Goh Keng Swee on the Kind of Armed Forces Needed to Defend Singapore

"You are a Prime Minister but you have no army. How are you going to defend yourself?"

— Goh Keng Swee to Lee Kuan Yew, who had wanted a small part-time, low-cost militia

Goh Keng Swee understood that such a tiny force would be useless as a defence force. Thinking in terms of multi-period dynamics, he conceptualized a system where, each year, men of a certain age group would undergo full-time training and thereafter be part of a reserve force which would have their skills periodically refreshed. Should the need arise, an additional force perhaps more than five times the size of the full-time force might be called upon in the defence of Singapore.

Attribution: The above quote was lifted from The New Paper's Founding Fathers series.