Quora Answer: Is National Service Still Relevant in Singapore Now?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is national service still relevant in Singapore now?  Who would want to invade Singapore?  People sign on for stability and money than purpose.”

As long as we value or sovereignty, National Service will always be relevant.  Aside from all the answers about the sociopolitical and military impact, National Service also serves the role of national education for every generation of young Singaporean males.  Here is a place where we are forced to work together to achieve tangible goals at every stage, regardless of race, religion and socioeconomic background.

By bringing people back for reservist, besides the military advantages of practiced mobilisation and combat currency, it reinforces the lessons of nation building and societal cohesion that we may forget, especially those of us who have spent time overseas.  It reinforces the lesson that we should never be complacent and take what we have built and achieved for granted.

I am from the generation that grew up when Singapore was still a developing nation, having been born in the 70s.  The generation before us came from the ashes of World War II, lived through the uncertainty of Separation and the crucible of the Communist insurgency and Konfrontasi.  Like every civilisation that came before, the generation that comes after took for granted what the generation built before.  I can understand that National Service is one of the edifices of nation building that we have to keep those lessons fresh.

Malaysia and Indonesia are our immediate neighbours.  That does not mean they are our friends.  They are uneasy allies at best, and even then, we are stretching it.  Every so often, there is a politician trying to test our mettle.  Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie called us a little red dot; Hishammuddin bin Hussein said they should invade us and teach us a lesson.  And this is while we have the strongest military in Southeast Asia.  If these countries have even an inkling that we have less than the stern resolve to face their threats, that is the beginning of the end of Singapore.