SINGAPORE — Plans for a Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute (Safti) started from the day Singapore separated from Malaysia, said Brigadier-General (Retired) Kirpa Ram Vij, 81, who was seconded from the Ministry of Finance to become the institute’s first director.

He established the First Instructors’ Preparatory Course to train the trainers for the first batch of officer cadets. He also played a key role in setting the selection criteria and sat in interview boards to screen officer cadet applicants.

And among the first batch of Safti cadets was Lieutenant-General (Retired) Ng Jui Ping, who said he and his batchmates did not anticipate to be “in for a really rough time”. Everything had to be done to perfection, and the trainees spent much time running up and down the hills of Safti.

The trainees learnt to “sleep and walk at the same time” as they were always sleep-deprived, he said. When they went on long topographical marches to learn navigation using a map, the events lasted through the night, such that they learnt to sleep and walk at the same time, he recounted.

They would wake up at 5.30am, and although night-training was scheduled to end at 9pm, it never did.

“I don’t remember we ever finished before 10.30pm,” said LG (Ret) Ng, 67, who was the second Chief of Defence Force. And although lights out was at 11.59pm, the trainees had boots to polish and other chores.

“It toughened us, it shaped our characters and even when the batch gets together today for social occasions and we reminisce, it’s mostly about how training was but always appreciating that it did us a lot of good,” he said, adding that the skills learnt were transferable to their second careers after the SAF.

Current commandant of Safti Military Institute, Rear-Admiral Giam Hock Koon, 48, said the strong culture of values, tough training and strict discipline would continue, amid a constantly-evolving security and defence situation.

Twenty years, ago, no one would imagine that the SAF today would be leading a multinational task force combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden, for instance.

“Therefore, the training that we give our leaders and officers has to equip them with the general skills and competencies as well as strength of character to be able to think, to be able to adapt, to be able to have the social skills to work with a wide range of people ... to be able to have mission competencies, to plan, to decide and to execute until success,” he said.