Home Team colleagues and partners

Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning.

Home Team Fundamentals

The future for the Home Team is challenging. As we face a more complex and demanding operating reality, the Home Team will have to be even more clear-sighted about its core competencies and mission. In the face of change and competing interests, we must not lose sight of our basics and fundamentals. Let me cite a few examples last year to help illustrate this point.
2. Prior to Aug 2006, Subutex was allowed as a medical substitution treatment for opiate-dependent heroin abusers. However, drug addicts were found abusing Subutex which they had obtained legally by mixing it with other drugs and injecting the cocktail into their body. Working with MOH, we took decisive steps to implement measures to curb the abuse.

3. In Aug 2006, buprenorphine, the active ingredient in Subutex, was made a Class A Controlled Drug under the First Schedule of the Misuse of Drugs Act. In doing so, the Central Narcotics Bureau was empowered to arrest any person who illegally consumed, possessed, imported or distributed Subutex. However this was not enough. We also needed to disband the medical substitution regime and re-affirm our tough zero tolerance philosophy against drug abuse.

4. In a few short months, the Subutex problem has been arrested. The subutex episode is a lesson that we should not forget. We must stay firm and committed to the basics of our successful anti-drug philosophy. There is no room to go soft on drugs. There is no tolerance for acceptance of so-called 'soft' drugs. Drug abuse is drug abuse and CNB must ensure that it stays on top of the situation at all times. Once we slip, it is going to be an uphill task to recover.

5. A second example is that of our border traffic management. Public pressure against congestion at the checkpoints had been growing. The ICA has taken many measures to manage the problem. Better use of technology; recruitment and training of more ICA officers; coordination with the Police for traffic management to avoid bad motoring aggravating congestion. But what the ICA must not do is to lower the levels of security checks and vigilance.

6. If ICA officers are not clear of their core function, they would be easily demoralised and lose sight of the critical role they play in the security of Singapore.

7. In anticipation of the expected peak travel between Christmas last year and the New Year, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority re-deployed its manpower at the land checkpoints and issued early travel advisories to the public. The anticipated congestion did not disappear completely. Nevertheless, the congestion was manageable and more travellers were mentally prepared for the anticipated congestion.

8. Increasing and competing demands on the Police also means that it must be clear on its core functions. The Police is re-looking at some of such functions or tasks which are outside its core competencies and functions of fighting crime and ensuring security. It is critical that the SPF reviews its work because security needs will continue to grow and the Police needs to channel its energies to the areas of its core competencies rather than be distracted by non-police duties.

9. Some time last year, the Police Licensing Division, which is responsible for regulating all forms of public entertainment, was caught in a situation where it had to determine the technical safety standard of an entertainment equipment. The SPF has no expertise in this area. Determining technical safety standards is not the SPF's core function. Neither has it the expertise to do so. Eventually, the operator of the entertainment equipment agreed as a condition to the licence to engage technical experts to inspect and certify the safety of the equipment.

10. One of the fundamentals in our success against crime and drugs has been the trusted partnership the Home Team has with the public and private sector. This is something we must never lose. In fact, given the threat of terrorism today, this is all the more important.

Deepening Community Competencies to Complement Home Team Efforts

11. Although the Home Team's pursuit of professional excellence is a continuous process, we must continue to improve on it. We should double our efforts on enhancing the readiness of our public and private sector. Community-based programmes like the Ready Bag and constituency level emergency planning exercises already exist. But we need to push and make them more robust and to deepen the level of competencies at the community level.

12. This is going to be a long term effort but a critical one. All Singaporeans must be a stake-holder in the security of Singapore. Only in this way, that we will make Singapore a hard and resilient target.

13. In Feb 2006, the Prime Minister launched the Community Engagement Programme (or CEP). The CEP is aimed at developing networks of trust across communities and sectors so that we will be resilient against the trauma of any terrorist incident.

14. One way which the Home Team intend to engage people and expand the cooperative relations and contacts is getting the public to be involved in emergency preparedness programmes at the constituency level. When people train together to work against a common threat, they will become more familiar with one another, and understand the needs and requirements of a crisis situation. They will also become more familiar with one another. Such relations can form the building blocks of security-oriented networks within the community.

15. In 2007, the Home Team therefore will invest more resources to engage and facilitate the training, exercise and development of emergency preparedness of our communities on the ground. The Police and SCDF must gear themselves to undertake more of such activities. The Home Team Academy is preparing resource and training packages to support CEP practitioners both from other ministries as well as from grassroots and community groups.

16. On their part, the Home Team Sectors have been working hard at operations terrain mapping, and that is, to deepen understanding and knowledge of their operational areas, and to engage the human geography within their sectors. Close mapping and engagement of key stakeholders and operators in the terrain will help the respective Sectors and Home Team Departments to have a better understanding of the terrain vulnerabilities, for example, where the hazard points are. This will help the ground officers appreciate more keenly the vulnerable areas and then to make more informed decisions. What we want to get out of this is not only a more textured knowledge of the complexity of the ground, but also greater practical capacities and more targeted strategies for engagement and intervention. The Sectors have also done well to apply the knowledge gleaned from the terrain mapping in their sector projects last year.

17. I commend the efforts of the various HomeTeam sectors. The quality of the work done in this year's projects is impressive and I am confident their value will continue to manifest long after this Home Team Workshop.

Conclusion

18. The threat of terrorism is not going to disappear any time soon. Our security measures have kept terrorists at bay so far. How long more we can continue to keep terrorists away depends very much on the strength of the partnership between the Government and the community and on preparedness.

19. In a globalised world where the borders of culture and values are porous, the demands of the public on the Home Team will be diverse and difficult. The Home Team will need to stay focused on its mission and grow its core competencies. And among its most basic competencies which have served it well over the years is its knowledge and understanding of the communities on the ground and the strong cooperative relationship of trust and respect it enjoys with its people.

20. Finally, let me thank all Home Team officers for the good work to keep Singapore safe and secure.

Thank you

Please also see:

back to top