SM Lee Hsien Loong at SAF Day Dinner 2024

Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen,
CDF, Vice Admiral Aaron Beng,
Distinguished Guests,
Men and women of the SAF,
Ladies and gentlemen,

A very good evening to all of you,

I thank MINDEF and the SAF for inviting me to join you on this wonderful evening. I am very glad to be back in SAFTI MI today, celebrating the SAF Day Dinner with all of you. I am very happy to see so many familiar faces, including old comrades now quite long retired, who served with me many years ago. I also thank the SAF for doing me a great honour tonight. I am very moved by the video you made, and the remarks which the Defence Minister generously delivered earlier. It is more than I deserve.

Growing the SAF through the decades

The SAF story parallels the Singapore story. When Singapore found itself an independent nation on 9th August 1965, it started off with very little. The SAF too started off with precious little. Just two infantry battalions, two wooden boats, and no air force. Konfrontasi was still ongoing, relations with Malaysia and Indonesia were difficult. The continued presence of British forces in Singapore, securing our safety, was uncertain, with London under fiscal pressure to withdraw from east of Suez.

There was therefore great urgency to build up the SAF to defend ourselves in a dangerous world. Our founding leaders moved quickly. They introduced National Service. We created new SAF formations – artillery, armour, engineers, signals, logistics. Roughly in alphabetical order, but starting with artillery. We created and built up the Air Force and Navy. We procured new (actually often second-hand) equipment, and trained our troops to operate them. We developed the command structures and operational concepts to employ the new units. Progressively, we learnt to operate and fight as a combined armed force, and then as one integrated, tri-service force. Year after year, as Singapore developed and prospered, we allocated a steady budget for defence. Year after year, we modernised our forces, upgraded our capabilities, and strengthened the long-term security of Singapore.

Today, Singapore is a successful, developed nation, and the SAF is a professional, credible, and respected force. The 3G SAF is a reality. We have created a fourth Service – the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) – our guardians in the digital domain. But the work of building Singapore and upgrading the SAF never ceases. Singapore is moving ahead with the Forward SG agenda, and the SAF is transforming itself again into the Next Generation SAF, operationally ready to handle all sorts of new threats.

Achieving mission success

For almost 60 years, Singapore has enjoyed peace and security. And one major contributing factor has been the existence and readiness of the SAF. As a result, the SAF has never had to fight a war to defend our homeland. It is a great blessing and long may this continue.

But the price of peace is eternal vigilance. Our servicemen are on guard 24/7 – in the air, on land, at sea, and in the digital domain. During these decades, whenever we have needed the SAF, it has always been there, and it has always delivered.

The SAF has conducted deterrence patrols, counter-terrorism operations, and security deployments for extraordinary events, like the Trump-Kim Summit a few years ago. Regularly, we conduct recall and mobilisation exercises, for men as well as equipment. Occasionally, we have had to raise our alert status, sometimes overtly, sometimes quietly, perhaps in response to some exigency or to quietly signal our resolve.

The SAF has also proved its mettle in overseas operations. It has participated in UN peacekeeping operations, including in Timor Leste. It has joined international missions to counter terrorism and piracy. For example, on anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden, and the multinational stabilisation and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

Besides carrying out operations, the SAF also participates in combined exercises with regional and international partners. Our units go through their paces, flying our flag high, and quietly showing our partners that we know our stuff, and deserve to be taken seriously.

The SAF has also mounted swift and effective responses to regional and international humanitarian crises and disasters. When the Boxing Day tsunami struck in 2004, the SAF launched our first transports just 48 hours later, delivering much needed relief supplies to Banda Aceh, Meulaboh, and other affected areas. When an earthquake hit Christchurch in 2011, a Guards contingent that happened to be there on exercise, including full-time National Servicemen, quickly joined the quake relief efforts. And in March this year, the SAF conducted airdrop operations over Gaza, to provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to the civilian population there.

In national emergencies too, such as SARS in 2003, and more recently COVID-19, the SAF stepped up to and contributed greatly to the fight against the novel pathogens.

Each time, whatever the mission, the SAF was ready, our units and servicemen have shown what they could do, and they did the SAF and Singapore proud. Very few other organisations in Singapore have the capability, readiness, and resourcefulness to respond to any situation at short notice, and to make things happen, like the SAF. And so it gives great reassurance and confidence to the government and to Singaporeans that we have the SAF at the nation’s disposal, ready to respond whenever the need arises.

The SAF experience

It has been my privilege to have served for many years in uniform, before entering politics. Like many other Singaporeans, I started out as a full-time National Serviceman, I was a recruit in 2 SIR, then at Holland Road Camp. Later, I took up an SAF Scholarship, and signed on as a Regular. In those days, we were permanent regulars, that means you served until retirement. Later, I had the great privilege of commanding troops – platoons, batteries, and later a battalion. I served in the General Staff, and helped to set up the first Joint Staff elements, which set the SAF on the path to becoming a tri-service force. It was an immensely fulfilling experience. To train and motivate my men, and make the units operationally ready. To help work out the SAF’s capabilities, concepts, and force structures. To help plan and shape the development and future of the SAF. I left the SAF a long time ago, but others took over the baton, and have taken the SAF so much further forward over the past 40 years. Incidentally, SAFTI MI – where we are today – holds special meaning for me. When I was an officer cadet in 1971, OCS and SAFTI were in Pasir Laba Camp, across the road. Only many years later, in 1987, did we decide to build this SAFTI campus. As then Second Minister for Defence, I was involved in that decision, and had the privilege of making the announcement at the SAFTI Commissioning Parade Dinner! I was very happy, and I am very happy that SAFTI MI continues to fulfil its mission, training generations of officers, specialists and military experts from all Services, and at all levels of leadership.

Personally, I have benefitted enormously from my time in the SAF. Getting to know and understand fellow servicemen from all walks of life. Learning how to work as a team, how to lead and take care of men. Taking on command responsibility. These lessons proved invaluable in government, and have lasted me a lifetime.

Also lifelong are the friendships and bonds formed with those who have served alongside me. Including those who spoke so generously and warmly in the video just now – LG Winston Choo, COL Chan Jwee Kay, LTC Mukhtiar Singh, MWO Lim Puay Sia. They and many others have guided me, mentored me, supported me, put me right when necessary, became good friends and lifelong comrades, and I am eternally grateful. It is always heartwarming to run into an old comrade, or to have someone come up to me and say “Sir, I was your soldier in such and such unit and such and such camp, the camp is no more but I am still here”, or to say, “we served in the same camp, in the 1970s, I was not in your unit but we were in the same camp together, I knew you”. It means he is proud of his service in the SAF, he is proud to have known me and served with me, and we share something intangible and powerful that will always bind us together. And I am proud of the SAF and I am proud of our comradeship too. Our minds go back through the years, and conjure up the training exercises we went through, the difficulties and disappointments we overcame, the achievements and successes that we still feel proud of.

Mine is not a singular experience – it is something precious that all of us who have served in uniform have experienced and treasured. This camaraderie and pride is the reason NS is so important to our identity and social cohesion as Singaporeans. It is also why generations of Singaporeans have supported their sons to serve in their turn, and to play their part to defend our nation. It makes the SAF a national institution that Singaporeans identify with wholeheartedly.

The SAF must always retain the trust and support of Singaporeans. It is a heavy commitment, to fulfil your National Service duty – two years full-time, and for many years after that as Operationally Ready NSmen. For their part, the Government will always ensure that our personnel are well-equipped, well-trained, and well-led; the SAF will see to it that they are kept safe and have a positive NS experience; and Singaporeans will take pride in our servicemen, and give you full moral and practical support. We are with you all the way!

We could not have built a strong SAF without the hard work and sacrifices of our servicemen, and the strong backing of their families and of Singaporeans in general. And without a strong SAF, Singapore would not have experienced the peace and progress that we have had for almost six decades now, nor enjoyed such stable and friendly relations with our neighbours. We are friends because we respect each other, and have a healthy regard for each other. That is why, every year on SAF Day, we remember and honour all those who have contributed and sacrificed to build up and to serve the SAF, so that Singapore could get here today. To all our servicemen and women past and present, I say: a very big Thank you very much!

Conclusion

Looking ahead, we see an increasingly turbulent and dangerous world. 60 years ago, we could not have predicted that we would enjoy so many years of peace and security. This happy outcome owes not a little to the SAF and our Total Defence. But it was also our good fortune that the broader Asia Pacific region was stable, and the strategic situation enabled a small, vulnerable country to survive and thrive through its own efforts.

Today, we certainly cannot confidently predict another 60 years as peaceful as the last 60. Nor can we assume that events will turn out as favourably and peacefully as they did the last time. While we hope for the best, we must prepare for the worst. We must never let ourselves be lulled into complacency or caught by surprise. We must continue to stand up for ourselves, to keep our defences strong and ready, and to work with friendly neighbours on regional security. That demands a credible SAF that is respected both overseas and domestically, and enjoys strong support from the population that it is defending.

Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and guardians of the SAF, The SAF Pledge says – “we will protect the honour and independence of our nation – with our lives”. For nearly 60 years, the SAF has lived by that Pledge. Singaporeans can sleep peacefully at night, because the men and women of the SAF are there – quietly watching, always alert. Now, more than ever, the SAF needs to remain combat-ready. We count on all of you, and the generations of servicemen and women yet to come, to continue upholding this sacred task of defending the nation which we call home.

On this note, I wish you all a very happy SAF Day. Majulah Singapura!