Many may never know the motivations or would even sadly attempt make twisted attempts to denigrate our Minister of Defense & twist it out of proportions....
1. As the vaunted MinDef Minister, he has a CRITICAL role to ensure that our military forces are READY & PREPARED ANYTIME for emergencies, and has the RIGHT to ENTER ANY Military base in our country - local or foreign, by himself in or out of uniform, or those whom had been authorized to do so..
2. He would usually enter at the gates, unlike our Commandos whom will TEST military defenses & critical sites officially sanctioned by MinDef, to ENSURE that SECURITY is well managed & also to gather information on the shortcomings so that we can all IMPROVE, as such bases would have critical equipment for Singapore. They would NEVER enter by the gates but only by stealth....Thus being Prepared is better than cure....
At the gates, even if he or his authorized personnel are not in uniform, there would be a Guard Commander whom will verify his status, not just because he looks like our Defense Minister. IC would need to be produced, & even that, the Base Commander on night duty would be INFORMED for further verifications before he, regardless of who he is, is allowed to enter.
It is only common protocol, to approach from the gates, as we are a Civilian Military, and many of our citizen soldiers serving National or Full Time National service are not born out of a vacuum, and there may be situations that family members are unable to reach them in a time of crisis, & thus, only after FULL verification, would they be allowed in & assisted in every possible manner to assist them to find their kindred in camp in order for them to be aware of a family crisis on hand.
Our soldiers would not shoot on site, unless calm procedures are not adhered to by those whom have far nefarious agendas....