FEMALE YOUTH LEADERS GIVE 'THUMBS UP' TO DIALOGUE WITH DEFENCE MINISTER

If you had a chance to get up close and personal with the Minister for Defence, what would you ask him?

Close to 40 participants of the Leadership for Females from the National Youth Achievement Award (LEAF@NYAA) had that opportunity for interaction when they attended a dialogue session with Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean on 31 May at the Officers Mess, SAFTI Military Institute (SAFTI MI).

This was the second of a two-part engagement programme for the ladies, a project that was the brainchild of Ms Irene Ng, Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, advisor to LEAF@NYAA and Deputy Chairperson, Government Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Foreign Affairs.

The first part of the programme was a visit to the Basic Military Training Centre (BMTC) on Pulau Tekong on 29 Mar where the ladies had a glimpse of how full-time national servicemen trained and lived.

The programme aimed to familiarise the young women, all of whom are students in local polytechnics and universities, with the SAF and to give them a better insight into issues related to military defence.

Participants of LEAF@NYAA having a post-dialogue chat with Minister Teo and Ms Ng.

Ms Tuty Norashikin Bte Suhaiemi, an undergraduate from the National University of Singapore (NUS), described her knowledge of military defence in Singapore prior to her involvement in the programme as hazy .

I think that for the majority of Singaporean females, most of us know that military defence exists, but do not have the chance to grasp the concrete aspects of what it means. Personally, my notion of defence needed shaping up and what better way to do it than joining this programme, said Ms Tuty.

During the dialogue with Mr Teo, the students engaged the minister in a lively discussion on a wide-range of security-related topics like the defence budget, threats to Singapore, Total Defence and National Service.

Said Ms Tuty: Minister Teo engaged us well during the dialogue session and gave very sincere answers. Overall, the dialogue gave us a good overview of National Service policy in Singapore.

Ms Amutha Meyyappan, an undergraduate from the NUS agreed, saying: It is one thing to read newspaper reports about what Minister Teo has to say, but to hear him saying it in person is something else. His passion shone through during the dialogue and made it easier for us to see where he was coming from.