Chapter 4 - Defending an Island State

Summary

Not everybody is well disposed towards the Republic; indeed, from time to time we have come across clear evidence of malice and hostility. And so, as the saying goes, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

— Goh Keng Swee (Speech at Commissioning Ceremony of SAF officers at the Istana, 26 Aug 1974)

Perhaps because of the sensitive nature of the subject, there is a relative shortage of revealing articles by Goh on national defence. However, the few texts chosen for analysis in this chapter are substantive enough to divulge some basic ideas that Goh entertained about defence. Indeed, they do more than that, showing as they do, that economics and defence were inseparable for him.

The first time Goh became Minister of Defence was on Independence Day, 9 August 1965 when Singapore suddenly became a country without a defence to call its own. He immediately began the first stage in the building of Singapore's defence capacity.

Interestingly, the possibility of a British pullout from Singapore was already being considered from the very beginning. On 2 September, Goh declared in Kuala Lumpur — with some show of tactical bravado, one might assume — that Singapore would simply put up “international tenders” if the British should choose to leave. Although he claimed that there were at least four countries willing to respond to such a tender, he did not name them. The suggestion he did make at the same time, that the British should take the initiative in the wake of Singapore's separation from Malaysia to negotiate a new defence treaty with Singapore, supports the idea that he was in fact putting public pressure on the British to do more where the defence of the island was concerned (ST 3 Sept 1965).

News reports in September 1965 show that Singapore's defence at that time consisted of two badly equipped army camps, which Goh proposed to upgrade as soon as possible (ST 15 Sept 1965). By the end of the year, the Army Bill was passed by parliament for the establishment not only of a full-time armed force but also of a part-time People's Defence Force. Singaporeans of both sexes, and all who were medically fit would serve in this unit, but without their training seriously affecting their normal lives.