At 104 years old, my grandmother has lived through two world wars.
I grew up listening to war stories, such as of her hiding in the sugar cane fields during World War II, with one child in her arms and the other in womb as Japanese warplanes rained bombs upon Singapore.
Hence, I have never taken the peace we enjoy here in Singapore for granted; even more so after my overseas travels and residencies have taken me to places where chaos, not peace, is a part of life that people are despondently resigned to.
On Total Defence Day, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing talked about how Singapore's total defence has evolved over the years.
More specifically, he shared a story about how he was once an officer tasked with chaperoning a general in town.
In his bid to impress the general, he took the latter to see our tanks on the land, ships in the sea and planes in the air. But none of these impressed the general.
When the formal itinerary concluded, the general curiously pointed to a group of men exercising furiously in the distance; some were tall, some were skinny, some were plump and some were short.
The general asked: "Who are those people?"
Mr Chan replied: "They are my national servicemen doing remedial training as they had flunked their IPPT (Individual Physical Proficiency Test)."
The general listened in disbelief, paused for a few minutes, and asked again if "this was for real", to which Mr Chan replied: "Yes, of course."
While no ships we had built or tanks we had purchased had impressed the general, his interest was piqued by the NSmen going through remedial training for having flunked their IPPT.
The general's departing words to Mr Chan were: "If Singapore's defence force takes such a serious approach towards its mission, it must be a strong one."
While military tangibles are necessary, at the end of the day, it is the willpower and discipline of each and every Singaporean that will be instrumental in safeguarding our nation against foreign threats.
Such unified resolve is indubitably a force to be reckoned with.
Lily Ong (Madam)
