DPM Teo Chee Hean at Pasir Ris West Revamped Emergency Preparedness Day

“SGSecure in the Neighbourhood – A Community of Prepared Citizens”

Residents,

Grassroots Leaders,

Partners from the Home Team and People’s Association,

All our volunteers,

Thank you for joining us this morning at the Pasir Ris West Emergency Preparedness or EP Day.

You have seen the ‘live’ exercise simulating a terrorist attack, how the “residents” and volunteers reacted and responded, and how the Police and SCDF responded and took down the “terrorists” and helped to save the lives of our residents.

This exercise today brings home an important message for all of us – The terrorist threat is at the highest level in recent years. We need to learn how to respond to an attack to keep ourselves, our families and friends safe.

This year alone, we have seen terrorist attacks around the world – in Paris, Nice and Brussels and the bomb blast in New York just last month. Closer to home, we have seen attacks in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

In Singapore, our security agencies have arrested Singaporeans and foreigners who were radicalised, and plotting to carry out attacks in Singapore or elsewhere.

When a terror attack occurs, there will be injuries and precious lives lost. But that is not the only thing that the terrorists will try to do. They will also try to destroy our social harmony, strike fear amongst our population and prevent us from carrying on with our daily lives. If we are not prepared for an attack, it can disrupt our way of life and cause widespread damage to our social harmony.

A Community of Prepared Citizens

To safeguard our society and social harmony, we can all play our part.

We have faced a number of threats before, such as SARS, haze, dengue and Zika. The community took collective action to overcome these challenges to protect ourselves, and our families and friends. For SARS, we made thermometers available to everyone, and daily temperature-taking became the norm to protect ourselves and our community. When we were affected by severe haze, we donned our N95 masks and got on with our lives normally. When we had dengue outbreaks within our neighbourhood, and more recently Zika, all of us did the “Mozzie Wipeout”, applied insect repellent to keep ourselves safe and to prevent the spread of dengue and Zika.

To safeguard our society and social harmony, we can all play our part.

DPM Teo Chee Hean

Similarly, for terrorism, we need to be prepared – to protect ourselves and to carry on with our daily lives as normally as possible. We must stand united and most importantly, protect our social harmony. We must equip ourselves with the skills, knowledge, and tools to know what we need to do to respond to an attack. By familiarising ourselves with the “Run, Hide, Tell” and “Press, Tie, Tell” advisories for example, we will know what to do and how to help those who are injured.

This morning’s event is part of the SGSecure movement, which is our national response against the terrorism threat. SGSecure puts the civil, social, and psychological aspects of Total Defence into action in our community. All of us must stay alert, stay united and stay strong so that we can respond and quickly bounce back from any crisis.

We cannot just depend on our security agencies in order to stay secure, because a terrorist attack can happen in the most unexpected places. Each of us has to play our part. What each of us does, can have a major effect in saving the lives of our loved ones, and our neighbours and friends. This morning, more than 100 residents, including 50 from our private estates, have stepped forward, after they were trained over the last weekend. More residents can join in to help Pasir Ris West and all of Singapore stay secure.

Using Technology in the fight against Terrorism – Launch of SMS-Based Public Alert System

The government is enhancing our security response against a terrorist attack. This morning, we have seen the Police Emergency Response Teams. They are our first responders. They are the ones who will be able to respond quickly to a terrorist attack. But even before they arrive, we must know what we need to do, to save ourselves and those around us.

We are also making use of technology. PM Lee launched the SGSecure app last month. This SGSecure app serves a number of functions.

First, the app allows us to easily report suspicious activities to the Police. We can just take a photo, describe what happened, and send.

Second, the app can help us by allowing us to receive alerts on what is happening in the location we happen to be in when an attack occurs. If you are not in that particular location, you can also receive an alert to know what is going on so that you can take the necessary actions to stay away from danger.

We want to thank Samsung for preloading the SGSecure app for its smartphones sold in Singapore, and we hope the other vendors and makers will come on board soon. For the other phones where the app is not preloaded, it is available for download at Apple App Store and Google Play. Do not wait for an attack to occur before downloading the SGSecure app. You should download it today.

We cannot just rely on a single channel of communication during an emergency. Not everyone may have downloaded the SGSecure app. Some might not have turned on the location function in the app to receive the location-based alerts. Some may not be familiar with apps, or have older 2G phones that do not support the app. We still want them to be able to receive alerts. We therefore need to have additional platforms to reach a wider group of people.

I am therefore pleased to announce the introduction of a new location-based SMS alert system. This new location-based SMS-based public alert system will allow the Police and the SCDF to send text-based localised SMS alerts to mobile phones in the vicinity of an attack.

This new SMS-based public alert system is an additional channel to reach out to the public to help warn residents about danger, and give them appropriate advice on how they can and should respond. One example was the SMS that Starhub sent to its subscribers in this vicinity this morning. The SMS invited them to come to our Emergency Preparedness exercise and also, not to be alarmed by the simulated terrorist attack that took place earlier.

I am glad that all our telcos are coming on board. Starhub is the first to have implemented this, and the other telcos will progressively have the new alert system. I encourage them to do so as quickly as possible. By end 2017, we will be able to send localised SMS alerts to all mobile phone subscribers in the vicinity of an attack or a major incident.

Just like we had thermometers during SARs as a symbol for protecting ourselves and the community, the N95 mask to protect ourselves and go on with our lives as normally as possible during the haze, the “Mozzie Wipeout” and mosquito repellent for dengue and Zika, your mobile phone with the SGSecure app and also the ability to receive location-based SMS alerts should become your must-have to help you to protect yourself and your loved ones in the event of a terrorist attack. Don’t wait till you are in the middle of a crisis or emergency to figure out how to use your handphone to receive alerts or advice. Download the SGSecure app now, get familiar with it and learn about the other information that is available in the app.

Conclusion

Let me conclude by thanking the People’s Association, all our volunteers, residents, and grassroots leaders who went through the various skills training modules and worked hard to put together this meaningful event this morning. I would also like to thank all participants from the Home Team for planning and executing this jointly with the PA.

Thank you all once again for coming this Saturday morning to prepare for emergencies and crises. Let us stay alert, stay united, and stay strong. Thank you very much.