My speech during the Committee of Supply debate on the Ministry of Defence’s budget on 29 Feb 2024.
National Service (NS) is an obligation that every male Singaporean or second generation PR must fulfil. However, it is undeniably an opportunity cost that is disproportionately levied upon one segment of society. Due to NS, Singaporean men begin their careers two years behind their female peers, first-generation PRs, new citizens and foreigners. NS poses a significant challenge for aspiring professional athletes, disrupting their training and competition during their peak performance years, and hindering their world-class aspirations.
The current philosophy of giving NSFs an “allowance for basic upkeep” needs to be reviewed in view of the significant increase in cost of living and NSF’s opportunity costs. As a first step, the terminology should be changed from “NS allowance” to “NS salary”, and it should attract CPF contributions.
The median NS salary should be at least the Local Qualifying Salary of $1,600 per month. This still won’t be a market salary, but it will go some way to compensate NSFs for the opportunity cost of two years of service and help them contribute a little to their household income.
I must emphasise that this does not in any way diminish the ethos of national service — just because we pay our NSFs fairly doesn’t mean their service is any less of a national duty.
