Singapore maintains an active conscription system in accordance with the regulations set by the Government of Singapore, known as National Service (NS).[1] This requires all qualified male Singaporean citizens and second-generation permanent residents to serve a period of active duty military service in the uniformed services.[2][dead link]
Conscription was first instituted in Singapore in 1967 to help build the country's armed forces having just gained its independence two years prior in 1965. The government's rationale was that a strong military is an indispensable guarantor of the country's continued sovereignty, and has since been expanded to involve its police force and civil defence force. Upon enlistment, male citizens and second-generation permanent residents serve two years in active duty as full-time national servicemen (NSFs) in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Singapore Police Force (SPF) or Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), following which they transit to an operationally-ready reservist state as operationally-ready national servicemen (NSmen).
The majority of NSFs serve in the Army. The reasons for this include the larger relative manpower needs of the Army compared to the country's Navy, Air Force, Digital and Intelligence Service, Police Force and Civil Defence Force. Moreover, as compared to the Army, the Air Force, Navy & Digital and Intelligence Service are smaller armed services composed primarily of professional regular servicemen. Additionally, manpower requirements of the Navy and Air Force tend to be more specialised. The statutory age cap for reservist obligations is 40 for warrant officers, specialists and enlistees, and 50 for commissioned officers.[3]
The National Service (Amendment) Bill was passed on 14 March 1967, making National Service (NS) compulsory for all 18-year-old male Singapore citizens and permanent residents. The Singapore government felt that it was necessary to build a substantial military force to defend the country, which had only about 1,000 soldiers when it became independent in 1965. In the late 1960s, the British government had decided to withdraw troops and bases East of Suez, including troops stationed in Singapore.
That prompted the Singapore government to implement a conscription programme for the country's defence needs. It adopted a conscription model drawing on elements from the Israeli and Swiss national conscription schemes. About 9,000 young men born between 1 January and 30 June 1949 became the first batch of enlistees to be drafted for national service. Singapore had sought assistance through official diplomacy from other countries, but their refusal to provide help prompted Israeli diplomats to extend a helping hand to Singapore in the establishment of the Singapore Armed Forces.[4]
The stated rationale behind conscription is two-fold. Firstly, because Singapore has a population of about 5.5 million (as of 2014), an army consisting of only regulars would not be sufficient to defend the country. Secondly, national service is supposed to promote racial harmony among the Chinese, Malay and Indian communities.
From 1971 to 2004, the duration of the conscription was either two years or two and half years, depending on the conscript's educational qualifications. By December 2004, the duration had been reduced to two years, driven by the evolution of the Singapore Armed Forces into the "Third Generation Singapore Armed Forces" and the increase in the number of enlistees over the next ten years.[5] As a bonus incentive, the national service duration can also be reduced by a further two months for combat-fit enlistees (PES A or B1) who pass the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) prior to enlistment.[6] Non-combat-fit enlistees (PES B2 and below) will still serve the full 24 months of national service.[7]
In 2022-23, the approximate headcount of Singapore Armed Forces personnel across 3 categories is as follows:
According to the Enlistment Act 1970, conscription is mandatory for all "persons subject to [the] act", defined as those who are not less than 16.5 years of age and not more than 40 years of age, with some exemptions and with no specific bias to gender (not limited to males).[10]
Male Singapore citizens and second-generation permanent residents who have registered for their National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) are required to register for national service upon reaching the age of 16 years and six months, during which they would also be required to undergo a mandatory medical examination to determine their Physical Employment Standards (PES) status, which in most cases, determines which vocational groups the pre-enlistee is physically able to be posted to.
There is a voluntary early enlist scheme by the Central Manpower Base (CMPB) for pre-enlistees who opt for early enlistment, with the consent of their parents, to begin their full-time national service at the earliest age of 16 years and six months.
Mono-intake refers to a type of enlistment where conscripts are directly enlisted into an active battalion unit and undergo their Basic Military Training (BMT) at Pulau Tekong, an island in eastern Singapore, before returning to their battalion. Exceptions to the mono-intake programme include conscripts enlisted in the Naval Diving Unit, Commandos and certain support vocations.[11]
Second-generation male permanent residents are required by law to serve national service just like male citizens. The rationale is that they too enjoy the socio-economic national benefits of schooling and living in "peacetime" Singapore.[12] Their failure to serve national service will be taken into account should they decide to study, work or travel in Singapore in the future. The government advises of such consequences at the point of renunciation.[13] After completing mandatory full-time national service, they can qualify to apply for the accelerated Singapore citizenship scheme. However, citizenship is not guaranteed for all applicants, as there are certain criteria that must be met such as educational qualification, income qualification and national service work performance/ conduct appraisal in the certificate issued upon the completion of full-time national service. From 2006 to 2010, about 2% of 3,000 second-generation permanent residents who have completed full-time national service and applied for Singapore citizenship had their applications rejected.[14]
If the person is not granted Singapore citizenship but still holds Singapore permanent residency, he is still obliged by law to serve the national service obligations, i.e. operationally-ready reservist duties/in-camp trainings.[15]
Singapore permanent residents who served national service but did not acquire Singapore citizenship will be treated equally to those permanent residents without service obligation; they would not have access to the privileges granted to Singapore citizens.
According to the Ministry of Defence, national service in Singapore is based on principles of universality and equity, and these principles must be upheld so as to ensure Singaporeans' important support of and commitment to national service. If Singapore citizens are allowed to choose when they want to serve national service, it would not be fair to the vast majority of national servicemen who have served the country dutifully, and the institutions of national service will be undermined.[16]
Pre-enlistees are allowed to defer national service to complete full-time tertiary studies as long as they are pursuing full-time studies and pursuing a course from what they have previously attained, up to the first pre-university qualification bar (GCE Advanced Level or Polytechnic Diploma or their equivalent) before enlistment for Basic Military Training (BMT). Deferment is not granted for all degree courses, even if they have already begun the course.[17]
Those granted approval in national sports teams to compete in national/overseas events will be drafted as soon as they return from one of the national-level events. As of July 2018, only three persons (Maximilian Soh, Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen) have been granted deferment.[18]
Under special circumstances, Singaporean males are allowed to disrupt their national service before the completion of their full-time national service if they fulfil one of the following conditions:[19]
Medical exemptions are granted through the Central Manpower Base (CMPB) medical screening, which assigns individuals a Physical Employment Standard (PES) grade.[21] In 2022, the National Service Review Committee (NSRC) revised the PES system. The classification shifted from a simple binary of combat fit or non-combat fit to a more nuanced assessment of an individual's "operational effectiveness."[22] Individuals can choose to turn down a medical exemption, and serve NS tailored to their condition.[23]
All female Singapore citizens and permanent residents are exempt from NS.[24] Male permanent residents under the "Professionals/Technical Personnel and Skilled Workers Scheme" (PTS scheme) or the "Investor Scheme" are exempt from NS.[24]
Singapore does not recognize conscientious objection to military service. Conscientious objectors in Singapore usually face an average of 30 months of imprisonment.[25][26] In its input to the OHCHR reports on conscientious objection to military service at HRC-50, Singapore confirmed that "HRC resolution 20/2 goes beyond what is prescribed in international law and applicable human rights instruments."[27]
Those who are liable to serve national service but refuse to do so are charged under the Enlistment Act.[28] If one is convicted, they may face up to either three years' imprisonment and/or a fine of S$10,000. Some national service pre-enlistees will be denied entry into the country if they are overseas while some pre-enlistees are court-martialled for their failure to enlist or refusal to be conscripted. Most convicts are Jehovah's Witnesses, who are usually sentenced to three years' imprisonment in the Singapore Armed Forces Detention Barracks, where they are also separated from other conscription offenders and assigned to do mundane tasks such as cooking.[29] The government currently does not consider conscientious objection to be a legal reason for refusal of national service.[30]
Similarly to enlistees failing to enlist, defaulters would be charged and faced with up to three years' imprisonment and/or a fine of up to S$10,000.[31]
In 2006, there was a public outcry over the "lenient" sentence which Singaporean-born British pianist Melvyn Tan received for defaulting on his national service obligations in the 1970s after obtaining British citizenship. Tan had received a composition fine while other defaulters had been given the maximum fines or imprisonment.[32][33] Clarity over how judges would sentence a defaulter was clearer in successive landmark cases. In 2010, Seow Wei Sin was initially given an 18-month prison sentence, which was lowered to a fine of S$5,000 on appeal after the courts had determined that Seow had little substantial connection to Singapore except being born there, and thus had a low culpability for committing the default.[32] In 2016, Brian Joseph Chow was initially handed a S$4,500 fine, which was set aside for one-and-a-half month prison sentence upon appeal.[32] Chow had a substantial connection to Singapore, having been born and raised here, thus the prison sentence instead of just a fine.[34] Additionally, by delaying national service obligations, it would violate "the principles of equity and universality and undermined the fair share agreement,”[32] under which all males had to serve at the same time. In Chow's case, Justice Chan Seng Onn listed the factors which would determine the sentence given:[32][34]
In 2017, the High Court set out new sentencing benchmarks for defaulters which had been described as "more onerous" than the guidelines laid down earlier by Justice Chan Seng Onn.[35] In a written judgment, the court said that the length of sentences should be amplified for those who have defaulted for a longer period of time, to "reflect the decline in a person's physical fitness with age" and also to create a "progressive disincentive" for defaulters to delay their return.[36]
There are four tiers of punishment, which vary in severity according to the length of default period:[36]
In 2018, Minister of Defence Ng Eng Hen revealed in a parliamentary speech that there was an average of 350 defaulters yearly.[37]