SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday (Feb 15) assured Singaporeans that he and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) leadership "take safety with utmost seriousness” — even more so today than before — and also urged them to see things in perspective when things go wrong.

In a Facebook post about the spate of National Service training-related deaths, Mr Lee wrote: “We must never gloss over shortcomings and failures. But neither should we forget the SAF’s progress and achievements, and its contributions to Singapore’s peace and security.”

Mr Lee’s post comes after the death of Corporal First Class (NS) Aloysius Pang, who was crushed between a lowered gun barrel and the cabin of a self-propelled howitzer while taking part in an artillery live-firing exercise in New Zealand on Jan 19.

The 28-year-old actor, who was an armament technician with the 268th Battalion Singapore Artillery, suffered serious injuries to multiple organs and died in hospital four days later, prompting an outpouring of grief from colleagues, fans and the public.

Touching on his personal experiences as an SAF officer, Mr Lee said the safety of the men under his command has been on his mind.

Mr Lee said that when he was a commanding officer with the 23rd Singapore Artillery (SA) battalion, he was responsible for his men’s training, safety and welfare.

“In a way, I was standing in for their parents.”

During his tour on the General Staff, part of his job involved dealing with training incidents, which included deciding what needed to be fixed, whether anyone should be punished and what aspects of training needed to be changed, he said.

He added that not only was he accountable to the bereaved families, but he had to “think hard how to keep servicemen safe while still fulfilling the SAF’s mission”.

“As Prime Minister, I have made sure that the Ministry of Defence has capable leaders, and that when a training accident happens, the Government answers, not only to the family, but also to all our NSmen and the public too,” he wrote.

Being accountable is essential for the SAF and national service to “retain public confidence and support”, he added.

“In war, we will have to put servicemen in harm’s way to defend the country; but in peacetime training, we owe it to our servicemen never to compromise their safety and endanger their lives,” he wrote.

“I can therefore assure you that I and the SAF leadership take safety with utmost seriousness. It was so when I was there, and I am confident it is even more so today.”

He noted that the “recent SAF incidents have been very painful” because they cost precious lives, and that the SAF is putting enormous emphasis on training safety with the aim of achieving “zero fatalities”.

After every incident, Mr Lee said the injured will get the best medical care. In the event of a fatality, he said the SAF will investigate to identify its causes so that processes and training can be improved to ensure that the incident will not happen again.

“We know zero fatalities is extremely hard to achieve. But we will strive for it, because every life is precious to us,” he said. “When a soldier dies, the SAF grieves deeply. His comrades understand how his family feels, because they feel the loss keenly too."

He added: “But they try to put aside their emotions to take care of the bereaved family and continue carrying out their SAF duties.”

He noted, too, that Singapore enjoys peace and security, and can maintain friendly relations with other countries because of its strong and well-trained armed forces, and called on Singaporeans to see things in perspective when something goes wrong.

“The SAF has to carry on training and fulfilling its operational duties. We cannot outsource our security and defence to anyone else; we have to defend Singapore ourselves,” he said.