The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will not draft women for National Service (NS), but opportunities for them to volunteer will be expanded, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen yesterday.

Given the technological capabilities of the SAF, different skill sets are now required apart from “sheer combat power” and this will expand the roles that women can play, he said. Speaking to the media after a recent Committee to Strengthen National Service (CSNS) visit to Finland and Switzerland to study their conscription systems, Dr Ng noted that even the two European countries did not require women to be conscripted for military and social reasons.

“We are not about to go that way,” said Dr Ng, referring to full-time NS for women. “Is there a role for women to play in the volunteer force? From both public feedback and the point of view of the SAF, yes, there is a role.”

He said the CSNS is working out the details of expanding the volunteer scheme and determining military roles and training for female volunteers. His comments came after the results of an Institute of Policy Studies’ study indicated that the majority of 1,251 Singaporeans surveyed felt that first-generation permanent residents and women should be allowed to contribute to national defence as volunteers.

Commissioned by the CSNS and released earlier this month, the survey showed, among other findings, that about 23 per cent of the respondents felt that women should serve two years of full-time NS. About 70 per cent said women should serve “in a professional role” or as a volunteer to “help out in NS events”. Among the women respondents, about 22 per cent agreed that women should serve full-time NS, but only 9.3 per cent said they will do so themselves.

During a parliamentary debate on the Defence Ministry’s budget in 2011, Dr Ng had also ruled out the need for women to serve. Responding to then Nominated Member of Parliament Viswa Sadasivan’s call to let women volunteer for NS, Dr Ng, who was then Second Defence Minister, said there were no operational needs to justify drafting women into NS.

While NS is based on three fundamental principles — national security and survival, universality and equity — Dr Ng said imposing conscription unnecessarily on a large segment of the population would dilute its purpose. Xue Jianyue