MHA National Day Awards Investiture 2025 - Speech by Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs

Home Team Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Very good evening to all of you.

Introduction

2. Today, we celebrate the achievements of more than a thousand Home Team officers.

Challenges for the Home Team

3. Our Home Team officers have the very heavy responsibility of keeping Singapore safe and secure. It is a mission that grows more challenging day by day, every day.

4. The rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have transformed our operating landscape almost entirely. One particular area is scams.

5. Phishing scams, which was the top scam type in the first half of 2025, have become increasingly sophisticated. For example, in December 2024, a member of staff at a local company was deceived into transferring more than SGD 1.4 million of the company’s funds to various scam accounts. The scammers had used digital manipulation to impersonate a high-ranking executive from the victim’s company, in a video call about a completely fictitious project. The victim then made several fund transfers from the company’s accounts for the project.

6. This, and many other cases like this, many more accounts using AI – Scammers create convincing deepfake photos and videos, and craft scam messages at scale with very minimal grammatical errors, and they look and sound even emotionally like someone has written it, who is close to you.

7. It makes it very hard to differentiate them from bona fide content. What once required substantial resources and expertise, can now easily be created by scammers armed with just very basic technical skills and widely available AI tools.

8. AI is also emerging as an enabler of terrorism. We have seen cases, in Singapore, of radicalised youths using AI to facilitate terrorism-related activities.

9. In September 2024, a 17-year-old Singaporean ISIS supporter, who had since been detained by ISD, had used AI to generate a declaration of armed jihad against non-Muslims, to inspire other Muslims in Singapore to similarly commit to engaging in armed violence.

10. In March 2025, ISD detained a 17-year-old far-right extremist, who had searched for instructions on an AI chatbot, on how to produce ammunitions. The youth had wanted to procure firearms for attacks against Muslim worshippers at five local mosques.

11. Terrorist elements exploit AI tools to generate radical online propaganda, and in this space, the youths are especially vulnerable, as they spend a significant amount of time online, and they can easily fall prey to radical, emotive narratives if they do not receive proper guidance and education. So this is the challenging, evolving landscape in which the Home Team operates.

Our Officers Are at the Core of Our Success

12. And yet, despite this, Singapore remains one of the safest countries in the world. How do we do this?

13. At the core of the Home Team’s ability to keep Singapore safe and secure, lies our competent officers, both civilians and uniformed officers.

14. Whether it is formulating policies and legislation, responding to emergencies, confronting criminals, guarding against security threats, supporting victims, or guiding those who deserve and are seeking a second chance, our officers uphold a very high standard of professionalism and integrity.

15. Each time they are on the job, we see displays of this utmost integrity and professionalism. In doing so consistently over the decades, they have earned the trust, the confidence and indeed, the respect of Singaporeans.

16. Behind every life saved, every scam disrupted, inmate rehabilitated, or threat neutralised, there stands a Home Team officer who has chosen this path of public service.

Notable Award Recipients

Commendation and Efficiency Medals

17. We are here today to celebrate this good work of our Home Team officers. This year, there are 69 Commendation and 258 Efficiency Medal recipients.

18. Let me just have the liberty to highlight two such recipients.

19. First, Superintendent Tan Kah Wee from ICA – he is the driving force behind the New Clearance Concept project. He has been instrumental in revolutionising Singapore's border clearance system. Immigration clearance times have been sharply reduced, benefiting travellers, and at the same time, the security of our borders remained uncompromised – in fact, enhanced.

20. Ms Karen Wong from SPS – she collaborates closely with community partners to develop initiatives that strengthen inmates’ familial relationships.

21. One such initiative is Project Rekindle. The goal – very simple, to reduce the likelihood of recidivism by rebuilding inmates’ bonds with their family, and their circle of support, ahead of their release. So that when they are released, they go back to the community that cherishes them and that supports them in society.

22. The initiative has been well-received and has made a huge difference to many inmates and their families.

Long Service Medal

23. We also have today 637 officers who have served in the Public Sector for an amazing 25 years and will be receiving the Long Service Medal. Thank you for the many, many years of dedicated service!

24. We saw in the video earlier some personal stories, each of them meaningful in their own ways. I’m sure every one of you carries those stories with you and each of you have your own unique experience, but collectively, this is the experience of Home Team officers.

25. Let me also share one story. One such officer receiving the medial is Assistant Commissioner (AC) Aileen Yap from SPF’s Anti-Scam Command, whose tireless efforts over the years have helped to better protect the public from scams. In fact, I met Aileen when I visited the Anti-Scam Command earlier this year. The passion she has for her work is truly inspiring, and those people who know her will be bowled over by her enthusiasm, her energy.

26. Despite dealing with what is emerging, new threats, novel areas, and therefore you don’t really have a set precedent to fall back on, she is ever obliging and always cheerful in the work that she does, inspiring and leading her subordinates.

27. She spearheaded Project FRONTIER, which is a collaboration between SPF and more than 150 institutions, including financial institutions and online marketplaces, to strengthen fund recovery operations. She was also instrumental in the FRONTIER+ alliance, comprising anti-scam agencies across 12 different jurisdictions, to facilitate real-time intelligence sharing across borders and coordinated enforcement against transnational scams. Between May and June 2025, a FRONTIER+ operation involving six other jurisdictions led to the freezing of over 32,000 bank accounts, arrest of more than 1,800 scammers, and seizure of about USD 20 million.

SCDF Overseas Service Medal

28. Today, we are also honouring 88 SCDF Overseas Service Medal recipients for their deployment to support disaster rescue efforts following the earthquake in Myanmar in March 2025.

29. During the deployment, they faced extremely challenging conditions including extreme heat, structural hazards, being in a completely different terrain and different country, and looking after a different society, the emotional demands typical of disaster response operations – they felt that all.

30. But despite this, the team demonstrated exemplary professionalism and operational effectiveness. Working with the local authorities, they conducted search and rescue operations, including an 8-hour joint rescue operation that successfully saved a victim. Over the 11-day mission, the team searched 26 sites, provided medical aid, and distributed relief supplies. Thank you very much for flying the Singapore flag high. You have done the Home Team very proud.

31. Additionally, let me also give thanks to 28 of the recipients who have undertaken multiple overseas deployments, not just the one that I mentioned in Myanmar. Thank you for your unwavering willingness to answer the call of duty whenever Singapore's assistance is needed.

32. One such recipient is Warrant Officer Azlan. He has been a DART specialist for over ten years. In addition to the Myanmar deployment, he was also in Türkiye in 2023 following the earthquake there, Laos in 2018 to assist with flood relief efforts, and Nepal in 2015 to assist in search and rescue efforts following the earthquake. His experience has proven invaluable in navigating extremely complex operational challenges and also, as you may have heard him say earlier, mentoring young team members.

Closing

33. So once again, to our award recipients, congratulations and thank you very much for the work that you do, exemplifying the best of the Home Team.

34. As I said earlier, each of you have your own stories. Each of you carry your own experience, but I know that each of you carry with you that single-minded determination, that grit, that never-say-die attitude to want to keep Singaporeans safe; and Singapore safe, stable and secure.

35. That makes me very proud to be part of this Home Team serving Singapore and Singaporeans together with each of you. I know you carry with you that sense of mission that collectively will make the Home Team stronger than each of its individual parts, because we are one Home Team.

36. Thank you very much to all of you for your unstinting efforts and your tremendous and exemplary leadership in all that you do.

37. Thank you.