As Singapore prepares to commemorate 60 years of NS in 2027, Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing recently announced that MINDEF is looking at how recognition initiatives such as the NS HOME awards can be made more impactful and more meaningful. MINDEF is also exploring a recognition package for past and present national servicemen.
These measures are important because serving the nation comes with genuine costs.
For an 18-year-old, two years is not an insignificant period of time. It means entering university later than one’s peers, delaying the start of a career, forgoing income, putting personal aspirations on hold, and accepting that certain aspects of military life –e.g., vocation, posting, daily routines that are driven by operational requirements – lies beyond one’s control. These are not imagined concerns, but genuine implications that come with any compulsory system.
So it is unsurprising that conversations about National Service (NS) often revolve around fairness: whether conscription is equitable, whether sacrifices are shared, whether the benefits outweigh the costs. These discussions matter and should continue.
But they also raise another question that may receive far less attention. How do we sustain motivation when participation itself is compulsory?
Many may assume this is an impossible task. If people have no choice but to serve, motivation becomes secondary; compliance is all that matters.
Motivation science says otherwise. Compulsory systems create a paradox: precisely because people cannot opt out, the quality of their experience within the system becomes even more important.
The research points to three conditions under which people stay highly committed even in structured environments. They understand the purpose of what they are doing, they feel capable of doing it well, and they feel respected by the people around them.
This distinction matters, because compliance and commitment are not the same thing. Rules can ensure attendance, but they cannot require someone to mentor a struggling teammate, maintain high standards when no one is watching, volunteer for additional responsibilities, or speak well of an institution years after leaving it. Those behaviours emerge from commitment, not compulsion.
NS illustrates the gap particularly well.
TWO KINDS OF LEGITIMACY
In 2023, the Institute of Policy Studies found that public support for NS remains remarkably strong. Some 98 per cent of respondents agreed that NS is necessary for Singapore’s defence; 93 per cent said that they would support compulsory NS even if there is no immediate threat to Singapore. More strikingly, 88 per cent said they would encourage friends or loved ones to serve even if NS were voluntary.
Yet the same study recorded a decline. The proportion who saw NS as useful for learning skills relevant to civilian employment fell from 82 per cent in 2013 to 71 per cent in 2022.
Taken together, these findings tell an interesting story. Singaporeans continue to believe in why NS exists. At the same time, expectations about how National Service should be experienced are likely evolving.
More fundamentally, these findings point towards two different forms of legitimacy that every compulsory institution has to sustain.
The first is institutional legitimacy – whether society believes the institution itself is necessary. By this measure, National Service continues to enjoy broad public support.
The second is experiential legitimacy (or legitimacy-as-feeling) – whether the people who pass through the institution feel respected, developed, fairly treated and genuinely valued. It is earned one interaction at a time, and it is considerably more fragile.
THE EVERYDAY LEADERSHIP TEST
Few servicemen develop lasting commitment because of slogans or ceremonial speeches. Instead, they would remember the commander who stayed behind to coach someone who was struggling; the officer who admitted a mistake instead of shifting blame; the supervisor who explained the rationale behind a difficult decision instead of simply invoking rank.
These moments rarely attract public attention, yet they often shape how people remember NS long after they have ORD-ed.
From a psychological perspective, this is unsurprising. Human beings naturally reciprocate how they are treated. When people experience fairness, respect and genuine concern, they become more willing to trust, to cooperate and to give more than is the minimum.
This is why everyday leadership matters so much in a compulsory system. There is a meaningful difference between saying, “Those are the rules,” and saying, “I understand why this matters to you, And here is why we cannot approve it this time”. The outcome may be identical, but the experience is not.
BEYOND ENFORCING OBLIGATIONS
Singapore has increasingly recognised that sustaining motivation in NS requires more than simply enforcing obligations.
Following a series of tragic training fatalities in 2018 and 2019, the SAF strengthened its safety governance, reinforced independent oversight and placed greater emphasis on organisational learning and accountability. Operationally, these reforms were about safety. Psychologically, they carried a larger message, that every serviceman’s well-being matters.
The same logic runs through continued investments in servicemen’s growth, development, transition support. SkillsFuture@NS supports education and employment transitions post-Full Time NS; the refreshed Medical Classification system allows servicemen to contribute more effectively to, and provide more opportunities for servicemen to pursue and fulfil their aspirations, in NS. These efforts reflect an understanding that motivation is influenced not only by what organisations expect of people, but also by how organisations demonstrate that people matter.
None of these initiatives removes the inherent opportunity costs of National Service, nor should they be expected to. After all, the objective is not to make compulsory service feel voluntary, but to ensure that the experience of serving reinforces, rather than diminishes, the willingness to contribute.
As Singapore confronts demographic change, public health challenges and an increasingly uncertain world, we will continue to rely on institutions that ask citizens to shoulder responsibilities for the collective good.
The success of these institutions will depend not only on good policies or effective enforcement, but also on whether they earn the trust and commitment of the people within them. Perhaps that is a lesson worth reflecting for NS60.
Mike Hou is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies Social Lab, National University of Singapore.
He is the principal investigator of an ongoing IPS Study on Attitudes towards NS.