MHA Scholarship & Sponsorship Ceremony 2025 – Speech by Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs

To our award recipients,

To the family members and guests,

And to my Home Team colleagues,

Introduction

1. Good afternoon. Welcome to this afternoon’s MHA Scholarship and Sponsorship Ceremony.

2. Today, we will be awarding awards to 128 Home Team officers, and this comprises,

(a) 84 officers will be pursuing undergraduate studies,

(b) with another 44 pursuing postgraduate studies.

3. In addition, seven Home Team officers will be receiving book prizes for their outstanding academic achievements in the Singapore University of Social Sciences’ Public Safety and Security programme.

4. I want to say that these awards are a testament of our belief in your potential to contribute at a higher level with the Home Team, and in bigger ways in the future.

5. So I ask you all to join me to show our heartiest congratulations to all our award recipients.

Security Challenges Impacting Singapore

6. In recent years, security challenges have been rapidly evolving. This is due to technological advancements, and also very quickly changing global dynamics.

7. For example, online scams remain a very persistent and widespread threat.

(a) In 2024, Singaporeans lost over $1 billion to scams.

(b) These malicious actors mostly operate from beyond our shores and constantly change and evolve their tactics to avoid detection, and this includes the use of new technologies, making them harder to detect and guard against.

8. Second, artificial intelligence, such as in the form of deepfakes, is increasingly being misused by foreign actors to spread misinformation and disinformation.

(a) Such foreign interference and influence campaigns can also undermine political autonomy, and put stress on societal fault lines.

(b) This, in turn, threatens our internal stability and security, and also undermines the hard-earned peace and harmony that we enjoy in the Singapore society.

9. Third, the post World-War II international order, as you all know, is being increasingly upended.

(a) Some of the assumptions that we grew up with about world order and world security are being challenged. We are seeing rising nationalist sentiments, and more countries acting on their own, acting in their own interests, unilaterally, putting domestic interests ahead of global interests,

(i) And also acting in a manner against once-accepted norms of international conduct and behaviour.

(b) This in turn can affect our ability to cooperate across jurisdictions to combat transnational security threats like cybercrime and also, more importantly, for us in Singapore, facing the growing scourge of drug trafficking.

(c) It can also disrupt supply chains, and hence affect the provision of essential services.

10. These are just some examples of how our operating landscape is quickly changing, very rapidly evolving, and underscores for us how much more we have to respond to get ourselves ready to deal with these threats.

Investing in Our People

11. At the same time, there is a timely reminder that the Home Team cannot stand still.

12. We have been doing a good job so far:

(a) Singapore was ranked second by Gallup for Law and Order and by the World Justice Project for Order and Security in 2024.

(b) In a survey conducted by MHA late last year,

(i) 94% of Singaporeans rated the Home Team’s performance in keeping Singapore safe and secure favourably, and

(ii) 92% of Singaporeans trusted our officers to carry out their duties professionally, fairly and with integrity.

(iii) These very high levels of public confidence and trust in the Home Team are an improvement of about five percentage points from the surveys conducted pre-COVID.

13. But to continue to do well, year after year, and no matter what new challenges our operating landscape presents to us, the key is to invest heavily in the development and growth of our officers.

14. In fact, we invest in them from the very day that they join us –

(a) Through the Home Team Competency Framework, we build our officers’ competencies in a comprehensive, structured and a very systematic way.

(b) We enable their professional development as they progress along their career,

(i) supported by training roadmaps and milestone courses, including tradecraft and leadership training.

(c) We also support our good performing officers in their academic pursuits with scholarships and sponsorships. We want to see, for you to see, that there is a career progression and a strong career path for you at MHA

(i) so that all of you gain more knowledge in areas relevant to all of the Home Team’s work.

(d) This includes a new postgraduate scholarship launched last year – called the “Emerging Skills Scholarship”.

(i) The scholarship supports our officers keen on acquiring capabilities in emerging areas that are across the entire Home Team spectrum.

(ii) Presently, these are: Artificial Intelligence, Digitalisation, User Experience and User Interface Design, as well as Data Analytics.

(iii) Five officers have been awarded the scholarship and two of them are pursuing their studies this year.

(e) In addition, we offer a Work Study Diploma to individuals who aspire to join the Home Team as a uniformed officer.

(i) Officers can attend classes on selected days while performing shift work in their respective Home Team Department on other days, giving you the degree of flexibility.

(ii) By the end of this year, close to 300 officers would have commenced on their Work Study Diploma.

• While they are studying, they are also at the same time, performing roles in the Home Team as Police Land Division officers, firefighters and paramedics, and also as immigration clearance officers.

Award Recipients’ Stories

15. Supporting our officers in their academic pursuits, upgrading themselves, is critical in building a committed, motivated and skilled workforce – one that the Home Team strongly relies on.

16. Let me now share some stories of some of our recipients today.

(a) First, Muhammad Faizal Bin Baharin from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB)

(i) started his career with CNB as a junior officer after his GCE ‘O’ Levels.

(ii) A believer in lifelong learning, Faizal took up MHA’s sponsorships to pursue his part-time diploma and degree.

• He has since risen in the ranks and is a senior officer today.

(iii) But he continues to challenge himself, and wants to upgrade himself, and is receiving the MHA Postgraduate Sponsorship to pursue a Master of Science in Strategic Studies at the Nanyang Technological University.

(b) Second, Jane Ang Hui Min from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

(i) Jane was awarded the Home Team Diploma Sponsorship in 2017,

(ii) and went on to serve ICA in the frontline after she graduated.

(iii) Today, she is awarded the MHA Degree Scholarship and will be pursuing a Bachelor of Business Management at the Singapore Management University.

(c) Third, we have Ng Liang Jie, a Police officer awarded the inaugural Emerging Skills Scholarship.

(i) He will be pursuing a Master of Information Technology in Business at the Singapore Management University, specialising in Digital Transformation.

Concluding Remarks

17. These three are just three examples of the range of talent that we have and the diversity of pursuit of academic studies that they will be embarking on.

18. And for all our officers receiving awards today, this is an invaluable opportunity for you to pick up new skills, new knowledge, push the frontier and boundary of your existing knowledge and gain new skills.

19. At the same time, it is also an opportunity to broaden your horizons, moving from a full work environment into one where you come to study, meet other people, meet different people from different background, fellow Singaporeans, and for you to gain new perspectives as you study.

20. It is also therefore a time for your own personal growth and an opportunity to expand your network of contacts.

21. On this note, I wish all of you a fruitful and rewarding time during your studies, and I look forward to your return to MHA in due course, to help us with our mission of keeping Singapore safe and secure.

22. Remember, many Singaporeans rely on all of you, and this is the true mission that keeps us all united.

23. Before I finish, I want to add my congratulations to the many family members. We know that the work we do is tough, force you away from family and home very often, and we want to thank all family members of our Home Team officers who strongly, consistently, and without any hesitation, support the work of our officers so strongly.

24. Thank you very much to all of you and enjoy this afternoon’s ceremony.