The impact of National Service and the Singapore Armed Forces upon Singapore’s national identity in the 20th century, through the experiences of servicemen past and present

• Main Author: Leong, Calvin Shuo Lun
• Other Authors: Hallam Stevens
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::History::Asia::Singapore::Politics and government
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76666
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Following Singapore’s independence on 9th August 1965, the new nation was faced with a myriad of challenges and problems; two of which were the physical security of the city-state and how to build a national identity to unify the new nation. Singapore’s physical security concerns were resolved by accelerating the development of an armed force that was loyal to the new nation. The latter was achieved when the new government promoted values such as meritocracy and multiracialism to rally the nation together, ensuring fairness for all to make a living without fear of discrimination along racial or religious lines. This paper will focus on how the new armed force also helped the government in promoting these values to society through the system of conscription called National Service, where the military actively embodied the values that the government sought to inculcate as the national identity. The research timeframe will span the period immediately after independence towards the late 1980s, where a shift in the government’s focus was noticeable when it added “Shared Values” to meritocracy and multiracialism as the national identity, in response to increasing Westernisation and individualism. This thesis will also assert that the military’s divisive recruitment policy that excluded Malays from the SAF, actually helped the nation-building process, was borne out of legitimate strategic concerns and therefore justified, especially since the policy was reversed after these concerns simmered down. Ultimately, aided with the recollections of ordinary Singaporean citizen-soldiers and opinions of Singapore’s leadership, this thesis will reinforce the central position of National Service (NS) in Singapore’s society and national identity, which inculcated values of good citizenship into NSmen and transformed them into role models for society.