Won't work - not when the SAF is a military organization, &
every enlistee is foremost a soldier.
For your suggestion to work (in the Singapore context), we'll need
to legally exempt such citizens from being drafted anywhere under
the Total Defence umbrella. Which is actually feasible if we want
it, given how we haven't conscripted women & older permanent
residents. 400 athletes are also a minuscule compared to the SAF's
250,000 (50,000 active/regular), the SCDF's 30,000 (24,700
active/regular), & Home's 34,000 (12,000 active/regular).
But how would you "replenish" the 400 as an ongoing process,
instead of it being rendered a one-off enlistment? You can't
realistically prescribe a short 2-year stint as if it's a mass
factory, & if you keep adding 400 more every couple of years,
there'll be an exponential increase in numerical numbers - to no
end.
