One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

CREATING THE SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES

THREE

“The period August 1965 to the end of 1966 was a period of groundwork and

planning. The general plan to be implemented then, was to develop a small

well-equipped, highly trained and mobile defence force comprising a small

nucleus of regulars backed by a large part-time volunteer citizens Force –

The People’s Defence Force. Consequently, in early 1967, the volunteers

trained in PDF Training Camps were reorganised into Battalions and a

PDF training centre at Maju Camp was set up.”

As it turned out, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew persuaded Dr. Goh to go for a National Service army,

and the concept would change radically. “Keng Swee’s original plan was to build up a regular

army of 12 battalions between 1966 and 1969. Disagreeing with this plan, I proposed a

small standing army plus the capacity to mobilise the whole civilian population who should

be trained and put into reserves.”

In November 1966, the first inkling of conscription

was offered when Dr. Goh announced that from 1

January, 1967, all newly appointed

government and statutory board officers, subject to medical fitness, would have to do a stint

of full-time military service.

In February 1967, Dr. Goh tabled legislation in Parliament to

amend the National Service Ordinance (which had originally been passed by the British in

1952).

Mr. Lee himself made the formal announcement of the introduction of National

Service on 21

February, 1967, at the Toa Payoh Community Centre. Nine hundred young

men were called up to make the first full-time intake on 17

August, 1967, reporting to the

newly formed 3 and 4 SIR battalions in their temporary quarters in Taman Jurong.

But, that was still to come. In 1965, pursuant to Dr. Goh’s original plan, MID carried out two

recruitment drives called Boxer I and Boxer II, primarily to top up the two regular battalions

which had been depleted significantly by the repatriation of Malaysian troops. It was also in

the context of raising the regular battalions that the enlistment of those who would be the

first and subsequent intakes of officer cadet trainees at SAFTI, Pasir Laba, had been initiated

in February 1966, except that by then, the Government had already decided on the Israeli

Defence Force as Military Advisors for Singapore and they had been helping to formulate

the development concepts.

VI. FOREIGN MILITARY EXPERTISE

Mr. Lee Kuan Yew said in his memoirs, that the “British had made no offer to help us

build an army as they had done with the Malayans in the 1950s. They had… incurred the

displeasure of the Malaysians. Now, they had to deal with a Malaysia more than a little

unhappy with them. And because the Malaysians had sponsored us for membership in

both the Commonwealth and the United Nations, the British must have guessed that the