Meaning of NCC Day

NCC day coincides with SAF day on 1st July 2010. It marks the 42nd year since the inception of the Singapore Armed Forces. It is a day for members of the armed forces to reaffirm their pledge of loyalty and dedication to the SAF as well as the nation.

In a recent book on “How to build a nation”, a conversation with MM Lee Kuan Yew. I quoted, in page 50, “the British Empire was supposed to last another 1,000 years in Southeast Asian, but collapsed when the Japanese army came in 1942”. Mao Zedong, chairman of the communist party of China, once said, “Power came from the barrel of the gun.” The Japanese demonstrated this; the British did not.

It underlies the importance of having a strong army.