Former Singapore intelligence chiefs describe SID’s work
In Singapore, former heads of the Ministry of Defence’s Security and Intelligence Division (SID) spoke to journalists for the first time about the service’s work, its changes over six decades and countering external threats. SID, founded in 1966, marks its 60th anniversary this year. As Channel NewsAsia reports, the discussion included former service director Eddie Teo, former chief of staff Kevin Santa Maria and former senior director for counter-terrorism Ng Kah Meng.
According to Santa Maria, SID does not consider its officers spies: the service gathers information and prepares assessments for the government. Its main task, according to the former officials, is to inform the country’s leadership about threats to Singapore and provide objective and accurate intelligence assessments.
From geopolitics to counter-terrorism
Initially, SID was a small group that analysed the geopolitical situation and later developed into an intelligence service. Teo, who worked at the agency from 1970 and headed it from 1979 to 1994, named the activities of the Communist Party of Malaya and the risk that the consequences of unrest in Kuala Lumpur could spread to Singapore among the early challenges.
He also initiated the creation of a small group within SID to study terrorist threats. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the service stepped up its counter-terrorism work and prepared assessments for the Cabinet on the origin and nature of this threat. That same year, Singaporean authorities conducted an operation against the Jemaah Islamiyah network, which, according to the publication, foiled several planned attacks in the country.
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New challenges and personnel policy
The former chiefs noted that since the beginning of the 2000s, alongside organised terrorist networks, the threat posed by self-radicalised lone actors has increased. At the end of July, Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD) reported the detention of three such teenagers; two of them had planned attacks on schools.
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said at a closed event marking SID’s anniversary that the boundaries between security, economic and technology issues are increasingly blurring. He stressed that trade, investment, supply chains and access to technology are increasingly being used as instruments of state policy.
In 2021, SID launched a website to recruit specialists, after which the number of applications from young graduates and experienced professionals increased by 50%, Santa Maria said. He also noted that work at the service may involve 12- to 15-hour workdays, while employees from legal, media and communications fields have broadened the service’s professional experience.
