Good leaders needed to maintain high engagement and trust within Home Team: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE - More than eight in 10 officers in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) "felt engaged" with the public service and their unit, a survey has found.

As a result, 97 per cent of adults feel safe walking alone at night, and Singapore has ranked first in Gallup’s Law and Order Index on safety and security since 2015, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam at The Singapore Police Force Scholarship and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Scholarships Award Ceremony. 

This trust within the Home Team, coupled with the public's trust in its officers, is key to the Home Team being effective and keeping Singapore safe, he added.

Good leadership within the Home Team is “all the more important” amid uncertainties around the world.

The finding was from a recent Public Service Division survey across the Government on employee engagement levels, Mr Shanmugam said on Thursday (Aug 18) night at the Istana.

He said across all the categories surveyed – teamwork, recognition, quality of supervisors, career and professional development, and whether officers want to stay in the organisation – the Home Team officers scored “significantly higher than the public service norm”.

The Home Team needs a “very strong pipeline” of leaders across its functions to continue to counter emerging and future threats, Mr Shanmugam told the 26 scholarship recipients and their families.

The MHA Scholarships comprise The Singapore Police Force Scholarship, as well as uniformed and civilian scholarships.

This year's Singapore Police Force Scholarship has been awarded to Inspectors Raeka Ee Pei Ying and Nigel Ng Hong Xun.

Insp Ee, 18,  a first-year Singapore Management University student, said police work meaningfully combines her passion for helping others with her interest in the criminal justice system.

Insp Ee recalled an incident during her Singapore Sports School days when she found a cleaner sleeping in a shower cubicle.

It prompted her and her friends to alert the school management and spend more time socialising and sharing their snacks with the cleaners so they felt comfortable taking a break in the open.

She said: "(It reminded me of) the importance of helping others when we're in a position of privilege. That's what I feel policing can offer."

This year, nine of 13 civilian scholars were awarded scholarships on the science and technology career track. The other civilian career tracks comprise generalist, psychology and intelligence.

Mr Shanmugam said that this speaks to the importance of technology to the Home Team's work, highlighting unmanned vessels which can patrol Singapore's waters, drones that can patrol on land, and robots that can fight fires, as well as carry equipment and stretchers, as some technological innovations.

One of the MHA Civilian Scholarship recipients who has been interning at Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) is Mr Muadz Yamani Mustafa, 20, who will be pursuing a degree in computer engineering at the National University of Singapore after completing his national service.

Mr Muadz said that he was largely driven by his experience growing up in the prison quarters as his father is a prison officer.

He told ST about how families of the officers were allowed to tour the prison: "I got to see some of the cells and see how (officers) respond to emergencies. And then, I think from there, I gained (a greater) sense of appreciation (for their work)."

Mr Muadz, an aerospace electronics graduate from Temasek Polytechnic, added that the public sector provides  him an opportunity to help more people with his skills and knowledge.

He said there are many projects being tried in the public sector, and the work done would reach a wider audience.