Showing-off of new weapons on NDP05

The 40th year of independence day has passed! Every 5th year of so, the NDP, without fail, is being held at the Padang, which can hardly accommodate 15K ~ 25K of spectators. Compared this number to the enclosed atmosphere of the National Stadium, which can easily hold more than 50K of jovial crowds during National Day.

Why held at the Padang and what is its significant? The answer is of course, showing off new weapons every 5 years to the world. The Art of War stated that "Know oneself, know your enemy, one will win 100 victories out of 100 battles". Are we foolish or what? Telling all our neighbouring countries that we have this and we have that weapons, etc?

The answer if written somewhere in the one of the books on our founding father, LKY. Written somewhere in the book, our great leader enlightened us the significant of having 250 newly-acquired AMX-13 from Israel during the late 1960s being shown on National Day and the effects and hush-hush it had on the Malaysian leaders.

Bingo! We have the answer then. Every 5th year, we parade new weapons eagerly to Malaysia and Indonesia to tell them the message that we are constantly upgrading our weapons. The message is very clear! Don't come and mess with us! We will beat the hell out of any invaders.

What are these new toys? From the sky - KC-135 refilling tanker. From the sea - models of our new Formidable frigate. On land - Bionix IFV, Ultra AFV, Bronco ATTC, Spike (with HOT TOW), Primus self-propelled artillery, FH200 towed-artillery, Igla low-attitude air defence mounted on Bionix chassis, Intelligence mobile command centre, etc.

Wait a minute! Are these defensive weapons? Why do you need a KC-135 tanker to refill when in 50 secs, an F-16 Fighting Falcon will zoom pass the breath of Singapore (42km) with afterburner! To enable our fighters to reach the wide South China Sea? Did I mentioned Spratly Islands? So much local investment in artillery pieces? To flatten our motherland? Fast ATTACK vehicle to do defence?

Be very scared, Malaysia! We have mostly offensive weapons! And the only land target is YOU! Theory of our MINDEF (an old fighting theory) - in any confrontation with Malaysia over water issue (read as Israel's ex-President Chiam Herzog visit to Singapore sometimes in 1980s <- beyound my childhood memory), we will strike hard at Malaysia's Johore to secure half of Johore state, far enough to prevent Malaysia's artillery pieces to reach Singapore heartland.

The mindset of the little red dot (as described by deposed ex-President Habibie of Indonesia) in a Malay sea being seiged constantly is an old out-dated theory. What should we do then? Let's not be complacent too. We should break out from the seige mindset. The longer term goals should be to slowly but surely create confusion in Johore state and over several generations bring the sultanate of Johore over to Singapore side. The idea of a Sultanate of Singapore should be a rich carrot for any sultan of Johore in the event if Malaysia goes into turmoil one day! It's better to 'buy' the heart of the Johore sultanate than to conquer them! Ah again, it's the Art of War! It's always better to win the war without any battle and to conquer land by fear and intimidation than to ride over some wasteland as a result of war! With such a big hinderland, Singapore has room for growth!

It's but a thought! I don't think I will ever live to see it happen. All it takes is one generation of screw-up leader on Malaysia side to have that happen. On the other hand, it will also take a generation of moroons on Singapore side to put our motherland in crisis and may cause us to seek unification with Malaysia in their own Malay-Malaysian terms! Damn that bumiputra policy - a racist policy! On 2nd thoughts, hmm, please have that policy. It just damned the Malay race in Malaysia to idle! No threat to us indeed.