Ahmad Haleem
Singapore
“Sir, it is a pity that the Hon. Minister has given a very big "No" to my request. But nevertheless, I would like to clarify on the 5.15 gallons. It is for one round. In a grand prix there are 40 circuits and the total consumption is only 206 gallons. It is not very much.”
“They expect other hawkers to draw in business for them so that when business is good, they will then come in. As a result of this attitude we have a lot of vacancies in the new markets. In such an event, we notice that, after a short time, the Housing Board will also adopt the same practice, i.e.”
“Sir, I notice that in the Establishment List under this Subhead, the number of staff has remained constant for FY 77 and FY 78, although we have had several campaigns during this period. The last one was the Safety First campaign held last year after which many motorists and jaywalkers were booked.”
“Sir, earlier this year, I asked and was happy with the answer given by the Senior Minister of State for National Development about a piece of land at the corner of Henderson/Telok Blangah Roads. This piece of land will be cleared of derelict houses and be made into a garden.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would just like the Senior Minister of State to clarify one point. He has said that the HDB is responsible for all defects for the first 12 months. What happens when major structural defects are discovered after the period of 12 months?”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Senior Minister of State has mentioned the expansion of the terminal buildings in four phases. What about the runways? Will the two runways in the 21st century be able to cater for aircraft landing and taking off considering that the peak hours at the airport are between 6.00 p.m. and 10.00 p.m.?”
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Every one of 92 lines we hold for Ahmad Haleem, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 2.
“They should provide facilities for existing residents and not for residents who have not moved in yet. 6.15 p.m. But apart from what I have said, I think the HDB is doing a good job. I would say that if they could look into these small minor matters, it will not spoil the generally good work that they are doing.”
“Sir, I agree with what has already been said by the previous hon. Members about the Housing and Development Board but with over 80,000 applicants on the waiting list I still feel that they have, in fact, done a good job. Apart from the points that have been brought up, there are still many other minor matters which are not being looked into properly. Let me cite a few examples. On one of my visits to a block of flats in Telok Blangah, I came across iron rods sticking out from staircases. In fact, there were five iron rods sticking out in that building alone. I feel that such things should not happen at all, though it is of a minor nature. But during an inspection before acceptance, all these minor faults should have already been taken care of. There is no need for the local Member of Parliament to go round and make a report to the Area Office for necessary action to be taken. All these are minor matters that should not arise and should have been seen to and done with before the residents move in. Some of my constituents came to see me and asked about playgrounds, etc. I usually tell them to be patient. I tell them that it is all in the plan and it is coming up. I always say, "Move in first. Once the estate is ready, the playground will be there for you." One observant constituent said, "Look, you just go and take a ride to Telok Blangah Town centre. There are three point-blocks there. Nobody has moved in yet but there is a playground ready for use. Why is the playground provided in an estate where there are no residents? Yet in our estate where there are residents, no playground is given?" It is very difficult for me to explain when they point out such matters to me. The Housing and Development Board should look into such matters.”
“Sir, the Member for Geylang Serai has mentioned an unauthorised electrical shop, but there are also many other unauthorised businesses, like motor garages, as far as the Building Control Division is concerned. These businesses have been run for more than five years and they do meet the needs of the residents in the area. But now the Building Control Division officials come along and say, "Your business is unauthorised. You have to move out." Usually these officials are very sympathetic and allow them an extension of time and also tell them to find alternative sites. But for most businesses, especially the motor garages which carry out their business in an open ground near the homes of the owners, it is very difficult for them to find an alternative site because they cannot get a site authorised to carry out the business of a motor workshop as all motor workshops are now under control and they have to be resited at specific places and these have to be tendered for. At the same time they cannot get the place because the tender is high. Sir, these businesses, like the motor garages do meet the needs of the residents there, but because they cannot pay the cost, they cannot carry on with the business. May I suggest that perhaps the Building Control Division, in conjunction with other departments, look into this matter to see whether they could allow the business, if it has been in existence for more than five years, on compassionate grounds, to be relocated at another site temporarily, if not permanently, until such time that it can get a proper place to carry out their business, because the owners are usually unable to get a site of their own.”
“Maybe with the introduction of daylight saving, we could save some money for the public and also foreign exchange for Singapore in the costs of the fuel that we import.”
“Sir, I will be coming to it. The reason for the historical background is to point out that, in all these periods where daylight saving had been introduced, it had proved to be able to save power. During the Second World War, daylight saving was again adopted for the purpose of conserving fuel and coal, After the war, many countries continued with daylight saving for the same purpose, mainly the European countries. China and many other countries in the tropics followed, including Ghana, Sarawak, North Korea, Malaysia, and also Singapore. We do have half an hour daylight saving currently in force. If Members are not aware of this, let me explain. The manner in which time zones are calculated is that every 1 5o Longitude equals one hour. Singapore is 103o East Longitude. and so we should be seven hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). If Members check up, they will find that we are instead 7? hours ahead of GMT. Singapore is, therefore, currently saving daylight by half an hour. This was introduced just after the Second World War. Again in 1968 the United Kingdom introduced daylight saving for the whole year round. But after the Yomkipur War, as a way of saving fuel in the United States, in 1974 daylight saving was introduced all year round for the whole nation as an experiment. This stopped in 1975. All I am saying is that daylight saving is nothing new to Singapore. We have had daylight saving. We are still saving daylight presently. I would like to ask if the Hon. Minister for National Development and Communications would investigate and consider further daylight saving if it could usefully conserve fuel. Many members of the public have been complaining about the PUB charges.”
“In my speech during the debate on the Presidential Address, I mentioned daylight saving as a means of power conservation, and I would like to elaborate on this and perhaps give the historical background to daylight saving. In 1784 Benjamin Franklin first proposed daylight saving but it was only in 1 907 that William Willet wrote a small pamphlet called Waste of Daylight. Subsequently, in 1908 Robert Pearce put it up in the British Parliament but it failed. In 1915, Germany became the first country in the world to introduce daylight saving and this was a measure for conservation of fuel and coal. This was followed in 1916 by Great Britain, 1917 by USA and all through the periods between the two world wars -”
“Sir, most of what need to be said has been said. I only want to ask one further question. Could the Hon. Minister give the racial composition, by percentage and in absolute terms, of drug addicts in Singapore? The reason I ask this question is that I have spoken to several parents and they seem to pass the buck. They either say that drug addicts are not from their community or from their racial group. If this can be broken down by racial composition. I think it might help to avoid this "passing the buck".”
“If we can get them to keep to the left, there will be no offence. There is no problem if they drive in the centre lane or the off-side lane of the road if there is no traffic behind them. But if there is a car coming up, they should keep to the left and let that car overtake them because after overtaking the car can get on its way and its travelling time is lessened. If travelling time is lessened, there will be less congestion, and with less congestion there is less frustration, and I am sure there will be less accidents. So can the Minister for Home Affairs conduct a vigorous campaign, hopefully within the next couple of years so that we can rid ourselves of motorists who insisted on driving on the right hand lane or off-side lane. The other matter is the horn. I was in a taxi the other day. There was no traffic to the left and to the right, and no traffic either in front or back. But about every nine seconds (after a while I started timing it) the driver just pipped his horn. A lot of these "neurotic horn pushers", I call them, for no apparent reason keep on pipping the horn. The horn is supposed to be used in an emergency. Right now there is no meaning to the use of the horn because some motorists just use it. If both these problems can be looked into and perhaps stronger action taken, I am sure we will have less congestion on the road and we will have safer roads.”
“Sir, if he overtakes on the left, it is dangerous. He could knock down a cyclist. So he must overtake on the right because our law is to keep left. So he must overtake on the right. But he cannot. He is getting angry, so he overtakes on the left. He goes along the road and he comes across two cars driving abreast and blocking the road. Both were driving below the speed limit. Again he horned and flashed his lights. Neither of the drivers gives way. He gets very angry. Finally one decided to move off. So he overtakes. This goes on and he is confronted with four or five more different offences. It reaches a stage when he gets frustrated. He comes across another offence. This time he just overtakes on the left and there is a motorcyclist. There is a "bang" and he has met with an accident. The poor motorcyclist is killed. He might lose his driving licence or even go to jail. The offenders are the slow drivers who drive in the right-hand lane. Right now we have campaigns such as, "Don't Road Hog" or "Keep in lane", etc. The number of offenders does not seem to decrease, Yesterday, the Senior Minister of State for Communications said that the Points Demerit System might be extended to road hoggers or the number of points might be increased. I welcome this move. I think it is a good idea. For those who have lived in Singapore all their lives and go overseas for only short periods, cannot see this. But for those who have lived overseas for some time and have been driving there, the moment they come back to Singapore they will know that the road condition is good and the traffic condition is much better than any of the major cities around us. This particular offence - drivers not keeping to the left - makes our road condition really bad.”
“Sir, foreign visitors have asked me whether our traffic rules are such that we ask our drivers to keep to the centre of the road. Obviously I have to tell them that traffic should not keep to the centre of the road but they have to keep left. At the moment, all we have to do is to take a short drive and we can locate perhaps 10 to 20 offending drivers keeping to the centre of the road. Let me take Members on a hypothetical journey of a person leaving his office to keep an appointment. He goes on the road and the first thing he comes across is the slow driver who is keeping to the centre of the road, on the off-side lane. If he overtakes on the left he is committing an offence and it is dangerous.”
“Sir, I asked about licences for old people because under the present policy old people without any school going dependants do not qualify for a hawker licence. Sir, these old people have their self-respect and they do not really want to go to the Social Welfare Department to ask for public assistance. All I am asking is, can the Ministry look into the possibility of issuing hawker licences to these old people. To dismiss it outright is a bit unfair.”
“Sir, in view of the reply from the Minister, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.”
“Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head U be reduced by $10 in respect of subhead BBA 1101. Sir, I would like to draw the attention of the Minister to the refuse collection centre located near residences and markets. For most of the day, the place looks all right and there is no smell coming from it. But at certain times of the day when the refuse is being collected by the trucks, the stench is most over-powering. Could the Environment Ministry look into this and perhaps use some odour-killing agent to get rid of the smell as soon as possible after the rubbish has been collected? 6.45 p.m.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir I had intended to speak on sports under what I thought was the correct subhead. But it has already been spoken by the Member for Anson on a previous amendment. I therefore do not wish to move my amendment.”
“e, these licences should not be transferable and that the old people themselves should do the work rather than delegate the job to their children. In this way, they might be able to earn some money for themselves and help to pay for the extras they want, while the children themselves could provide for them the accommodation and food. 3.15 p.m.”
“Sir, I would like to ask the Hon. Minister to consider the old people's plight. Our old people are generally quite proud of their self-respect and they are not really interested in public assistance. And with more and more people moving into Housing and Development Board flats, the old extended family system is breaking down. It is unfair to get the children to support their aged parents all the time because their own income may not be sufficient to give support and the parents themselves feel the same way too. There are many cases of old people in my constituency who feel that it is unfair for them to rely entirely on their children, and I feel that they are quite justified in this feeling. On this problem, I do not think the right answer is to build more old people's homes. But would the Minister perhaps consider giving opportunities for the able old people to at least be partially self-supporting? The Member for Sembawang made a good suggestion yesterday of extending the retirement age. I would qualify that a little by suggesting that the extension should be granted not to everyone but to those whose extension of service will not jeopardise the promotion prospects of the younger staff Apart from this, perhaps in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour, part-time jobs could be obtained for them. And in conjunction with the Ministry of the Environment. perhaps a hawker licence on a co-operative basis could be granted to five or six old people who may be staying in the same block or in two or three blocks and who are willing to run a stall on a co-operative basis. They could be granted a hawker licence with certain safeguards, i.”
“Sir, I am not entirely happy with the answer, but I withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.”
“Sir, I go to the Museum very often. I am aware of the various art exhibitions and that there have been improvements. But what I am saying is that the improvement is just a redistribution of the old exhibits. I remember what it was 20 years ago, and now I see it is the same one redistributed. There was the nyonya exhibit. I went to see the nyonya exhibit and all the art exhibits. What I am saying is that I want to see the history of Singapore as I walk in. That is what I want to see. And that is what my children and other people's children and the students want to see. They do not want to see exhibits one at a time. Do you expect everybody to go and see just the nyonya clothes? Not every one in Singapore could go and see the exhibit four or five times a year. They may be able to go there only once or twice.”
“The other point is that I like to know whether the Ministry proposes to have several museums in Singapore - a science museum, a natural history museum and historical museum. Because I have seen quite a lot of the natural history exhibits being removed. Are we going to have it? If so, where and when is it going to be opened.”
“This will encourage a sense of pride in our achievements. I am sure many people do not really know that Singapore was really much smaller than what it is today. Reclamation was not done only in the last 15 years or so. There were reclamations even before that, like Beach Road which was actually sited on the beach. Such items in our Museum can tell what it was like to be in Singapore. We could show the wild animals in those days, like tigers, wild boars, roaming on this island. We can show visitors what Singapore was before and what it is now. I tried to read about the local content of the Second World War, and I find that all the colonial powers, the mak salehs, get all the publicity of what they did during the war. There was very little written about our own people. How about the Museum telling us, and showing exhibits of what actually happened to Singapore during the war? There were the local celebrities, and the legal system. We can show our famous leaders, judges, lawyers, what they did, and the various personalities who have helped to build Singapore, the big Chinese towkays who created this country. All these are not being shown. When students studying Singapore history go to our National Museum, they should be able after two or three visits to assimilate the knowledge of the whole history of Singapore. Right now, if someone goes there, he learns nothing. Again tourists and floating population can get a look at Singapore in microcosom - everything for them to see, the growth of Singapore, how it grew from a village into a city. My forefathers used to live in Kallang village and they used to work as rollers of rokok daun (leaf cigarettes). All these things and what our forefathers were like could be shown.”
“Sir, I beg to move. That the sum to be allocated for Head Q be reduced by $10 in respect of subhead FAA 1101. Sir, I love to go to the Museum. I have been to the National Museum many times. But, until very recently, the exhibits seem to be the same as they were 20 years ago. In the last couple of years there seemed to be some changes. I saw that money was being spent, and I thought we were going to see something fantastic. But all that I can see is that the old exhibits have been rearranged. They put the exhibits in different places, trying to confuse the public, but with a few additions. Nothing much. I am interested to see what the countries around us are like, what their histroy is like, what happened during the Stone age in Malaya. etc. But I regret to say that there is a lack of exhibits purely of Singapore origin. 160 years ago Singapore was rediscovered. Before that Singapore existed, so it was never founded. It was rediscovered. There is a lot of history before and after this period. And yet when people go to the Museum they see nothing very much about Singapore. Visitors to the Museum expect to see a potted history of our country and yet they do not see any. When they go to the Museum, they want to know who built Singapore. Personalities who are well known in Singapore should be highlighted. And so do our cultures. We are mainly of immigrant stock. Our forefathers came from various countries. Why can we not show in our Museum what Singapore was like when our Chinese, Indian, Malay or Arab forefathers came? How they were dressed, their hairstyles, customs, life-styles, and traditions. These are valuable reminders to our present Nouveau Riche, the new rich generation, of the humble and hard beginnings of our forefathers.”
“The background music was "Jesus Christ Superstar!" This is a Malay programme. The music has no relevance at all. It seems that somebody just picked up a musical record from the library and just played. He did not care what music ought to go with the programme. If they want to make a programme interesting, the background music should create the right atmosphere. There is no atmosphere at all to the local Malay drama programmes. That is probably one of the reasons why local production has failed. One does not anyhow play any music he likes. I hope the Minister will look into this, and it does not cost very much to make an improvement. I do hope the improvements will be evident. 6.15 p.m.”
“If they want to show something, then show exactly where it is. Show an arrow pointing to the town and say. "This is the town of Chulat" or whatever it is. Then we will know. If they just want to show Thailand, they might just as well forget it. Sometimes when listening to a news item, the news reader reads about one topic and in the same breath he or she continues with the next topic, and I say to myself, "What relevance has this item got to the first one?" Suddenly I realise that he or she is on the next news item. Maybe an educational programme or a training could be given. After every topic he or she should wait two or three seconds, and then carry on. Another matter is that the news readers look as though they have just returned from a funeral. There is no smile. They should at least put on a smile. If it is a sombre piece of news, he looks sombre, and if it is a happy news he looks happy. At the end of the programme he says, "That is all for the news tonight. Good night." And smile. But they do not do such a thing. They look as if they are zombies. One last point, Sir, We have this background music. Do not tell me that we have no talent on background music. I think it is not a question of talent but just a simple question of laziness. In every newsreel someone just picks up an LP and just change from one music to another with no regard to what is being shown. I once saw a newsreel showing the tragedy of an earthquake, and the background music was like cowboys fighting with the Red Indians. One day my family was watching a Malay drama programme, and I was speaking to my grandmother. I was there and I was listening. It was a Malay drama programme. It was not a sad programme. Neither was it a happy programme. It was just a normal scene.”
“But there seems to be no such shows of an educational value for our people. They could also use it as a public service. If there is an announcement for a public service, the RTS could put it down on a piece of card and screen it over the TV. But there is nothing on this. Nobody shows any interest. Nobody reads and nobody does anything about it. If they can have a little film to show the people that there is a cultural show coming up, a quick, little excerpt of one or two scenes from the show will create a little interest. All this could be done by RTS. I am sure it will be very well received by the public. I would now like to come to the presentation of news and newsreel. There has been some improvement in the presentation but it still leaves a lot to be desired. They seem to be bankrupt of ideas of presenting the news. You can switch off the TV and listen to the news on radio; it is just the same. All you see on TV is the news reader reading, looking down, now looking up, and quickly looking down again. The news presentation over television should be better than what we get from the radio. If it is the same as on radio, we might as well not have news presentation over TV. They need only say. "For news, please tune in to Radio Singapore." Then the film clips. When they say something about a news item, use the film clip. We do not want to see the same stuff all the time. We have a situation where if something is happening in the Middle East or in a town in Thailand, for example. 140 km out of Bangkok, out comes a map of Thailand, but it shows "Bangkok". But where is this town that is 140 km away from Bangkok? Nobody knows. It just shows a map of Thailand. Where is Bangkok? What is the point? They might as well not show the map. Nobody knows.”
“Sir, I would like to draw the Minister's attention to the use presently made of the intervals between television programmes which are not taken up with advertising commercials. Usually this interval time is about one or two minutes' duration during which nobody wants to advertise. This interval is normally filled in with films on fishes, flowers or girls singing songs of Singapore. That is all right. But if you keep on seeing it four times a day, it becomes monotonous. I suggest that to stimulate interest - the Member for Toa Payoh said there was no attraction to coming programmes - the RTS make a 10 or 15-second extract of the programmes that are to be shown later in the evening, the next day or the next week. This is just like the Akan Datang in the cinema. In this way it will stimulate interest. The title of a programme might not appear to be very interesting, but if the TV could show something interesting in Akan Datang more people might watch the programme. And if advertisers think that more people will watch the programme, they will want to advertise, and therefore there is more revenue for the RTS. Maybe the Tamil programme might then not be so badly victimised. There will be more money and the local TV production might benefit from this. Apart from the extracts, I think the RTS could show more filmlets. I think they do a very good job with the "Save Water" campaign where we see Bobo, the elephant, saving water. The same thing could be done for the campaign against drugs. We also have the police campaigns such as "Don't road hog" and "Keep in lane". But what does "Don't road hog" mean? RTS could make a 10 or 20-second filmlet to show what road hogging means. For 15 seconds you can do a filmlet.”
“Sir, in view of the Minister's explanation, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment, Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.”
“This group is willing to teach breast feeding and yet I understand that it is not getting any encouragement from the hospital. In fact, I understand that one hospital medical superintendent is definitely hostile to the group that he would not allow any of its members into the hospital to teach the young mothers how to breast feed. I am wondering why there is this hostility towards breast feeding which is a natural thing to do. If God meant to give the baby cow's milk, then He would do away with breasts for women! I would be most obliged if the Hon. Minister could answer the questions that I have posed.”
“There are so many good things in breast milk and yet our hospitals discourage it. I know this from first hand. In the last three months two of my sisters have given birth, and in both cases they were discouraged from giving breast milk. I am surprised at this. We should encourage mothers to give breast milk to their babies because of the very many factors that are helpful to both the mother and the baby. The baby will get immunity from taking the natural mother's milk and the mother, contrary to some myth, will regain her figure faster, So I am quite surprised that breast feeding is not being encouraged. The other matter, which is again quite surprising to me, is that after both my sisters have given birth, there came a lady dressed as a nurse and unsolicited (we do not know who she is). She said, "I am a mother-care nurse". She came in, weighed the baby, and immediately tried to sell a brand-named milk. I want to know how this milk company got the names and addresses of the mothers. I thought that the names and addresses given to the hospital are confidential and should not be given to anybody who asks for them. So how did their names get to the milk company? These people are dressed as nurses, and a woman who is not fairly well educated may think that they are nurses and are giving good advice about giving tinned milk or formula milk to the baby. She might immediately change from breast feeding to tinned milk which is, I think, rather undesirable. There is a group willing to teach young mothers how to breast feed before they go to hospital to deliver their babies. It may sound ridiculous that mothers do not know how to breast feed, but it is true that there are certain problems associated with breast feeding.”
“Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head L be reduced by $10 in respect of subhead AAA 1101. I have, Sir, two different topics to raise under this amendment. Firstly, I would like to find out the exact position of a Singapore citizen who is married to a non-Singapore citizen but a permanent resident. They were married with the permission of the Labour Office. The wife who was pregnant went to a hospital here to have her baby. Why was the husband asked to pay a deposit of $2,000 if he can afford it? If he cannot, why has he got to pay $60 for a class C ward? That is my first question. I may be wrong but I would like clarification on this point. Secondly, we have a situation in Singapore where in the last two years there seems to be a little encouragement on breast feeding. The situation is that a nurse will go up to the mother and ask, "Do you want to breast feed or bottle feed your baby?" If the mother says "bottle feed", a bottle is given; and if she says "breast feed", breast is given! But unfortunately the nurses are really not aware of what constitutes breast milk. They actively discourage the mothers from giving the colostrum, the first flow from the breast, to the baby because it is not the colour of milk. They discourage the mothers because they say it is no good. If you read last Sunday's Sunday Nation about X factors and also about what is in the colostrum, it is good for the baby. It helps to give immunity to the baby. Why is the hospital not actively encouraging breast feeding? In the olden days we had no problem. In my younger days mothers used to breast feed their babies in buses. Today, with modern commercialisation of tinned milk, young mothers are now ashamed of feeding the baby the natural way.”
“Sir, in view of the Hon. Minister's reply, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.”
“Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head K be reduced by $10 in respect of item (b) of subhead A.AA 3020. I notice in the Estimates that the sum allocated for the Junior Flying Club has been slightly reduced. I am wondering why this is so. Is it because of a lack of support for the Junior Flying Club, or has there been some form of cost reduction? I would also like to know what results have the Junior Flying Club obtained in respect of their members graduating and becoming pilots in our Singapore Air Force? Talking about our Air Force, national servicemen and officers who have completed their national service have joined our universities. I feel that we should get undergraduates in the universities to form a University Air Squadron where the SAF could continue to give them pilot training so that they could obtain their private pilot licence, and perhaps even sitting for a commission and be paid whilst studying in the university, and signing a bond. After graduating from the university they can go on with their pilot training and be useful members of our Singapore Air Force. I believe that training can be done during weekends and vacations. They can be attached to the various active squadrons where further training is available. For those who do not make the grade in flying and airmanship training, they can be made useful in groundwork, such as air traffic controllers. I wonder whether the Hon. Minister can enlighten me on this.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I think the Hon. Minister has not really answered the question. The question is that the barbed wires in this area be prohibited - Mr Speaker: Encik Ahmad, the Minister has answered the question. Mr Yeo Choo Kok. SALE OF SIT FLATS IN DELTA 3. Mr Yeo Choo Kok asked the Minister for National Development and Communications whether the Housing and Development Board has any plan to sell the former Singapore Improvement Trust flats in the Delta Constituency.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, can the Minister for Law and the Environment tell me if the same facility can be extended to other school sites in Singapore?”
“Sir, on a point of clarification. In my speech. I mentioned about permanent residents who are stateless persons, and not all permanent residents.”
“They feel doubly frustrated because not only are they not able to discharge their duty, but employers also are reluctant to employ them. It is unlikely that youths not selected within one year of attaining their 18th birthday will be selected at a later date because there will be a new batch of eligible young men each subsequent year. I therefore urge the Government to look into this question and to consider either calling them up for some other form of service or, if they are not called up by their 19th birthday, to grant them deferment, subject to recall. Sir, I support the Motion moved by the Member for Ulu Pandan. 3.24 p.m.”
“These are people whose livelihood depends upon going into the port area and who have suddenly found their passes cancelled because of some minor offence committed many years earlier for which they have already been punished. They should not be punished again. I would therefore urge the Port of Singapore Authority to review their ruling and to reinstate the passes of these people if they have committed only one minor offence, not less than five years prior to their application. In this way our petty offender who has been going straight will not feel persecuted. My next point was touched upon by the Member for Kallang but I feel that we do have a situation in Singapore where there are many stateless persons who are blue identity card holders. In the final analysis, the Singapore Government is responsible for these people; so our objective must surely be to integrate and educate them and to eventually grant them citizenship. When this happens, our dependence upon guest workers would be less. At the moment, however, in order to obtain work, our permanent residents have to obtain a work permit. This creates a situation where small employers find it inconvenient to employ them and larger firms often cannot be bothered. There are also unscrupulous employers who exploit the situation. I strongly suggest that the Ministry look into the feasibility of abolishing work permit requirements for our permanent residents who are stateless persons. Our citizens have now grown to accept the desirability of National Service and I know of many young people who are looking forward to doing their duty for their country. There are, however, many who are frustrated because they are not selected to do either full-time or part-time National Service.”
“In the past, bus services to housing estates only begin after the majority of people have moved in. This means that the early occupants may have to wait months, perhaps years, before adequate bus services are provided. This situation should be remedied. The implementation of the Area Licensing Scheme has done much to reduce road congestion but a further measure which should be looked into concerns the maintenance of lane discipline. One only needs to take an hour's drive on Singapore roads to be able to pick out more than 50 offenders against the rules of lane discipline. I believe our highway code rule does state that all motorists should keep left unless overtaking. At the moment, slow moving traffic is seen keeping to the right-hand lane, forcing faster moving traffic to overtake on the left. No doubt our system of road traffic management has met with considerable praise internationally, but I feel that tighter control of lane discipline would bring about even more improvement and fast, safer traffic flow. Whilst the situation on our roads is steadily improving a problem has arisen in another area of communications because of the transfer of lighter operations from Telok Ayer Basin to Pasir Panjang. At certain times of the year when the sea there is very rough, our lightermen experience great difficulties in loading and unloading. It would be desirable and less hazardous to have a bigger breakwater at Pasir Panjang wharves to allow our lighters to load and unload in calmer waters. The need for security in our ports is unquestioned but the very strict ruling applied by the Port of Singapore Authority for the issue of passes is causing hardship to a number of people.”
“Apart from providing play areas, all housing estates should have a community centre built at the same time as the housing units. Citizens should not have to wait until sufficient money has been accumulated through donations and fund raising. Of course, improvement to community centres should be borne by the constituents but the basic structure of a community centre which would cost in the region of $400,000 should be borne by the Government, and this should be given top priority. By 1980 the estimated number of people who will live in HDB flats will be two million. We do have a Zoo where our children can see animals, both wild and domesticated, but because of the HDB rule that no pets are allowed and together with the high cost of going to the Zoo, we will very soon have a generation of children who will think that a chicken comes in a plastic bag. Therefore, I strongly suggest that an area, perhaps near the community centre, be set aside where a small menagerie of domesticated animals could be kept. People moving into flats for the first time often have to abandon pets because they can no longer keep them. This is hard on both pets and their owners. How much better if they could bring their pets to a centre where they could be adopted and looked after by the children of the estate, thereby instilling in the young a respect and understanding of animals. Valuable lessons and attitudes will be inculcated and will influence the kind of environment which our children will produce in time to come. This would be complementary to our design for a clean, green and healthy Singapore. As we build new estates, immediate consideration should be given to the provision of bus services.”
“because every cent that can be gathered will help immensely towards the promotion of sports. I should also like to see our champions and gold medal winners who represent Singapore and bring honour to our country, rewarded by giving them priority allocation for housing. Anyone who knows and sees the long hours of practice a winner must put in, will not begrudge him this privilege. The Housing and Development Board should build more sports facilities in their estates. When the Government was first considering how to tackle the problem of' resettling large numbers of our citizens, their primary concern, and rightly so, was to build housing units as fast as possible. We have now reached a stage where quantity alone is not sufficient to meet the total needs of our people. Their physical needs are well catered for in spacious and sanitary housing, shops and markets, clinics and other services. Now is the time to consider how best to meet their emotional needs to bring about a healthy sense of integration in their new environment, Open spaces in the estates should be converted into children's playgrounds, games and family recreation areas. It is insufficient to provide new parks in selected areas because parents would much prefer their children to play nearer their homes, to kick a ball around, scream and shout and allow healthy daily outlets for their natural drives. If immediate provision is not found for expressing these drives, they will be suppressed, and we will be facing a generation of maladjusted young citizens in the near future. Drug problems and other unhealthy manifestations of this repression will most certainly increase by leaps and bounds.”
“I disagree with the Sports Council's rationale in their Sports for All policy where the emphasis is on mass participation and they do not feel the need to aim at producing champions. It is human nature that the presence of a champion leader encourages others to follow. The case of badminton is a good example of this. In the 50's when the standard of our players then taking part in the Thomas Cup and the All England Championship was very high, badminton was extremely popular. The popularity of badminton has greatly waned, now that we are no longer producing champions. In the same way, if we wish to popularise other sports and get more participants, we must also produce champions in all fields. Every schoolboy wants to be a Pele or a Mark Spitz. Our constituency games also are not popular. For many constituencies the reasons they are unable to produce good teams are lack of money and facilities. I am not advocating paying participants to take part in sports. Far from it. I am entirely against this policy, but in order to produce a good side it is necessary to hold regular intra-constituency tournaments and to arrange many practice sessions. All these require facilities and money. It is unfair and undesirable for the constituency to go around asking their constituents for frequent donations. Therefore, I suggest that the constituency sports rules be amended to allow for sponsorship by business firms. Of course, when a company sponsors the sports in the constituency, they would like to see a return for their money. We should allow players to use the firm's logos on their jerseys. In this way, both parties will benefit. I would still expect the grant from the Sports Council to continue.”
“Our people, who are being encouraged to take part in all forms of sports and outdoor activities, would have an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, in which to better enjoy the many excellent facilities which are being set up for this purpose. One benefit that I foresee and which, to my mind, is very important is that parents and their children will have an additional hour of daylight in which they can enjoy family games and recreation out of doors, to kick a ball or like one Member of the House told me. "to fly a kite", and so do much to further good parent/child relationship. Internationally, our advancing the clock by one hour should be just a minor adjustment for our trading partners to make. With the introduction of Daylight Saving, all school fields could be opened up after school, and football fields and all the games courts would be better used. Even if these spaces were made available to our people they would still be insufficient to meet our needs. I, therefore, welcome the Sports Council Master Plan for the building of squash and tennis courts, swimming pools, football pitches, fitness parks and the multi-purpose indoor stadia. Unfortunately, I feel that the Master Plan, for the most part, caters for the "have's" and neglects the "have-not's". You will notice most of the facilities are revenue-generating. This immediately eliminates our younger citizens who cannot pay but whose needs for open fields and games courts should be recognised. They need more facilities where team games can be played, spontaneously, and where easy mixing and integration of our people will be encouraged.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of the Motion moved by the Member for Ulu Pandan expressing our thanks to the President for the speech which he delivered on behalf of the Government at the opening of the First Session of this Parliament. The world is currently experiencing an energy crisis and governments are greatly concerned with energy resources and their management. Unfortunately, in Singapore, we have no coal, oil, timber or hydro-electrical energy; therefore, we have to be extremely careful not to waste these increasingly expensive resources. From time to time there have been campaigns over the press, radio and television urging the public to save power and electricity. We should look for as many ways as possible to reduce power consumption, whilst still meeting the needs of our citizens. I believe. Sir, that there is a way to do this. It is simple and the cost is minimal. I am, Sir, talking about Daylight Saving. This easy-to-implement device could be brought into effect by advancing the clock by one hour at midnight on a chosen day. It will cause the minimum of inconvenience as, apart from advancing the clock by one hour, there will be no other changes in our time schedule. Dawn will then be at six o'clock in the morning instead of at five o'clock and sunset at 7.30 in the evening instead of at 6.30. These are some of the areas where power consumption would be reduced by the introduction of Daylight Saving - in our homes, in public places, sports facilities, lighted advertisements, and in industries running a two-shift system. Side benefits from implementing this scheme are many.”