Commemorating 25 years of Total Defense

Singapore will mark 25 years of Total Defence (TD) with a commemoration event “TD25” on 15 February 2009. Held at the Suntec City Tropics Atrium, this event will promise an engaging programme that will showcase a musical revue aptly titled "Five Pillars, One Roof", which brings together talents from various sectors of Singapore, and an award ceremony for the popular national animation competition, N.E.mation! III. Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean will be the Guest of Honour. 

Introduced in 1984, Total Defence provides the framework for a comprehensive and integrated response to deal with all kinds of threats and challenges, by bringing together all Singaporeans in a coordinated effort. Singaporeans can play their role in the five aspects of Total Defence – Military Defence, Civil Defence, Economic Defence, Social Defence and Psychological Defence. When Singaporeans take personal responsibility for, and participate in, protecting the Singaporean way of life, they are playing their part to help keep Singapore secure
 
In addition, there will be many interactive games and activities for the public to participate in, such as jigsaw puzzles and giant boardgames that test participants on their understanding of Total Defence. There will also be the screening of the winning clips of N.E.mation! III that express what makes us Singaporeans, as well as "Singapore 2034”, a collection of five short films on Total Defence produced by students.
 
TD25 will be a culmination of various outreach efforts that revolve around the theme "What will you defend?". This includes:

• An online video contest, in which Singaporeans submit a video clip that answers the question “What will you defend?”.
• Call-in contests on radio stations Power98FM and jia883FM.
• Island-wide distribution of ZoCards that have been designed to allow Singaporeans to share their own answers to the question "What will you defend?".

By posing the question “What will you defend?”, Singaporeans are asked to consider what it is in Singapore that they hold most dear, and are willing to defend in times of threat or crisis. This could be their loved ones, friends, values, or sentimental things like old photos and Singapore. As they reflect on the question “What will you defend?”, they are encouraged to feel and think about what they can do to build a stronger nation and what Total Defence means at the national level.

Aimed at eliciting ground-up responses, this multi-platform, multi-channel approach is taken to reach out to Singaporeans from all walks of life and to draw participation at a personal level. Colonel Lim Kok Siong, Director of Nexus, the department spearheading the Total Defence effort, said: “2009 marks a significant milestone as we are commemorating 25 years of Total Defence. The outreach programmes and activities aim to engage Singaporeans in the shared responsibility of defending our country and serve to remind us that security is the foundation for Singapore's continued success. We hope to reach out to Singaporeans in this nationwide commemoration campaign and engage each and everyone of them at a personal level.” 

Singapore commemorates TD Day every year on 15 February, the day Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, to remind Singaporeans of what we stand to lose if we are unable to defend ourselves, and that everyone has a part to play in defending our country.