One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

CREATING THE SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES

THREE

VII. THE STRUCTURE OF MID

Over the next two years, MID laid the structural foundations to tackle both the implementation

of National Service and the management and civilian supervision of the SAF. MID was

organised into the following Divisions:

1. The General Staff Division dealt with matters relating to doctrinal

development, policies, regulations, procedures, training and operations.

2. The Manpower Division dealt with personnel management. It was responsible for

personnel records, control of postings, promotion and career development, service

conditions, classification of vocations and allocation of personnel resources. Under it was

set up the Central Manpower Base (CMPB) which was the national centre for processing

National Servicemen throughout their service cycle and for other service recruitment.

3. The Logistics Division dealt with supply, transportation and maintenance, control and

movement of equipment, weapons and ammunition, research and development to

improve available equipment to meet operational specifications, construction of camps

and management of real estate.

Malaysians would also want to be our military instructors, if for no other reason than to

make sure we were not taught more than they knew about defence.”

Mr. Lee had written

to Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Egyptian President Abdul Nasser seeking

urgent help to build up Singapore’s armed forces and naval and coastal defences respectively,

but both avoided the issue in their responses while congratulating Singapore on achieving

independence and wishing the Republic well. Mr. Lee then pursued an earlier spontaneous

offer by Israel, resulting in an exchange of visits by delegations and the adoption of Israeli

proposals.

Since the first exchange of visits took place in November 1965, the decision to adopt

National Service as the foundation for defence forces could have been strongly influenced

by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) experience as much as consideration of costs. But the

Advisors no doubt contributed to other organisational aspects in MID. MID records indicate

that they customised their proposals to Singapore’s needs as they saw them and also as

an opportunity to apply lessons they had learned in their own organisation in matters of

relationship between civilian and professional military personnel. Among their most specific

proposals was the co-location of the military headquarters with the Ministry, civilianising

the administrative and especially the logistics support structures and making the Minister of

Defence the supreme commander, answerable to the Cabinet. The organisation of MID and

subsequently MINDEF strongly reflects this thinking, while in the matter of training the

initial cohorts of officers and NCOs and proposing the key components of the land force,

their advice was followed closely.