My Pre-NS Sharing Message (for this year) to tertiary students on why we need Singaporean soldiers, and the important role they play in NS. This year I start with a different approach to touch on the complexity of diplomacy and how it affects us in daily life (specifically in our education) in lay mens terms. #NationalEducation #NS #TalkSpeechScripts #5MinutesChopChop ---Start--- In the service we learnt from reading historical case studies of how Thailand basically left the door open to the rest of Southeast Asia when they let the Japanese stroll through to invade Malaya, and remained open as a path for supply lines for the Occupation Forces. The Death Railway in the history textbooks would also not have been possible without Thailands involvement. So why was it that our school history text books not emphasize the extent of Thailands significant role in the Japanese Occupation? Because Thailand are our allies now and we want to respect them for who they are now, not what they did in the past. What is done is done, we dont want to rub it in. Their actions of inaction, were clearly of more benefit to the Occupying Forces and not so much the resistance and Allied Forces. That showed us that in practical terms there is no such thing as neutrality in war, inaction is just a silent way of siding with the aggressor by not defending the victims. Yet Thailand quietly avoided guilt for their contribution to the occupation and we see the Japanese take public PR beating. I appreciate the militarys support in joint exercises and defence alliance, and the individual Thai officers that have apologised for their countrys involvement in the occupation and how they are visibly committed to their security alliance with Singapore now. However we can never take for granted or be complacent that history would not repeat itself if there were to be another attack against peninsular Southeast Asia. Though we might think that war is unlikely, we need to always be ready to defend ourselves against all invaders because we never know what our will happen, remember our allies have a priority to protect their own people too. That is why if you watch parliament and annual budget on TV you will notice that Defence always has one of the largest annual budgets. We dont necessarily spend it all, but we know it is there when we need it to mobilise. To keep our mobilisation systems well oiled, we deploy our troops to help others in need of aid during our peace time. This builds bridges with allies and is our way of paying it forward to other countries in need of humanitarian aid. Military Security is a serious matter that concerns all of us. We must trust our own soldiers and give them the best tools, training and support, because in times of need they are the only ones we can confirm trust on to defend Singapore from foreign military invasion. While the soldiers are the frontline keeping the enemy out, the police and civil defence are going to be the front line keeping people safe and calm day to day in the country. The HOME Team are doing this every day, regardless whether in peace time and war time. You are soon going to join the ranks of those soldiers, policemen and civil defencemen, it is you that we will trust with our lives. Ooha! Majulah Singapura! ---End---
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 04:55:34 +0000
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