Singapore National Security
Singaporean preparedness
THE TOTAL DEFENCE CONCEPT, the cornerstone of
Singapore's
national security policy in 1989, called for the
deterrence of
aggression through the maintenance of a small but
well-trained and
well-equipped military backed by a committed population
proficient
in civil defense. During the late 1960s and early 1970s,
the
Singapore government under Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
laid the
foundation for a national security system based on total
preparedness, which involved more than 10 percent of the
adult
population in some type of national service. After 1967
all males
were required to register for two years national service
at age
sixteen. By 1989 almost all males under the age of fifty
had
received military training in the armed forces, or
training in the
police force or in a public service related to civil
defense.
Singapore's national security perceptions under Lee
were
influenced by the country's size and geographic location
and by
changes in the regional military balance. The nation's
military
planners acknowledged that if it were attacked by a larger
power,
Singapore could not defend itself with its own resources
for more
than a few weeks. However, they believed that the total
preparedness for war of the country's military and
civilian
populace would deter potential adversaries from regarding
Singapore
as an easy target for aggression. Singapore's foreign
policies were
carefully planned to accommodate national security
considerations.
In 1989, for example, Lee stated that Singapore would
consider
normalizing its relations with China only after Indonesia
had
completed its plan to do the same. This position was
consistent
with Singapore's national security policy of deferring to
the
foreign policy concerns of its larger neighbors. After the
Republic
of Vietnam (South Vietnam) fell to communist forces in
1975,
Singapore viewed the growth of communist influence in the
region,
and the reduced American military presence in Southeast
Asia, as a
potential threat to its national security. Singapore's
leaders
feared that a militaristic Vietnam, supported by the
Soviet Union,
would promote communist movements in Thailand, Malaysia,
and
Singapore. Throughout the 1980s, the Lee government
supported the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(
ASEAN--see Glossary) in
opposing Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia; the government
also
promoted the improvement of bilateral military cooperation
with its
ASEAN partners as part of its national security strategy.
In 1989
Singapore was continuing to strengthen its military
relations with
its neighbors, although the threat of Soviet and
Vietnamesesupported aggression against any one of the six ASEAN
members
appeared on the decline
(see Foreign Policy
, ch. 4).
From 1965 to 1989, subversive groups posed no threat to
Singapore's political system, and there was no recurrence
of the
ethnic and communist-inspired riots of the 1950s and early
1960s.
British statutes that had allowed the indefinite
incarceration of
persons accused of advocating the violent overthrow of the
government were still in force in 1989 under the Internal
Security
Act of 1960. Although the government continued to use this
statute
to discourage radical political movements, by the late
1980s it had
established a policy of releasing most persons detained
under the
Internal Security Act within a few months of their arrest
unless
they were referred to the court for trial.
In the 1970s, while the numbers for most types of crime
remained relatively stable, there was an increase in crime
related
to the sale and use of illegal drugs. Although drugs
continued to
be a factor in crime in 1989, the occasional use of
capital
punishment for drug trafficking and the introduction of
new law
enforcement and rehabilitation programs for addicts
reportedly were
proving effective in controlling the problem.
The Civil Defence Act of 1986 defined the mission and
responsibilities of the Civil Defence Force, which had
been
established in 1982. By the early 1980s, the armed
services had a
surplus of conscripts, and the government decided to
expand the
national service system to include civil defense
organizations. By
1989 Singapore had ten operational civil defense divisions
and had
organized civil defense programs in each of the country's
fiftyfive legislative districts.
Data as of December 1989
|