Dear friends, distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,First let me acknowledge important people here. I thank the principal of Republic Polytechnic Mr Yeo Li Pheow; we are here in his good graces, thank you for allowing us to use this beautiful campus, and for your students who are helping us. Let me also thank all of you for being here, and 祝大家新年快乐，身体健康。 And for many partners, if you look at all the various logos at the back, there are more partners each year, because I think people believe in Total Defence, and want to join us to spread that message. So I am delighted to join you here this afternoon.

And of course, we are commemorating and reminding ourselves that it is Total Defence Day on 15 February each year. Because in a crisis, what matters most is the mettle and the unity of the people that will decide if that nation can overcome. When there is a crisis, if a nation is divided, fractious, with disparate groups looking out for their own narrow interests, I think that nation will fail and fall. For Singaporeans, I think within the last decade, many of us can remember two crises that threatened us all. SARS was in 2003, this is the 10th year after the SARS epidemic and in 2008, the global financial crisis. It threatened the well being of our entire nation. And I think most of us would agree that we overcame both these challenges through staying united. SARS, for me, was a particularly difficult time. 2003 - because I had just entered politics in the 2001 elections and 2002 I left my practice to join the Government. And I was in the Ministry of Manpower and Education, so when the SARS epidemic started, as you remember it started slow and then culminated into devastating effects. I saw our schools having to be quarantined, and we were in the midst of trying to get enough thermometers for 500,000 students within the school system. And thankfully, we could get them, strips that you put on your forehead. It was not that easy to get 500,000 thermometers, and until the thermal scanners came out, we did not have the instruments to be able to control crowd movement. I was in the Ministry of Manpower too, and I remember this particular incident during SARS. Some of you might remember that the streets and the malls were empty. Everybody stayed at home, and this devastated our economy. There was a particular incident, because only the Government was using some of these facilities; we used the hotel for one of our functions. And the hotel general manager who accompanied me was very kind; I usually ask them because at the Manpower Ministry we were facing rising unemployment up to six per cent-and I said, "How's business?" He smiles, he says, "Good" And I said, "How's your occupancy?" He said, "10 per cent." So I looked at him and I said, "Why are you smiling?" "Oh, because last week it was four per cent" It was that bad. If you remember, people had to take four-day weeks, shorter hours each week and we were really worried. But even though we took hard measures, quarantine measures, global financial crisis there were sacrifices-shorter work weeks, governments had to lay off some workers-Singaporeans gave whole hearted support to the difficult measures that were needed to deal with these crises, whether it was quarantine of contacts or shorter work weeks. Individuals made sacrifices so that all could benefit. I said to you that SARS was particularly painful for me. It was because I lost a friend that I knew, a surgeon. He was an outstanding surgeon, I think his future would have been very very bright; father, two children, I think. And because he was taking care of SARS patients, he contracted the disease and died. It was devastating, and it was the sacrifices of Singaporeans, workers, and you would have read in the newspapers, how even healthcare workers were shunned, when they were taking transport. It was natural, some taxi drivers were also worried, when they saw nurses dressed in white, they would not stop and avoided them because they were worried of catching the disease. So individuals made sacrifices so all could benefit. Public and private organisations worked in harmony recognising that the price of failure would be high. Individual Singaporeans played their part, taking responsibility for their own hygiene and health, or, if they were laid off, re-skilling themselves to get new jobs. Through these crises, I think Total Defence swung into action.

These two crises in recent times, SARS, the global financial crisis, give us that confidence that our Total Defence campaigns are bearing fruit. We do this every year, and I must confess to you that it is difficult to maintain an ongoing movement every year to think of something new to attract bigger audiences to sell the message of Total Defence. But when these crises hit us, they remind us that doing this every year is vital, and that Singaporeans have demonstrated that they will stand together. Our tagline is "Will You Stand With Me?", and Singaporeans will stand together, and step up spontaneously when our collective well being and stability is threatened. Let me cite you one real example, spontaneous example. And again this was during SARS, in my constituency, Toa Payoh Constituency. We had some families that were quarantined. Remember we had to fast track the Infectious Disease Act to Parliament, because we did not have the legislative means to quarantine people. So we had to fast track to the government, pass the Bill, and then, for the public health's sake, we could quarantine contacts into their homes so that they could not come out and risk infecting others. That was the only way to contain the spread. So I received SMSes or through email telling me which of the families were quarantined. And I would note them, and say, well, this is what we need to do, they have their families, they have their homes. Then, later that night when I went back, a thought hit me. How are these families, who were quarantined for seven to ten days, how are they getting their provisions? Water was okay, but what about food? So I was in a bit of a panic, and quickly rang up my Resident's Committee Chairman and said, "How are they going to get their food?" My RC Chairman, I could hear the smile in his voice, said, "Do not worry, I have already given them food. We bought groceries." Nobody told them to, they just knew what to do, they gave it to the residents. So I was quite satisfied, my RC Chairman quite kilat, very good, he knows what to do. Then another concern hit me, I said, "Oh my goodness, if my RC Chairman gave them the groceries, I have to quarantine him too." So I gave him another call, and said, "Hang on, how did you give it to them?" Again, I could hear the laughter in his voice, "I am not so silly. We put the groceries outside the door. Then we went to the end of the corridor, and waited for the residents in that home who were quarantined to open their doors and take the groceries". Then I said, "Then how did you know their phone number?" He said, "I asked their neighbour, lah." Very smart. Spontaneous gestures, nobody told them to do this, nobody told them to go and buy the groceries, to think of the needs of the quarantined family. But spontaneously, a community had come together, to help one another because they were in need.

There is another heart-warming story, and this is a personal one, Ms Rosemary Chng, who is a businesswoman. I think she must have felt very touched for the healthcare workers, highly skilled nurses, highly skilled healthcare workers, remember them, and not-so-skilled doctors, highly skilled healthcare workers, period. She must have been touched by the sacrifices that they had done, and she really wanted to show her affection and thankfulness. So she had some skills, and she said, "What can I do?" So she sent out emails to have a "Cookie Loves SGH" (Singapore General Hospital) initiative. For one person, maybe somebody had told her it would not make that much of a difference, but she did not care. She said, "well, I just want to show appreciation." She got over a hundred Singaporeans and more than 10 organisations, including the Salvation Army and Singapore Management University, to help bake cookies and deliver them to the hospital. I have to stop because a thought came to me and I have to tell you not because I need to, but this is something I feel from my heart, that nurses are indeed highly skilled. I will tell you why. I am a surgeon by training. And when I operate, it was amazing to me that when I used various instruments, whether it is a scalpel, scissors, forceps so on and so forth, I would like to work with certain nurses, because they were highly skilled. But what does highly skilled mean? Highly skilled means that all I have to do during an operation was to put out my hand; I do not say a thing. And the right instrument will come into my hand. That is what highly skilled nurses are. They know exactly what I need because they have seen an operation sometimes more than junior surgeons, and they know exactly what you need at that point of time. So there was very little speaking in the operation room, And you just put out your hand, and the right instrument comes out. And sometimes, the young nurses, with the wrong instrument you just shake your head and they will give you the right instrument. I digress, I'm sorry. So, back to Rosemary Chng, she baked cookies, and delivered them to the hospital. And in her words, "We stood with the health-care workers because we wanted to tell them that they were not alone in the fight against SARS". I am sure that her gesture must have motivated nurses, healthcare workers, doctors, healthcare attendants, to put their lives at risk every day, to just keep doing it. I visited them during SARS; I went to public as well as private hospitals because we were part of the SARS combat team. Some of you may remember that it so happens there was a coincidence, there were doctors, myself, Balaji, who has passed away, Vivian. And PM Goh at that time decided, "okay there's some doctors, let us use them together with Khaw Boon Wan in the SARS combat team." That was before I went to Defence, so maybe it was a forerunner. What was the message in all this? The message was in Total Defence, no Singaporean stands alone because we either stand together or fall together. And we chose to stand together.

We have to continue in these efforts, every year, on Total Defence Day as well as other occasions, to bring our nation to stand together. In the military, we have a saying by Sun Tzu, you may have heard it, it goes – "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war." And this is true for Total Defence. Despite the many demands of work and family, we must make time to strengthen the spirit of community and civic-mindedness. Appropriately, this year, the Total Defence campaign aims to encourage this spontaneous reaction to stand together, "Will You Stand With Me?".

And I am very glad that there are groups of Singaporeans who believe in Total Defence. As I said, there are many sponsors who come on board with us, and they are here today and you get to meet them and speak with them and ask them, "Why do you support this movement?" We do it because we want to build a spirit of community. And there are good examples all over. Many groups are doing, across Singapore, whether it is through flea markets, community gardening, recycling, dog and cat shows, board games and the Total Defence Challenge and so on, these groups with different diverse interests are building a community and bonding with their neighbours.

I want to specifically commend the 2,274 students from 632 teams who pitted their creative skills against one another in interpreting the N.E.mation! 7 theme "Together We Overcome", and provided these animation clips. I think all of you did very well, showing the innovativeness and helping us to sell the message in various ways.

I think these spontaneous acts and these participations show me that the younger generation have understood the message of Total Defence. They recognised that the challenges of our society are complex and unpredictable. And so we have to be alert and prepared. And Total Defence reminds us that in addition to building a strong defence force we have to forge social harmony and national resilience, develop emergency responses and ensure business continuity. For those of you who are unaware, we commemorate Total Defence Day on 15 February for a reason. It marks the day Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942. It reminds us all that we cannot take our security for granted, and that we are responsible for our own Total Defence. Therefore, we must strengthen our resolve as a people and a community bonded by a spirit of giving, to look out for others and rally together, to defend our nation and build a strong home and a place that we can love and treasure.

Thank you very much.