Ministry of Interior and Defence

The Ministry of Interior and Defence (MID) was a ministry of the Government of Singapore. It was established in 1965, with Goh Keng Swee as the inaugural minister. The ministry was responsible for both internal and external security, controlling both the police force and the armed forces.^[1]

As the differences between the police force and the armed forces became more defined, the ministry was eventually split into the current Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home Affairs on 11 August 1970.^[1]

List of ministers[]

The ministry was previously headed by the Minister for the Interior and Defence, who was appointed as part of the Cabinet of Singapore.

Minister	Term	Ref.
Goh Keng Swee	9 August 1965 – 16 August 1967	^[2]
Lim Kim San	17 August 1967 – 10 August 1970

Legacy[]

A legacy of the ministry can be found in the vehicle registration plates of vehicles belonging to the Singapore Armed Forces,^[1] bearing "MID".

References[]

^ ^a ^b ^c Germaine Foo-Tan (7 November 2003). "1965 - The Ministry of Interior and Defence". History Snippets. Singaporean Ministry of Defence (MINDEF). Archived from the original on 26 June 2007. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
^ Stolarchuk, Jewel (7 October 2018). ""He deserves just as much credit as LKY does" – Singaporeans commemorate Goh Keng Swee's 100th birth anniversary – The Independent News". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 December 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2020.

[MID1-1] Germaine Foo-Tan (7 November 2003). "1965 - The Ministry of Interior and Defence". History Snippets. Singaporean Ministry of Defence (MINDEF). Archived from the original on 26 June 2007. Retrieved 16 July 2011.

[2] Stolarchuk, Jewel (7 October 2018). ""He deserves just as much credit as LKY does" – Singaporeans commemorate Goh Keng Swee's 100th birth anniversary – The Independent News". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 December 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2020.

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