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Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen on S'pore's place in the world, SAF's evolution and 24 years in politics
“Basically, when you are presented with a problem, you ask: What is the root cause?” he said. “Rather than trying to get at the symptoms, what is the core diagnosis?”
Dr Ng had been asked how Singapore can stay secure and relevant in a more uncertain world. The answer always has to come from asking itself what its place in geography and history is, he said.
“Some people wish the world to be friendlier, protect small countries, to find space for all countries, but that is not the reality,” the 66-year-old said in his farewell interview with local media at the Ministry of Defence on May 13.
“For Singapore, I would say the starting point is we take the world as it is – not as we wish it to be, no matter how much we wish it to be,” added Dr Ng, who has helmed the defence portfolio since 2011 and was first elected as an MP in 2001.
Singapore’s strategy, he said, has been to make itself useful to neighbours, major powers and middle powers alike, through a mix of defence cooperation and dialogue facilitation, and by being a trusted interlocutor.
He pointed to Singapore’s longstanding defence ties with the United States, which allow American forces access to Singapore’s air and naval bases.
As a facilitator, it does not see itself as mediator or broker, but has been able to provide neutral ground for landmark meetings, such as the Trump-Kim summit in 2018 between the US and North Korean leaders, and the Xi-Ma summit in 2015 between the leaders of China and Taiwan.
And by going beyond scripted lines in meetings with his counterparts – while being sensitive and respectful – this has helped Singapore build its credibility and expand its diplomatic space, he added.
The point is for others to make time for Singapore and to find its views valuable – “our equivalent of soft power”, said Dr Ng.
This is especially salient today, given the upending of global rules. Dr Ng likened trade-dependent Singapore to a shop in an MRT station – there is a living to be made if the trains keep running, but trouble once the frequency slows or stops.
“Once people decide that they are going to divert, use other tracks or bypass the station, or are not allowed to stop at your station or are rerouted elsewhere, it is beyond your limited agency, and you have to make do,” he said.
The question is whether Singapore can get other countries to listen. “If we can’t, then we will have to live with the consequences. It will be a game of catch-up, and a very difficult game.”
Adapting the SAF
Dr Ng oversaw a major transformation of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), rolling out long-term plans to modernise the military and strengthening its ability to meet evolving security threats facing Singapore.
For instance, he led the establishment of the Digital and Intelligence Service in 2022 to defend Singapore’s digital domain against cyber attacks, while accelerating digitalisation efforts across the military.
These restructurings were undertaken after Dr Ng realised, from his interactions with other leaders, that the nature of warfare had changed.
Military campaigns such as that in Ukraine showed how much drone warfare had come to the fore, while information warfare meant the line between war and peace had become blurred.
For instance, enemies of today will try to infiltrate a country’s cyber systems, disable civilian infrastructure, target elections and attempt to undermine social cohesion, and the country is nominally still at peace.
“Now, whose job is it during times of peace (and) between the hard stop between peace and war?” Dr Ng asked.
“The danger was for the SAF to say, ‘Well, this is somebody else’s job, and I will only be called if there is outright declaration of aggression’.”
The rest of the country, too, needed to be aware of the growing importance of cyber security, and to have “a core of resilience and self-help”, he added.
Under his watch, Singapore’s concept of Total Defence was broadened to include more civilian agencies in national crisis planning. In 2019, Mindef added digital defence as the sixth pillar of Total Defence, the first update to the framework since it was launched in 1984.
Dr Ng credited the SAF’s adaptability to its strong fundamentals and leadership, which gave him the “luxury to scenario-plan... to sometimes pontificate, sometimes deal with counterfactuals”.
“All I had to do was point out that, look, these assumptions, we have to take them seriously, and we have to restructure to meet future needs.”
Unplanned journey into politics
Dr Ng’s entry into politics was, by his own admission, unplanned. A cancer surgeon by training, he had spent two decades in public hospitals and four years building a private practice when he was approached to run for office in 2001.
He said yes as he felt that he would be able to balance being a breast cancer surgeon with being a backbencher, but after the election, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong asked him to join the Government.
“Put yourself in my shoes: You had just been training all your waking hours as a surgeon, you had been sent by the Government to top cancer centres... you are trying to come back and practise those standards, and then almost out of the blue, you are given the decision to stop and change tack,” Dr Ng recounted.
Mr Goh arranged for Dr Ng to meet one-on-one with Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and Singapore’s founding prime minister asked him a simple question: “What do you want to do in life?”
Dr Ng knew what he meant, and asked in turn how long it would take to figure out if he was suited for political life. Mr Lee’s answer: Six months.
Looking back, Dr Ng said that half a year was indeed enough to know that he had the basic skills for politics, although he would come to realise that “the art of the possible takes a lifetime to learn”.
Politics as the art of the possible is ascribed to 19th-century German statesman Otto von Bismarck, and it means choosing between imperfect options and finding policies that can carry the ground.
On what he had learnt in politics, Dr Ng said it was about solving problems and doing what he felt was right, “because otherwise you wear your soul down”.
“If you constantly do what you think others think is right, then they should be in politics, not you,” he said.
Asked if he had any words of advice for fledgling politicians, Dr Ng said one should not enter politics looking to be thanked.
But Singapore is also a place where politics is still an avenue where a person can do good without compromising his ideals, he added.
He cited how the ministries he had served in, such as manpower and education, continued to refine policies that he had laid the groundwork for, such as the CPF Life scheme for retirement adequacy and expanded tertiary pathways with more autonomous universities.
“It is just that little satisfaction knowing that you built on something that somebody else had already started, and somebody else could continue,” he said.
“By and large, we have made progress as a society – that can’t be said for a lot of other countries, so we should take our blessings where we can.”
Dr Ng cautioned that the price that Singapore pays for its rapid rise, the curse of successful countries, is the belief that this trajectory is somehow preordained and will always continue.
He said Singaporeans must always ask themselves the core question: How can Singapore continue to succeed, and what are the fundamentals that will get it there?
Part of the answer is a common understanding between the elected and the electorate – that some things are good but may be too expensive for Singapore and it has to find different solutions, while in other areas there could be underinvestment that should be corrected.
With Singaporeans today being more well educated and well travelled, “you may have to find wisdom from many sources of the population”, Dr Ng added.
Given a second chance, would he give up medicine again for the hurly-burly of politics? Yes, said Dr Ng.
“If I had another political life, I would want to do it again,” he said, laughing. “Maybe without so much of social media.”
