial attacks. To overcome limitations in their air defence system, Ukrainian volunteers worked with military and government officials to develop a mobile phone application that allows civilians to report sightings of incoming drones and missiles. Users only need to point their device in the direction of the incoming object and press a button, and the application would send a report to the military, who would attempt to intercept the object before it struck.

Demonstrating their social and psychological resilience, millions of Ukrainians have returned home since the war began, despite there being no clear resolution to the conflict in sight. Some are men who worked overseas and wanted to enlist to defend their country. Others are seniors, women and children who wanted to rebuild their homes and their communities. Their display of Social and Psychological Defence prompts me to reflect on the strength of our national identity and resilience. I hope that we never have to come to this. But should crisis arise and the country need us, Singaporeans must stand united and stay to defend our country. One people, one nation, one Singapore..

Co-Creating Total Defence Initiatives with Singaporeans

Over the past two years, we have been engaging different groups of Singaporeans to strengthen Total Defence. MP Ms Rachel Ong asked about how MINDEF has followed up on our 2021 Total Defence Review. Through our review, we have identified two key priorities. The first is to help Singaporeans become more aware about the threats and challenges for our society, which would serve as a stepping-stone towards understanding how they can contribute to tackling these challenges. The second is to give Singaporeans more opportunities to propose Total Defence initiatives and to partner the government to implement these initiatives.

In this spirit, we launched the Total Defence Sandbox last year to crowdsource proposals from youths to put Total Defence into action. In the first round of submissions, we received 77 enthusiastic proposals, and have selected some proposals to implement this year. For example, university students Mr Caleb Tan and Mr Sheng Jiankai drew on their love of crime fiction to propose an immersive Total Defence Murder Mystery Role Play Game to help players learn about our multi-faceted threat environment. Mr Tan said that through their game, they hoped that young Singaporeans would become more aware of the challenges and limitations that Singapore faces, and feel the urgency to take tangible actions for Total Defence. We think that their idea is fresh and engaging, and have partnered them with the Singapore Discovery Centre to bring their game to life. We are looking for more creative contributions from Singaporeans. Our second call for proposals to the Sandbox has just commenced, and will run until May of this year.

Mobilising Communities to Build Civic Preparedness and Resilience

Mr Chairman, we want to deter crises and conflict. However, when crisis hits, we must be prepared, and the government will spare no effort in our response. But the government also cannot be everywhere all the time. This is where Singaporeans, all of us, must play our part – to pitch in to support national efforts, as well as to take care of each other. MPs Ms Rachel Ong, Ms Cheng Li Hui, Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Ms Denise Phua asked how MINDEF was partnering other agencies and the community to bolster community resilience and civic preparedness.

Through the Total Defence Sandbox, a group of Singapore Management University (SMU) students proposed to conduct a table-top simulation to engage post-secondary students on Total Defence. We saw the potential of this idea, and brought together government agencies, grassroots organisations, education institutions and businesses to develop a full-fledged Community Exercise involving over 120 participants, as part of the 2023 Total Defence Day Commemoration Event. This exercise was conducted over two days in Chua Chu Kang Community Club, where members of the local community came together to draw up plans to prepare for and respond to disruptions of essential supplies.

Visitors to the Total Defence Day Commemoration Event also learned about facilities and skills that are essential for civic preparedness. To show people that they can still prepare good food in the event of a shortage of fresh food. The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College West served nutritious meals that were cooked using ingredients with long shelf lives. In preparation for water-related emergencies, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) had booths to educate the public on water conservation and flood resilience. Residents were invited to try out PUB's mobile Water Bag Filling Machine, which can pack five-litre water bags for distribution in the event of water supply disruptions. This is a lot faster and quicker than what we were used to, you remember pail-carrying and long queues. Some activities took place in the Civil Defence Shelter in the Community Centre, which is part of a longstanding shelter programme by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) to protect civilians during natural and man-made disasters, as well as wartime emergencies. The SCDF also conducted public demonstrations of critical life-saving skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation and fire extinguishing.

I am inspired by how an idea that started in the Total Defence Sandbox evolved into a comprehensive and inclusive community effort with the close support of our partners. Every Singaporean can build up their crisis preparedness by getting certified with life-saving skills, and learning how they should prepare for and respond in emergencies. We hope to encourage more people to undertake these actions, and we are working with the People's Association and ITE College West to conduct the exercise with Singaporeans from more walks of life.

Exploring New and More Engaging Ways to Learn About Total Defence

We are also exploring new and more engaging ways to encourage youths to learn about Total Defence.

One way is through the Total Defence Interactive Videos, which are available on the MINDEF and SG101 websites. The latest video, launched just last month, follows a friendly and comical grandmother and grandson duo as they try to tackle modern challenges such as supply disruptions and fake news. Viewers role-play as the video characters and make decisions that determine how the story unfolds. Through the videos, we hope that viewers reflect on how their individual choices can create a greater impact in the national context.

School activities also provide valuable platforms for youths to learn about defence and security issues. For example, most of us are familiar with the National Cadet Corps (NCC). Some of us here were part of the NCC when we were in school. I, for one, was in NCC at one point. And like many students over the years, this gave me early exposure to Total Defence and prepared me with relevant skills for NS. For some, NCC also seeded aspirations for a career in the military.

Today, we continue this tradition of actively engaging students, and are piloting a new programme to empower youths to act in Singapore's Digital Defence. Our fourth Service, the Digital and Intelligence Service, launched the Sentinel Programme last year to equip youths with digital and cybersecurity skills. Students from participating secondary schools, junior colleges and polytechnics were offered hands-on workshops, engagement sessions and competitions. The programme was carefully crafted to expose students to foundational skills such as basic programming, cryptography, and network forensics.

We received strong student interest in the pilot programme, and are working with other agencies, such as the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, to offer the programme to students from all secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics and ITEs in the coming years.

Partnering the Community to Strengthen Support for National Service

NS is fundamental to our Military Defence, as outlined by SMS Heng. In turn, community support is critical for the continued success of NS. We established the Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence (ACCORD) in 1984 to bring together community nodes that represent employers, educational institutions, family members and members of the community.

ACCORD has grown tremendously and continues to contribute valuable feedback and proposals. MPs Ms Joan Pereira and Dr Wan Rizal asked for updates on ACCORD's initiatives, such as efforts to increase community support for National Service. In the past year, ACCORD actively rallied the community to show appreciation for NSmen through the We Support NS Campaign. The campaign garnered discounts and benefits for NSmen at 275 retailers that operate a total of 2,500 outlets across Singapore. In addition, ACCORD remains passionate about preparing youths and their families for National Service. ACCORD co-organised NS engagement sessions for over 11,000 students from post-secondary education institutions in the last year, and most agreed that the sessions helped them to better prepare for National Service.

We also wanted to give women a glimpse of what national servicemen go through so that they can better support and advocate for NS and Total Defence. With this in mind, ACCORD partnered with the SAF to host another edition of the Women's Boot Camp earlier this month. Ms Koh Wee Min is the alumni of the 2019 Women's Boot Camp who returned to the most recent boot camp to support the camp trainers and share her experience. Ms Koh also initiated an NS55 project last year to plot the participating merchant outlets that offered We Support NS deals on a shared Google Map list. This allowed NSmen and their families to easily search for deals. I think that she embodies the Total Defence spirit of playing your part, wherever you can.

Organising Our Defence Museums to Tell the Singapore Story

We all have memories of what it means to play our own part in Singapore's defence. It may be something small, like taking pride in your Uniformed Group school unit achieving a Total Defence Gold Badge, or maybe something more life-changing, like digging your first shell-scrape in NS in the humid jungle, hearing the buzz of mosquitoes while doing your sentry duties, or sending your loved one off to Pulau Tekong for Basic Military Training. These memories of our achievements and our sacrifices are precious threads in the hard-won tapestry of our national identity.

We believe in preserving these stories and artefacts across generations, so that we can learn about and reflect on the trials and tribulations that we have undergone as a fledgling nation and military. MPs Mr Lim Biow Chuan and Mr Melvin Yong asked about the plans for our defence and military museums, and what visitors can expect. To bring our Singapore defence story to life and better preserve our heritage, we have set up the Defence Collective Singapore to oversee all our defence and military museums. This will help us deliver the best possible visitor experiences and national education programmes at our museums.

We have been refreshing our museums to ensure that the exhibition content is up-to-date, and that the visitor experience is interactive and educational. The Singapore Discovery Centre (SDC) completed a refresh a year ago, with new multi-sensory and digitally-enhanced exhibits on Singapore's past, present and future. Echoing the Singapore Green Plan 2030 and MINDEF's commitment to environmental sustainability, SDC is on track to achieve its ambitious sustainability target of becoming a net-zero energy building by this year. The Navy Museum is undergoing a complete makeover of its galleries, and will reopen to the public in the middle of the year. Spanning three floors, the refreshed museum uses multimedia and interactive exhibits to tell the story of the Navy's evolution from its humble beginnings to the professional, competent maritime force that it is today. It will also display real equipment from the Challenger-class submarines for the first time. The NS Gallery at Marina Bay is being built within the new NS Square complex and remains on track to open by 2027. Our NSmen have defended our land, airspace and seas over the decades, and we want to showcase Singapore's NS story and honour the contributions of our NSmen past and present. We will also progressively refresh the Army and Air Force Museums in the coming years. Collectively, the visitorship for our museums have been encouraging, with over 400,000 visitors annually at the Singapore Discovery Centre and our military museums.

Conclusion

Mr Chairman, as its name suggests, Total Defence remains an all-encompassing, unceasing effort to strengthen ourselves, our communities, and our nation. MINDEF will continue to invest in Total Defence, in partnership with fellow Singaporeans. Total Defence is our best preparation for, our best response to, and our best recovery from the threats of today and tomorrow. We will withstand whatever that comes our way if every Singaporean steps up and plays a part in our defence.

Thank you, Mr Chairman.

More Resources

Speech by Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen, at The Committee of Supply Debates 2023

Speech by Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr Heng Chee How, at The Committee Of Supply Debates 2023

Fact Sheet: Update on the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS)' Capability Development Efforts

Fact Sheet: F-35B Fighter Aircraft

Fact Sheet: ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) Cybersecurity and Information Centre of Excellence (ACICE)

Fact Sheet: Updates to Initiatives for NSFs and NSmen

Fact Sheet: The Sentinel Programme – Engaging Youths on Digital Defence

Infographic: TOWARDS SAF2040

Infographic: Enhancing Training to Maintain the SAF's Edge

Infographic: Update to NS Initiatives