Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen stated on Monday that the social cost of enrolling women in national service (NS), especially for non-military professions, would far exceed any benefits (May 9).
There are "distinct risks" if conscription is imposed for any other purpose, whether for men or women, he added.
Responding to Ms. Carrie Tan (Nee Soon GRC) and Ms. Poh Li San (Sembawang GRC) in Parliament, Dr. Ng warned that enlisting women in NS would delay their entry into the workforce, which would have the immediate effect of affecting a decline in the local manpower pool and a decrease in household incomes.
"Even if women are recruited for non-military national service positions to bolster our healthcare and social services, it may exacerbate labor shortages in other areas," Dr. Ng warned.
"Long-term, it will impose a significant cost not just on women but also on their families, children, and spouses, as well as on society as a whole," he added.
"Is this expense justifiable for sending a signal or reversing stereotypes? From the standpoint of the government, no. Security-wise, I believe the majority of Singaporeans would concur."
Ms. Tan proposed broadening the scope of national service to include care vocations, enlisting both young men and women for these positions, during last month's parliamentary discussion on the White Paper on Singapore Women's Development.
She proposed that this would serve to support the community's caring requirements, alleviate the stress of Singapore's people and workforce, and, most importantly, make care work a shared civic responsibility.
In her third IPS-Nathan Lecture, Ms. Corinna Lim, executive director of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), argued for the expansion of National Service outside the traditional sectors of the army, navy, air force, and police.
Dr. Ng stated on Monday that the primary purpose of joining the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) must be to train soldiers who can protect Singapore and resist, if not defeat, invading enemy.
Similarly, enrollment in the police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) must be based on the nation's requirement for homeland security and emergency services, he stressed.
"It is a far cry from the plans to conscript women to serve in roles like as caretakers and healthcare professionals, or to send a strong signal of gender equality," he said.
"These are insufficient arguments or grounds to require someone to suspend their freedom as a civilian, give up two years of their lives, and if they do not, they will be sentenced to prison, as our courts have sentenced NS defaulters."
Dr. Ng said that ideas for women to enroll in the National Service are not new, and that the matter has been debated since the introduction of conscription in 1967.
He stated that the 1970 Enlistment Act did not prohibit women, but the government at the time believed it would be a "additional burden" to enroll women because to the severe scarcity of trainers and commanders.
Dr. Ng noted that when the problem arose in 1983, it was determined that the SAF could manage the personnel deficit.
While acknowledging that birth rates have continued to decline, Dr. Ng stated that the use of technology and the optimization of resources have developed a more deadly and effective SAF despite a fewer number of troops.
"If Singapore is ever faced with an existential threat by an aggressor, and there is a sudden and grave need to bolster our military, I am certain that Mindef (Ministry of Defence) and the SAF will call on the government of the day to enlist not only women, but also teenagers and older men into military service... The Ukrainians did this when their homeland was invaded," he added.
Dr. Ng stated that there are presently more over 1,600 uniformed servicewomen in the SAF, accounting for around 8% of its regulars.
5% of SAF regulars holding the ranks of lieutenant colonel, military expert 6, or master warrant officer and higher are female.
In addition, more than 500 women have been trained and deployed in various volunteer jobs in the SAF Volunteer Corps since 2015, according to the minister.
"There is now no need to recruit women for national service," he told the House. "Women already contribute to national development as regulars and volunteers," he continued.
Ms. Poh, a former Republic of Singapore Air Force helicopter pilot, inquired whether Mindef had plans to recruit more full-time servicewomen and do more for those seeking to establish a family beyond flexible employment arrangements.
Dr. Ng said that the SAF's recruiting has been rather effective and attrition has been minimal, but he could not disclose exact numbers.
"We have increased our recruiting of women because the SAF wants more women to join our ranks," Dr. Ng added, noting the July 2020 formation of the SAF Women Outreach Office as an example.
In addition, the SAF has established "work near home" facilities in the north-east, south-west, and central regions of Singapore. We feel that working away from the office is firmly established... We're going to embrace it and see how it works," Dr. Ng remarked.
In a Facebook post published later in the day, Ms. Tan expressed her appreciation for the minister's response and clarified that her suggestion for women to be enlisted in roles beyond the military was not motivated by a simplistic ideal of equality, but by the need to meet national caregiving needs in the face of an aging population.
Reiterating her proposal for NS to be broadened to include caregiving jobs, she stated, "If national service is service to the nation, it only makes sense to modify it to fulfill the nation's most pressing needs."
Ms. Lim of Aware stated that the organization does not favor conscription in principle, and that the proposal to make national service gender-neutral and expand it outside the military arose from the need for more engagement in sectors like as eldercare and climate change.
"We agree with Dr. Ng that the imprudent implementation of NS for women now would certainly have detrimental implications," Ms. Lim said, adding that any measures to make NS gender-neutral must be accompanied by efforts to address barriers that prevent women from obtaining good jobs and equal compensation.
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