The Home Team Connection Seminar at the Temasek Club Auditorium

The Home Team Connection Seminar at the Temasek Club Auditorium - Opening Remarks By Assoc Prof Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, 5 February 2005

Members of Councils, Boards and Committees
GPC Colleagues
Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning

Welcome to this year's Home Team Connection Seminar. This annual Home Team Connection Seminar is an opportunity for us to share with you, our strategic partners, key developments within the Home Team and the challenges that confront us. These annual Seminars, into its sixth year now, also create another invaluable opportunity for us to have a dialogue with you, to hear your views and feedback on how we have performed and where we can do better. Our focus this year is on terrorism because it is the most serious challenge that confronts the Home Team today and in the foreseeable future.

Fighting the Terrorist Threat

2. The threat of terrorism is not new. Many of you here would recall that between 1968 and 1974, the Malaysian National Liberation Front was chiefly responsible for communist terrorist acts in Singapore, including planting booby-trap bombs in public places. What has changed however, since the Sep 11 attacks, is the unprecedented scale of terrorist attacks in today's world. What has become even more worrisome, as some experts, like Dr Rohan Gunaratna, have warned, is that the terrorist group Al Qaeda has mutated into a movementof loosely affiliated network of local militants.

3. The war on terrorism remains a challenging one. The bomb blast outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in Sep 2004 and the subsequent threat of possible terrorist bombings in Indonesia over the December-January period, also show that the Jemaah Islamiyah retains the operational capability to strike. The threat of terrorism will continue to loom large over this region and the rest of the world.

4. Singapore remains a target of regional terrorist groups because of the prominent role we are playing in the fight against terrorism. It is thus imperative that we operate on a high level of security alert. For instance, we have implemented numerous measures aimed at making Singapore a hard target. Some of these measures are more visible and they are also intended to foster greater public awareness and involvement in security.

5. A good example is the deployment, since last Nov, of armed officers from the Special Operations Command of the Singapore Police Force at commercial, entertainment and residential areas in Singapore. You may have seen them. This stronger Police presence on the ground seeks to reassure Singaporeans that we have the necessary resources to handle any terrorist attack.

Community Involvement in Emergency Preparedness

6. The Government alone cannot deter and prevent a terrorist attack on Singapore soil. Everyone must play a part if we are to counter a terrorist attack and to recover from the aftermath should such an attack occur. Singaporeans today are generally aware of the need to be alert and to report suspicious behaviourand characters.

7. However, over time, Singaporeans may become sceptical of pronouncements of terrorist threats, or may succumb to 'alert fatigue' as they get bombarded repeatedly by threat alerts. When this happens, it is human nature to let our guard down.

Knowledge is Key

8. There are a couple of good ways to ensure that Singaporeans keep up the vigilance. One way is to encourage Singaporeans to continually keep themselves abreast of developments in the world and the region. The basic thing to do to prepare for anything is to have knowledge. Knowledge empowers by enabling us to know what is happening, what to expect, and most critically, what todo in a situation.

9. The Home Team places a high priority on educating Home Team officers on the threat of terrorism and the modus operandi used by terrorist groups. For instance, last month, Dr Bruce Hoffman, an internationally recognised expert on terrorism from the US think tank, RAND, conducted a training for our middle-level senior officers. And we will continue to keep up the skills training and knowledge building of Home Team officers. For today, we have asked Dr Rohan Gunaratna, another internationally recognised expert on terrorism who needs little introduction, to share with you, his expert opinion on terrorism. We have also arranged to update you on the terrorist threat.

10. We hope that this knowledge will set the larger context against which your valuable input to the various Councils, Boards and Committees on which you sit count.

Being Prepared as a Way of Life

11. A second way is to help Singaporeans consider vigilance as a way of life. Keeping a lookout for anything suspicious and reporting it, is not very different from what most Singaporeans already do in crime prevention. Most Singaporeans treat crime prevention as part and parcel of life. They take care not to leave valuables unattended or exposed in parked cars. They also report suspicious characters and activities. This vigilance against crime can easily be extendedto terrorism.

12. More than keeping a regular watch on anything suspicious, Singaporeans can also take simple steps to prepare themselves for emergencies in general. For instance, Singaporeans can think about what they would need in an emergency situation and gather the items needed so that if an emergency occurs, they would be ready for it. This is a specific area that we hope to tap you for feedback.

Get Ready, Be Ready, Stay Ready

13. At the Home Team Workshop two days ago, we asked our Home Team officers to think about whether they as members of their own households would pack their own emergency bags, or their READY bags as we would like to call them. We ask the same of you, so that by starting to think about preparedness,we can all Get Ready.

14. The READY Bag contains essential items like a radio, torchlight and first-aid items, which could come in handy in an emergency. The messages in the READY Bag are simple and commonsensical. For instance, we have a radio-cum-torchlight and the message on it is, 'Stay in, Tune in'. In an emergency, the most important thing is not to panic. Instead, tune in to the radio because critical information would be broadcast over the radio.

15. However, the READY Bag will certainly not help in every emergency. This is especially the case if the emergency is a disaster which causes sudden and large-scale destruction. Nevertheless , encouraging Singaporeans to pack their own READY Bags could spur them on to start thinking of how they will react in an emergency, and hopefully begin to prepare for this possibility. As members of your own households, we hope that you will give us your feedback on the READY Bag.

Moving Ahead

16. As we gaze into the future, one thing is definite. There are many uncertainties and challenges which can overwhelm us. This is part of life. Nobody had expected the tsunami that so savagely wrecked the lives of thousands on Boxing Day. But this should not stop us from preparing for various possibilities. For to do nothing is to take a defeatist approach to life. We certainly can arm and prepare ourselves by learning and knowing what to expect and how to react.We can also encourage those around us to do the same.

17. I hope that you will have a very fruitful time this morning. I wish you a pleasant day. By the next Home Team Connection Seminar, I hope you can share with us how you prepared your own READY Bags and Get Ready, Be Ready, Stay Ready.

Thank you and a Happy New Year.