Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Dr Garvin Heer­ah has urged the Gov­ern­ment to place na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty at the cen­tre of the up­com­ing bud­get, ar­gu­ing that safe­ty and sta­bil­i­ty are es­sen­tial pil­lars for sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth, in­vestor con­fi­dence, and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

Heer­ah, in a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, said that as the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares to present the 2025–2026 Bud­get, it must re­spond to the re­al­i­ties of an in­creas­ing­ly com­plex geopo­lit­i­cal land­scape, marked by glob­al ten­sions, re­gion­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, and shifts in the glob­al en­er­gy mar­ket. He said that in this en­vi­ron­ment, “the pri­ori­ti­sa­tion of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty must re­main at the heart of na­tion­al plan­ning and de­vel­op­ment.”

“A se­cure na­tion in­spires in­vestor con­fi­dence, sus­tains eco­nom­ic mo­men­tum, and strength­ens in­ter­na­tion­al cred­i­bil­i­ty,” Heer­ah said. “This Bud­get pro­vides an op­por­tu­ni­ty for the Gov­ern­ment to un­veil new strate­gies and ini­tia­tives to mod­ernise and for­ti­fy our na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty land­scape.”

He out­lined five key ar­eas that he be­lieves should re­ceive pri­or­i­ty fund­ing and strate­gic at­ten­tion—bor­der con­trol man­age­ment, re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion, pris­ons mod­erni­sa­tion, per­son­nel wel­fare, and the recog­ni­tion of se­cu­ri­ty as a dri­ver of growth.

On bor­der con­trol man­age­ment, he said the coun­try’s mar­itime and land bor­ders are crit­i­cal to na­tion­al safe­ty and sov­er­eign­ty. He rec­om­mend­ed strength­en­ing sur­veil­lance through ad­vanced tech­nol­o­gy, mar­itime do­main aware­ness sys­tems, in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tions, and im­proved co­or­di­na­tion among agen­cies. He said such an in­te­grat­ed ap­proach is vi­tal to com­bat­ing hu­man traf­fick­ing, arms and nar­cotics smug­gling, and il­le­gal mi­gra­tion.

He added that the morale, mo­ti­va­tion, and wel­fare of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel—in­clud­ing mem­bers of the po­lice, de­fence force, fire ser­vice, pris­ons, im­mi­gra­tion, and in­tel­li­gence units—must be treat­ed as a pol­i­cy pri­or­i­ty. He rec­om­mend­ed the es­tab­lish­ment of a Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Hos­pi­tal ded­i­cat­ed to serv­ing and re­tired of­fi­cers, of­fer­ing trau­ma care, re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, men­tal health sup­port, and post-ser­vice med­ical as­sis­tance.

“This would rep­re­sent a trans­for­ma­tive and com­pas­sion­ate ini­tia­tive,” Dr Heer­ah said. “It would cater to the phys­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and emo­tion­al needs of those who have ded­i­cat­ed their lives to na­tion­al ser­vice. This not on­ly demon­strates grat­i­tude but al­so strength­ens op­er­a­tional readi­ness and in­sti­tu­tion­al pride.”

Heer­ah said the in­te­gra­tion of these ini­tia­tives re­flects a whole-of-gov­ern­ment ap­proach that recog­nis­es se­cu­ri­ty not as an ex­pen­di­ture but as a strate­gic in­vest­ment.