Ang Mong Seng
Singapore
“Lihua is also my alma mater. I am very proud that Chen Zhixiang became the top student in Singapore in the "A" level examinations. Use more. Parents should speak Chinese more with their children at home. I also hope Members of Parliament would speak more Chinese in Parliament. When *Cols. 4059-4060.”
“After the cooling-off period, flat sellers can make a final decision. Some unscrupulous housing agents would use various means to persuade people to sell their flats in order to earn commission. They would tell the owners that should they have any problems, just see the MPs.”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *.] Mr Chairman, the construction industry requires a lot of foreign workers, including both skilled and unskilled workers. However, the MOM has decided to reduce the number of unskilled workers.”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *.] As our population ages, we see more and more retirees selling tissues at hawker centres, coffee shops and malls to help with their expenses. They do not have CPF, yet they do not want to live by Government welfare – they want be independent.”
“Mr Chairman, may I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary what is the main concern for the Ministry in not issuing licence to the elderly to sell tissue papers in the hawker centre. We are asked to refer all these people to the Community Development Council (CDC).”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A*.] Madam, at the moment, 10% of our population is above 65 years old. Twenty years later, by 2030, about 25% of our population will be above 65 years old. If at that time, our population is five million, this will mean that we will have one million people who are over the age of 65.”
The complete record
Every one of 576 lines we hold for Ang Mong Seng, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 5 of 12.
“He used his mature and stately appearance and created this image which can be seen all over the world in the past 50-plus years. This image and brand conquer the whole world. This goes to show the value of elderly people. They have their attraction and charisma. So I would appeal to the employers in Singapore to emulate the KFC model to employ more elderly people. This is another form of "thinking of the source when you drink water". How do we provide incentives for companies to employ senior citizens? The Government may consider granting tax reliefs or tax rebates as an incentive for companies to employ older workers. Next, I would like to talk about our housing policy. Under the Home Ownership Scheme, we have about 86% of our population owning their own properties. I think we are the only country in the world which has achieved this. During the good times, the Government had also encouraged our people to upgrade from smaller flats to bigger flats. As a result, many people own 4-room or 5-room flats now, with market prices ranging from $250,000 to $300,000. But with the children grown up and moving out to set up their own families, the big flats are now occupied by the old parents. On the face of it, they are asset rich. They have a property worth some $300,000 but no liquid cash to live on unless they sell the flat. But once they sell the flat, they would have no shelter over their heads. Under the present policy, when you sell your flat, you cannot apply for another flat until 30 months later. So you cannot downgrade to a smaller flat. According to my survey, in bad times, the demand for 3-room flats is greater, and consequently their prices are higher.”
“When the economy is good, our people can afford to be picky with the jobs, and they shun certain unglamorous jobs, such as the conservancy jobs in the HDB estates, leaving all these jobs to the foreign workers. But with automation and the deployment of new technologies, these jobs have been upgraded. So our people should change their attitude towards these jobs. We must learn to accept the new jobs, under the new system. I would suggest that the town councils, when tendering out the conservancy jobs or contracts, specify in the contracts that the contractor should maintain 60-70% of local employees so as to ensure that our local people will have the opportunity to get the job, especially those who are less educated and older. Next, improving the job opportunity of our elderly people. Many of the traditional jobs are disappearing under the present economic restructuring. Those people who are less educated are the most badly affected and they stand to lose a lot of job opportunities. In order to repay these people who have, in the past, contributed to our nation building, the Government should give them some assistance wherever possible. Firstly, I would suggest that the Government step up its efforts to encourage and give incentives to those who employ our senior citizens, such as giving them special tax reliefs and rebates. Under the restructured economy, these elderly people find it difficult to get alternative employment. I note that the fast food operators used to employ a lot of elderly Singaporeans and their performances at work were no less effective than that of the younger people. They can be found in the fast food outlets such as McDonald's and KFC. The creator of Kentucky Fried Chicken started his world-famous establishment only at the ripe age of 62.”
“5%, that is to say, about 70,000 people of our population are unemployed. If we distribute them among our 84 constituencies, we would have an average of 850 unemployed people in each constituency. Most of these people are lowly educated and elderly. At my meet-the-people sessions, a lot of people came and complained to me that Singapore Power (SP) had cut their water and electricity supplies because they could not pay their utilities bills. Being unemployed, and with the arrears accumulated from month to month, they have simply no means to pay up. They have no choice but to come and see their Members of Parliament for help. I would therefore suggest that SP be more flexible in dealing with their cases. SP should understand their difficulties and make some concessions for those genuine cases of hardship due to long-term unemployment or retrenchment. Of course, I agree that when you owe something, you must pay back. But SP should consider allowing them to settle the arrears by instalments when they begin to earn some income. They should not be deprived of water and electricity supply to their households. In the good old days, if we have no tap water, we could use the water from the well. But with all the urbanisation and development taking place in Singapore, where do we find wells nowadays? SP may consider offering some kind of part-time employment to these people, such as meter-reading or debt collection, so that they can get a job and earn some money to pay off their arrears. I hope that SP will consider this. I think some of the town councils are already doing this and the response from the residents has been good.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Presidential Address is very comprehensive. It points out the future direction in which Singapore will go so that it will still have an edge in social and economic development in spite of keen competition in the world. The Presidential Address mentioned the contributions made by older Singaporeans to our nation building. Their social experience and values still play an important role in our future development. We have been independent for 40 years. Singaporeans now aged 60 to 65 were young people aged 20 to 25 some 40 years ago. Whether they are the elite or ordinary men-in-the-street, they all have contributed to our nation building by turning Singapore from a third world country into a developed country within a very short period of time. Now that we have achieved our excellent international status, we should not ignore their contributions. We should think of the source whenever we drink the water. We should acknowledge their efforts and contributions. Therefore, I fully support the President's emphasis on caring for our elderly and helping our poor and needy. I would like to express my views and make suggestions in two areas. First, helping the poor and needy. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the 1980s and 1990s, our economy grew by an average of 8% annually. But in 1997, we had the Asian economic crisis. In 2001, we had the September 11 crisis. In 2003, we had SARS, and in 2004 we had the bird flu. With these setbacks, our unemployment rate went up. During the restructuring of our economy, a lot of people were retrenched and became unemployed. Those who are aged above 55 and lowly educated find it very difficult to get alternative jobs. Right now, our employment rate is 3.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I ask whether MOE is considering to translate this Report into the Chinese Language?”
“I would like to ask the Ministry of Education whether they will conduct a thorough investigation or survey among our secondary and primary school students to find out what our ratio of students having dyslexia in the reading of Chinese is. Then we can work out the right solution to help them so that they can obtain a breakthrough in their learning of Chinese, and it will be easier for them to learn later. We hope that by this study, we would be able to reduce the number of students who are dyslexic in learning Chinese and we would not give the wrong impression that so many of our students are having difficulties in learning Chinese. Finally, I would like to quote yesterday's report in the Lianhe Zaobao. This year, the top PSLE student, Foo Xiang Peng, obtained good results in English, Chinese, Science and Mathematics and scored As in all of them, as well as a Distinction in Higher Chinese. His ambition is to be a Cabinet Minister. So we can see that Foo Xiang Peng, who has scored good results in Chinese and became the top student in the PSLE examination, has laid a good foundation for his future development. I would like to encourage all our students to learn Chinese and, with a good Chinese standard, they will have a better future. I support the motion.”
“Over the last few years, I have been suggesting very strenuously to the Ministry of Education that we should have more contact with the pre-primary education operators so that the curriculum in the kindergartens would be consistent with the Primary 1 and Primary 2 curriculum, and when the children get to Primary 1, they would fit into the system with minimal effort. In fact, at the moment, the policy of the Ministry of Education is to let the private sector run the pre-primary education in Singapore. I have no quarrel with that. However, perhaps the Ministry of Education could have a more cooperative relationship with the pre-primary education operators to ensure that they use the proper methods of teaching. Then, they can prepare the students for the primary school lessons. Teaching according to ability is very important. I feel that when we are guiding those who are weak in Chinese, we must find out what is the reason for their weakness. Many people say it is very difficult to learn Chinese. In fact, whether it is learning English or any other language, you will face the same difficulties. I cannot say that because you have a headache, I will just cure your head, and if there is a pain in the leg, I will just cure the leg. We must go to the root of the problem and find out where the problem is. At the moment, a study by the Beijing Normal Univesity reveals that about 5-8% of the Chinese students are dyslexic in the learning of Chinese. The dyslexia in learning Chinese is different from the dyslexia in learning English. In fact, China is now studying how to help the students who are dyslexic in learning Chinese. At the moment, we have some methods to help those who are dyslexic in the learning of English. However, for Chinese, we do not have such a solution.”
“If the students are avoiding the difficult parts and learning only the easy ones and they are not willing to overcome the difficulties, in the end, they will regret it when the time comes for them to use Chinese and they find that they do not have enough knowledge to perform their tasks. It is just like cooking a Teochew-style steamed fish. If you want to steam fish in the Teochew way, you need to have a few pieces of fat meat and a few sour plums. Without them, of course, the fish will be the same but the taste will be entirely different. It would have lost its original taste and would not attract the interest of the connoisseurs. Now, I would like to talk about the teaching of Chinese in the kindergartens. According to the report, the best time for children to learn languages is when they are at the age of five or six. If we wait until Primary 1 to build up their foundation for the learning of language, it will be too late. At the moment, before the students go to primary school, most of them would have gone through two years of kindergarten, ie, K1 and K2. In those two years of kindergarten, they also learn Chinese. But the curriculum and pedagogy are not covered or standardised under this report. In other words, the teaching method and the method they learn in the kindergarten may not be consistent with that in Primary 1. If the teaching method is wrong, you will have to spend a lot of time and effort to rectify it when they go to Primary 1.”
“In some schools, when they have not enough Chinese teachers, they would ask other subject teachers to double up as Chinese teachers. I think this is unacceptable and very degrading to the Chinese Language. It is like asking a chef in a western restaurant to cook Chinese food. He will not be able to bring out the best in the Chinese cooking. It is the same principle. If you want to have a very typical Chinese food, eg, Teochew-style steamed pomfret, and you ask a very famous western master chef to cook it, I am sure he can produce a delicious dish as well, but it will not taste bona fide. Likewise, if you want to enjoy a meal of premier-grade beef steak and you get a Chinese cook to do it, he can also dish out a good serving of beef steak, but it will never taste the same. So I think we have to respect the professionalism of the Chinese teachers. If we do not have enough teachers in the schools, we should use ways and means to employ more Chinese teachers to teach Chinese. Apart from raising their salaries and remuneration, we should also attach more importance to the recruitment of Chinese teachers. We cannot just get some relief teachers whenever there is a shortage of Chinese teachers. Otherwise, the future of the students will be sacrificed. We should give more respect to and have greater affirmation for our Chinese teachers. Then, we would be able to reward our present Chinese teachers and attract more young teachers to join in the teaching of Chinese, and thereby cultivate a new group of talents to undertake this very important profession. Minister Mentor Lee had mentioned that if our students have learnt only some very shallow Chinese, they would have to pay a very huge cost later on.”
“Of course, we know that English is a very important common language for our various races to communicate with one another. It is also our administrative and business language. In the Asia Pacific, our superiority in English has given us the competitive edge to propel us to move ahead of others in economic development. But Chinese is seldom used by the Government and the business community. As such, its status has lowered. So I hope that there would be a Chinese version of this report. It would be more meaningful. Then we can show to those who are concerned with the Chinese Language in Singapore that we are sincere in wanting to raise the standard of the teaching of Chinese in Singapore. A Chinese version of this White Paper would also enable the Chinese educated, especially the Chinese teachers, parents and those who are concerned with the Chinese education in Singapore, to read it first hand, and they would understand the direction of the reform, and the spirit of this White Paper. Mr Speaker, Sir, good teachers are critical to our Chinese education reform. Of course, training good teachers is not easy. So we should have a long-term plan to cultivate more local teachers. Of course, we can engage teachers from overseas. Although their standards are very high, they may not be able to fully adapt to our local situation in Singapore and they may not understand the multi-racial and cultural background of Singapore. I feel that we should engage more local teachers, give them more training opportunities, and sponsor them for further studies overseas so as to enhance the quality of their teaching and their professionalism. Education is not a business deal. We cannot see the results within the short term. But its impact is far-reaching.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the motion moved by the Minister for Education to endorse the White Paper. The Chinese Language Curriculum and Pedadogy Review Committee is led personally by Minister Mentor Lee, and the members comprise language experts, members of the Chinese community, the media and a number of Members of Parliament. We can say that the Government has really placed much importance on this reform of the Chinese Language curriculum and pedagogy in Singapore and it is an unprecedented White Paper for the reform. The recommendations proposed by the Committee can be said to be the result of some very intensive investigation and thorough studies by the experts. If we can implement all the recommendations of this report, I am sure that the future of the Chinese in Singapore will be very bright. This is a very important reform of the teaching of the Chinese Language in Singapore. I am sure all those concerned with the development of the Chinese Language here in Singapore would agree that this report represents the determination of the Government to raise the standard of the Chinese Language in Singapore. Unfortunately, we do not have a Chinese version of this report. From my understanding, the report of the Committee led by the late President Ong Teng Cheong in 1992 had only 15 Chinese characters in it. In 1999, when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made his Ministerial Statement on Chinese education, there was also no Chinese version of his statement. I feel that this is indeed unfortunate. Although Chinese is one of the four official languages in Singapore, in most Government departments, including Parliament, Chinese is seldom used, except for this debate.”
“This is a double standard. I suggest that with the coming into effect of the Bill, all new contracts signed should stipulate the payment date, failing which the entire contract would be declared null and void. This would avoid unnecessary double standards resulting in disputes, and thereby delaying the progress of the construction work. Fourthly, from what I understand, the subsidiary company, Surbana, of HDB would normally post the Work Progress Payment Certificate on the notice board at the relevant worksite to inform the contractors and subcontractors of the progress payments made. The contractors and subcontractors would then send their officers down to the worksite, queue up and then copy down the contents of the Work Progress Payment Certificate. I think this is a waste of manpower and time. We are now in a high-tech society. We should move with the times. We should use more scientific methods to disseminate such information. I suggest that, apart from posting the certificate at the worksite, the HDB should also email copies of it to the contractors concerned. This would save precious time and manpower resources, so that the contractors could concentrate on their work and hence improve on their efficiency. There is an additional benefit for the email too. Once there is a dispute, the email could become a documentary proof to be produced in court. I think the email could be a very important document to the subcontractors. Sir, I hope the Minister will consider my suggestions.”
“Although there are not many such instances, I think we should provide for eventualities and not wait until problems arise before we amend the law. The Minister may want to consider including renovation works in the Bill. Secondly, this Bill has also stipulated that the claimants would have to, first of all, file a claim with the respondent and the respondent would have to respond within 21 days, and then make payment to the claimant within 35 days thereafter. That is to say, the claimants may have to wait as long as 56 days before he could receive the payment. In the event of the respondent delaying until the 21st day before raising disputes over some items of the claim, then the wait for payment would be even longer. In order to avoid such an event from happening, I suggest that the developers appoint professional project managers to carry out supervision and audit on the work progress to establish a sound valuation mechanism so that the payment time would not be delayed unnecessarily. Currently, Town Councils appoint project managers to deal with the claims. Once the claim is endorsed by the project manager, the main contractor would approve the claim within 7 days so that the whole payment period would be shortened to 42 days. I hope that the Minister would consider a similar procedure to shorten the payment date because the subcontractors are always having difficulty getting paid for their work done. I think we should do our best to make sure that payment is expedited so that the building projects could be completed within the stipulated time. Thirdly, the Bill also provides that if the payment date is not expressly stipulated in the contract, then the respondent would have to respond to the claim within 7 days and make payment within 14 days.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, in this year's Budget Debate, I raised a point with the Minister for National Development, Mr Mah Bow Tan, that there were many malpractices in the contract procedure in our building and construction industry with the hope that the Government would rectify these irregularities. I am glad that the Government has responded positively to my suggestion by enacting this law to provide for prompt payments by the main contractors within the stipulated time. This Bill is indeed a piece of good news to subcontractors, purchasers of properties and residents in the HDB upgrading precincts. It also provides for a good financial management system in the building and construction industry. This would not only resolve the contractors' payment problems, but also enhance the image of the building and construction industry in Singapore. This is a Bill that satisfies both sides and I give full support to it. However, I would like to make some observations and suggestions on the contents of this Bill. First, this new Bill does not cover renovation works. It is indeed a "fly in the ointment". Contracts in the construction of HDB flats do not include renovation works and, therefore, the effect may not be very great. However, for private condominiums and commercial properties, the building contract normally includes general renovation works. In fact, the internal renovation works take up a large part of the building cost. I understand that it would take up as much as 30% of the total building cost. In the event of some financial difficulties on the part of the main contractor resulting in the renovation contractors not being paid, the renovation works would not be completed. This will affect the completion of the whole building project.”
“Protection of the interests of ordinary citizens is of paramount importance, particularly on basic daily necessities, such as drinking water, energy supply, housing, transportation and communica- tions. Ordinary citizens are often exploited by unscrupulous merchants when they are not adequately informed to strike up a good bargain for themselves. For example, during the recent spell of Avian flu, eggs, which would normally cost only 15 cents each were being sold at 60 cents each, when there was a shortage of supply. The ordinary citizens are already suffering when they have no eggs to eat. Yet, the merchants are raising the price. This is like what we call, "rubbing salt into their wound", and this is a consequence of unfair competition. The enactment of this law is an excellent policy of the Government. MTI has conducted seminars to invite suggestions by members of the public and the professionals so as to finetune and improve on the Bill. I think this kind of consultative approach is excellent.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, with Singapore's economy developing and maturing, with our market moving towards the trend of internationalisation, and in order that we would be in line with international best practices, the enactment of a fair competition law is absolutely necessary so as to protect the interests of our consumers. In fact, some ASEAN countries such as Indonesia and Thailand have already enacted their fair competition laws. This Bill will help our Government to effectively and fairly regulate the supply and demand of goods and services in the market, and make sure that goods and services are provided at reasonable prices. This will help the new enterprises, inspire innovation and creativity, so that our market will be more flexible and competitive. With this new Bill to regulate and control the market, more foreign companies will be attracted to invest here, thereby creating more job opportunities to resolve our unemployment problem and, in the process, bring about economic prosperity. I believe that this new Bill will receive strong support from the consumers too. They are looking forward to various benefits that will be brought about by these new measures, such as cheaper goods and better service. This would not only benefit our local citizens but will also attract more tourists and, thereby, promoting growth in the tourism industry. Such healthy competition will bring a lot of benefits to our people, for example, the intense competition among the oil companies is a good example. Recently, despite the escalation of oil prices, the petrol companies in Singapore are giving their customers 5-10% discounts. This will help to regulate the petrol prices and, at the same time, benefit the motorists. This is an example of benefits brought about by healthy competition.”
“If we pass this Bill, we will become the third country in the world to have done so. Japan is also planning to pass a similar Bill. I know there is great potential in such research. It will bring new hope for patients of many diseases. But stem cells need not necessarily be extracted from embryos, although such cells do have greater research potential. Stem cells can also be extracted from cell tissuesother thanembryos. We can encourage researchers to focus on the extraction or cultivation of stem cells from the blood of the baby's umbilical cord or blood taken from an adult. According to my understanding, the United Nations will also review this issue. Life is priceless and if mankind can manipulate life, there is no guarantee that this technology will not be used by those with ulterior motives. I feel that the practice of deliberately creating a life and destroying it thereafter is a violation of life. Sir, I hope the Minister will consider encouraging researchers to do research on stem cells from other alternative sources. On other prohibited practices, I feel that the Ministry of Health should also have clear legislation to ban the cloning of babies to extract their organs or cell tissues for transplantation and to ban the cultivation of human embryos in non-human bodies and to ban the sale of embryos. This is because these experiments are very unethical and violate the human life. I would like to ask the Minister, apart from the punitive measures such as the $100,000 fine and 10 years' imprisonment, will there also be any adequate preventive measures and resources to stop such illegal activities?”
“Most people are of the view that human cloning is against nature, morals and religious principles. The cloned humans are notnatural creatures. Under this Bill, the Minister may allow researchers to clone human embryos or to do research on a human embryo less than 14 days old and then destroy it afterwards. Many scientists and religious bodies regard an early embryo as merely a cluster of cells and not yet transformed into a human. I think that the Ministry of Health's permit for this kind of research is based on this understanding. I would like to ask the Minister: when a woman is pregnant, from which day does the doctor start computing the foetus'gestation period? I have asked gynaecologists and obstetricians about the calculation of the 10-month gestation period. They told me that it is calculated from the date of the last physiological period. In other words, life begins from the very moment when the ovum is fertilised. Many people and organisations opposed to cloning of human embryos are at the same time actively opposed to abortion. They believe that the life of a foetus begins from the fertilisation of the egg and any action to harm the foetus is unethical. Some religious bodies even hold the view that research on embryos is more inhuman than human cloning. This is because the procedure for embryo cloning is to deliberately create parts that can be used and destroy the embryo thereafter. I would like to ask the Minister to give a clearer definition for the number of days, especially the critical 14-day period, concerning the formation of a foetus. A few months ago, South Korea announced that it had successfully cloned about 30 human embryos. This generated a stir in the world of science. In August this year, the United Kingdom approved embryo cloning.”
“(In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of the Bill before this House. As of now, most countries in the world, including Singapore, have no clear laws banning the cloning of animals and plants. The research on such cloning aims at decoding genes by bio-engineering. At present, the research is confined to the laboratory. It does not encourage large-scale development because this would involve many issues. If not carefully handled, it may lead to a great calamity in the biological world. Scientists are now able to clone some higher mammals such as cows and sheep. China has also announced a plan to clone the giant panda. But, there is still a long way before human beings can be cloned successfully. Research shows that the cloned animals have health problems and do not live long. Scientists have experimented on groups of cloned mice, putting them in identical living conditions, same diet and environment. After some time, they discovered that the life span and the health conditions of these white mice were different, despite identical genes and living conditions. Human beings arethemost developed amongst allmammals. This is because, apart from the mammalian characteristics, the most importantdifference is that human beingsare capable of logical thinking. Even if we could successfully clone human beings, like cloning another Ang Mong Seng or another Khaw Boon Wan, the cloned Ang Mong Seng or cloned Khaw Boon Wan may appear to be the same outwardly, but their thinking, intelligence, behaviour, likes and dislikes might be different. So it is difficult or even impossible to control the cloning of behaviour and thinking. This being the case, it will be meaningless and pointless to clone human beings.”
“May I ask the Minister of State on the number of accidents that happened in Singapore MRT stations over the last five years as compared to cities like Hong Kong, London and New York?”
“If the Town Council wants to do any maintenance work, it will just look into the financial situation in the respective accounts, and then plan the budget accordingly. This is very effective and transparent. I am sure this same method can be applied to the private condominiums. I think the management corporations can make a study of the system in the Town Councils - to set up separate accounts, rather than having sub-MCs. Otherwise, even if there are many sub-MCs, it will not be able to solve the matters. I think they will only complicate matters and give rise to more disputes. I hope that the Minister will consider my suggestion.”
“They have no part to play in the election of management corporation members, nor shall they be involved in the canvassing or campaigning for votes for any particular group of candidates. I think this is a very good provision under this Bill. Sixthly, under this Bill, there will be provision for two-tier management corporations. I have some reservation about this. In order to resolve some of the problems and disputes in multi-purpose property, I think this two-tier management corporation may not be the ideal way to settle these problems. In fact, the establishment of more sub-MCs will also give rise to more conflicts of interest and disputes. If the dispute arises because of money, I think we should look at it from the monetary aspect. Maybe we should import the concept of the Town Councils, ie, we set up just one management corporation, but we can have separate accounts for the various sub-groups. At the moment, Town Councils have to look after a great number of HDB flats as well as common property. There may be the Town Centre, the Neighbourhood Centre, the car park and the various maintenance work. The Town Councils set up different accounts for each aspect of their work, eg, one for car parks, one for landscaping, one for general cleaning, etc. This is quite similar to that undertaken by the manage ment corporation of the private condominiums. In the Town Council, our system has been working well. There has not been any dispute over these accounts. When the conservancy charges are received, they will be allocated to the various accounts for their specific purpose. So, as far as the accounts are concerned, they are very clearly divided.”
“When the Housing and Development Board has sold a block of flats, it shall be responsible for the payment of maintenance fees of any unsold units to the Town Council, and continues to do so until such time when the units are sold. Thereafter, the new owners will take over the payment of the S&CC. Under this system, the Town Council will have sufficient funds to manage and maintain the buildings and the common property, thereby providing a better living environment for all the residents. This Bill brings the private housing estates in line with the present system of the HDB estates, thereby ensuring a better living environment for their residents. Fourthly, under this new Bill, all those who are in arrears of the maintenance fees will not be eligible to stand for election as members of the management corporation. This is very logical. As a member of the management corporation, the subsidiary proprietor concerned should set a good example, so that the other subsidiary proprietors will emulate. If the management committee members themselves are in arrears, and yet they are holding important positions in the management corporation, this will send a wrong signal to the others, and it will not be easy for them to implement their policies and execute their duties. So, under this new provision, those who are in arrears will not be eligible to stand for election in the management corporation. I think it is very logical. Fifthly, the managing agents should not go around collecting the proxies from the subsidiary proprietors for the general meetings. The managing agents' main duty is to help the management corporation look after the estate, using their professional expertise. They should look into the daily maintenance, accounting and other administrative work.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Bill which seeks to merge the Land Titles (Strata) Act and the Buildings and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act, which is to be administered by the Ministry of National Development (MND). I think it is a very wise move. MND has rich experience in building and maintaining public housing. This Bill will enable the MND to have good and proper management over private properties as well. The new Bill will also deal with arrears of management fees and the other problems. It will decriminalise such acts of violation and breaches of the rules. Under the Bill, these cases will be dealt with by the management corporation, which will decide whether it would institute civil actions against the offenders. The management corporation will have more space for consultation and negotiation between the subsidiary proprietors and the other parties. For example, the management corporation may waive some of the management fees owing by subsidiary proprietors on ground of financial hardship, or allow them to pay the arrears by instalments, so as to avoid facing criminal sanctions. In this way, the management corporation will be in a better position to communicate with the subsidiary proprietors, and resolve their problems in a more humane manner, thereby creating a better and cordial living environment for all. Thirdly, the new Bill also provides for the developer to pay the management fees of the unsold units to the management corporation. I think this is reasonable. At the moment, this is being practised in the public housing sector.”
“Sir, can I ask the Minister of State to comment on the teaching method by using Hanyu Pinyin, please?”
“Will this add to the burden of the learning process and lead to their rejection of Chinese? Hanyu pinyin is only a supplementary tool to pronounce the Chinese words. It is not to replace the Chinese characters themselves. The method of using hanyu pinyin instead of the proper Chinese characters to teach Chinese needs to be reviewed and improved. Education for Autistic Students I am glad to hear the announcement by the Minister for Community Development and Sports that a new policy will be formulated to help the handicapped in Singapore so that they could be better looked after. At present, there are 24,000 autistic people and every year, 200 children are diagnosed as autistic. Therefore, I suggest that the Ministry of Education set up a special school to look after and educate such children who are being sidelined and neglected by our society. In my meet-the-people sessions, some parents came to me and asked me to help their autistic children. Since these children are rejected by the mainstream schools, and fees charged by privately-operated special schools are high, the parents have no choice but to leave their autistic children at home. The children are thus deprived of the chance of being educated in schools. I would like to ask the Minister whether the MOE has any intention to set up some special schools with professionally-trained teachers to look after children who suffer from autism. The Ministry should also allocate adequate funds to subsidise the fees in these schools in order to lighten the burden of the parents. 4.00 pm Early Childhood Education”
“Sir, learning a language is never easy. I was Chinese-educated. During my school days, I found learning English very difficult. In order to improve my English, I created space for learning it, such as reading English newspapers and using the dictionary. I fully understand that the purpose of Chinese B is to help children from English-educated background by using different teaching methods to make it simple and easy to understand, so as to kindle their interest in learning. Students who opt for Chinese B account for only 2-3%. I would urge them not to fear Chinese and not to lose heart when facing difficulties, and not to give up easily. Apart from devoting more attention in class, they should make attempts to read the Chinese newspapers, such as the Lianhe Zaobao, Wanbao and Shin Min. They should also tune in to the Chinese TV channels like Channel 8 and Channel U more often. They could listen to radio FM95.8 and 100.3. They can also learn to sing Chinese songs at karaoke sessions. They can practise writing notes in Chinese to communicate with their boyfriends or girlfriends. There are diversified channels for learning and creating more space. In this way, they can improve their Chinese. I am sure that in the near future, they will no longer stay with Chinese B but will instead upgrade to the regular Chinese course. By then, MOE may even consider doing away with Chinese B in stages. Next, on teaching methods. In K1 and K2, our children learn the Chinese characters. About 95% of them attend the PCF kindergarten classes (K1 and K2). During this stage, they learn how to read and write in Chinese characters. But in Primary 1, they are switched to hanyu pinyin. For example, they use hanyu pinyin for dictation.”
“Worse still, some ethnic Chinese parents even treat English as their mother tongue and relegate their own mother tongue as a secondary language to be ignored. As ethnic Chinese, they do not know Chinese and even want to discard their own Chinese culture. They will regret in their later life. A survey by the Lianhe Zaobao showed that 83% of our students regard Chinese as their mother tongue. But there are still some 17% who regard Chinese as an alien language. This is a matter of grave concern. Fortunately, in our society, the majority of ethnic Chinese do not discard their own culture and values although they do not know the Chinese Language. For example, in an interview by Lianhe Zaobao, Mr Liew Woon Leong, the CEO of Capitaland remarked that his biggest regret in life was not to have learned Chinese. He would not let his children make the same mistake. Instead he encouraged them to value the learning of Chinese. He even took them to China to learn about Chinese culture. This spirit of upholding Chinese cultural value and encouraging his children to learn Chinese is a good example to be emulated by other Chinese parents who do not know Chinese. Chinese Language”
“Sir, the economic rise of China has plucked up a crave for the learning of Chinese in the world. The recently revised university admission criteria which exclude the grade of Chinese seem to run counter to the current world trend. The Chinese community here is very concerned. The new policy may perhaps be intended to mitigate the difficulty in learning Chinese, so as to relieve the pressure on the students. However, if consultation has been made with the Chinese community and feedback sought from the public, misunderstanding and dissatisfaction may be minimised. Chinese language is the root of the Chinese culture. It is because of Chinese language that the Chinese culture can be transmitted from generation to generation. It is therefore unwise to give up the language just for immediate convenience. English educated parents often complain about the difficulty in learning Chinese. They want MOE to lower the standard of the Chinese Language in school so that it could be easier for their children to pass the examinations. During my school days, almost all our parents were dialect- speaking. But when we complained to our parents of the burden of learning Chinese and English at the same time, they would say, "If you do not study hard, you will not be able to make a living and end up as a beggar." To our present students, may I urge them to work hard, to read more, study more and write more in both the English and the Chinese languages so as to be effectively bilingual. On the other hand, parents nowadays who do not know Chinese or are unwilling to learn Chinese, often give the wrong ideas to their children, resulting in the children developing a phobia for Chinese.”
“Madam, I think the Minister did not respond to my point on whether the Sports School will undertake to train a national team. Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Madam, my apologies to Mr Ang. The training of the national team is done by the NSAs, together with the Sports Council. The Sports School will not be a place where we train national athletes, but the national athletes who are in the Sports School will undergo training under the Sports School. The important thing is that they will be part of the NSAs and when SNOC puts up the athletes for competition at the international level, the SNOC will consult the NSAs, and some of the students will probably come from our Sports School. So the training that they will receive, if they are national athletes, will prepare them for the regional competition. But the Sports School is not a place to train national athletes. There are other places to train national athletes. Sports Hub”
“With all that, could the Minister consider putting all our national athletes in the Sports School for centralised training and integrated management, so as to prepare them for international competitions? Give them the proper training under the proper coaches, provide them with the appropriate nutrition to build them up as "world beaters", so that they could win more medals for Singapore in the SEA Games, the Asian Games and even the Olympics. Only then, can we realise our dream of becoming one of the best sporting nations in Asia by 2010.”
“Sir, recently I visited the new Sports School in Singapore. I was deeply impressed by the magnificent building and the state-of-the-art equipment they have. I had the opportunity to visit some of the sports schools in our neighbouring countries, and I must say our sports school is among the best in Asia, in terms of scale and facilities. May I ask the Minister how much have we spent on the school building and what is its operating cost? How much has been spent every year in the cultivating of our budding athletes? Apart from the hardware facilities, good training environment should also include the ideal environment for the development of endurance and determination. With such an excellent and comfortable environment, can we produce some national sportsmen and sportswomen who are physically and mentally fit, rugged and strong? The Sports School is the training centre for our national athletes and sporting elites. At present, training is provided foreight sports which are also the core sports supported by the Singapore Sports Council under the Sports Excellence programme. Yet, there are as many as 30 items in the SEA Games alone. I hope that the Minister would seriously consider adding more sports for training in the school, such as volleyball, martial art, taekwondo, basketball, etc, so that the training could be more diversified, and all these excellent facilities could be put to optimum use, thereby raising Singapore's position in the world sports arena. I feel that the Sports School has already possessed the conditions to be a training ground of international standards. What we need now are good coaches and trainers. We may also need professional counsellors to mould our athletes so that they have the right attitude and spirit to excel themselves.”
“Sir, every year, in our Budget debate, we hear complaints about public toilets. I would like to know whether the public toilet upgrading programme has been completed and the problem of unsightly public toilets resolved, so that next year we do not have to talk about it anymore. I would like to ask the Minister what is the progress of the upgrading of public toilets, whether our hygienic standard has already reached international standard, as in Japan and Korea. And how many of them have been given the Singapore's OK labels? Is the Minister happy with this progress? The Minister also mentioned in last year's budget debate that Singapore had then more than 800 coffeeshops where the toilets were waiting to be upgraded. How many of these have already been upgraded? How much have we spent on the upgrading programme, how many more public toilets need to be upgraded, and when can we expect the entire upgrading programme to be completed? Industry Development”
“Sir, in last year’s debate, I suggested that the Ministry of the Environment should have a centralised control of all the wet markets and food centres, so as not to cause confusion among the stallholders. From what I know, the Ministry of the Environment has taken over from HDB the control of all the wet markets and food centres. I would like to ask whether the authority will also take over from the town councils, the control of their hawker centres and food centres, so as to have a better management of all wet markets and hawkers centres in Singapore. Sir, I have also suggested that there should be more wet markets in the new HDB housing estates. This was met with enthusiastic feedback from many residents. The residents still enjoy going to the wet market to buy their fresh food. The price is reasonable and the food is fresh. As such, I would like to ask the Minister whether his Ministry has plans to build more wet markets in the HDB estates and the new towns for the benefit of the residents.”
“In this world, nothing is for free, except for the air in our atmosphere. However, when we breathe in dirty air, our health will be affected, and we have to spend a lot on our medical treatment. I think it is not worth it. I would like to ask the Minister how the Ministry of the Environment will ensure that our quality of air has attained international standard. Secondly, in Singapore, very often, with heavy wind, our clean air could be blown away, and dirty air and even haze would be blown here from the neighbouring countries. Does the Ministry of the Environment have any measure to prevent this? Thirdly, compared to the other major cities like New York, London and Tokyo, what is the standard of our air quality? Fourthly, in most of our commercial buildings, all the windows are shut and our people are working and living in this type of enclosed environment. How do we ensure that our indoor air quality is good?”
“Is any review being conducted by the Ministry to see whether the building standard, specification and rule imposed by the Government on the construction sites are set too high which have led to the high cost of construction in Singapore? Building and Construction Authority”
“Low Seow Chay (Chua Chu Kang): Sir, I am going to talk about the construction cost being high in Singapore. Sir, in Kuala Lumpur, a 2 ½ storey terrace house with a built-in area of about 1,700 square feet including a 99-year lease land, is about 350,000 ringgit, which works out to about S$160,000. I asked a friend of mine who is a building contractor and he told me that a similar house, with just the building cost alone, will cost us at least S$250,000, excluding land cost. The Singapore construction cost alone, excluding land cost, is almost double the price of a similar house in Kuala Lumpur, inclusive of land. Sir, we are using the same workers from Malaysia or even the cheaper workers from Thailand and China. Materials like sand, cement and steel come also from the same source from Malaysia. If we want cheaper sand and stones we can buy from Indonesia. Why is the construction cost so different between the two places? In my view, it could be that the standards or specifications set by the Building Control Authority are too high and it could also be likely that there are many indirect costs that drive up the cost of construction, for example, hiring of the site safety officer, hiring of environmental officer just to make sure that there are no mosquitoes, resident engineer, clerks-of-work, security guard to prevent illegal workers from entering the worksite. All these have a factor to play in the high construction cost in Singapore. Will the Minister explain why the building cost in Singapore is so high, though we may be sharing the same source of workers and supply of material from our neighbouring countries?”
“Sir, at the moment, most building projects are awarded to the contractors on a tender system. Normally, the contractor who submitted the lowest bid will be the successful bidder. Once they have been awarded the contract, they will sub-contract parts of the project to the sub-contractors. Many of these main contractors, upon receipt of the initial payment from the developers, would transfer the fund to other projects or other investments. As a result, they are unable to pay the sub-contractors for the work they have done. But the sub-contractors will still have to carry on the job and complete their project, failing which they will be sued by the main contractor. This sort of system is advantageous to the main contractor, but biased against the sub-contractors. In other countries, the funds received by the main contractor could only be used for the same project and not to be transferred to other projects. I would like to suggest that some regulations be made requiring the main contractor to set up a special "Project Account" for every project. Any payment received for the project shall be deposited in this project account and be used only for the specific project. The main contractor would not be allowed to transfer the fund elsewhere. In this way, there is no excuse for the main contractor not to pay his sub-contactors for their dues in the project concerned. The sub-contractors will not be inconvenienced due to lack of funds to carry on with the project. As such, all projects should complete in time and the image of our building industry will not be tarnished. I hope that the Minister would look into the regulation for a special project account to be set up for each construction project. 11.30 am Construction Cost Assoc. Prof.”
“Madam, at the moment there are two agencies in charge of car parks, the HDB and the URA. Both these agencies come under the Ministry of National Development with Minister Mah in charge. It is like one country, two systems. As far as I am aware, the HDB is in charge of car parks in the HDB residential estates and URA is in charge of all the car parks in the city area. In my constituency, there is a stretch of road where the HDB is in charge of the car parks on the left-hand side, and the URA is in charge of the other car parks on the right-hand side. There are actually two car park divisions in charge of the same function. May I suggest that we merge these two car park divisions so that we can save on administrative cost. I would also like to suggest that an electronic payment method be used to replace the present coupon parking system because by now, our motorists are all familiar with the ERP system and electronic means could cater for different rates at different times. This way, we could save on parking coupons. Safety of Shopping Centres”
“Madam, I support Minister Mah Bow Tan's announcement to have more Interim Upgrading Programme and less Main Upgrading Programme. The present package of Interim Upgrading plus Lift Upgrading is still much cheaper than the Main Upgrading Programme. The cost of one MUP precinct is equivalent to four or five IUP plus LUP precincts. With this saving, many more precincts can now enjoy IUP plus lift access to every floor in the older HDB estates. The Minister said that there were some 3,000 blocks of flats that qualified for IUP, and it would take about 10 to 15 years to complete the programme. Some old folks told me that by 15 years they most probably would not be around to enjoy the benefits of such upgrading. I would like to ask if the Minister would speed up these projects to finish all the upgrading programmes in, say, five years. This will also help to boost up the presently depressing building industry. With our ageing problem, lift access to every floor would be a great convenience to our older folks. I also urge the Minister to consider extending the Lift Upgrading Programme to the low-rise four-storey blocks as well. I understand that the cost of installing lifts to the four-storey blocks is only $5,000 per unit. For the high rise blocks, the cost is about $12,000 per unit. I hope that the Minister would consider this favourably.”
“Sir, since we have the second Chinese TV Channel, the quality of programmes in the Chinese TV channels has improved significantly. This is the result of good, healthy competition. And MediaCorp has now produced the Holland Village, I Love My Home and then presenter Dong Shu Hwa has been reading news outdoors. From Channel U, you have Kindred Spirit, Everyone Wants to Know and World Without Boundaries. These are also very good programmes that have received good feedback from the audience. But Singapore's market is very small and the two stations are all running into losses. As SM Lee has said, if they want to get out of the losses, they will have to solve two problems. First, is to increase more Singapore local audience and, second, to increase the revenue. I think the two stations can have more coverage of local news and the grassroots activities in the various constituencies. Every GRC has hundreds of thousands of people. I think with the coverage of happenings in the HDB estates, it would attract more viewers to watch these programmes. Secondly, we should have more coverage of news on our local enterprises and listed companies, thus helping our people to have a better understanding of these listed companies. For some people who want to buy shares, they will be able to have a better understanding and make informed decisions on what shares to buy. With the companies in the limelight and better viewership, they will rush to place advertisements on TV or even sponsor the programmes, thereby giving the TV stations more revenue. I think with such improvements, we will be able to get the TV stations into the black again and also at the same time, the standard of our TV programmes would be further improved.”
“There was not a word in Chinese. As a result, the toilets were dirty and smelly. One air hostess came up with an idea and wrote two Chinese characters chong shui, meaning "flush water" on a sheet of paper and pasted it on the toilet wall. Immediately thereafter, the passengers began to flush the toilet after use, and the toilets became clean and no longer smelly. When I arrived at the Changi Airport, I heard two tourists from China discussing which way they had to go. One said, "Let us turn left. If we cannot find the immigration checkpoint, then we turn to the right." The other one was smarter, and he said, "Just follow the others!" So they were actually groping in the dark. If we can have more clearly written indications in Chinese, this will help the Chinese tourists and they will feel more at home here. Thirdly, we have to improve our service, particularly in our retail industry. I would like to cite an example. I went to a shopping centre to buy a pair of trousers. I asked the salesman whether he could shorten the length of the trousers for me. He said, "No problem. You go and pay for it first." After that, he handed me a form and asked me to write down my name and telephone number. I asked him why I had to do this, as I just only needed to have the length of the trousers shortened. He told me that the trousers would be ready only in one week's time. If this is the kind of service we offer, then I do not think we would be able to attract the tourists to shop here.”
“Sir, the number of tourists from China has increased significantly over the years. With the high economic growth of China, the people are getting more and more affluent. Every year, if we can attract 1% of China's 1.3 billion people to come to Singapore, we would have more than 10 million tourist arrivals in Singapore, much higher than the Singapore Tourism Board's target of seven million. This will certainly boost our tourism industry. In order to attract more tourists from China to visit us, I have a few suggestions to make. First, we have to reduce the entrance fees of our tourist attractions. In the past, we had the Haw Par Villa and the Tang Dynasty Garden. But because of the high entrance fees, they could not attract enough visitors, and had to close down. Sentosa used to charge an entrance fee of $5. Two years ago, I raised this point in Parliament, and I am very glad that the entrance fee has since been reduced to $2. I think we should lower the entrance fees so as to attract more visitors. Now, we have two world-famous attractions, ie, the Jurong Bird Park and the Mandai Zoological Gardens. Last week, a Chinese tourist wrote in the newspapers that with the entrance fee of $12 per head, plus a plate of chicken rice and some drinks each, it would cost the family of four some $120. It is about $30 or about 150 renminbi per head. This is a bit high for the Chinese tourists. I think we should seriously look into these charges. Secondly, we should have more Chinese signboards. In order to attract the Chinese tourists, we have to use their language so that they could feel at home when they are in Singapore. Recently, I went to Beijing and when I was flying on the SIA plane, I found that all the notices in the toilet were written in English.”
“I would like to suggest to the Government that in evaluating and assessing the civil servants, it should not assess them on what they have done, but how well they have served the people and how many opportunities they have created for the SMEs. They should be assessed on the efforts they have made to assist the industries to flourish, and should not be punished for genuine mistakes which they have made, lest they become too reserved and refrain from taking risk for fear of committing mistakes. We should rid our civil servants of the established attitude of "the less you do, the less mistake you make". Small and Medium Enterprises”
“Sir, the Government is encouraging more entrepreneurs in Singapore to set up new companies. It gives them incentives and hope to attract young people to create their own businesses and enterprises under the various schemes available to them. In so doing, the Government should also educate and guide the civil servants so that they would accept new technology and new technological product. I have a friend who uses some new technology to compress timber to produce boards in his factory. This is a value-added process. When his company applied for a permit to sell this new kind of product, it was turned down because there was no record of sales of such compressed timber board in the market. When I visited him at his factory and asked him whether his business was good, he replied, with a great sigh, that the Government was stifling his business with all kinds of red tape, and his improved product could not be sold in the market because of "eye-shut" attitude of the civil servants. So, what is the use of creativity? Our civil servants are an important bridge between the people and the Government. They must be practical and down-to-earth to serve the people. They should not be too rigid and stick to the old rules in performing their duties, thus creating inconvenience to the entrepreneurs and stifling our creativity and development in this area. So I believe that in implementing the Government's push for creativity, the civil servant must be very flexible to serve the people so that creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit of the people would not be suppressed.”
“Sir, in recent years, many budget airline companies have sprung up. Their main feature is their low-price air tickets, while maintaining a standard of service not inferior to the normal airlines. SIA, with its superior service and the Singapore Girl image has become our national icon and international brand name, the main challenge is in the price of air tickets. Therefore, we have to be more flexible in order to attract more passengers. Singapore Airlines tickets are generally more expensive than other airlines. The fares of the Chinese airlines are more attractive. If you buy more tickets, you would even get discounts. SIA offers some discounts from time to time too, but with many conditions attached. A one-way ticket from Singapore to Bangkok costs only $23 on the budget airlines. In view of these changes and the intense competition, what will be the strategy of Singapore Airlines to meet such challenges? Infrastructure for Low Cost Carriers”
“The Singapore Port Authority manages the world's largest container port with good service and high efficiency which has won us many awards. In recent years, the ports in our neighbouring countries have become competitive, resulting in the loss of some of our major customers to them. This is shocking and disappointing. But it is heartening to know that some of these customers are coming back to us. I would like to ask the Minister, after all these setbacks, how was the Singapore Port Authority's performance in 2003. Has it reached its set targets? What is its forecast for 2004? What is the development strategy for the future in the face of keen competition? When countries in the world are actively fighting terrorists, what measures has our Port Authority taken to strengthen the security of our ports? In particular, how does the Port Authority strengthen security checks on transhipment cargo vessels entering Singapore so as to prevent the attacks by the terrorists and to avoid explosions taking place in Singapore, which would undermine our image as the number one container port in the world? Air Hub”
“Sir, at present, when a car owner buys his car, he pays cash for the Certificate of Entitlement. But when he scraps his car, all he gets is just another certificate, and not cash. This certificate can only be used to offset the cost of the Certificate of Entitlement of his next car. If the car owner wants to get back the rebate in cash, he would have to sell his paper to a third party, such as a second-hand car dealer. Of course, the third party would charge 2-3% as commission. This does not seem to be logical. Initially, he paid for it in cash, but when he deregisters his car, why can he not get back his PARF rebate in cash? In recent years, many car owners have been facing financial difficulties and could no longer afford to own their cars. They could not sell their cars as the second-hand car market has been discouraging. As a result, they have no choice but to deregister their cars with the hope of getting some cash back to tide over the difficult times. As a matter of fact, the Land Transport Authority should know and be able to forecast how many cars are being imported each year, and how many cars are deregistered. This information is certainly in the hands of the Ministry of Transport. As such, I hope that the Minister will reconsider the plea to make cash refund to motorists who deregister their cars. Land Transport System”
“Sir, right now, our public transport system consists of MRT, bus and taxi services. For the elderly and the handicapped who are less mobile, the better form of public transport is taxi. If we expect our taxis to render better service to the elderly and the handicapped, then we need to modify our taxis. If taxi companies or the taxi-drivers themselves want to take the initiative to modify their taxis, they would have to bear the full cost of such modification. I would like to know if the Minister would consider giving them tax incentives on the cost of such modification so as to encourage them to upgrade part of their taxi fleet in order to render better service to the elderly and the handicapped people. If we want to put our public transport system on par with the best in the world, we should look into improving our services to all citizens, particularly those who are less mobile.”
“Sir, I thank the Minister for his replies to all the points raised by the Members. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. The sum of $23,718,920 for Head F ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates. The sum of $781,300 for Head F ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.”