SINGAPORE: Madam Ho Ching defended the country’s defence spending in a Facebook post on Thursday (Mar 21). “To keep peace, prepare for war,” wrote the former CEO of Temasek Holdings and wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
To give context to Mdm Ho’s post, she shared a YouTube video from The Wall Street Journal titled, “This Tiny Island Is the Most Densely Defended Country in the World.” Posted on Mar 19, it has since reached more than 900,000 views.
The video, which takes a look into the high priority Singapore places on defence, notes that in spite of its current peaceful situation, the country has one of the highest per capita defence budgets in the world. It quotes founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew as having famously said that Singapore would have to “become a poisonous shrimp” in order to survive as a small country amid larger ones.
The WSJ video also features a clip of Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen saying, “I’ve reversed my assessment for today’s generation for Singapore and elsewhere. The risk of regional and even global conflict, even in the next decade, has become non-zero.”
This year, MINDEF’s budget is projected to be $20.2 billion, an increase of 2.5 per cent from 2023.
The video also noted that more F-35 jets have been ordered and that the number of submarines has increased as well. With a total of eight, Singapore will have more submarines than Malaysia and Indonesia combined.
In sharing the video, Mdm Ho wrote, “In peace, think of danger(s) and prepare for them. Being prepared for war reduces the risk of war thrust upon us.”
And while she warned against those who would “start conflicts or wars for this or that cause,” Mdm Ho wrote that “we must preserve our ability and capacity to act decisively when others choose to threaten us.”
Similarly, she added that while peace must be sought and spread, at the same time “keep our sword sharpen(ed) and ready at all times.”
Mdm Ho ended her post with, “Peace be with all of us.”
The post from PM Lee’s wife appears to have struck a chord with many Singaporeans, who are fully in favor of the country’s high budget for national defence, based on the comments they dropped.
Some noted that Mdm Ho’s sentiment is an age-old one. As the Latin adage goes, “Si vis pacem, para bellum,” which translates to “If you want peace, prepare for war.” /TISG
Read also: Ho Ching: Remain prudent in guarding our past reserves; let us try to spend within our earnings