FITNESS OF RESERVISTS

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Encik Abbas Abu Amin asked the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence what his Ministry has done to improve the fitness of reservists,

The Minister of State for Defence and Trade and Industry (BG Lee Hsien Loong) (for the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence): Mr Speaker, Sir, keeping fit is the reservists' own responsibility. Mindef can only check on how well they are doing it. An unfit soldier is a danger to himself and a liability to his unit. He will not last in war.

Mindef tests the physical fitness of reservists by requiring them to take the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) every six months. The passing rate over the past three years has been 90%, creditable but not good enough.

Beginning from January, 1984, reservists who pass particularly well need take their next IPPT only 12 months later. That means those who do well, take it once a year; those who do not do so well, take it twice a year. Mindef can be confident that the ones who do well do not just practise for a few weeks to pass the test, but know how to keep fit throughout the year. About one-third of the reservists are achieving this. Also, the 8% who score outstanding results are awarded certificates of merit. These moves encourage -reservists to develop keep-fit habits.

Reservists who achieve only the minimum standards will continue to take the IPPT twice a year. Persistent failures have to attend Residential Training in Pulau Tekong for seven days, in addition to their normal in-camp training. Residential training is a draconian physical fitness regime. It is meant to deter slackening, and to teach reservists the importance of keeping fit at all times. In 1983, about 9,600 reservists went through residential training. In 1984, the number dropped to about 5,500. It appears that reservists are taking the IPPT more seriously.

To help reservists keep themselves fit, Mindef has installed 23 sets of keep-fit apparatus at community centres, sports complexes, and fitness parks; organizes keep-fit classes for reservists and members of the public at 12 selected community centres; and conducts Basic and Advanced Physical Fitness Courses for volunteer youth leaders in community centres, who will subsequently organize physical fitness activities on their own. In addition, the Singapore Armed Forces Reservists' Association (SAFRA) runs a health club at the Bukit Merah SAFRA Clubhouse.

A public opinion survey late last year found that about 30% of Singaporeans doubted the physical fitness of reservists, nearly one-third. The young were even more doubtful. Half of those aged 27 and below, many of whom would have been reservists themselves, were not satisfied with reservist fitness standards. Probably the standards they had in mind were higher. It is clear that the reservists themselves will have to convince the public that they are physically fit.

Encik Abbas Abu Amin (Pasir Panjang): Sir, could the Minister of State clarify on the obese situation in the SAF, and what remedial actions are being taken to further improve the physical fitness of these affected personnel?

BG Lee Hsien Loong: Mr Speaker, Sir, when we talk about obese people, the people who are overweight, there are two groups. There is a group who are overweight while doing their full-time national service, aged 18 and 19. They are put through a more gradual form of basic military training to bring them up to their full physical potential. But, eventually, they must reach that physical standard. Then there is the question of reservists who have become obese a number of years after active national service. I think the second category is, in the long term, a more serious problem, because the reservists really have to solve this problem themselves. We can ensure that it becomes uncomfortable for them to remain unfit, by making sure that they take the physical fitness test twice a year, by making sure that they pass, and if they do not pass, we bring them to Pulau Tekong. I think those Members who have had reservists come to them at Meet-the-People sessions, begging not to go to Pulau Tekong, will understand what is in store for these reservists.