Chia Shi Teck
Singapore
“Mr Speaker, the Minister has missed out my question on affordability. I would like the Minister's assurance. Nobody believes in the word "affordability", as the prices are moving up. Will HDB, for instance, freeze the selling prices for the next five or 10 years to ensure affordability?”
“The question is to prepare the girls, after the 'A' level, for some jobs that will get them ready for motherhood later on. Because the fear is that while the schools are chasing for As in academic achievements they might divert their attention from the basic motherhood later on.”
“Sir, the Parliamentary Secretary said that the complaint of the needles only came months later. Actually, it was taken on 16th November 1993 and there was confirmation that there were needles implanted. But the X-rays were lost. Subsequently, at counsel's request, another X-ray was taken on 29th April 1994.”
“My question is: how was it that when the prison knew that there was a needle implanted in November 1993 it lapsed until 29th April 1994 when the counsel asked for another X-ray to be taken and the needle was still inside? Therefore, it shows that there must be some lapse, as you said, and that there should be further investigation.”
“Would the Parliamentary Secretary agree to using camera for serious cases that lead to capital punishment if it is not possible to use camera to record all interrogations? But for serious cases that lead to capital punishment, probably it will be fair to do that. Assoc. Prof.”
“Sir, a recent report by EIU stated that Singapore is more costly than Hong Kong in terms of telecommunication costs. Given the monopoly to Singapore Telecom, would the Minister direct that they must be the cheapest as far as this region is concerned, because they have the advantage of the monopoly?”
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“What was the Ministers' pay in comparison to the private sector pay at the last revision and what is it now before the revision? I think this will help Singaporeans to keep a sense of perspective. For many people, the sums that we are talking about are sums that are beyond their imagination. A person who is a clerk in an office cannot imagine what a person could do with $30,000 a month. And to tell him that this is less than the million dollars that a CEO takes does not mean very much to him. So we have to give the information to people to show them that there are relativities. For the long term, there will always be a certain amount of cynicism. Many people will say, "Look, this is a Government of highly paid people. Therefore, they keep telling everyone else that market forces should drive everything." I think you will find that very common sentiment and no matter how much information you give to people there is always that emotional problem that people have. In the long term, may I suggest that either some fixed formula or some indexing, or some acceptable formula, be developed so that you do not have a real subjective element. Alternatively, why not let the Elected President have a veto over Ministerial and civil service pay? I make this suggestion because the Elected President has a direct mandate from the people now to ensure fiscal prudence in Singapore. It may not be a very big thing, but it may show that the people in charge are not looking after themselves alone. They are willing to subject their pay increases to independent scrutiny. Personally, I think the increases that are suggested for the Ministers and the civil service are reasonable. I think they deserve what they get.”
“If the Deputy Prime Minister and all the others get more than four months, I think the Prime Minister deserves more. Assoc. Prof. Walter Woon (Nominated Member): Mr Speaker, I declare my interest as an employee of a statutory board who might possibly benefit from the increases. It is always very difficult for a board of directors to set their own pay because people will say that they have their own personal interest involved. So either they will over-pay themselves or they will under-pay themselves. I agree entirely with the Government's philosophy that if you want a good civil service, and Singapore's prosperity depends on an excellent civil service, then you must pay the going rate. To expect people to be altruistic and join the civil service is to be unrealistic. When it comes to Minister's pay, for some reason, people expect more altruism. We have seen in other countries, when Parliament debates Ministers' pay or Parliamentarians' pay, there is an enormous amount of cynicism generated. If you look, for example, the report of recent debates in the UK House of Commons, some newspapers were saying that Parliamentarians were standing up telling each other how good a job they did. This is the problem when a body sets its own pay. For Singaporeans, I think the basic question is: do we think our Ministers are worth it? This is really the basic question. In order for us to make this kind of decision, I think it is necessary that we should have sufficient information. Dr Tan has already asked for the criteria to be made transparent. I think it is also necessary, if it is possible for us, to have the figures. Could we see how the private sector pay has been increasing in the last few years?”
“Sir, principally, I support this pay increase put up by the Deputy Prime Minister. But I want to ask a few points. The first point is whether we are sending out the wrong message if basic wages go up above productivity. We are asking the work force to negotiate for increments below productivity. So how do we measure productivity in relation to the upper strata workers? In so far as the package is concerned, I share the view raised by Mr Das. This is the basic wage. I suppose there is something like another 30% added to the package here. I may be wrong. But even taking the 30%, for a Superscale C Permanent Secretary earning $12,000 plus a month, if you add 30% times 16, $250,000 is very fair, if you compare to the private sector. Here the worry is, of course, as Mr Heng said earlier, the pressure to look at the total package and for the Government to compare with the private sector. We may scale ourselves out of the world market. A better way in future might be to have a more flexible wage component where bonuses could go up to as high as 12 months, instead of six months, and the basic component may be kept lower, so that in bad years we need not be stuck with high basic wages. I think that is the principle that we are asking the unions to accept. My proposal is actually for the bonus component to go up to as high as 12 months but keep the basic wages lower. I agree with Mr Chng that if we annualize the whole thing, maybe the increment is not that huge. So why do we want to increase salaries only after such a long period of time? But if we have more flexibility on the bonus component, the exercise will be easier, and the public sector need not compete with the private sector. I also agree that the Prime Minister's performance bonus should not be fixed at four months.”
“Sir, the question is that the answer I got from the doctor to the question which I asked the last time, and the Minister of State's answer do not seem to tally. I put in the question because I thought that it has a policy in pricing and that the cheaper drugs are priced at a higher profit, and the expensive drugs are priced at a subsidy. Is that the way you price it? I do not know.”
“Sir, from the Minister of State's answer, I do not feel that you are pricing the medicine according to cost. Dr Moses Yu called me and said they actually price according to cost, a multiple of a few times. His answer was that cheap medicine, ie, medicines costing by the cents, you multiply it, and it could be a five to seven times profit. But there are certain medicines that they price below cost. So it could be an averaging that you are doing. I do not know.”
“Sir, does the Parliamentary Secretary agree that there could never be equal treatment for men and women?”
“The point is equal treatment. As we are talking about equal treatment these days, does he not feel that the treatment is not equal if we differentiate the sexes?”
“Sir, while accepting Mr Matthias Yao's explanation, would it be a matter of fair treatment for both the male and female, as we have a lot of women leaders asking for fair treatment, and I have a daughter who says she does not mind serving national service?”
“Sir, because we are a free port, ie, we practise free trade, is it difficult for us to negotiate bilateral arrangements as we have nothing more to offer when protectionist blocs start coming up?”
“With the aging population in Singapore, and with the rising life expectancy in Singapore, there will be more and more of such "patients". Therefore, the White Paper should have made some provisions for these "patients". Fourthly, because the cost of training a doctor is high, and in order to control such costs, can we not consider the development of some kind of para-medics between doctors and nurses, so that these para-medics can provide the services in hospitals or the polyclinics to look after people who need only health care, rather than medical care?”
“CPI has been hotly criticised and became an issue when we debated the Cost Review Committee's Report last month. Now, the White Paper has adopted the formula of CPI plus X as the cap for the maximum revenue of our hospitals. This will again give rise to controversy among members of the public. At the same time, X, as a variable, is also very ambiguous. It can be more, it can also be less. But very often it will not be a negative figure. If it represents something that is going up all the time or most of the time, then this will add on to the burden of the public. Secondly, the White Paper recommends that the proportion of doctors in subvented hospitals be fixed at 60% for general practitioners and 40% for specialist doctors. My question here is: by so doing, will it give rise to a brain drain from subvented hospitals to the private hospitals? Because the private hospitals are better in financial resources and they can employ better trained and talented specialists, especially now that the Government's policy is to restrict the number of specialist doctors in practice in Singapore. This measure will, all the more, cause a possible brain drain of specialists from Government hospitals to the private hospitals. Thirdly, the White Paper also refers to the total number of beds in the hospitals. These beds are meant for patients in general. My view is that in the White Paper there is lack of attention given to the aged sick, people who are sick because of old age. No attention has been given to this in the White Paper. These aged sick people do not really need plenty of medical care. All they need is the availability of hospital beds for them to recuperate or to sleep in.”
“In this case, they just pass it on because patients have no choice as to which doctor to go to. In all, I think the Government has done the right thing in that we must actually have a system where the people have got to pay when they consume, and there is no end to it. I am disappointed that the Opposition Members are not here to say how they feel. We may have reserves, but how long can these reserves last if there is no cap and no co-responsibility? Before I conclude, there is one area that I am not very comfortable with, which is the control of ICUs. The reason is that ICU is the most expensive service. But is the White Paper telling us that there are too many ICUs around? There must be a need for them before you have that number of beds in the ICUs. So you cannot just, because of cost, reduce the number of ICUs. It must certainly be based on the needs and demand. With that, I support the motion. Mr Chin Harn Tong (Aljunied GRC)( In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, the White Paper on Affordable Health Care has been published with the object of controlling the rise in medical cost and ensuring the people enjoy affordable health care. This White Paper deserves to be highly commended by all of us. However, there are some recommendations in the Report which can be further improved. Let me touch on only four points: Firstly, the White Paper recommends that the maximum growth in revenue for a hospital should be calculated by a formula of CPI plus X. This formula contains the variable "X", which will be determined by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance. When formulating this formula of CPI plus X formula, there is a presumption that CPI is something which is already accepted by all and, hence, uncontroversial. But the fact does not appear to be so.”
“In general. We got the feedback from someone who is actually in the business of supplying medicine. He said that the price that they tendered versus the price that is ultimately put up in the market shows something like five to seven times. There is no mention in the White Paper whether the medicine cost could be actually capped. The doctor is providing a service, so he charges a fee. Based on his experience and the kind of treatment, the length of visit, the type of sickness, he has to charge different rates. But must he profit out of medicine? Must he profit out of all these other supplies? He has also got people who go back to him just to collect medicine the second time. Is consultation fee applicable or should it be cheaper for repeat visits, which are basically going back to collect medicine? Then you have doctors talking about rentals and the premises that they have got to pay. My fellow colleague, Dr Toh Keng Kiat, has asked once whether there should be designated Housing and Development Board shops. They have to tender together with the jewellers and the traders and whether that could be transformed. At the way things are going, that may form a big part of the cost and we should study that. Could they operate out of void decks, for instance? Town Councils may allow void decks to be used. Could they operate out of their homes? I do not know. That will take away the element of rental cost. All these have to be studied. As regards the number of hospital beds, we already have reports that the private hospitals are worried that there are too many beds. And too many beds would mean that they will charge a higher fee. It does not mean that it will be cheaper. Unlike hotels, when there are too many rooms, the rates go down.”
“The incident was reported in the SBC News.”
“Sir, will the Minister of State consider that the new flats with a 99-year tenure are better than old flats with 20 years of the lease having expired?”
“Sir, could it be that these people have no money to apply and they have missed out on the wealth, especially when the prices of ST shares rise? Or could the Government not give them the shares, as it gave them the $200 under the CPF Top-up Scheme? Out of 800,000, I think something like 600,000 did not even top up with $500. They could be the people who are poor and who do not have the money to top up. You need to have money to apply for the shares.”
“The second question is whether the banks will play this role for future Government privatisation exercise.”
“Sir, if it is simply to facilitate the sale of shares, could there be other better methods, like using the telephone lines, instead of setting up the terminals?”
“Sir, the Government must help. Those who have made it better must also help. And MPs and Opposition MPs also must help to explain the truth. Some hon. Members: Hear, hear!”
“These are high-tech machines but very little labour needed, and they have just shifted away. So what happens? In today's report, Sony's chief, Akio Morita, said that, in fact, the Japanese are moving and they are trying to retain the higher value added things. Unless the two go in tandem, we may price ourselves out of the market and I think that is the fear. Each time prices move up, our level becomes higher, and I hope that this matter will be studied by the Government. My plea to the people out there, people in Singapore, is look at the facts. The facts do not confuse us. We have to accept that prices must go up and that we have to work for it. The Government must be mindful that the good intentions that we have may bring us the side effects of pushing up prices unintentionally.”
“On health care, the Minister has asked us to be patient, as we will discuss it when the White Paper on health care is introduced. On education, I share the Minister's argument that university education only benefits the creme de la creme. The percentage of GDP that the Government commits to education has not been reduced and I think that is important. If that can be increased to 6% of GDP, it will be very welcomed that more money is spent to benefit the majority of Singaporeans. The university students can look after themselves as they are the creme de la creme. I like to pay tribute to the hawkers. On the Government's good policy of selling HDB shops, and now selling hawker stalls, the intention is good, and the hawkers are keeping the cost of living low and they actually feed millions of Singaporeans daily. So would the switch to sell the stalls to the hawkers result in hawker prices actually moving up too quickly? What moves up never comes down. We said that even for GST, it is a once-off increase. Each time, we have a once-off escalation, we start off at a higher base and that is the fear because, at the end of the day, we are talking about maintaining the competitiveness of Singapore, maintaining the jobs that we have and creating new jobs for our children and for future generations. So each time when prices move up, we are starting off at a higher base, and we are talking about competitiveness with other countries. I read a report recently on Pusan, Korea. Just a few years ago, Pusan was the number one production base for sports shoes - Reebok, Nike, and what have you. Today, Pusan is practically a dead town with almost 30% unemployment and all the shoe factories have moved out to places like China and Indonesia.”
“My point has always been that the Government may have unwittingly push up the prices of the private sector because of HDB's prices. There is a floor price. And as HDB proceeds to build bigger and bigger units, the private sector prices will also be driven up because we are not comparing apple with apple. But to take Mr Low's suggestion that the HDB goes into private housing is a serious matter, because HDB will then move into the private sector which may not be what the Government wants. The other matter is COE. COE was introduced to control the number of cars on the road. I think nobody argues about road congestion, or the number of cars on the road has to be controlled. The Government's argument about changing the scrap system to the COE is that the right given to existing car owners is a perpetual one and that the second-hand value of cars becomes an investment, so therefore it is a bad system. But with the change to COE, it does not help the situation because the prices continue to go up and the fear in the new entrants is that they will wake up one day having to pay $100,000 just to get a COE, or $1 million just to get a small apartment. This is what the people are unhappy about. A better system would be to actually allow part of the rise in prices to be given back to the car owners. If we feel that the existing owners have a benefit perpetually, then the same can be said of housing. People who are born into families with houses will, of course, have a benefit over those who are born into families with no houses. So are we going to also cut it down and make it to be a one generation house? We just cannot do that. I hope the Government can look again into COE because it is a living thorn that will affect the Government's popularity.”
“And this is one point that many of us feel a little uneasy because it is not a perfect market, and because there are limitations with a small size, I think cornering can take place. The Government has, I think, got to be careful over here when we just leave things simply to market forces. We feel that the Government policies sometimes may unwittingly drive up prices faster than what they should be. In the case of the Government's tender of land, the feeling is that, with each tender, the prices are being shifted up and the developers actually have a boom time, not out of their hard work that they put in but simply out of the way that tender prices have been moving up. For example, if a developer has tendered for 300 units, worked out at a certain price, say, a selling price of X dollars, and he goes in to tender, but subsequent tenders show that the cost of the next developer is higher than his X dollars, then he could easily just move his prices up to X plus whatever factor, and that is the windfall that the developers are getting now. So my suggestion is that this is no fault of the developers. Developers are in the business to develop properties. When they tender, say, X dollars, they are going to price X plus five, but subsequent tenders show that it is double X, so it will be double X plus five. So the suggestion I would like to make here is whether HDB could ask the tenderers to also put in the range of prices that they want to sell so that subsequent tenders or prices that have gone up will not bring up this selling price. We may laugh at the suggestion but then it is a market that is not perfect, and that is dangerous. Mr Low Thia Khiang's report suggested that HDB goes into building of condominiums.”
“Why doesn't the Government also include the private properties in the refurbishing scheme?" So that is the kind of professional we have. On the other hand, we also have feedback from some professionals who come up and tell me, "Why is the Government giving $100 under the Edusave scheme to my children? I don't need it." So the schools actually ask them to contribute. "Why is the Government giving us $200 under the Top-Up Scheme when we don't need it?" So you do have a balance. And we want more of these people who feel for the lesser well-off. So meritocracy is good, rewarding for performance but, at the same time, we should have compassion. The desire to have good things, as the Minister said, is all right. We have got to work for them. Greed is not all right. Envy is not all right. So our dreams and aspirations, they are all right. But we have got to match them with realism and that is what the Cost Review Committee is all about. The Cost Review Committee Report did not ask people to give up aspirations, or did not ask those journalists or those who were born in the 1960s, who were the PAP generation, as we call them, to accept the fact that their future will not be as rosy as their forefathers. We have to accept the limitations but, at the same time, we have got to work within the limitations. If we kill the very motivation, then we are killing the very spirit that drives Singaporeans to continue to prosper or continue to work. And that will spell disaster. Sir, amidst the limitations, I think we should then manage the increase in prices while accepting that prices must go up. The next guiding principle that the Government follows or adopts is the market forces, the market prices.”
“The cost of living is the measurement of how well or how badly we live. And I think that is important. When people said that we have no freedom of movement, I challenge them by saying, "Ask your leaders to walk through your streets and see if they will survive." Here, all of us can survive, so we have the freedom of movement. The Minister is correct when he said that not too long ago we were all cramped up in Chinatown and kampongs, poorly-ventilated lodgings and no modern sanitation. However, a straight `A' does not mean a perfect score. So there are rooms for improvement and that is precisely what this argument is all about. There is this question of distribution of wealth, which Mr Low and many of us are concerned, ie, whether the gap is widening. I just read a USA report recently about the government talking about their poor. 14.5%, or something like 37 million, Americans are considered poor and the blacks and Hispanics are three times more likely to be poor. One third of the blacks are considered poor and almost 30% of the Hispanics are also considered to be poor in the United States. So I think Singapore is doing much better than them. The Government's wisdom is in following certain principles, one of which is meritocracy, but tinted with compassion. And I think this part is important. Having served in the Feedback Unit, I realise that for some people who have made it, the way they talk and their comments are lopsided. There is this Government's programme in upgrading the HDB flats, where $10-15 billion would be spent over the next 10 or 15 years, as announced by the Prime Minister. There was a complaint from a doctor in a feedback session and he said, "We are the ones that are paying the income taxes and property taxes.”
“For crabs, I like the male crab because there is no roe), poultry and fresh vegetables, all these are available at the wet markets. Our health and hygiene is clean, green and first class. We fall sick because we are fat. So our belts are tight because we are fat, not because of malnutrition. The clothing is fashionable and we wear branded goods. My brand is also branded. Housing is the world's best. In Japan, they talk about rabbit hutches, and it takes three generations to buy one apartment. In Singapore, in one generation, you are talking about three or more private properties. Posh cars, all the big cars you can see in the world, appear in Singapore very quickly after the models are introduced. We have airconditioned buses and MRT. We have been accused of not honouring human rights. The West said that human rights are important but the dignity of living is important. We have full employment. In the West, they have lots of unemployment. People are out of jobs, so what dignity do they have? Our place is safe, secure and the people are harmonious. When they accuse us that we do not have the freedom of speech, I do not agree with them. Even if we accept that our freedom of speech is less, what about freedom of movement? If we ask our Prime Minister, or any Minister, who walks through any part of Singapore ---”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, as a privileged member of the CRC, I cannot sing praises for the Report. But I can confirm what Mr Lim Boon Heng said yesterday that the 16-member committee did not come in to rubber-stamp. In fact, we also have Mr Low Thia Khiang's strong views. And it is only fair to speak out for the other members who are not represented here. We have unionists, grassroots leaders, employer group, academia, journalists and they represent a very wide section. And they do, at times, try very hard to pin the officials down when they come in with the numbers. So the numbers given were correct, are correct and the CPI is correct. The point is that the CPI represents the average. It is a general indicator and it is not the end-all and answer-all. I think Minister Dhanabalan has said it yesterday too that many Singaporeans come with a mindset and, in fact, if you get to the bookshop, you can buy a poster (I did not bring it along) which reads, "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts". And that is the kind of poster that is being sold. That is true of many of us when we read the Report. The mind is fixed and they just do not want to be confused with the facts. But I think we have to look at the facts. Here, I would like to praise the Government for tackling this explosive and emotional issue straight on and, no doubt, this cost of living issue will continue to surface again and again. I think it is good to reflect on how well or how badly we are performing. And if we look at the report card, definitely it is straight `As' score. Life expectancy is 76, as we have just read recently. Quality of life is first class. We are talking about fresh food, fresh fish, fresh crabs (I have been asked about female or male crabs.”
“Sir, under such circumstances, if the Minister were to continue with this tender of small plots, would he attempt to advise the individual tenderers on how to be successful in the bid, otherwise their dream will never be realised?”
“Sir, the very same developer has done it in the commercial property where, during a recession, he can just abandon the successful tender and lose his deposit. He abandons the projects because, here, you are not talking about an immediate supply. Houses take some years to develop and the developers can just walk out on the successful tenders whilst benefitting from the existing stocks that are already up in the market for sale.”
“Sir, will the Minister agree that if I have, on hand, 10,000 units of landed property plots, I would tender up my existing stocks and whether I make or lose at the subsequent 100 plots that I tender is immaterial, as my existing 10,000 plots would have risen in value?”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, before I ask the Question, may I declare my interest as a director of a property company and also I have nothing against any developer. Question No. 5, Sir.”
“Dr Michael Lim Chun Leng asked the Minister for National Development what is the number and profile of Housing and Development Board flats that were revested by the HDB from 1988 to 1992 because of inability to continue with mortgage loan repayments.”
“Question No. 9, Sir. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Home Affairs (Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee) (for the Minister for Home Affairs): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) responds to about 5,000 ambulance calls and 400 fire calls every month. The SCDF observes that instances of motorists failing to give way to our emergency vehicles are relatively few. The problem is therefore not serious. At present, there is adequate legislation to deal with such motorists. Under the Road Traffic Act, all traffic, on the approach of any emergency vehicle, is required to draw in as close as possible to the edge of the road to allow a clear passage for the vehicle. A motorist who fails to give way can be fined up to $1,000 or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three months. In the case of a second or subsequent offence, the maximum fine and prison term are $2,000 and six months respectively. Every offence also carries four demerit points. As part of Police enforcement action, a driver of an emergency vehicle may lodge a police report against any motorist who fails to give way to his vehicle. In 1992, five motorists were booked for such an offence. In 1993, to-date, one motorist has been booked. The SCDF is constantly improving its emergency services. For example, it has introduced the Fast Response Medic (FRM) Scheme where medics on motorcycles are despatched to attend to road accident victims ahead of ambulances. Even then, the Ministry of Home Affairs will continue its efforts to educate motorists on giving way to emergency vehicles. An instance is the recent Traffic Police Road Courtesy Campaign where this message was reinforced. HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD (Number and profile of flats revested) 10.”
“The Minister has just said yesterday that the instinct in Singaporeans is that they would gamble and with this publicity for easy money, would it not aggravate the problem?”
“Sir, will this euphoria, when Singaporeans make money out of these shares, lead Singaporeans to think that this is an easy way to make money rather than to actually work?”
“Would the Government openly tell Singaporeans to invest in proper blue chip shares in Singapore as 70% of daily trading are on Malaysian OTC shares and the lure of easy money may get Singaporeans burnt?”
“Sir, it looks like the publicity is meant to get Singaporeans to invest in ST shares. Is that the case?”
“Sir, when the Minister is considering the review, will the Minister consider the sensitivities of the minority races, lest it be mistaken to be a push for minorities to take up the Chinese language?”
“Sir, could the Prime Minister say whether there was a recount in some of the counting stations? The Prime Minister: There was no recount. NON-CHINESE STUDENTS OPTING FOR CHINESE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS (Update on policy) 7. Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Education if he will provide an update on the policy of non-Chinese students opting for Mandarin as a second language in primary schools.”
“It is not so difficult to be a great leader but it is much more difficult to be remembered as a great human being, and I think President Wee will be remembered as a great human being. I join the other Members of this House in wishing both the President and the First Lady long life and good health and a fulfilling retirement.”
“I hope the Government can look into this area. On a final note, I would like to wish President Wee Kim Wee and his wife the best of health and happiness. Assoc. Prof. Walter Woon (Nominated Member): Mr Speaker, Sir, we have in this House heard speaker after speaker singing praises of the President. It is very hard indeed to find anyone who has had any bad word to say for President Wee. He is possibly the only person in high public office who has attracted no public criticism at all. President Wee took over the Presidency at the time when its prestige and its respectability were at a low ebb. I think it is entirely due to him and to the First Lady that the Presidency is as well respected now as it was before. The new President, Mr Ong, will have a hard act to follow after President Wee Kim Wee. President Wee has attracted broad support from all sectors of the population. In fact, during the course of the Presidential elections, one refrain I often heard was "Why doesn't President Wee stand? We will have no problems electing him." This came from all sides, people who supported Mr Ong, people who supported Mr Chua, all were equally comfortable with President Wee standing. We respect his reasons for not standing and we are grateful for the years that he has given to us. In Singapore, we have very few home-grown models to hold up to our children for emulation. I think the President and the First Lady are wonderful models for us to hold up to our children. In an age where marriages are temporary, they have stayed together for the best part in more than half a century. In an age where people pursue wealth and power for their own sake, we have here a genuinely humble man who is concerned for other people. Many people desire to be remembered by history as great leaders.”
“Now, President Wee Kim Wee is stepping down most graciously and gracefully after eight good years of his life. They have toiled hard to earn back the prestige and respect of the office of the President. He became a truly people's President, loved by one and all, including the Opposition in this House. It is not easy to be loved by all in our multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-lingual society. He was actually above politics. When asked which candidate he endorsed, either Mr Ong Teng Cheong or Mr Chua Kim Yeow, he stayed neutral right through, and that is the kind of President that we are talking about, above politics. We may continue to sing praises of him, maybe for a while, but I would like to know what happens next. He has said that he would move into his own apartment, turn it into his office. But do we, Singaporeans, now that we are talking about a more compassionate society, like to see the couple fade into the wilderness or into the unknown? I suppose the Government will give him some form of pension. But, sometimes, it is not a question of dollars and cents. It is a question of privileged treatment. So can the Government, or the State, not provide him with some properly accorded protocol, an office or a driver, or, maybe, an official title or role to tap on his vast experience. I do not know whether we could make him an honorary President. In the French system, an ex-President or ex-Prime Minister is still entitled to use the title. It is just like in the army, where above a certain rank, he could keep his title. We have an Ambassador-at-large, but it is not right to have a President-at-large. I am not saying all this out of fun. I am thinking more on how we can set a precedent to recognise and reward great leaders who have contributed to the nation.”
“I touched on every subject. I was not fair to him, but I wanted to learn from him. It was very enlightening, very educational, full of wisdom and full of knowledge. You can touch on mother tongue, moral values because that was a hot issue at that time which Prof. Walter Woon had raised in the papers, and he was not afraid to state his views (I will keep it to myself). He is a fond collector of cheap things. He is particularly happy with the scout badges from all over the world. So the Scouts Association actually helps him to collect these badges. We must also pay tribute to the First Lady. As the Prime Minister has said, she is always there behind him, trailing behind him full time and overtime because she also has her own role. She takes the job seriously, takes it as a full-time job. She became emotionally attached to all the roles that she was given. She is the tower of strength and I could see her suffering from pain, as the Prime Minister has said that she has arthritis, when she was climbing up the steps at the SEA Games ceremony. I was also told that she had just recovered from shingles at that time. She would have skipped watching the football match but she was still there. They are a truly loving couple, the President and the First Lady, and the office is a truly two-person job and both have performed extremely well. We have just got the election of the Elected President on 28th August 1993. It was a historic event. President Wee Kim Wee's stepping down is also, in a way, a historic event. The first two Presidents that we had, President Yusof bin Ishak and President Benjamin Sheares, died in office. Our third President, Mr C V Devan Nair, left unfortunately.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to rise to pay tribute to this great man, President Wee Kim Wee. On 7th September last year, together with another five, I had the honour of receiving the appointment letter from President Wee Kim Wee as an NMP. The ceremony was simple but the tea reception that followed told me that he did not take that ceremony as just a ceremonial role. He immediately went on to advise me on how to serve the nation and to be honest and brave enough to speak up. And I did ask him whether, as President, he had the chance to speak up. He said yes. As the Prime Minister said earlier, he could write and drop notes to the Ministers to voice his views. I think that touches me a lot that he is not just taking his role as a ceremonial one. It is very inspiring, very encouraging. I had the greatest honour a month later to attend the Scouts' Association Building Fund dinner where I was put to sit at the head table with him. He and the First Lady were the Guests-of-Honour. I said to myself that I want to get an insight of the man behind the President. I praised him for being the people's President and he immediately shoved that aside. He told me that he was still uncomfortable, like coming into the hall with people standing up. He said, "I tell my wife we have to make a 50-metre dash." He does not want to see people standing up for him. The next day, he has to visit Brunei. After dessert was served at the main table, I could see the ADC prompting him and actually pressing him to go. He was irritated and he told the ADC, "I can still stay because dessert has not been served to the other tables. It does not make sense for me to walk out now and everybody has got to stand up." So that tells me what kind of President we have. So I picked his brain.”
“Using this method of gazetting foreign publications, has it served our purpose? And when measured against the negative effect that we suffer, do we come out better off?”
“Sir, has the adoption of gazetting served its purpose against the negative effect that we suffer?”
“Sir, as $2 and $3 is not very much of a difference, will the Minister envisage that the shift of the traffic will be to the peak hours and the jam will be during the peak hours?”
“As I have stated, I am not quite sure whether the NMP is aware of the mindset of the People's Action Party members. We all want our people to work and live in peace. We hope that our tourists will also be safe in Singapore. We also hope that our investors will be very safe, physically and financially. So I would ask Prof. Walter Woon this question: if a robber committing a robbery in a goldsmith shop fired a shot and a heart patient who happened to be around got a shock and died, then can we say it was just his bad luck? This robber, if arrested, goes in for a maximum of life imprisonment. An innocent life is lost and the criminal does not get what he deserves. I feel it is not quite right. Dr Soin also appears to be speaking on behalf of the foreign maids. Of course, on humanitarian ground, it might be acceptable in her case. But Prof. Walter Woon seems to be speaking for the bad guys all the time! I just do not understand why he does not consider the potential victims - those people who might lose their life as potential victims in this kind of cases. I support the amendments proposed by the Minister. I feel that these amendments will make Singapore a safer and more secure society. Prof. Woon says that the armed robber may have no intention to use his arms. If he has no intention, then why does he carry arms or explosives? When he is in illegal possession of arms or explosives, the intention is very clear. I support this Bill.”
“Sir, I share the sentiments of Prof. Walter Woon. I would like to ask the Minister whether he knows of the Kuala Lumpur experience, ie, whether Kuala Lumpur has this mandatory death sentence on the possession of firearms. As such, we often see robberies in car parks where the robbers just simply shoot because it is mandatory death sentence anyway. Mr Choo Wee Khiang (Jalan Besar GRC)( In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, after hearing the Nominated Member, Prof. Walter Woon, I am not quite sure who he is speaking for. Is he speaking for the criminals or is he speaking for the security and safety of the society at large? I support the Arms Offences (Amendment) Bill. As the Minister has stated just now, in the United States, buying of arms is as easy as turning your palm. So the use of arms is very prevalent. It is increasing all the time. It is reported widely in the newspapers. We are all very familiar with it. The Minister has also said that in Southeast Asia, China and Taiwan, the use of arms in criminal offences is very common and the cases involve casualty, death or injury. As a matter of fact, the use of arms or explosives in robbery and other criminal activities is getting more and more serious. Fortunately, in Singapore, it is not so serious. But it does not mean that we should be complacent and we should not take any precautionary measures to ensure that this situation will not happen in Singapore and the crime situation here will not deteriorate. In fact, we must take all precautionary measures against possession and use of arms. There is only one way to achieve this objective, ie, by imposing heavy punishment against the potential criminals for the use of arms and explosives.”
“On behalf of Mr Robert Chua, Question No. 2, Sir.”