Emergency drill in Singapore..

Last Sunday, 8 January 2006, Singapore launched its largest emergency drill early in the morning. The stimulated bomb and chemical attacks at four MRT stations (Dhoby Ghaut, Toa Payoh, Marina Bay and Raffles Place) and one bus interchange, resulted in 13 train stations being closed and parts of the bus interchange being blocked off, affecting more than 14,000 commuters.

Under the eyes of ministers and top officials, the emergency services practised evacuating victims, hunting for suspects and controlling crowds. I am pleased to note that Singapore had coped well with the 'attack' on the whole, with the effort of all who were involved in the exercise in one way or another. However, we must not hence be self-satisfied because there is still much room for improvement at countering such attacks.

Time and again, Singapore has been cited as a probable terrorist target, and this three-hour enercise was designed to educate the public on how to react if an attack takes place, to test if the different agencies knew their roles and if they could coordinate their activities. Ultimately, it is response of the whole society that will make the difference.

The public, in particular, has a weighty role to play when dealing with terrorist attacks. Being prepared is therefore imperative, so that in an event of a sudden attack, the public will be psychologically set to remain calm, take instructions and react rationally.

In addition to drills to do with terrorist attacks, Singapore should also look into possible exercises to deal with biological threats, for example the outbreak of a pandemic. Parallel to SARS, bird flu is now prevalent in many of our neighbouring countries and hence we should be prepared to handle and ring-fence it quickly should it spread to our country. Moreover, conducting such exercises jointly with our neighbours, like Malaysia and Indonesia, can allow us to test cross-border measures, at the same time forging stronger cooperation and relations which will definitely benefit us in the long run.

All in all, everyone of us should take an active part in helping to prevent such attacks as we go on with our daily lives. A simple act like reporting suspicious characters or unattended parcels can make a great difference to the whole country. At the end of the day, protecting Singapore is equivalent to protecting ourselves. In order to continue declaring Singapore as a fine and safe city, we as citizens have to remain alert and responsible so as to safeguard our homeland.