Internet defence challenge no token gesture

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Published: 12:00am, 30 Jun 2002

Think for a moment about the following question: Singapore can have many friends, but ultimately we have to be able to defend Singapore ourselves. Why?

Now consider your options: is it that Singapore is an unfriendly country; is it to prove to others that we are not afraid of hardship; or perhaps that there is no guarantee that the friends will be able to help us in a real crisis?

It is the final one, right? Right. Now collect a couple of tokens and move on.

An estimated 15,000 Singaporeans have been grappling with posers like these - and plenty that are far trickier - over the past two weeks as the Government seeks to reinforce its doctrine of total defence.

As part of an annual exercise to promote the philosophy that every citizen has a role to play in safeguarding the city-state, the Ministry of Defence has gone online, offering an interactive game to help citizens learn, or re-learn, the basics.

Those logging on to www.tdquest.lycosasia.com since June 14 have been confronted with a two-stage game that runs through the ground rules for total defence, a concept Singapore adopted in 1984, and which is modelled on practices in Sweden and Switzerland.

Modern wars are not pure confrontations between armies, but conflicts involving entire nations and people, a government handbook explains. Total defence unites all sectors of society - the government, business and the people - in the defence of Singapore.