Army’s Recruitment Ad too “Cina”?

The Singapore Armed Forces has long been wrongly-perceived to favour only the Chinese in its ranks. Its latest recruitment ad does no justice to this notion.

When I tell friends that I served in the army while doing my National Service, most of them will give a reaction that hovers between bewilderment and disbelief.

“How come you managed to serve in the army? I thought most of your kind usually ends up in the Police Force?”

I don’t blame them for harbouring this discernment. Singapore’s armed forces have long been thought to be out of bounds for the country’s Malays. Many are convinced that due to the proximity of the island to a host of Muslim countries including Malaysia, the Government is taking the precautionary measure of limiting the number of Malays who could operate its arsenal of sophisticated weapons.

In fact the perception is so widespread that former Indonesian President BJ Habibie once threw down a derogatory remark on the dismal number of Muslims in Singapore’s armed forces.

The latest army recruitment advertisement does not help in dispelling this misconception.





Featuring on TV for the past few weeks, the ad starts of with visuals of warriors in ancient China livery who looked liked they just walked out of a terracotta tomb – complete to the beat of Chinese drums and music. It ends off with some Mandarin sounding psyche chants and the narration, “Some things never change. Our army will always have the steel within”.

To the casual viewer, this may seem like a frivolous rant. It’s just an ad that is meant to capture the imagination of our young men who could be lured to serve in the army. It just so happens that these targeted young men are currently obsessed over medieval war movies and sword fighting. Marketing-wise, visuals of an ancient Chinese army could be deployed to best do the trick.

But what if the Singapore Civil Defence Force featured its own recruitment ad featuring nothing but Malay lads fighting fires to the beat of Malay rock music? Would not the whole nation take notice and cry discrimination? (Although an ad like that would not be too far off from the reality in our fire stations)

That is exactly how some in the minority races feel about this latest ad. It may be a good idea for people in marketing to consider such “trivial” sensitivities every now and then.

Of course I do not expect the army to show visuals of a multi-cultural ancient army wearing Chinese armour and Songkok*, marching to the beat of Chinese drums and Dondang Sayang**. But in the backdrop of our multi-racial society, a culturally-neutral approach would be best suited for anything that requires mass-consumption, especially on a media like national television.

But I think BJ Habibie would be thrilled with the idea of the Songkok.



*What BJ Habibie is wearing on his head in the photo above.
**Traditional old Malay folk music that works better than sleeping pills.