In one contentious moment from the Parliamentary session on Tuesday (Aug 2), Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and Progress Singapore Party’s Leong Mun Wai argued about the facts concerning new citizens who enlist in National Service, which is mandatory for all Singaporean males.
Dr Ng said that Mr Leong had made “misleading statements” concerning national service for new citizens.
The NCMP had said that “citizens by registration are not doing national service” which the Defence Minister called both “inaccurate and misleading.”
Dr Ng clarified that 20 per cent of full-time NSmen enlistees yearly are new citizens or permanent residents and that PRs and new citizens make up a growing proportion of new enlistees over the years.
In comparison, in the early 2000s, only one in 20 of the new enlistees had been new citizens or PRs, adding “Without that extra inject of new citizens and PRs, our smaller birth cohorts would have impacted Singapore Armed Forces’ manpower needs more acutely.”
As for foreigners who come to Singapore later in life, who are in their 30s or 40s, they are exempt from NS because at that point they are too old to enlist for full-time service and had not enjoyed the country’s economic benefits in the way younger people had.
In a Facebook post on July 1, SAF Day, Mr Leong had written, “It is only fair that all permanent residents (PRs) who want to become citizens must do NS. They should serve the two years of full-time NS service and ten years of reservist service like male Singapore citizens.”
Arguing in his post that easier deferment should be given to talented Singaporeans, he added, “Is it fair that we forfeit our local talents their chances of developing their talents while many new male citizens do not need to do NS?”
The Defence Minister’s statement did not appear to satisfy Mr Leong, who claimed that Dr Ng had the number he had given “only forms a subset of the new citizens,’ and said that the minister was “running away from the debate.”
After saying that Mr Leong had again “twisted the facts” he had been given, Dr Ng repeated that on average, 3,400 new citizens serve or will serve NS yearly, like all male Singaporeans who fulfil their NS duties, a figure he had already provided to h Mr Leong last month.
But Mr Leong countered this with, “What is the number or the number of new citizens who have not performed NS?”
The Minister said that this question had already been replied to.
Deputy Speaker Jessica Tan then advised Mr Leong to file another Parliamentary Question if he has additional queries on the matter. /TISG