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Grassroots leaders are key in terror fight: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE — If a terror attack strikes Singapore, grassroots leaders would have a pivotal role in supporting the community in its wake.

SINGAPORE — If a terror attack strikes Singapore, grassroots leaders would have a pivotal role in supporting the community in its wake.

They would have the task of managing possible tensions in the community by quashing rumours that may arise, assuring residents through means such as house-to-house visits and restoring normalcy to the community, says the Government.

They would also have to involve religious organisations should the attack occur along religious lines.

Getting grassroots leaders prepared was the focus of a crisis response exercise yesterday in Chong Pang — only the second such exercise geared entirely at simulating the aftermath of an attack.

And the explosion that rocked a New York neighbourhood on Saturday showed that such events are “happening everywhere”, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said after the exercise in his constituency.

While the Republic may not be able to prevent an attack, what would be at stake is how the country reacts.

“How does the community respond? How do we cut out the rumours? How do we get the information across? A lot depends on the local grassroots leaders,” he said.

The half-day exercise simulated possible scenarios in the community immediately after an attack and the day after, and it involved 36 grassroots leaders and members of the ward’s community emergency and engagement committee.

The first exercise was conducted at Jurong Spring earlier this month, a People’s Association (PA) spokesperson told TODAY. These exercises will now be rolled out to constituencies nationwide in the next six months as one of the signature programmes under the SGSecure in the Neighbourhood initiative, along with the revamped Emergency Preparedness Day.

Such exercises include testing plans such as “goodwill committees” to assure residents and harnessing community assets like merchant associations to help victims, PA chief executive director Ang Hak Seng said.

The Government will also build up a team of psychologists and counsellors who will train and assist community volunteers.

Asked if he was satisfied with its readiness, Mr Shanmugam said these were “very early days”. He considered it an exercise “where people start thinking about the issues” and one that must be built upon going forward.

Terror attacks may not localise “very neatly into constituencies”, and Mr Shanmugam added that such exercises could cut across constituencies, even Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs). It requires the collective effort of the PA, which provides resources such as space and staff, and the Home Affairs Ministry, which will disseminate information.

On the public’s level of awareness of the dangers of a terrorist attack, Mr Shanmugam said that while it was “not very deep”, people were cognisant.

“The next step is to increase the depth of awareness and then ... get them to think about their own role in these (events). How can they help themselves ... (and) others?” he said.

As for residents, Mr Ang said there were plans to scale up training in areas such as first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, so that residents are prepared and can help themselves in an attack.

The PA, he added, will take stock of the preparedness of residents as well as volunteers in schemes such as the Community Emergency Response Team, as part of the crisis response exercises.

Mr Toh Sze Wei, 42, who was involved in the Chong Pang exercise, said it allowed the participants to identify possible gaps in the interaction of different “cells” and any areas for improvement.

The chairman of Chong Pang’s community emergency and engagement committee added that one challenge was that there may be scenarios besides those played out in the exercise.

His committee will conduct house visits to recruit more residents for the SGSecure team, to create awareness of the movement and train more first-aiders and first responders.

Chong Pang Zone 3 Residents’ Committee chairman Mani Rajangam, 46, said he emerged more confident after the exercise: “We’ve already planned all these things and we know where are the lapses, to help us to improve.”

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