"Operasi Pukul Habis" - National Day 1991. Malaysia plays a prank on Singapore

 

Comments on the video:

"I was aware of this Silent Call Up back then through my contacts. Yet, I was quietly unfazed concluding like LKY later said...it was a Joint Exercise to test us and especially to scare ( CON in his words ) us. Purpose ? To tell us we are at the bottom of the pecking order in this region. BIG boys of the kampong bullying and intimidating small boy. But they forgot this small boy has grown up with multiple martial arts skills...that can deliver an instant KO punch to any potential kampong bullies. So all was a Hollywood dramatic show directed by an old kambing across the straits...and his foolish partner nearby."

"Not only did the Malaysian and Indonesians not intimidate us, the speed at which we could mobilized our troops actually intimidated the Malaysian military top brass instead. This should serve as a reminder of how vulnerable we are. There were talk by some of the opposition some years back if we maintain a good relationship with our neighbors we don't need to have national service. Thanks to Mahathir regaining PMship of Malaysia a while back, this naïve thinking has since disappear"

"This is real. I was in the Air Force but I was stationed in US. We were told to be prepared to deploy with our full assets. All aircraft were prepared to fly back with configuration for long distance flying. Our commander briefing was a short but tense one. But we are ready to be deployed within 12hours. Eventually, we stand down after National day. It was only after we stand down, we knew that every military personal and every assets in Singapore was put on high alert, with fully armed weapons on army, navy and air force. At that time, our air force is still flying the F5s, A4s and the older F16s..More than 20yrs pasted, we moved from defense to offensive. Our F15s, F16CD and F16D+ aircraft are not for defending…….even those in the air force doesn’t know what are those equipment inside the dosel of F16Ds…. It’s always a reminder that we have to be prepared against anyone and anytime."

"I was having bmt in Pulau Tekong. No wonder my platoon sergeant, even though a Malay, told all of us to ready for an imminent attack by Malaysia and Indonesia. We thought it was a joke. Even recruits like us were kept alert. I remembered seeing reservists coming on the island. Not sure was that a silent mob."

"My uncle was in a armour unit that was activated then. Initially he was pissed off to get call up on a national holiday. Went back to camp to draw weapons, draw armoured vehicles and draw ammunition. He said in all his years in NS and Reserve, he has never seen so much ammunition being drawn out and loaded into the armoured vehicles. He really thought something might just happened that night. As a fellow NS man, we all will complain about ICT etc. But I know deep down, every man wearing that uniform knows the importance of what we are doing but we hope we never have to use what have been trained to do."

"Great content. In case it seems like my comments below are critical, that is not my intent. Just wanted to add some info. 

1:17, reasons why Singapore saw this wargame as a threat. To add: (4) Lack of notification. When countries conduct wargames, they would, as a matter of courtesy and prudence, inform their neighbours so that the neighbour would not be unduly worried, or respond inappropriately (like launch a counter attack). Malaysia did not inform Singapore. Interestingly, Indonesia let slip the information to Singapore. Which was nice of them. (5) 2:05 "The purpose of the exercise was to test the response of Malaysia and Indonesia in case a neighbouring country turned hostile." Hmmm.... I wonder which neighbouring country might they mean? Those dastardly Filipinos? The cunning Thais? Surely, they cannot mean sweet, innocent little Singapore? Oh but they left Singapore out of the wargame. That's telling.... I THINK THEY MEANT SINGAPORE! (6) New PM. In 1991 Goh Chok Tong had just taken over from Lee Kuan Yew as PM of Singapore. Meanwhile in Malaysia, Mahathir was still holding onto power and trying to catch up with Singapore/Lee Kuan Yew. While Lee Kuan Yew was PM, Mahathir would NEVER have tried to do a "Pukul Habis" or he would be the one to "habis". BUT.... with a new PM.... Mahathir (or Malaysia) wanted to test the new PM. See if he was as tough as LKY... Two things might happen. One, Goh Chok Tong panics and attacks Malaysia, or Two, Goh Chok Tong folds under pressure and LKY has to step back up as PM. Unfortunately (for Mahathir), PM Goh got advice from his generals and his ministers. And I suspect classified intelligence briefing as to the real intent of the wargames. PM Goh would be right to be reasonably sure that no attack is imminent, and that it was just an attempt to startle us. But he also went with his generals' advice to conduct mobilisation. 

National Day was a particularly vulnerable time for Singapore. The entire govt was gathered in one place. Singapore is small, and the site of the wargame was just minutes away by jet fighters. A consolidated attack could wipe out our entire govt. I am sure there were contingency plans for evacuating the Ministers in case of an attack, and emergency bomb shelters or makeshift shelters and evacuation plans. 

1991 was a particularly "vulnerable" or uncertain year. LKY had handed over PMship to GCT, and this was the formal stepping down of our founding PM. Questions as to the continued viability of Singapore was pertinent. If Malaysia's wargame had panicked GCT into attacking Malaysia the premise of the wargame (at 2:05) "in case a neighbouring country turned hostile" would have been proven and given Malaysia the excuse to counter-attack and possibly re-take Singapore and maybe merge Singapore back into the Federation. At least in the Malaysian military's estimation. On the other hand, if GCT had a meltdown and LKY had to step back up, that would also have been humiliating and throw Singapore's viability and desirability as an investment destination into question. And Malaysia would also win. 

But neither of Malaysia's best and second best scenario emerged. PM Goh did not panic or fall to pieces. Singapore responded professionally, resolutely, and with commendable restraint. In the aftermath, there were some scoffing remarks from Malaysia about why Singapore "panicked" and had a mobilisation. IIRC, PM Goh said something along the lines of "I was not worried, but my generals advise that we should have a mobilisation, as a matter of prudence. So we did. I trust the Malaysians, but I pay my generals a lot, so I should listen to them."

"In early 2019, Malaysia's Malay Daily News conducted a survey across 5 states in Malaysia(Johor, Peneng, Perak, Sabah and Sarawak) and around 58.17% of the hundreds of thousands surveyed mentioned that they do not believe Malaysia will ever dare go to war with Singapore given Malaysia's reliance on Singapore's economy and drinkable water. 31.78% mentioned that they will flee the country in the event if war breaks out between Singapore and Malaysia, showing absolutely no loyalty to the country. However, that is not the most worrying part. The most worrying part is that around 8.52% actually mentioned that they will defect over to Singapore in the event if Singapore were to attack Malaysia and war breaks out. 0.11% mentioned they do not know what to do and only 1.64% mentioned that they will fight for Malaysia. Malay Daily News was surprised by the 8.52% of people considering a defection to Singapore against the 1.64% willing to fight for Malaysia and thus they went on to investigate and found out that most of the people surveyed from the 8.52% were from Johor, Sabah and Sarawak. Further investigations and censored interviews revealed that the people of Johor, Sabah and Sarawak have long considered declaring independence from the Malaysia Federation and so, if Singapore were to attack Malaysia, they will deliberately leak military secrets and plans to Singapore to hasten the defeat of Malaysia in order to gain the perfect opportunity to declare independence. The Crown Prince of Johor also mentioned of such "Johorexit" on more than one occasion. As such, as written in "The Art of War", Singapore have achieved ultimate victory as the war is won even before firing a single bullet or lifting a finger or using any resources at all, Malaysia has already been defeated as Malaysia's fighting force is nearly nonexistent at all. In 2018, in the S.E.A War Games, a 4 star general(I shall not name who) in the Malaysian Royal Air Force also told all the international military journalists that "We got to hand it to them(Singapore)" after getting last in place while Singapore's RSAF got first. For nearly 50 years now, the Malaysian government have been inviting Singapore's RSAF to fly over the whole of Malaysia during Malaysia's Merdeka Day as even such simple feats are not possible for them because of the military scandal a few years ago involving the sudden disappearance of 58 engines for their fighter jets just vanished into the thin air. Leaving only 4 flyable ones and even those are facing maintenance issues as mentioned by the Malaysian Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu in August 2018. Countries around the world invade their neighbouring countries to gain land, Malaysia is the only country in the world that kick land away and return it back to the original owners on 9th of August 1965."

"It was also a violation of the defence treaty between Sg and My that either party must be given 6 months' notice of any major troop exercises within certain geographical boundaries, in My's case, it would be exercises in Johor. Yes, decades have passed but they are no less belligerent, but they are no longer so strong. And thanks to them we now have fighters on patrol 24/7 so slim chances of them trying to send paras into Sg - they will die quickly and SAF will be in Johor hours after that."