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Singapore: The
appointment of Brigadier-General Ravinder Singh, a Sikh, as the
next chief of the Singapore Army is the culmination of a long
tradition of the community serving in uniform, both as policemen
and in the armed forces, in the city-state.
Their role in Singapore belies their small number: There are only
an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Sikhs in Singapore, a nation of five
million people.
Their number is small even when compared to 100,000 Sikhs living
in Malaysia. Sikhs came to this part of Southeast Asia as soldiers
and policemen during the British era.
Brig. Gen. Singh will replace Major-General Chan Chun Sing as army
chief March 25.
Singh, 46, currently deputy secretary (technology) in the defence
ministry, was previously commanding officer, 3rd Signal Battalion;
commander, 2nd Singapore Infantry Brigade and assistant chief of
general staff (plans); head joint communications and information
systems department.
He has also held the posts of head joint plans and transformation
department; commander 6th Division and chief of staff - joint
staff.
Singh holds a Master of Arts (Engineering Science) from the
University of Oxford, Britain. He also holds a Master of Science
(Management of Technology) from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, US.
He joined the Singapore Armed Forces in December 1982. Brig Gen
Singh is also the first non-Chinese Chief of Army in nearly 30
years.
Colonel Mancharan Singh Gill was the first ever when he took up
the post in 1982, the report said.
The first Sikh to go to the Malacca Straits region was a political
prisoner from British India. Although no records exist, he was
Maharaj Singh, exiled to Singapore by the British after the Second
Sikh War in 1849, according to web site www.sikhnation.com.
The first wave of Sikhs to land in Singapore came in the form of
sepoys (policemen) recruited in India to help keep the peace and
put down the Chinese gang wars. In 1873, Captain Speedy recruited
110 Sikhs for service in Perak (in Malaysia). This band was known
as the Perak Armed Police.
More arrived in 1881 as a group of 165 from Punjab, India who were
employed as policemen in the Straits Settlements Police Force.
Eventually, the numbers increased and became a 500-member Sikh
Contingent of the Straits Settlements Police Force.
Most Sikhs started out as policemen, soldiers, and guards. By
1896, the force numbered 900 and was renamed the Malay States
Guides with Walker as their first Colonel.
Religion is an integral part of the daily life of a Sikh. When the
first batch of Sikhs was brought to Singapore by the East India
Company as policemen, a temple was built for them at Pearl's Hill
Barracks. The contingent was disbanded after World War II,
according to www.heritagetrails.sg, a Singapore web site.
When India and Pakistan attained independence, many Sikhs uprooted
from their homes migrated to this region.
Bilvir Singh, a professor at National University of Singapore,
writing in "Framing the Sikhs in Singapore's National Mainstream",
notes "the positive impression the political elites, colonial and
post-colonial, had of the Sikhs, their way of life, their
attributes and, more importantly, of their anticipated role in
Singapore".
"For the British colonialists, the near non-stop sacrifice by Sikh
soldiers in British and non-British India, greatly endeared the 'turbanator'
to the British.
"In Singapore, one only needs to visit the Kranji War Memorial to
have a small glimpse of the legendary sacrifices and gallantry of
the Sikhs. Similarly, Sikh policemen, especially in the
cantonment, greatly assisted in maintaining law and order in the
many difficult times."
In the present-day Malaysia, according to Sikhnet, it is widely
accepted that Sikhs played a significant role in the British
Indian Army. They impressed the British officers with their
fearsome, martial persona and adept ability at mastering the
drill.
The 'proud Sikh soldier' and his various attributes prompted
British administrators of Malaya and the Straits Settlements to
consider the Sikhs as an appropriate racial category to recruit
from for the para-military policing needs of the Malayan Native
States and the Straits Settlements. The Sikh presence was
effective, in the opinion of the British, in intimidating the
Chinese secret societies and deterring the activities of the other
'Eastern criminal classes'.
The Sikhs not only served in India but also served in the British
army in China, Burma and the other British colonies. Their success
in China can be seen from the fact that after an agreement was
signed Tienstin, several Sikhs were given the term "honors of
war".
According to Malaysian blogger Normizan Nordin, among the teams
that got this award is The First Sikh Cavalry and two infantry
regiments of Punjab. Hence, Sikhs have been monopolising the field
of employment in the security forces since the 1870s until the
Second World War in Malaya.
Their involvement in the security field in Malaya indirectly has
received recognition from the government.
Contribution of Sikhs in the security forces in Malaya and now the
Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) is an important appraisal of the
Malaysian society, says Nordin.
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