Chuang Shaw Peng
Singapore
“Since the problem is most likely due to design, can the Senior Parliamentary Secretary tell the House whether the person responsible has carried enough insurance policy to cover the losses and damages? If not, would the Ministry ensure in future that all consultants should carry the appropriate insurance policy? Assoc. Prof.”
“I understand from the industry that a good number of professionals do not carry insurance at all. If such an accident occurs again when one of the houses, condominiums or schools collapses and the contractor is not insured, the residents will get nothing out of it because the person can just declare himself to be a bankrupt.”
“We must have self-cultivation, family cohesion, service to society and loyalty to nation. We must continue to enhance our multi-racial harmony and social cohesion. It is only then that we are able to lay down a very strong foundation for our society and country.”
“We could also emphasise the significant deterrent effects of death penalty on drug trafficking, and that more and more countries are beginning to emulate us in this aspect. We can put all these on the Internet.”
“Yes, Sir. I hope the Minister can see that there is a need to change our mindset and again I want to ask, in line with the call by Mr Lim Swee Say, that we change the mindset of our people. Dr Tan Cheng Bock has called on the Government to care for the people, in the light of our foreign talent policy.”
“It is very common for a team to put up a lot of money in preparing a tender, and if a tender is called after the tender prices are published and all the designs are made public, then the party calling the tender is effectively encouraging the parties to breach intellectual copyrights.”
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“It is my hope that in this House where Opposition Members are clearly lacking, we will continue to have Nominated MPs to serve their useful purposes. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the motion.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the motion standing in the name of the Prime Minister. The British parliamentary system has been recognised as the model for all democratic countries in the world. As a former British colony, Singapore first adopted the system of Legislative Assembly under the British Westminister model in 1955, but democracy was apparently lacking then. In 1959, the PAP won an overwhelming victory at the General Election, winning 43 out of 51 seats, and became the ruling party in the self-governing State of Singapore. It was then that we began to see some form of parliamentary democracy. In 1965, when we were separated from Malaysia and became an independent republic, our parliamentary system was fully established. Today in Singapore, we enjoy racial harmony and the various ethnic cultures are allowed to flourish and prosper. With the completion of the new Parliament House, we would be able to accommodate most of the modern-day requirements. It is much bigger than the present House. Apart from the spacious Chamber, we have also many committee rooms with the latest communications facilities. It is a dignified, stately, yet practical building. Today we will be using the new Chamber for the first time. It is a symbol of our progress in the development of our parliamentary democracy. It is a moment which all of us in Singapore should be proud of. As a Nominated MP, I would like to thank the present parliamentary system which has enabled me to come into Parliament without having to contest a General Election. Just now, Dr Lee Tsao Yuan and Mr Tay Beng Chuan have already pointed out the contributions made by the Nominated MPs in this House.”
“Having made the above comments, I wish that the Minister would consider them before legislating the Bill.”
“This amendment would be more complete if it can answer the above four questions, especially the last one whereby a person performing the earthwork may be deemed not to have taken reasonable precaution and exercised due diligence to avoid the offence, should a cable detection worker be found negligent in carrying out his work. The deterrent penalty for damaging a high voltage cable is raised to $1 million. The jail sentence remains the same at five years. It would only be reasonable if the Bill would further define this area to avoid any doubt or any presumption of guilt. Mr Speaker, Sir, please let me now switch from speaking on electricity cable to water mains. This new Amendment Bill introduces a new section 32A which basically requires one to remove any structure, object or accumulation that exists in the vicinity of a water main or connecting pipe if the Board deems that it hinders or obstructs access. I think this clause is far too broad. It does not define the word "vicinity" nor the words "hinder access". If an underground pipe is to burst near an existing home and the easiest access can be obtained by demolishing part of the house, then it appears that this amendment would apply and the poor house owner will, at his own cost, move out of the house or hold on to the house to facilitate access. Another possible scenario here is this. When a house owner engages an architect whose design happens to infringe this condition, because of the weakness of this clause, then who is responsible for the removal of the structure? Is it the architect or the house owner? Would this clause be precise enough for insurance purposes if the architect is to carry a professional liability insurance policy?”
“Hence, it follows naturally that in new section 95, it is a requirement to have cable detection works carried out prior to any earthwork at the low and high voltage cable areas. This Bill particularly spells out a new procedure for excavation near high voltage cables. It requires a proper notice to be served on the licensee before commencing excavation and to get information from the licensee on the locations of the high voltage cables. Of course, it is a requirement to engage licensed cable detection workers to perform detection work. The new section 95A(5) further requires a licensee to promptly give the location of the high voltage cables to the person who serves the notice and to advise on the precaution to be taken to avoid damage to the cables. With this provision, it now becomes reasonable for the person performing the excavation to follow the procedures set out in section 95A and he now has a defence in court when charged for damaging a cable. This is well and good. However, I have four queries. The Bill requires one to serve notice on the licensee if he is to carry out excavation near high voltage cables. But how would he know that it is a high voltage cable area? Secondly, which licensee does it belong to? And thirdly, what if the licensee disclaims the accuracy of the information he gives to the person who carries out the excavation, and this is often done? Fourthly, how capable are the cable detection workers and what kind of liabilities do they have? What would be considered reasonable performance of a cable detection worker?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, in the light of deregulation of electricity supply in our nation, it is inevitable that the regulations are changing to suit the new operating environment. Hence, I can see this new Public Utilities (Amendment) Bill will serve to provide more precise definition and to place more duties and responsibilities on the public electricity licensees. Section 3A in particular requires the licensees to ensure that they would not do any act that would adversely affect, directly or indirectly, the security and stability of electricity supply. As the Minister presented earlier, this is an important point because Singapore is a modern nation which cannot afford to have major voltage dips or blackouts. The Bill goes further in section 69 to ensure that the public electricity licensee maintain the cables with due care and protection and to mark out the location of electricity cables in some prescribed form. And this is a very positive step forward towards more manageable and predictable underground excavation and earthwork as broadly defined in this Bill. Until now, there have been grievances that the location maps of the underground cables, especially those laid a long time ago, during the British days, are very big and inaccurate. Mishaps often occur when excavations took place at locations not suspected of underground cables. The prescribed manner stated in section 2B(b), I hope, would be akin to something like a chartered survey map, and not those that would make reference to, for example, the nearest tree or fire hydrant. This latter method suffers from the shortcoming of losing the location of the cables when the so-called reference tree or fire hydrant is removed.”
“Sir, do we have any restriction on foreigners applying as a CA? I understand that one of our neighbouring countries has actually restricted foreigners from applying so that only their own local CAs can operate.”
“Sir, are there any new foreign entities who would like to apply as a CA? It looks like most of the CAs come from Government agencies or GLCs. Does it imply that most of the users today are Government agencies or GLCs and not commercial entities?”
“I understand from the industry that a good number of professionals do not carry insurance at all. If such an accident occurs again when one of the houses, condominiums or schools collapses and the contractor is not insured, the residents will get nothing out of it because the person can just declare himself to be a bankrupt. Nowadays, with the new Bankruptcy Act, after three years, he is all right again.”
“Since the problem is most likely due to design, can the Senior Parliamentary Secretary tell the House whether the person responsible has carried enough insurance policy to cover the losses and damages? If not, would the Ministry ensure in future that all consultants should carry the appropriate insurance policy? Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: The Professional Engineer must carry his own professional liability insurance and it is for him to ensure that he is covered himself.”
“We must have self-cultivation, family cohesion, service to society and loyalty to nation. We must continue to enhance our multi-racial harmony and social cohesion. It is only then that we are able to lay down a very strong foundation for our society and country. We will be able to strengthen our family, so that we can attack as we advance, and defend as we retreat. We will have greater confidence in our action. All our people are more united together in realising the challenge and ambition of S21. Therefore, I wholeheartedly support the motion in the name of the Minister for Education on the S21 Vision.”
“We must know more about one another and we must strengthen our solidarity and through different ways and means, we must promulgate the values which are common in all of us, so that we will not lose our direction in future. When I was young, the influence that I had was very useful to me when I grew up. When I was older, I went overseas, I met foreign friends. Because I have always lived and grown up in a multi-racial society, when I meet foreign friends, whether they are from Africa, Asia, America, Europe, I am able to mix well with them. Because I come from a multi-racial society, I am interested and respectful of other cultures. So when my friends talk about their countries and their history, I listened with respect, with curiosity, and with the desire to understand more. So we can talk well, we can mix well, and we can interact well. I learn from them and learn a lot of good things and benefit a great deal. At the same time, I also gain some understanding and knowledge about their history and culture. And this proves to be helpful to me when I handle overseas projects. It is very easy for me to communicate with them. If you do not understand a certain country, and you need to talk to their businessmen, to the clients, it will be difficult. But, if you understand the country and its culture, it will be easier for you to communicate with the people from the country. So we must always remember that we have a multi-racial and multi-cultural society. This is a great cornerstone, a great advantage, and a strong point. We must do all we can to preserve this advantage, this strong point, so that we can achieve even greater success in future. In short, when we talk about the S21 Vision, we must build on what we have achieved.”
“So it is able to start up good schemes to extricate itself from situations and run away from its predators. Having read these fables, I think I learnt a lot of lessons. From the Chinese version, I have also read about the epics of Mahabarata and the Ramayana. I do not know who were the Chinese writers in Malaysia and Singapore who translated these into the Chinese language. In an episode in Ramayana, Lord Rama's wife was abducted by a demon. In order to save his wife, he had to leave his country. At that time, he was the King. Before he left his country, he asked his younger brother to look after the country. He said that he would return after rescuing his wife. His younger brother said, "I do not have the wisdom and ability to rule the country on your behalf. But I know, brother, this is something that you must do. So I will just do my best. I will sit beside your throne and put your sandals on the throne. You remain the person who is ruling the country. I am only your agent, your servant, acting on your behalf." That is what the younger brother said to Ramayana. You must have respect for the elders, you must have shame, you must have a sense of right and wrong. So this is a story that portrays all these values. It is a very useful and meaningful lesson for us to learn. When you do not have the legitimacy, you cannot have the moral ground, and you cannot succeed. Reading these, one realises the many parallels between the cultures and teachings of our ethnic communities. Being in SAP schools will not stop students from learning about the Malay and Indian cultures if there is a will to learn.”
“If we cannot even handle our own multi-culturalism today, how are we going to globalise, regionalise and to face more cultures and more ways of doing things in the world outside? I think this is a very basic issue. This is not something that we have discovered only today. But it is always the magnanimity that we have seen and observed over the years. From my own personal experience, I would like to throw more light on this issue. Mr Speaker, Sir, I was educated in the Chinese stream in my younger days. The Chinese school at that time was different from the present Chinese school. In the old Chinese school, there were no Indian or Malay students. We were all Chinese speaking and our English was not very good, and we could not even read the English newspapers properly at that time. In spite of all that, at that time, I had a lot of opportunities to read the writings of the writers and scholars of Singapore and Malaysia in Chinese. Through their works, I was able to understand and respect the cultures of other races. For example, I do not know whether hon. Members of this House are aware that one Prof. Hsu Yun Chiaw had compiled and translated the Malay classic Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals. I still have a copy of the Chinese translation. This book tells us about Malay history from Sri Vijaya to the Malacca Kingdom. Through this book, I was able to understand the Malay culture, its progress and advancement. At that time, we were able to read fables of Sang Kancil, the mouse-deer. Sang Kancil is very intelligent, very alert, but is very small and will not harm others. Though it is not big enough to attack others, others will find it difficult to bully the mouse-deer because it is very alert.”
“We must always remember that we are a multi-racial society. We must seek strength through diversity. Why do I want to bring up this diversity and multi-racialism? Recent discussions about SAP schools, language policies, and employment criteria gave me mixed feelings. I think the most important point here is that all these talks and arguments remind us that if we want to realise the five ideas in the S21 vision, we must never forget that Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society. This fact is so today and it will remain so tomorrow. In the 21st century and even in the 22nd century and beyond, it will remain the same - multi-cultural and multi-racial. Since nation building, we have done a great deal to achieve racial harmony. Our multi-racial people have already benefitted much from the heritage and wisdom in our multi-racial society. This is in fact the strong point that we have for nation building. In future years, we must also continue to take advantage of this heritage. We can all see that the five ideas in our S21 vision are founded on multi-racialism and multi-culturalism. We must continue to strengthen and preserve this heritage. If we cannot do so, how can we say that every Singaporean count? If there is no racial harmony, how can we have a strong social foundation? How are we going to create opportunities for all? And how are we going to have a Singapore heartbeat? How are we going to have active citizens making a difference to society? Therefore, I must reiterate and remind our people that we must have pride in our own culture, and we must also respect the cultures of others. This is the essence of a multi-racial society and country. It is also the cornerstone for our future regionalisation, globalisation and networking strategy.”
“In this connection, I have suggested to the Ministry of Community Development and the People's Association that we should promote Grandparents' Day celebration to more grassroots organisations during this year's Senior Citizens Week. We have Father's Day and Mother's Day. Why can we not have a Grandparents' Day? Mr Loh Meng See did this in his community centre last year. I think this is an excellent idea. We should extend this Grandparents' Day to other grassroots organisations. Once Grandparents' Day is established, more people will better appreciate the importance of grandparents, and the grandparents in the 21st century will be able to play a greater role and get greater respect from their children and grandchildren. If we can all play our roles and do what I have just set out earlier, I believe we will be able to move forward with peace of mind, with the knowledge that whenever we encounter any setbacks, we will be able to fall back on our gracious social environment, whether at home or in society, to take a break and recover from the setbacks. We will then be able to make a come back from our setback, create another tomorrow, and become a great hero again. If we can do this, we will be able to attack as we advance and defend as we retreat. This will be of great help and it will give us great confidence in realising our vision. The concerns raised by Mr Chuang Shaw Peng can also be solved. Since we are confident we can attack as we advance and defend as we retreat, we will have greater confidence and lesser worries. We will not worry unnecessarily and will not be so kiasu. We will have greater spirit of enterprise and broader vision. We will be more prepared and able to realise the vision of S21. Now, a reminder.”
“The success of our home ownership scheme has enabled our young people to build their own families once they get married. However, even if the three generations do not stay together, the Tri-generation Network should still be maintained. The Network has great potential and importance in our society in the 21st century. Yesterday, Mr Peh Chin Hua also referred to this point. In the 21st century, we would have this "sandwiched generation", whose ages are in the 30s and 40s. They have, on the one hand, to be filial to their parents and, on the other hand, to bring up their children, while simultaneously building up their business and career. These people are facing tremendous pressure. Without proper support, I think this "sandwiched generation" would become a "besieged generation". But if the grandparents can chip in to take the role of looking after their grandchildren, then the pressure of the sandwiched generation can be alleviated. At the same time, we have tri-generation cooperation - grandparents help look after the grandchildren, thus playing a key role which help gain the appreciation of their children in the "sandwiched generation". If we have this kind of strong three-generation ties, then family cohesion can be strengthened. 30 years from now, when I am in my 70s, with Tri-generation Network, I would command better respect as an old man in the family. If I just sit down at home and do nothing, I think my children will not respect me. They would then not be filial to me. I feel that in the 21st century, we must reiterate the important status of the grandparents.”
“It is only then that we will be able to reduce social problems correspondingly. A knowledge-based economy and good work attitude would then have a chance to take roots. If you extrapolate this kind of good conduct, good character to others, you will have the mood, ability, passion and heartware to think about how to look after the less successful people in society so that we can build up a caring and gracious society. We must remember that we are young and energetic - but fortune may change. There may come a day when you and I may need the help of others. If we can take the necessary action in our early days to build a gracious society and a society with care and compassion, then with this kind of ethos in place, it will be easier for us to get help. Also, since we have already given, when we want to take something in the give-and-take spirit, we will be able to take without having to feel embarrassed. So, you have a sense of security, it is a good home that we want to build. The family, of course, is a key cornerstone of society. This is undoubtedly so. In the Confucian teaching, the five relationships, ie, the King and the subjects, the parents and children, brothers and sisters, husband and wife, and friends, three of these five relationships involve the family. Our Malay and Indian compatriots also have similar emphasis on the family. In fact, I note that the Malay and Indian friends are even stronger in their family cohesion. That being so, there is no need for me to emphasise more on the importance of the family. However, I wish to point out the potential of the concept of Tri-generation Network in the 21st century. At the present moment, it is not easy to have three generations under one roof.”
“If we talk and just stop there, it would have been a waste of time. But this is only a beginning. This process of the 1 1/2 years of talk was to reach a consensus to facilitate future action. We do need to spend time and energy to obtain this consensus. As a matter of fact, all the members, including myself, of the S21 Committee and all those Singaporeans who have participated in these meetings, unanimously agree that the S21 Vision is something that we must translate into action. It is not something that we just talk about and forget about it. The point is: what can we do and what action can we take to translate the vision into a reality? What efforts must we make to achieve this? This is the question that we should ask ourselves. Of course, if we want to achieve our vision, we must practise what we preach and strive for positive results in whatever we do. If we do not do anything, if you just doubt the sincerity, shun your responsibilities and just indulge in empty talks, big things you cannot do and small things you do not want to do, then we will be losing the golden opportunities available to us. Therefore, I hope that we will not just sit tight, talk and do nothing. We should stand up and think about what to do, what action to take to realise our vision, our ideal. That being the case, let us prepare ourselves to take up the challenge, and put the theories into action. I think our responsibility can be summed up in these words: "Be a good man/woman. Set up a good family. Serve the community. Be passionate about the nation." So start with yourself and your family. Set it right. Let our children have a good foundation, a good learning environment and a good model to emulate to build up good character and conduct.”
“With clearer OB lines and encouragement, I am sure more and more Singaporeans will realise that they have a stake in our nation and by getting involved and making their contributions, they can make the nation prosper and they will be the ones who have it all. Lastly, I wish to request the Minister to look into producing the report in other languages with equal quality and substance. Sir, I support the motion. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Minister for Community Development (Mr Chan Soo Sen) (In Mandarin): Sir, I strongly agree and fully support the motion standing in the name of the Minister for Education. This Singapore 21 Vision has already been set out very clearly in the book and I do not wish to waste the precious time of this House to deal with the materials in this book itself. I would like to just raise a point of emphasis and a point of reminder. Firstly, a point of emphasis: If we want to achieve the S21 vision, we must ask what we can do for S21 and not what S21 can do for us. In other words, we must be pro-active. We must ask ourselves what we must do to achieve Vision 21 and should not confine ourselves to just wishing the realisation of S21. Some people commented that the five ideas in the S21 Vision were obvious and there was no need to take such a long time of one and a half years and involve over 6,000 people and many working hours to churn out these apparently obvious proposals. A few days ago, I met a friend who said that the time that the Committee and the 6,000 Singaporeans had spent, if calculated in terms of dollars and cents, would be a gigantic sum. But I feel that the people who advance this kind of argument just do not understand. Yes, if we only talk and never do anything about it, then this argument may be valid.”
“Coupled with unfair terms of contracts, as mentioned earlier, the whole process has created a "Head, I win, tail, you lose" situation. In a society laden with these shortcomings, you can expect the social and economic costs to be high. Therefore, I strongly support the Singapore 21 recommendation that we should overcome our kiasu attitude and give everyone a fair chance. On the topic of active citizens, I wish to relate one incident I encountered recently. A very prominent local businessman discussed with me about the experience of being an NMP. In his opinion, being an NMP could be a burden to the conduct of business because NMPs could offend the civil servants in the course of parliamentary debates. I do not think so personally and, so far, it does not seem to be so. I think the civil service is mature enough to accept constructive criticisms. They are able to make a differentiation between official and personal business. In Chinese, we call it dui shi bu dui ren. The Singapore 21 report also aptly says, "There should be no loss of face by the public sector if good ideas come from the people." As a matter of fact, I am quite satisfied with the response from the politicians and the civil servants to the issues I have brought up and debated in this House so far. Hence, based on my experience as an NMP, I do not hesitate to echo the call of the S21 Committee to get more active citizens to participate in the civic life of Singapore so as to have a dynamic people sector to complement the private and public sectors. Today, there may not be enough Singaporeans who can be classified as active citizens.”
“It adopted the UK's Fair Contract Term Act 1977 to protect the consumers. If we can implement this concept more pervasively and extend to all aspects of life, we may become one of the fairest and most just societies in the world. This will add a lot to the reputation of Singapore as a global centre and will enhance our heartbeat substantially. In another matter related to fairness, I think the relatively high percentage of people surveyed who feel that they are second-class citizens could be a true reflection of the real feelings of our people. They probably harbour such feelings even before the foreign talent policy was introduced. Manifested in various forms in the past, our society is often said to be pro-foreign. Many contracts go to foreigners. Sometimes, foreign products and services are preferred to the local ones at a higher cost. So, when it comes to jobs, the natural mindset is that they will go to the foreigners too. Yes, many locals might not have been as good as the foreigners. Many foreign companies are bigger in size or older than our whole nation. Naturally, they will have the products and services to beat us. If we do not give opportunities to the locals, then effectively, we have no self-pride that we can do equally well. Therefore, I hope the Government will remove the "Buy IBM" mentality to allay the fear that Singaporeans have for foreign talent. The "Buy IBM" mentality refers to the situation where the data processing managers would always choose big names like IBM because it is well-known. If something goes wrong, it is not the fault of the manager. This mentality has helped to build up risk-aversion and it permeates throughout the whole society.”
“Not only do we need to let these talents feel the Singapore heartbeat, we may have to make our own heartbeat louder than others. That leads me to argue that we have to change some of the social order here. The Singapore 21 Report calls for opportunities for all and for the more successful to help the less successful. On this point, in my opinion, we have a long way to go. There are, I think, some emotional and moral issues we have not addressed, that is, the way people are treated. The people will always feel attached if they are treated fairly and with compassion. It is difficult to cultivate loyalty if the relationships are not fair. The relationships here may refer to contractual relationships between big companies and small companies, between banks and their customers, between the employers and employees, etc. In numerous instances, there exists a situation of the big bullying the small, and the powerful bullying the weak. There are hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans out there who do not have much education and they do not know very well about the legal aspects. But they still need to enter into contracts if they want to make a living. With contracts written in fine prints and biased terms, their lives can be crippled easily. Even for those who can read, the situation is not much better because the big boys will always draft such contracts that the risks and rewards are not appropriately distributed. The law and order situation in Singapore has, in some ways, given the advantage to the big boys. To attain the goal of making every Singaporean counts and opportunities for all, we as a people should strive towards a fair and just society, which will in turn bring out the best of each person. To this end, I am glad that Singapore has moved in the right direction.”
“Therefore, I support the concept of life-long learning, as suggested in the report and I strongly endorse that Singaporeans of all ages must be given opportunities to upgrade and to renew their knowledge and skills. A long time ago, most of our forefathers came to Singapore in search of opportunities. They were pushed out of their homeland for one reason or another. They also brought along their skills and talents. Through hard work and thrift, many managed to seize the opportunities and they prospered. Now, the stage is different. Our people face a lot of external competition because of globalisation. Hard work and thrift are necessary but they are not sufficient to succeed. We need more education, more ideas to create more opportunities, and more synergies to create wealth. Hence, we need the foreign talent policy. With a small population, Singapore cannot generate enough talents to achieve the economies of scale. We need talents, and we need them badly. Everyone knows USA is a world leader in technology. But if USA had not opened its doors to talents from Germany, Russia and Asia, it may not do as well as it is doing now. However, America has now reached a stage where it has become the world's most powerful magnet, attracting talents from all over the world with the possibility of fulfilling an unlimited dream. And that is the American heartbeat to the world. Therefore, while we talk about attracting foreign talents, we need to ensure that our own talents will not be attracted away and eventually abandon us. There is no denial that we expect our local and foreign talents to shuttle between Singapore and a country like USA. To make them feel attached to Singapore and continue to contribute to Singapore will be quite a tall order.”
“She cherished the extended family support she used to get, particularly during her confinement period, that is, within one month after giving birth to a baby. In Singapore, many mothers will enjoy the close attention of their family members during the confinement period. They are served with tonics and special food. They are given massages. And many do not even have to leave the house for the whole month. In the USA, many mothers would have to do all the household chores immediately after being discharged from the hospital. And they all have to bring their barely one-week old baby to the supermarket. I wonder how many of our women would like to choose the American way of life over Singapore's. Next, let me speak on the topic of an aging population. There is no escape that Singapore has one of the fastest aging populations. This is a demographic fact. Fortunately, Singapore has a policy of making everyone to save for his or her own old age. The savings through the CPF scheme will make our old age relatively comfortable. But I wish to share with this House that, according to the latest studies by scientists, modern science would prolong our lives substantially. Many of us may have the chance to live up to the 80s, 90s, or even 100. If we retire at 55 or 60 years old, we would have many years to enjoy if we have sufficient savings, or we will suffer if we have not enough savings. Hence, we should all expect the pattern of life to change. The retirement age will be pushed further because of relatively good health. But for one to be useful beyond 55 or 60 years old, we have to train and re-train several times over.”
“When one faces difficulties in terms of employment and business operation, all these become apparent and important. I can guess now that more Singaporeans have realised Singapore's ability to sail through this crisis better than others because we could act as a people to resolve difficult problems. We could cut CPF and pay, reduce taxes and fees. We have built up a strong foundation in family ties, community bonding and a strong reserve with good fiscal policies that we now have time and energy to utilise this window of opportunities to launch a new direction and platform to move to the next level of prosperity. Many westerners have argued that the Asian culture tends to be too selfish and too family-oriented. It only takes care of the interest of the family members and ignores the societal issues evolving around them. Well, Singapore has proved them wrong. By adhering to our culture of having strong extended families with Government policies constantly calling for and reinforcing these values, our society is relatively more peaceful, self-enhancing and supportive. Asians tend to care for their elders more partly because of the culture of respecting the elders, and also because they realise how much the elders have sacrificed to provide shelter, good education and opportunities to the younger ones. The desire to bring honour to their family also provides the impetus to compete and excel. These cultural values, as can be easily seen, have driven the Asian economy well. We are in the middle of these cultural settings, and we probably do not feel the merits just as much. Recently, I chanced upon talking to a Singapore lady residing in USA.”
“If we achieve it, we would likely have a socially and economically advanced nation where individuals, whether local or foreign, will be pursuing goals in life without undue stress. The families and communities are closely-knit together to provide a strong emotional and moral platform. The people in the private and public sectors will work and support one another as if they are merged together. As the Minister stated yesterday, we do not know how long it will take. But until this happens, we will continue to hear people lamenting that life in Singapore is too stressful. People still cannot get away from their stereotype aims - the 5Cs. And very few would aspire to become artists, musicians, sportsmen, or even entrepreneurs because there is either no money in these professions or too much risks in them. In the meantime, everybody will be chasing after higher paying jobs, speculating in shares and properties, like what they have been doing in the last two days. And many have taken for granted that life is a rose garden. Then suddenly, two years ago, the Asian financial crisis hit us. Things changed drastically. It makes many to rethink about the value of keeping a job, about getting help from the family and community, about what businesses we should be in and how Singapore can survive and prosper in the face of new challenges in this fast changing world. The timing to have this S21 Committee to study the dilemmas cannot be more perfect. The crisis environment has made everyone dig deeper into their soul to reflect and search for solution. The impact of this report will be far less, if it were presented in better economic times. A good part of this report is devoted to the strengthening of family ties and community bonding.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like, first of all, to commend the Minister and his Committee for having completed such a comprehensive, well-written and visionary report. Back in 1997, when the Prime Minister first launched the Singapore 21 Committee to look into the five apparent dilemmas, my intuitive reaction was that the Committee was endeavouring into areas which are philosophical in nature and very broad in scope. Many lay people may find it difficult to understand and appreciate. And I personally have expected the five subject committees to come up with five different reports after holding separate meetings, forums, interviews and surveys. But I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to receive the final report in a form that integrates the derived wisdom of the five dilemmas and successfully translate them into five easily understood headings and expressed in such an easy language. The report, without being dry and stuffy, tells a story to our Singaporeans, like what the parents do to their children, how as a united people we can strive towards achieving our dreams while strengthening the social cohesion, political stability and the collective will, values and attitudes of our people. This is an important story. Like any well-run corporation, a country needs a mission statement, a vision, so that it can galvanise its people's energy to constructively achieve its goals. The S21 report, in my opinion, is the mission statement. Frankly speaking, the contents of the S21 report, although initiated by the Government, do not suggest that it comes from the Government alone. The 6,000 people involved over the 1 1/2 years have contributed to create a dream state, an utopia in a modern form for Singapore.”
“If the industry is to come up with the definition, would the Government officially endorse the definition so that there will be credibility in the enforcement of it?”
“Sir, in the property market, there is a standard sales and purchase agreement. Why does the Government not come up with a definition rather than leave it to the industry to come up with the definition of "built-in" or "built-up" area?”
“We could also emphasise the significant deterrent effects of death penalty on drug trafficking, and that more and more countries are beginning to emulate us in this aspect. We can put all these on the Internet. So anyone who is educated and who is intelligent enough will be able to form his or her own judgement on whether Singapore's way of governing is the right way, and whether there is any infringement of human rights in any of our policies. Sir, I do not mean to say that the international perception of Singapore is poor. However, Singapore is after all, a tiny little nation. People from time to time would like to find fault with us, particularly when the media have to play up some news to win readership and make more money. So long as we do not sing praises of ourselves every day, resulting in our having to defend ourselves vigorously at critical moments and cause people from all quarters to lose confidence in us, there is no harm in doing some public relations work to further improve our image internationally.”
“As such, I feel that there is room for improvement in the way Singapore handles its international public relations work. Whenever the international media criticise our policies, we can request our friendly foreign media to carry some honest reports on the truth of the matter. Back home, of course, we can publish articles to clarify the matter, but we should avoid blowing our own trumpet. Let other people say the good things about us. The effect will be better, and it can hit the nail on its head. For example, we can interview the taxi driver I have mentioned earlier, or these people working in UN, and report on their views. Publicity wise, this can be more convincing. Our missions overseas should do some public relations work from time to time. As a matter of fact, this is part and parcel of their job. However, we must step up our efforts in cultivating relationship with the foreign media, particularly the influential ones. It is said that personal contact gives you a headstart in building up relationship. We should make every effort to get to know them better. We may want to engage PR consultants to teach us how to improve our image, or to place some advertisements on these media. In this high-tech era, billions of people surf the Internet every day. We can post more information and statistics on the Net in some interesting format for people from all over the world to access. For example, we can show our crime rate vis-a-vis that of other major cities in the world. We can also give some information on the ratio of prison inmates to our total population as compared to other countries, the percentage of citizens owning their own homes, and in our schools what is the ratio between students and computers, etc.”
“Sir, some years ago, when I visited Washington DC, I was staying at a hotel near Chinatown. It was about two or three streets away from Chinatown. I was warned by the Hotel's front desk receptionist not to walk around in this capital city by myself as it was not quite safe to do so. Even if I were to go to Chinatown, it would be dangerous. So I heeded his advice and took a taxi instead. While I was in the taxi, I struck up a conversation with the taxi driver. When he heard that I was from Singapore, he immediately praised the Singapore Government for imposing caning on an American youth for vandalism. He felt that there should be similar laws in the United States to keep the crime rate down. Subsequently, when I went to New York, I visited a friend who was working at the UN. There, my American friend and his colleagues held the same view as that of the taxi driver, ie, they felt that the Government has many good policies. But when the international media reported the matter, they described Singapore as being run by a dictatorial government which had no respect for human rights and which was in the habit of imposing heavy penalties at random. Eventually they had to trouble the American President to plea for a reduction in the penalty. On other occasions, I have also come across businessmen, journalists, and friends from other countries who told me that life in Singapore was not as restricted as reflected in the negative reports of the media in their countries. They remarked that in Singapore, whenever they needed any information they could get it almost instantaneously, and one could walk out into the streets at night safely without fear of being mobbed, unlike in other major cities in the world where you go out at your own risk.”
“Not all Singaporean workers can be retrained at the same time, but the market is relentless. Whoever is prepared to accept the cheapest pay gets the job. So if our foreign workers policy is not adjusted immediately, then the local workers who are trained will become unemployed after training. As some people have remarked, these people will be trained to become unemployed. Even those who are trained and retrained, their jobs are not completely secure in the face of challenges by the foreign workers. They face the danger of a declining standard of living. Over the past 20 years, our economy has prospered, and we have been going for the high wage policy. That is to improve the income of our people. At the same time, it has also increased the cost of doing business. Over the years, the Government and the private sector have been spending a lot of money on the training of these foreign workers. After working for two or three years, and having accumulated enough savings, they would pack up and return to their hometown, and their skills will also go home with them. The lucky ones, who are given permanent residence here, are not only asking for equal pay as our citizens, but are also starting to job-hop. In this way, we do not have a core workforce. I hope the Minister can issue some guidelines so that we can understand in what circumstances our local workers can compete with the foreign talents. I agree with the views of Mr Low Thia Khiang and some other MPs that without having clear guidelines on how our workers can compete with the foreign workers, we will be going backwards. It will be against our national interest.”
“Sir, during the budget debates last year, I spoke in support of NTUC's proposal to increase the amount allocated to the Skills Redevelopment Programme (SRP) so that some 700,000 people with education below the secondary level can upgrade their skills to catch up with the economic development of Singapore. As far as I know, in the past 12 months, tens of thousands of people have signed up for the SRP. The response is very positive and very encouraging. However, during this economic recession, in order to cut cost to improve competitiveness, some companies have retrenched their unskilled or semi-skilled local workers and replaced them with foreign workers. Many of these workers were recruited during the boom time but some were just recruited quite recently. As our population is small, we lack human resources and foreign workers are imported to supplement our local recruits. When we were having 7% to 8% annual economic growth in Singapore, import of foreign workers was acceptable. But during a recession like the present one, we have to adjust this policy to prevent our local workers from being squeezed out. Foreign workers are willing to accept lower pay, some as low as 50% of what our local workers are paid. How could they survive? It is simple. Their families are not in Singapore. Their families are living in countries where the standard of living is much lower than ours. Unlike our local workers who have to pay for their flats, taxes, medical fees and children's education, look after their families and even their aged parents and in-laws, these foreign workers do not have much financial commitments over here. Many of our workers have the aspiration that one day they will reach the Swiss standard of living.”
“Those days, with the Confucian teachings in him, he started off with $200 a month, suffered hardship and persevered in toil, knowledge-oriented, learned from his mistakes, and brought up his Creative Technology from nothing to today's glamorous high-tech empire. Apart from Mr Sim, Singapore has no other more outstanding example. Personally, I feel that apart from the education system and the size of our domestic market, other factors are gradually causing Singapore to be lacking in entrepreneurs. One of the factors is the diluting of our culture. Many youngsters today can be said to be half-eastern and half-western. They have not learnt the excellent oriental culture, nor the essence of the Western culture. On the one hand, they do not have their ancestors' virtues of being plain and simple, hardworking and thrifty, honouring the old and respecting the wise, keeping one's word and having good faith. On the other hand, they are unable to emulate the creative and independent spirit of the westerners. I therefore hope that the Minister would seriously consider this problem. If necessary, engage the services of experts to study and find out the respective merits and strong points of the oriental and western cultures to educate the people through our institutions of learning, community organisations and social activities. Finally, I hope that the Minister would study our kiasu culture, and transform it into a "win-win" culture.”
“But they have neglected the fact that these were the effects caused by the monarchy and government officials. Whether it was the monarchy who used the Confucian ideology to rule the nation or it was the Confucian ideology that brought about the monarchy is an issue which has been debated over and over since time immemorial without any conclusive outcome. However, looking at it from various angles, this ancient cultural ideology does have its merits. For example, the Confucian teachings advocate honouring the old and respecting the wise; always ready to help in a worthy cause; good neighbourliness and friendliness, spirit of magnanimity and resoluteness, honesty and faithfulness, etc. In the early days, Chinese immigrants to the various parts of the world were mostly illiterate, but they all came from families of Confucian background. From young, they were imperceptibly influenced by the traditional consciousness of Confucianism which was deeply embedded in their youthful minds. So when they went overseas to earn a living, they would spontaneously follow the moral standards and ethics set down by the Confucian teachings, and stick to them judiciously for the rest of their lives. This situation includes the Straits Chinese or Baba which have settled down overseas since many generations ago. If Confucianism has so much negative effects, then how do you explain the success stories of the Hong Kong and Taiwan people in the United States. The amount of Confucianism in them is certainly more than that in us. It cannot be less. Take our most successful entrepreneurs in the high-tech field, Mr Sim Wong Hoo, for example.”
“In the area of high-tech industry, Taiwan is particularly outstanding, having performed remarkably well. In a short period of 20-odd years after the cultural revolution, a good number of new enterprises have sprouted in mainland China. Their entrepreneurs are enthusiastic, far-sighted, daring to venture, and hardworking. When our businessmen went to China to have dealings with them, we often have the feeling that we are inferior to them. Singapore has a population of 4 million. Hong Kong's population is twice that of ours, while Taiwan is five times. However, among the successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, the number of those who originated from Hong Kong and Taiwan is far, far more than ours. Let us not talk about Chinese for the time being. In America's Silicon Valley or business sector, there are a lot of outstanding Indian scientists and management experts. Most of them are first or second-generation immigrants from India. With sharp foresight and high education, they are able to seize the opportunities, catch on with the fast moving economic trend, and eventually outshine others in various fields. Many philosophers and social scientists hold the view that China's Confucian teachings and India's Hinduism are not positive enough. They resist science and technology, regard themselves as infallible, and thus resulted in their societies not progressing with the times. I am not a sociologist, and I have no wish to challenge this argument here. However, the examples I cited above have already proven that there are errors in their macroscopic conclusion. What they have seen are the results of historical evolution over the thousands of years in China and India.”
“In recent years, the Government's main economic policy is to encourage Singaporeans to come forward and venture into business, become entrepreneurs to create more wealth for our people and our nation. Like many people I know, I am quite intrigued by this call by the Government. Singapore is a market economy. Do our entrepreneurs need to be encouraged before they come out and make big money? Have our people not enjoyed excellent track records in their business ventures all this while? Sir, please allow me to take this House on a tour outside Singapore. First, we go to the famous Silicon Valley. Many people call this the "IC Valley". IC, of course, refers to Integrated Circuit. But many people say it could jolly well stand for Indians and Chinese. Why? Because many of the scientists and businessmen who study, work and start enterprises there are of Chinese and Indian origins. In Silicon Valley, 23% of the people were born outside the United States of America. The culture they were exposed to during their early years was not American culture, but the various cultures from their native countries. When they were young, the education they received could well be very traditional, and not what we call "creative" nowadays. Next, we go to Vancouver, Canada. You will notice that 5% to 10% of the businesses there are being run by the Chinese. Like the Silicon Valley, most of the Chinese there came from Hong Kong and Taiwan. They publish their own newspapers, have their own shopping centres, television station, etc. In a short span of 10 to 20 years, they actually emerged from a society of white people, and opened up a whole new world of their own. Now, let us come back to Asia. There is no lack of entrepreneurs in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Southeast Asia.”
“Hence, if such a situation exists, should our Government or the Town Councils or the rest of the people not take this up? I therefore urge the Minister to study this and, if possible, have an energy saving campaign for the whole nation. In the short run, it can save us some money to reduce the deficit. In the long run, it will increase our competitiveness.”
“Sir, it is an accepted fact that technology is now ruling our lives than ever before. In today's homes, office buildings, public places, we have installed more and more gadgets that use energy. Some of these gadgets are installed some years ago and they are no longer energy efficient. For example, the typical magnetic ballast used for fluorescent lights consumes 30% more energy than the latest electronic ballast. The air-conditioning system in a 10-year old building can be retrofitted with new ones that save 50% energy. Because of this development in technology, the US Federal Government in 1992 passed a law to require Federal facilities to achieve a minimum of 30% energy saving. They have achieved that and many places have actually reported 60% savings. The Berlin government subsequently also required 5,000 of their government buildings to be retrofitted with energy saving devices. In Singapore, we do not see any concerted effort on the part of the Government to promote energy conservation. In the private sector, some developers took their own initiative to install these devices and, therefore, they reaped benefits from it. They did not even have to come up with the capital. Very often, the ones that provide the technology would pay for it first. They usually get their return on investment from a share in the energy saved. One wonders who has the technology and who can provide such retrofitting services without asking for payment. What I have learnt is this. The companies that can provide the technology and services are just in our backyards. Some of them are already being engaged by very big utilities companies overseas but somehow they are not recognised here.”
“It is very common for a team to put up a lot of money in preparing a tender, and if a tender is called after the tender prices are published and all the designs are made public, then the party calling the tender is effectively encouraging the parties to breach intellectual copyrights. Unless the re-tender specifications are substantially changed, I urge the Minister to ensure that no design-and-build projects will be called after the tender prices are published or their designs are being made known to the public or contestants.”
“Sir, I would like to declare my interest. My first point has been covered by Mr Lew Syn Pau on chopping up the size of projects to allow more players to survive in the market. My second point is that the construction industry is currently very bad. It is compounded by the pre-qualification process put up by some Government agencies. I will quickly give two examples. One is that the ENV Ministry has called for contractors to pre-qualify for their Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS). But it sets a requirement that interested contractors must have prior track records in this kind of work. This is the first time we are building this system. I do not see how the agency can expect local contractors to have a track record, and if none of the contractors can participate, then the nation will forever be denied of a chance in gaining the knowledge to do such work. The second point is the pre-qualification by PSA to build an office building and the specification says that the contractors must have experience in design-and-build on office buildings and this rules out a lot of contractors because there are very few of these projects so far. But if PSA says that the contractors must have design-and-build experience and at the same time have built some office buildings somewhere before or more recently, you will still meet the requirement of getting the correct capability to build and also the correct quality. I think it is important that all these things are taken care of. The next thing I would like to ask the Minister is: under what circumstances are the agencies allowed to recall design-and-build tenders?”
“Yes, Sir. I hope the Minister can see that there is a need to change our mindset and again I want to ask, in line with the call by Mr Lim Swee Say, that we change the mindset of our people. Dr Tan Cheng Bock has called on the Government to care for the people, in the light of our foreign talent policy. I would also like to echo his call by asking the Government to care for the SMEs in the light of unfair competition from overseas. With Government accounting for more than 50 cents for each dollar spent in Singapore, the Government can show that it cares by changing its mindset, that is, it should be left to market forces.”
“By not sticking to the lowest price method, we can adopt the bidding model based on performance specifications or the design-and-build specifications to meet the WTO requirements and to get the most benefit. 12.45 pm”
“I would also like to raise the question why these foreign firms could sustain huge losses year after year. Do they still meet our CIDB's registration requirement? And if they are branch offices, is their head office still a viable entity? Sir, let me look at this issue from another angle. I would like to bring up a point made by the Finance Minister two days ago. In his reply to Mr Lim Swee Say, he mentioned that at our stage of development, he would like to have more aesthetically designed buildings and these buildings should also be built for easy maintenance. He has in fact brought home the point that his Ministry believes in paying for good value, and not the cheapest. Hence, again, I agree with Mr Lim that we should save but we should go further by stretching our dollar to the fullest from the present and future benefits. And that is to say, in financial terms, the price we are paying should be the net present value of present and future benefits. Aesthetics, as mentioned by the Minister, can be classified as present benefit and ease of maintenance is of course our future benefit. Sir, I beg to urge that the Finance Ministry build into the procurement system more measures to incorporate some other benefits and these benefits can assist SMEs to build capability, just like our previous policy on CONQUAS; to create jobs; to acquire and retain knowledge; to build community bonding and to be environmentally friendly. Many members of this House have brought up this issue in the first two days. Here, I am suggesting a mechanism where all wishes can be fulfilled and yet we still get the most benefit of an open and fair market.”
“However, in other segments of the economy, particularly in the construction industry where most of the development funds will be spent, I observe that the players repeatedly deviate or attempt to deviate from these conditions for their own benefit. Sir, I would like to declare my interest here. One typical example of violating free entry conditions is the process of pre-qualification where unreasonable conditions are set to reduce the number of competitors. Another example would be the predatory pricing policy practised by almost all foreign contractors. The table distributed earlier shows that six local construction companies with a turnover of $6.6 billion reported a profit of 2.8% and paid a tax of 1%, that is, $46 million. But seven Japanese companies with a turnover of $6.1 billion, which is almost the same as the local companies, reported a loss of $201 million and paid a tax of 0.4%, that is, $24 million. What is worse is that three Korean companies with a turnover of $4.6 billion reported a loss of $300 million and paid a tax of $14,869. One Chinese company and one French company also reported losses. Sir, anyone who reads this report, which is extracted from our ROC, will straightaway recognise that all these firms are either poorly managed, or they carry out dumping, or they are practising transfer pricing, or doing a combination of the three. I would like to ask the Finance Minister whether it is his policy to allow this to happen. I wish to highlight to this House that dumping and transfer pricing are predatory in nature. It helps these firms to increase their ability to grab projects at all times, and thereby crowding out the local firms who honestly price the projects and pay their taxes.”
“Sir, I would like to request permission to circulate a table. [Copies of Table distributed to hon. Members]. All along, the Singapore Government has subscribed to the policy of having an open economy. It believes that a free and fair market will derive the most benefits for the nation in the long run. The recent incident whereby TAS asked SingTel to show cause why their latest pricing was not predatory and the subsequent heated debate in this House affirmed the belief that the Government has always wanted to ensure that the playing field is level, and free and fair market is maintained. At the administrative level, this belief has been translated into the Government procurement policy and implemented by the Finance Ministry all these years and, that is, in any public open tender, the bids must be competitive and the award goes to the lowest bid with substantial compliance with the specifications. For those who have studied economics, this procurement policy can be said to meet the requirements for optimum consumer and producer benefits based on the assumptions that the following conditions are met: (1) There must be a large number of competitors; (2) The competitors are about the same size; (3) The competitors are provided with the same information; (4) The competitors will have the same product quality; and (5) Free entry and free exit for all competitors. If one or more of these conditions are not satisfied, the outcome may not be optimum. The interference by TAS was actually trying to make sure that all these conditions are met.”
“We took 33 years to build up $100 billion and Yahoo! took four years to get half of it. Of course, the Internet stocks are now very high and there is a lot of speculation on it. So, this comparison may not be fair but the contrast is very stark and makes one feel that besides building our physical infrastructure, we should find ways to churn out our national resources and to combine with outside resources so that this exchange can expedite the growth of our wealth. With good planning and some good luck, we may be able to double our wealth in a shorter period.”
“Many companies were started by returning scientists who came up with their peers who succeeded in other businesses. In Israel, high-tech businesses also boom due to their Jewish connections in USA. In Singapore, we probably lack all these connections. Therefore, I think a stock exchange for high-tech industry would be useful to raise funds for promising start-ups to expedite the flow of information between the technologists and the wealthy businessmen to attract talents from overseas and who hope to raise funds here and to position ourselves for the venture capitalists to operate here. And, hopefully, we can modify the risk-averse culture of Singaporeans. I know we are now too early and too small to have a full-fledged high-tech exchange, let alone to challenge Nasdaq. But, like all financial centres, there can be more than one in this world. Singapore can well be such a centre for Asia in the future. Without getting started, we probably would not be there. So I suggest that Government look into the possibility of setting up facilities similar to bulletin boards or over-the-counter in America, and these details have been covered by Mr Singh earlier. This may not form part of the existing Sesdaq and it is up to the Ministry to structure it. Lastly, please allow me to quote a few figures to let the House have a feel of how much wealth such exchange can create in the future. As at yesterday, I called up a stockbroker at 5 pm - Yahoo! had a market capitialistaion of US$33 billion; America On-line had a market capitalisation of US$85 billion. Another highflying bio-tech company, the Human Genome Science is worth US$715 billion and, of course, our Creative Technology is worth about US$1.2 billion. We have $100 billion in reserves, which is equivalent to two Yahoos!”