Commemorating Total Defence Day

By Ms Wang Binxi

SJI commemorated Total Defence Day with a series of activities to help students understand how as Josephians, they can play their part in upholding the different pillars of Total Defence. With the theme centred on “Together We Keep Singapore Strong”, Josephians were reminded of how collective efforts can help overcome grave challenges. This is particularly pertinent in view of the nation’s fight against COVID-19.

Josephians shared their part in Nation Building, from blood donation to being vigilant in fact-checking as well as teachers who served in their respective appointments in SAF to defend Singapore. We hope that students understand that Total Defence is a living concept, vital and necessary to help Singapore rise through the challenges we face. The commemoration ended with Nathanael Sutjiutama (FN605) and Tricia Phua (LE608), President and Vice-President of the Senior Council, reading out the Total Defence Day message by Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen.

Through the Josephian Formation Programme (JFJ), Josephians learnt about Total Defence Day from various activities conducted for the different levels by the Citizenship Education Committee carried out during the Total Defence Week:

The Year 1s played a game of 'Snake and Ladder' to reinforce what Psychological and Social Defence actions entail, followed by writing a Pledge Card of actions they can carry out in their daily lives to keep Singapore safe and secure.

Year 2s played a strategy card game of ‘Guardians of the City II’ to help them develop a deeper understanding of Singapore's security threats through role-taking to keep their citizens safe against a terrorist threat.

In the post-game reflection activity, Nathanael Koh, LE203 wrote:

"We can be Men for Others and help those who are in need. During an economic crisis, there will be a cut down on food or water supply. For those who are financially weaker and not able to well afford the increased prices, we should help them by buying food for them or sharing a portion of our food with them."

Year 3s designed a digital clip to advocate for Singaporeans to put Total Defence into action. Congratulations to the winning classes for the following competitions!

Year 3 Video Making Competition, incorporating different pillars of Total Defence and Traits of Josephians

• MN303: Total Defence Day 2021- Digital Defence (view their video ↗ (opens in new tab))

In this current era, digital defence is especially important when it comes to keeping us Singaporeans safe online. According to statistics, online scams have been the most committed crime in Singapore for the past few years, with a spike last year, 2020. With this, we have to cherish and continue to uphold digital defence in our everyday lives as a pillar of strength, to protect Singapore from cyber attacks in the future.

• FN303: Defending in Community

The Total Defence pillar being addressed is Civil Defence. A student falls over the edge of the railing and lands onto the ground floor when playing with his wallet. However, nobody cared and stopped to help him. Then, the clock is rewound and this time, everyone plays their part to help the fallen boy by alerting everyone else to come to his aid. They are bonded by the community during times of crisis. The Josephian Profile is "Community Builder".

Year 4 Freeze Frame Challenge on how SAF will look like in the students' time:
The Year 4s, who will be serving the National Service in 2 years’ time, examined how SAF has transformed over the years and used their creativity to do up a Freeze Frame on how they think SAF will look like in their time.

• ML401 - Caption: In this day and age, the world has become more digitised. Many threats have emerged from the Web. It is our duty to be more focused on these threats during our National Service, such as Cyber Defenders.

• LE403 - Caption: Evolution of Defence: In order to stay relevant, we have to blend skills like hand-to-hand combat with emerging ones, like the use of technology

• FN401 - Caption: NS will be tough, but we will be strong in the darkness

Years 5 and 6 play the Escape Room Game, where they put themselves into different scenarios and rivalled one another with their quick-wittedness to be freed from the escape rooms.