Recently, I was very honored to have been invited by Nexus to participate in the first small-group, in-person engagement session with Senior Minister of State for Defence and Manpower, Mr Zaqy Mohamad on the topic of ‘Total Defence for a Future Singapore’.
SMS Zaqy sharing his opinions during the small group break-out session
At first I was a little confused when I received the invitation. I instinctively associated the phrase “Total Defence” with images of the military, National Service (cue Ah Boys to Men movie) and vaguely with the National Education lessons I sat through in primary school. What does Total Defence have to do with my role in Skillseed, and particularly with what we do with youths?
Then during the session itself, I realized why I was there. Like me, there might be others who don’t immediately understand the relevance of Total Defence to our lives, and this was a timely refresher to help me understand how our roles and respective youth work are actually significantly intertwined with safeguarding our way of life in Singapore. For example, upon deeper reflection, I realized that Skillseed’s work resonates with the Social Defence and perhaps even the Psychological Defence pillars under Total Defence, as our focus is on how we can leverage our communities’ strengths to achieve the shared outcomes that we all want, with trusted relationships at the core of our partnerships. And these trusted relationships are absolutely necessary in helping us navigate crises and in rebuilding our world together - an experience we can all attest to during this pandemic.
And as for the focus on youths (a category that I had only recently dropped out of, but still cling resolutely to like a barnacle) - in our small groups with fellow educators and leaders of youth-oriented organizations, we discussed in particular what issues youths might care about in a Singapore that they want to see, live in and love. In my group, we unanimously agreed that it is important that we recognize that we can’t make anyone care about something. Total Defence needs to resonate with us personally so that we can own its significance - and its urgency - to our lives as individuals.
We know that we cannot take our nation’s safety and security for granted, but how many of us have taken the time to reflect upon the importance of our daily actions in contributing to the defence of Singapore? I, for one, have sighed dramatically many times (and perhaps even shook a fist or two) whenever a jet flew over my home and disrupted my conference calls. During the engagement session, however, SMS Zaqy shared that protecting the airspace (which includes deploying fighter jets) remains paramount during this period even as he understands that the noise has been disruptive to many residents working from home, especially without the insulation of sound-proof windows. But are we willing to make that tradeoff between national security and less noise? Personally, I made an internal resolution to get better earphones (and to extend the gift of better earphones to folks within my spheres of influence, should they need it). A simple action that I can undertake almost immediately.
Very serious gesturing while I share my thoughts
Finally, I recall that one question put forth to our group read: “What kind of roles can youths play (in Total Defence)?” And I opined immediately: “Anything. Youths can do anything they put their minds to. They should define their own roles.” And my fellow session-mates readily agreed. These days, youths are rapidly shaping the world around them in more ways than we can imagine, and are creating their own categories. In the past, someone of influence (i.e. ‘influencer’) might be a politician, a highly acclaimed academic or a movie star. During the session, a fellow participant shared that he discovered that a Singaporean TikTok youth has more than 7 million followers! (Insert shocked emoji). Talk about reach and influence.
To sum it up, my key takeaway from this engagement was - how can we make our youths feel safe, valued and that they belong to a community, before we work together on sense-making Total Defence and taking action for the future? And my take? It starts with listening.
So for youths out there who are keen to share your views (and this includes why you might not currently care that much about Total Defence, and how you think we can all work together in making it more ‘woke’ to you and your peers), please consider signing up for this online engagement session with SMS Zaqy which is happening on 4 Nov 2020, Wed, from 6.15pm to 8.45pm by 25 Oct 2020.
And! If you have ideas on how to expand the outreach of this engagement session and make it more inclusive, please send your feedback to the good folks at Nexus (Rachel_Ong@mindef.gov.sg) - One point we talked about was how we could include youths from a diversity of backgrounds and lived experiences in these sessions, and the organizing team would be keen to hear from you.
Happy sharing, and I hope you will have a productive and reflective experience,
Huijia, Skillseed