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Statement by Minister for Manpower
and Second Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen at the RECORD IV
Press Conference
Introduction
The Fourth Committee to Recognise the Contribution of Operationally
Ready NSmen in the SAF, Police and SCDF to Total Defence (RECORD IV)
was convened in September last year. On behalf of my committee
members who are with me on this panel, we are pleased to announce
that we have completed our work and the report has been presented to
the Minister for Defence. In reply, the Government will study the
recommendations and give its response during the budget debate.
Background
Before I start discussing the recommendations, let me recap why
RECORD was set up. NS was introduced 38 years ago in 1967 but all of
us know and realise the need for NS going forward remains as
critical as ever. As a small nation with limited resources, we are
completely dependent on National Service (NS) to maintain our
defence capability, we cannot raise a professional army, for
example. Our NSmen play a critical role in safeguarding the security
of Singapore and ensuring a stable environment that is conducive for
economic growth and businesses to flourish. We recognise, for every
NSman, there comes a cost, opportunity cost and sacrifice, and for
this reason, the Government set up in 1990 RECORD to work out ideas
that would help us further recognise and appreciate the contribution
of our NSmen to the defence of Singapore.
The recent debate on NS defaulters was useful. It reaffirmed the
acceptance by our population that every eligible male is expected to
fulfil his commitment to NS. On this, there was no debate. There was
consensus, complete consensus. As a conscript army, this principle
of equity of responsibility for all to serve is essential in
upholding a strong SAF, SCDF and Police. But let me remind
Singaporeans and ourselves that NS is an investment ¨C we serve to
protect our present and secure the future for our children; to
preserve our way of life and the independence to choose and shape
our future. We are also reminded that NS also requires sacrifice in
this debate. For all it means either delaying further studies or
employment opportunities. For a small number who need to train under
extreme and realistic conditions and to be exposed to harm¡¯s way,
for example when you train under our special forces, when the button
is pressed, it may even mean injury or the loss of life.
Our recommendations, and the committee wants to carefully underscore
this, should not be seen as commensurate with the investment or
sacrifice made by NS men ¨C they are not meant to be tallied from one
to the other because it demeans the exercise. Rather, it is a
tangible expression, a simple way of saying that we appreciate the
role of every NS men in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the
Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
Key Considerations
In its discussions, the Committee bore in mind a few key
considerations. One was the need to maintain or increase the
commitment to Total Defence. Another was the transformation to the
3G SAF, and the new threats for the SCDF and SPF, counter-terrorism
for example. And thirdly, we recognise the day-to-day aspects. In
other words, the changing profile of the NSmen and the work they do.
I will now elaborate on each of these key considerations.
Total Defence is critical
With new and emerging security threats such as transnational
terrorism, Total Defence remains a national priority and is of
increasing importance. The London Bomb blasts reminded us that
ultimately it is the people who will decide if the war against
terrorism will be won. Because your security forces can respond, the
Police can come in, the SCDF can come in, the SAF can pour in troops
to maintain law and order, but if the people are cowed, the people
are fractured when a bomb blast occurs from terrorists, then we have
lost much. Ultimately, it is the people that decide whether we are
going to win this war. There is therefore a great need to ensure
that all Singaporeans remain committed to and supportive of NS. And
when we engaged our stakeholders, and any of the members of RECORD
will tell you, whether it was employers or spouses, there was this
emerging need to say that we want to know more, because we want to
participate in Total Defence. So we felt it was important to step up
our engagement with family members and employers, to help them
better appreciate the importance of NS, their roles in safeguarding
Singapore¡¯s security and stability, and our capabilities.
Third Generation SAF (3G SAF)
The SAF¡¯s transformation to a third generation fighting force cannot
succeed without National Service (NS) key command and staff
appointment holders playing their part. They are critical players,
because you need the commanders to shape the right values and
transit to a more potent 3G SAF. Similarly KAH¡¯s roles and
responsibilities within the Police and SCDF have been stepped up in
response to counter-terrorism threats. Your terrain is more complex
as many of us saw at Exercise Northstar. You have to know how to
manage crowds, manage chemical and biological, even radiological and
explosive threats. These Key Appointment Holders are responsible for
maintaining the training level and operational readiness state of
their units, and building a climate that fosters ideas, commitment
and camaraderie as we change and respond to these new threats. Their
sacrifice and dedication to NS should be given due recognition.
Changing Profile of NSmen
RECORD IV also discussed how the profile of NSmen is changing. NSmen
are better educated and they now travel more often for both work and
leisure. The committee is mindful of the competing demands on the
time of our NSmen and therefore looked at measures to assist them in
balancing their work and family commitments and their NS
obligations.
Consultation with Stakeholders
How did the committee do its work? You can ask individual
experiences ¨C I purposely stayed away from some consultative forums
so that it would give more free play. Members themselves chaired
sessions with NSmen, their spouses. Some of the press were with us
when we engaged employers and we visited commanders. Everyone was
very lively and had a say on NS and it was quite useful as you can
tell. They gave us many suggestions, some of which we have
incorporated. For example, the additional SAFRA clubhouse in the
west and greater involvement by families in Total Defence. RECORD
member Lim Mei Mei in the first meeting said, and I am paraphrasing
her, wives should not just have the role of seeing their husbands
off when they go to do their In-Camp Training. Spouses should have a
greater exposure to what actually goes on. A similar refrain was
heard from the employers. Let me now just highlight some of the key
recommendations.
RECORD IV Recommendations
Let me start with some of the financial recommendations.
To tie in with the upcoming 40th anniversary of NS in 2007, RECORD
IV has recommended a 40th National Service anniversary Bonus in the
next surplus sharing exercise. Our security capabilities today have
been built on the dedication and sacrifice of every NS men who have
served and who are serving in the SAF, Police and SCDF. The
Committee therefore thought it appropriate to recognise all ex and
serving NS men ¨C which means that more than 700,000 will benefit
from this.
We also proposed that NS men who have completed their ORNS
(Operationally Ready NS) cycles should be given a higher additional
allocation than those who are still serving NS. This recognises that
they have diligently completed, not only their NSF but their In-Camp
Training. Secondly, RECORD IV suggests for the first time that
full-time national servicemen (NSFs) should be given an allocation.
In the past surplus sharing exercises, they were not included but we
felt that they should be included.
But surplus-sharing exercises, as you know, are one-off events.
RECORD IV felt that there was also a need to have a recurrent way to
recognise those who contributed to NSmen. We therefore recommended a
new ORNS Completion Award to be introduced. This is to be given upon
completion of Operationally Ready NS. This is a broad-based
initiative, the completion award for ORNS, and every year about
20,000 would complete ORNS, that would benefit this group.
As mentioned earlier, RECORD IV felt that we need to enhance
recognition to key command and staff appointment holders who take on
greater responsibility.
Currently, NSmen are eligible for a tax relief of $1,500. The KAHS,
those who performed NS activities in the preceding year, are
eligible for a higher tax relief of $3,000. RECORD IV recommends
that NS key command and staff appointment holders be given an
additional relief, on top of that, of $2,000 over and above these
sums.
RECORD IV also recommends that the additional allowances, apart from
tax reliefs, be given to KAHs (Key Appointment Holders). This is in
the form of allowances Responsibility (NS) Allowances, over and
above their service and make up pay be increased.
Enhancing Family and Employer Support for NS
We felt that because family and employers need to take an active
role, we need to step up the engagement. RECORD IV recommends three
ways.
One is to expand the current unit cohesion programme, we need to
fund these activities more, to engage families and employers of
NSmen;
Secondly, we felt that there was a need to expand the role of the
Advisory Council for Community Relations in Defence (ACCORD). We
felt that ACCORD needed to reach out to more stakeholders in
society; not only to ACCORD members such as employers, women groups,
family, even the media and other stakeholders.
RECORD IV also proposes that MINDEF develops a museum to showcase
the history of NS. If you want people to be involved in Total
Defence, you need to tell them the story about the past, the present
contributions. This will not only serve as a tribute to the
contributions of NSmen, but also as a learning institution for all
Singaporeans. In recent forum pages where some people had said,
beyond the penalties, we need to step up the education, we felt that
this was in line as well.
SAFRA Clubs
From our feedback sessions, some people said that for those living
in the West, there was a need for SAFRA Club to be in the West.
RECORD IV agree. We propose a new SAFRA clubhouse to be built in
Jurong, to better serve those living in the West. RECORD IV also
felt that some of our clubhouses could do with a major make-over,
that SAFRA Toa Payoh needed a major upgrading exercise instead of
just doing additions and alternation, so that it can remain relevant
and attractive to members.
Facilitating Transition from NS
As business environment and education landscape is changing, we want
to facilitate the transition of our full-time national servicemen to
further studies and employment, we felt that we needed to enhance
the existing e-PREP scheme and the Certificate of Service. This is a
Certificate that was given at the completion of your NSF tour.
Employers told that they actually value this certificate - if SAF
says a person is excellent, employers tend to hire them more easily
and give them more responsibility. We felt that in this certificate
of service, for the top performers, SAF, SCDF, SPF should put their
mark of recognition, so that employers can recognise this.
Enhancing Convenience for NSmen
As NSmen travel more for work and leisure, we thought we could
streamline the exit control measures. This has to be done without
compromising operational readiness. Some possible measures include
exempting NSmen who have already completed their ORNS from having to
notify MINDEF of their short overseas trips, and requiring NSFs to
apply for an exit permit only for overseas trips of three months and
longer. This is the understanding of increasing commitment and of
their roles.
Conclusion
With new and emerging security threats, Total Defence remains a
national priority and the contribution of our national servicemen
continues to be of relevance and importance. The Government is
committed to recognising the contribution of our national servicemen
who ensure Singapore¡¯s peace and stability.
RECORD IV has completed its work. I would like to take this
opportunity to thank my committee members for their invaluable
contribution to this continual effort of providing recognition for
our NSmen. I am heartened on their decibel level, quite vocal and
quite rightly so.
My committee will now be happy to take any questions that you may
have.
Source:
www.mindef.gov.sg News
Release 19 Jan 2006
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700,000 serving and ex-NSmen may get
40th NS anniversary bonus
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