Gerald Giam Yean Song
Singapore
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. The focus of my supplementary question will be on the film classification guidelines, which currently state that, quote, "Chinese films meant for theatrical release should generally be in Mandarin, in line with the Speak Mandarin Campaign.”
“Mr Speaker, we cannot allow physical infrastructure expansion to blind us to the shifting digital geography of global trade nor should we allow frontier technology to reduce the economic agency of our transport workers.”
“Sir, I thank the Minister for his replies. I understand the difficulty in getting the exact numbers. But is there an order of magnitude that the Government can provide as to how many such fees were collected and what is the total quantum? Just an order of magnitude, does not have to be an exact number.”
“Sir, I thank Mr Ng Chee Meng for acknowledging my OJT proposal. I am aware of the work of CTCs, but my proposal goes beyond what the CTCs currently provide. First is the depth of the wage support, and second is the structural design of OJT.”
“I thank the Minister for responding to my question just now. I am glad to hear that there will be more precise matching with the help of SWDA's the integrated intelligence function. But can I ask if this function will be provided to all jobseekers who approach SWDA or its agencies, like e2i, to seek for job assistance?”
“Sir, can the Minister elaborate a bit more about how SWDA will enhance the job search assistance programme? Specifically, will career counsellors move beyond basic resume editing and portal referrals to leverage real time vacancy data for proactive matching and advocate for candidates?”
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“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I extend my heartiest congratulations to TeamSG athletes and para-athletes who have qualified for, participated in and, for some, won medals at the recent SEA Games and ASEAN Para Games in Cambodia. These include Aljunied GRC residents, Kimberly Ong, Colin Soon, Sophie Soon and Soh Rui Yong. You have done your family, the sports fraternity and your country proud by flying the Singapore flag high on the world stage. I also wish all our Asian Games athletes and para-athletes the best of success in their preparations and competitions at the upcoming Asian Games and Asian Para Games in October. My speech today will focus on the development of high-performance athletes in Singapore. I will delve into some of the challenges faced in the local sports ecosystem and will propose several ideas that I believe will enable Singapore to achieve greater success in the international sporting arena. Before I continue, I wish to declare my interest in this matter as a parent with a child who trains in a high-performance sports programme supported by SportSG. Most of us would be familiar with the 10,000-hour rule. This is a concept proposed by Dr Anders Ericsson and popularised by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 book, Outliers: The Story of Success. The rule suggests that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve mastery in a particular field or skill. To clock 10,000 hours, an athlete would need to put in three hours a day of practice six days a week, continuously, for over 10 years. Going by this rule, if an athlete aims to be world-class by the age of 18, they would need to start serious training when they are just eight years old.”
“So, can I just confirm with the Senior Parliamentary Secretary, for those residents who do not have a 2022 AV, how does MOH ensure that they are not worse off? Can they appeal on the basis of their previous AV or something else that can be used as a proxy? Secondly, I am not sure if the Senior Parliamentary Secretary has answered the question about the households that have $1.00 of income. Will they still be subject to the AV criterion?”
“I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for her reply as well as the Senior Minister of State for Finance for his reply earlier. Can I confirm with the Senior Parliamentary Secretary that MOH has not been using the 2023 AVs for all its social support and means-testing? Secondly, will MOH consider removing the AV component for households with no income, since these are retiree households, often with a family member who is severely unwell and is seeking medical treatment? Alternatively, can MOH consider raising the AV threshold beyond $13,000 so that more Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat dwellers will not be excluded from the means-testing subsidies? Lastly, can I confirm that as long as a household is earning $1.00 or more, they are not subject to the AV criteria for the purpose of means-testing?”
“Thank you, Madam. Madam, the ARC report stated that the X Barter Deal was not a genuine arrangement. The corresponding revenue and expenses should not have been recognised and the corresponding circulation numbers should not have been counted. So, my question is, if it was found that the X Barter Deal was not a genuine arrangement, will there be any investigation into the other media company, which was named as "X" in the report, and whether they were also inflating their numbers? Secondly, the Minister said that the question of loss of public funds does not arise. But what kind of accountability has been given to the donors and the clients who had contributed to the NIE Fund on the understanding that they were helping the underprivileged in society but were instead used to shore up the circulation figures for SPH?”
“Sir, SMS redirection has been discussed in this House before. It is the situation where a bank sends out an SMS One-time Password (OTP) meant for the customer but it gets redirected to a scammer. So, the scammer receives the OTP and is then able to enter it to complete the transfer of funds. This is how some Singaporeans have fallen victim to it. It happened during the OCBC scandal, I think, at the end of 2021. So, I just want to find out whether or not this Bill will cover and be able to prevent such actions from being taken.”
“Sir, I thank the Minister for answering many of my questions. I still have a few outstanding questions on which I need a bit more clarification. If someone were to register a domain name that is a variant of a bank's website and there is reasonable suspicion that there might be plans to impersonate the bank, can this website be proactively blocked under clause 6(1)(b) even if that website does not contain any content yet? I just want some clarification on that point. Secondly, I know that you said that this Bill does not cover calls, specifically, but will scam calls made over WhatsApp, WeChat and other online messaging services be blocked through this Bill as well? The Minister also did not answer my questions about SMS redirection – whether or not SMS redirection attempts will be or can be blocked under this Bill.”
“Are there plans to enable it to reply in Chinese, Malay and Tamil, so that more non-English speakers can interact with the bot? More should be done to leverage the knowledge of the entire population to quickly and comprehensively identify scams, and block scam numbers before more people fall victim to them. This can be done through better publicity of these reporting channels, giving updates to users when their reports were used for Police investigations or when the number is blocked, and making it easier for users to report scams. The scam epidemic is a gargantuan problem which needs to be tackled more effectively by the Government, telcos and financial institutions. I hope that this Bill will give these agencies and organisations more levers to do so, to prevent more Singaporeans from falling victim and losing their hard-earned savings to these criminals.”
“However, in order for SMSes from known scam numbers to be blocked, a user will need to install the ScamShield app and give the app permissions to read their SMSes and contacts. This is a multi-step process, which some non-technical users may struggle with. Indeed, even technical users may be reluctant to grant such intrusive access on their phones. The NCPC says that more than 600,000 people have downloaded the ScamShield app. This means that more than five million residents in Singapore still do not have ScamShield installed, and presumably more do not have the app setup to block scam messages. To better protect potential victims of scams who are unaware of ScamShield or choose not to install the app on their phones, the Government should direct telcos to block all verified scam messages and calls, without depending on end users to install ScamShield. These should include those scam phone numbers reported by end users through ScamShield and verified by the NCPC and the Police. Time is of the essence, since it only takes seconds for an unwitting victim to click on a phishing link and enter their username, password and OTP, and for the scammers to clear out their bank account or Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts. While the ScamShield app, ScamShield bot and website do provide forms for people to report suspected scams, how many people are aware of these reporting channels and actually use them? How does the Government intend to promote its use? How will they encourage their use and explain it to those who find it challenging, adopting such technology? The ScamShield bot is able to take in reports of scam messages in non-English languages, but can only reply to users in English.”
“What difficulties have the authorities faced in expeditiously blocking actual scam websites, that necessitates the introduction of this Bill? I note the Minister's explanation in her speech just a moment ago that this Bill will enable authorities to block websites if there is reasonable suspicion that they are being prepared in advance of a scam. Can I confirm with the Minister if this means that if someone were to register a domain name that is a variant of, say, "dbs.com", it will get proactively blocked, even if the website does not contain any content yet and even if that domain is registered overseas? Similarly, if a telephone number is reported to have been used to carry out scams, is the Government already empowered to direct telcos to immediately block such numbers? Are there any encumbrances to doing so now that require this Bill? The Minister previously said that scam calls made over the Internet, such as through messaging apps like WhatsApp, are currently not blocked. With this Bill, would scam calls made over the Internet now be blocked through an Account Restriction Direction that can be issued to online service providers? Will short message service (SMS) redirection attacks, which redirect text messages containing one-time passwords (OTPs) sent from banks to hackers, be more effectively blocked under this Bill, and if so, how will it be more effectively prevented than under the current regime? The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) and Open Government Products has developed ScamShield, an anti-scam app which automatically blocks scam calls, detects scam messages and allows users to report scam messages and calls. I am glad to note that a version of ScamShield for Android devices has finally been released.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, the Online Criminal Harms Bill was introduced for the purpose of empowering the authorities to combat online crimes more effectively and safeguard the public in Singapore from various online harms. It is also supposed to enable swift Government action against online criminal activities, proactively preventing scams and malicious cyber activities to protect potential victims. Scams are the online criminal activities that loom largest against Singaporeans these days. While I support the Bill, I would like to seek clarification on how the Bill will be able to empower the authorities to deal with scams in ways that existing legislation does not. According to data from SPF, the victims of some 31,700 scam cases were cheated of almost $661 million in 2022, $29 million more than the year before. This works out to an average of almost $21,000 cheated per case. These are staggering amounts of hard-earned savings of Singaporeans lost to scammers. Quite a few victims are my residents who approached me for help to recover their lost savings. Sadly, in most cases, the money had been spirited overseas and could not be recovered. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Police currently work with Internet service providers to block scam websites. In 2021, 12,000 suspected scam websites were blocked, many with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that can quickly detect and block scam websites. This means that if a new phishing website was set up to collect usernames and passwords of bank customers, the Government is already empowered to immediately order that website to be blocked, so that no more users in Singapore can access it.”
“To clarify, I understand the process in which the scammers use to access the phone. But just now the Minister said that once the accessibility is enabled, the scammers are able to read the passwords that are stored in Singpass. Typically, these passwords should not be stored at all inside the phone. So, I just want to understand whether or not this is something that is being looked into, as to why is it that passwords are stored inside the phone for that reason?”
“Madam, just now I heard the Minister said that the scammers were able to obtain the victims' Singpass credentials from their phones after they managed to install the app on their phone. Is MOM working with GovTech to patch this vulnerability if it, indeed, is about the vulnerability?”
“Sir, why could Minister Shanmugam not inform his Permanent Secretary separately after getting an agent to make enquiries? Because we discussed earlier that he could have asked SLA through an agent, but he chose not to. He chose to go to his Deputy Secretary instead. Why could he not go to his agent, get his agent to ask SLA a question and then inform his Permanent Secretary separately? And did he make clear to his Deputy Secretary at the time that he was asking him, that he was asking for the purpose of transparency?”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I have questions for Minister Shanmugam as well as Senior Minister Teo. Mr Deputy Speaker, why could Minister Shanmugam not inform his Permanent Secretary separately after getting his agent to make the inquiries, and did he make clear to his Deputy Secretary at the time that he asked him, that he was making this request for the purpose of transparency? To Senior Minister Teo, does Senior Minister Teo think that as long as no privileged information is asked for, a Minister can make a personal request of a civil servant relating to transactions under his Ministry? And does he think that other Ministers should do the same in future when faced with a similar situation as Minister Shanmugam?”
“I thank the Minister for her comprehensive replies. The Minister said that other equestrian sports will not be affected. Is there currently any scheme to use retired racehorses for other equestrian sports? If so, would this supply of horses not be constrained after the Singapore racecourse closes down, leading to higher costs for buying and importing horses for equestrian sports?”
“As the world celebrates International Nurses Day this Friday on 12 May, which is the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth, I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all our nurses in both public and private healthcare institutions in Singapore. We appreciate your selfless service, sacrifice and care for our people. Madam, I support the Motion.”
“Technology can be used to help GPs focus on what they do best. Many private clinics find it a challenge to manage the dizzying array of IT systems that they need to manage in their clinics, connect to the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS), Healthier SG and the NEHR. I note that there is a technology subsidy scheme available to help GPs to implement clinic management systems that are compatible with Healthier SG. However, implementing these systems still requires a lot of time and effort on the part of GPs and their clinic assistants – time which they simply do not have if they want to focus on direct patient care. MOH should explore the possibility of offering an IT manager as a service to GPs and dental clinics. This would enable them to benefit from the expertise of IT professionals who can assist them in resolving their healthcare IT-related issues. By providing a point of contact for IT matters, GPs and their clinic assistants can then concentrate on delivering high quality clinical care to their patients. This solution would not only enhance the efficiency and productivity of GPs but also help them stay current with the latest technological advancements. Mdm Deputy Speaker, urgent action is needed to tackle the shortage of manpower in health and social care institutions and grow the pipeline of Singaporeans entering this field. I have proposed some ways in my speech on how we can do so and I hope that MOH and MOE will consider them. To boost productivity and augment manpower in the health and social care sector, we need to double down on the use of technology as a force multiplier and assist providers to implement and use these technologies.”
“The Health Information Bill was supposed to be tabled in Parliament in 2018 to make contribution of data to the NEHR mandatory for licensed healthcare groups after a grace period. However, this was deferred in the wake of the cyberattack and data breach of SingHealth's system in July that year, in order for technical end process enhancements to improve the security posture of the NEHR to be implemented first. Most of these security enhancements were supposed to be completed by last year, according to Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary. Can I ask the Senior Minister of State if all the security enhancements to the NEHR have now been implemented? I understand that MOH aims to table the Health Information Bill in the second half of this year. Is MOH reaching out to doctors to address concerns they might have about the security of the patient data they will be required to contribute to the NEHR? How is MOH assisting the remaining GPs and dentists to get onboard the NEHR? Former Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong said in 2017 that, "Patients can realise the full potential of the NEHR only if the data is comprehensive." He added that, "For NEHR data to be comprehensive, every provider and healthcare professional needs to contribute relevant data to it." Given the NEHR's goals and the fact that $660 million has been spent on the system so far, it is imperative that the full rollout is implemented without undue delay while addressing valid concerns from doctors. We need to tap on the knowledge and experience of GPs who have been practising for many years, especially as we move forward into the Healthier SG initiative, which will see GPs playing a key role in promoting healthy lifestyles and promoting preventive healthcare.”
“I note that there is now a Singapore Precision Medicine initiative aiming to generate precision medicine data of up to one million individuals, integrating genomic, lifestyle, health, social and environmental data. This is a very positive development. There are also other healthcare technologies that are not as "deep tech" as what I mentioned earlier but are already in the market and can provide a boost to the productivity of healthcare workers, enhance the patient experience and improve health outcomes. The National Electronic Health Records (NEHR) system is a major, multi-year HealthTech initiative. According to the MOH website, there are 2,231 healthcare institutions participating in the NEHR as of 5 May 2023. This list appears to be growing every day and I note there has been a marked increase in the number of participating healthcare providers since the start of this year. The Straits Times reported on 2 May that, "The private sector has been slow to participate in the NEHR since it was launched in 2011". According to a Parliamentary Question reply by Minister Ong Ye Kung to Mr Leon Perera in March 2023, only about 30% of licensed private ambulatory care institutions have view-access to the NEHR and less than 4% are contributing data. A 2020 survey and paper by Clinical Asst Prof See Qing Yong of Changi General Hospital entitled "Attitudes and Perceptions of General Practitioners Towards the NEHR in Singapore" found that solo practising GPs who are more than 40 years old and who had practised for more than 15 years were less likely to view and contribute data onto the NEHR. Doctors who regarded themselves as less computer savvy and those who perceived that an inadequate level of technical or financial support was available were also less likely to use the NEHR.”
“Considering our own ageing population in Singapore, which will require greater care needs, if we are to staff all our health and social care institutions with the doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and care workers to meet the ideal healthcare worker-to-patient ratios, the health and social care sector will likely take up a disproportionate share of Singapore's manpower and will starve other sectors of the economy of skills and talent. Technology can play an important role in boosting productivity and augmenting manpower. In my Adjournment Motion in this House in 2013 on easing the cost of healthcare, I said that technology should be used as a force multiplier in the face of limited manpower in our healthcare system. This is even more so now than it was a decade ago. Healthcare technology, or HealthTech, is a fast-growing and promising field which must be developed further in Singapore. Transformational technologies are being developed now which will revolutionise the way healthcare is delivered in the future. These include AI-driven diagnostics that can detect diseases early and make more accurate diagnoses more quickly than conventional means. For example, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed an AI model called Sybil that can predict a patient's risk of lung cancer within six years using low-dose computed tomography scans. The emerging field of precision medicine has the potential to transform healthcare and is being used in the treatment of diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and genetic disorders. It can potentially improve patient outcomes by providing more targeted and effective treatments, reducing adverse reactions to medications and optimising disease prevention strategies.”
“It should provide guidance on how to search out these opportunities and work with professional health and social care associations to create these opportunities for students. These could all help our students focus early on pursuing their area of interest in health and social care and better prepare them for their eventual careers in this exciting field. It is too late to attempt to put together a portfolio just before applying for university or polytechnic. Yet, this is often what many students do, because they go through secondary school with little idea of what they are interested in and do not participate in activities that prepare them for their future careers. Students from more well-resourced families, on the other hand, often obtain this guidance from their parents and are provided with opportunities for hands-on experience through their parents' professional connections. In order to level up our society and capture a wider pool of talent in our population, we need to make this information available to every student. However, changing public perceptions and increasing public awareness about health and social care careers takes time and requires a concerted effort from various stakeholders, including the Government, the media, schools and parents. We must continue to develop targeted initiatives to address the concerns of healthcare workers, such as work-life balance, remuneration and career progression. Having said all this, it is simply not sustainable to rely on increasing manpower supply alone to meet the health and social care needs of our nation.”
“Schools should highlight careers in health and social care early to students. Professional associations should come up with materials and videos highlighting the careers in this field and share them with schools to disseminate to their students. I agree with Member Dr Tan Yia Swam's call just now for a repository of articles on navigating the healthcare system – and I hope she starts her blog again so that we can continue to tap on her knowledge. Career guidance should start in Secondary 1. This is so that students' interest in health and social care careers can be sparked early, and they can start working towards choosing suitable subjects as they move up to Secondary 3. As I mentioned in my speech on the education system in April, schools should move away from sorting students according to their grades and towards allowing students to take subject combinations based on their interests. This is how we can continue to raise up a generation of future healthcare professionals who love what they do and are passionate about their work. IHLs could develop guidebooks to help local students prepare themselves for their eventual applications to these institutions. These guidebooks could include information on the subjects they need to take in school, the grades they need to obtain and the co-curricular and extracurricular activities they need to get involved in to best prepare themselves to get admitted to the institution and major of their choice. For example, this guide could recommend that students take certain subject combinations, join the science club, find opportunities to conduct scientific research, write and publish research papers, or work as an intern in a health or social care institution during their school holidays.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, the world is facing a severe manpower crunch in health and social care. The chief executive officer of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) said last year that, "The scale of the worldwide nursing shortage is one of the greatest threats to health globally." The ICN estimates that due to existing nursing shortages, the ageing of the nursing workforce and the effect of COVID-19, up to 13 million nurses will be needed to fill the global nurse shortage gap in the future. The Southeast Asia region alone is facing a shortfall of 1.9 million nurses, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Singapore needs another 24,000 nurses, allied health professionals and support care staff to operate hospitals, clinics and eldercare centres by 2030. Our rapidly ageing population is causing demand for health and social care to increase dramatically. Yet, Singapore is facing a high attrition rate of nurses. One of the reasons why nurses in Singapore have reported to be resigning is because of their heavy workload and stress, which is caused, in large part, by the manpower shortage. Urgent measures are needed to address this manpower shortage. There are no quick fix solutions. We need to encourage more Singaporeans to choose health and social care as a career, so as to boost the pipeline of future professionals in this field. I highlighted in my speech on Singapore's COVID-19 response in March that nurses in Singapore are often still seen as the assistants to doctors instead of being professionals in their own right. We need to boost the image of the profession and enhance societal esteem for nurses and allied healthcare workers. Nurses should be granted more autonomy and entrusted with higher level responsibilities.”
“I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. Has the Government assessed the risk that the apps installed on these phones, whether they are personal or official mobile phones of public servants and civil servants, may be able to surreptitiously access official secrets that may be stored on the phone or accessible on the phones? And what mitigation measures are done to prevent this – for example, do all official devices require anti-malware software to be installed? Also, the Senior Minister of State mentioned quite a bit of restrictions on the official mobile phones. What rules are in place to ensure that civil servants do not use their personal devices for official purposes, just to get around the official phone restrictions in an effort to communicate with one another or with the public?”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have some quick clarifications pertaining to public transport. In the new fare adjustment formula, how is the productivity contribution quantum of 0.1% derived? Are these all the productivity gains that MOT is expecting the PTOs to achieve and could that be too low an expectation? Secondly, related to that, how closely does LTA work with the PTO to conceive and implement productivity enhancing measures and how can LTA be sure that the PTOs do not treat the 0.1% productivity contribution as a cost of doing business without significant productivity gains that will reduce costs over the long term and help to stave off future fare hikes? And lastly, when PTOs rationalise bus services – for example, the removal of bus services 22, 66 and 506 for my residents in Bedok Reservoir in 2022 and 2021, sorry I am not letting go of this – which saves the Government $9.5 million a year in subsidies, how are these cost savings passed to commuters?”
“Just a very quick supplementary question. When is MAS going to require the banks to use more secure methods besides SMS OTP, for example, using the app-based OTPs?”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. And I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. I understand that the bus stop codes and names are displayed at the bus stop pole and the bus stop information board. However, the font that is used is relatively small and it is not easily visible to passengers as they are approaching the bus stop. So, it would not give them enough time to be able to press the button to indicate to the bus captain to stop the bus. In fact, the most prominent signage at the bus stop is actually the bus shelter address plate, which is on the top of the bus shelter because the font can be seen from quite a distance away, about 40 metres away at least, in my estimation. So, this will give the commuters a bit more time to prepare to stop, to press the bell to stop the bus. So, my question to the Senior Minister of State is: can the bus stop name and code be placed on the bus stop bus shelter address plates, instead of what is right now on the bus shelter address plates which is actually not very meaningful to the commuters themselves?”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have two supplementary questions for the Minister. Is the SOL proactively shared with schools and tertiary institutions so that they can provide career guidance to their students and encourage them to consider these jobs so that they can fill the shortage when they eventually graduate? Or would the Minister say that the SOL should not be used as a basis for career guidance for younger students, including those in secondary school?”
“Thank you, Mdm Chair. I note that Mr Patrick Tay said that the 10-year through-train-school idea is not new. Ms Denise Phua proposed it more than a decade ago. I have not had the chance to check the Hansard yet. But be that as it may and in the interest of arriving at the best policies for Singaporeans, regardless of who raised it first, do Mr Patrick Tay and Ms Phua agree that the 10-year through-train programme from Primary 1 to Secondary 4 would be a helpful option for parents who want their children to bypass the PSLE?”
“Therefore, it is also unlikely that, moving forward, Singaporeans’ residential property assets can deliver a level of returns similar to what was previously achieved, without causing undue inflationary pressures. Equipping Singaporeans with better financial literacy will help them to become willing to have a more diversified asset portfolio and make more sound decisions while doing so, taking into consideration their risk profile and circumstances. This could, in turn, better secure Singaporeans’ retirement adequacy. Mr Speaker, in summary, our education system should provide more opportunities for our students to pursue their interests as long as they have demonstrated their commitment and ability to complete the whole course of study. We need to move away from the over-emphasis on preparing for high stakes examinations, and place greater focus on enjoying learning and achieving subject and skills mastery. Equipping Singaporeans with greater financial knowledge and confidence will enable them to take charge of their financial well-being and make better-informed decisions on their personal finances. Strengthening Singaporeans’ financial resilience will also serve to enhance our overall resilience as a nation. Finally, Sir, I would like to respond to what the hon Member, Mr Murali Pillai, said in his speech earlier on. Sir, unanimous agreement on both sides of the House is not a prerequisite for national unity. Rational and responsible debate in Parliament that focuses on policies, not personalities, is the way to express our diverse views and improve our policies, with the objective of improving the lives of Singaporeans while remaining united as one people. Sir, I support the Motion.”
“This should include not just MoneySENSE’s Tier 1 knowledge of basic money management but should also aim to significantly improve Singaporeans’ financial capacity in Tier 2, which is financial planning, and Tier 3, investment knowhow. Financial literacy should be included as a standalone subject taught in schools, as good financial habits need to be started from young. It does not need to be an examinable subject. Financial literacy clubs can be included as a co-curricular activity across all schools. These clubs can also be set up at all community and SAFRA clubs, with structured activities. Third, the concentration of household wealth in residential property assets needs to be addressed to give Singaporeans the financial freedom to explore other asset classes for their retirement planning in order to achieve better diversification and improve returns on their assets. According to the Department of Statistics, almost half of Singapore’s household wealth is in residential property assets. A DBS report has indicated that property will no longer be the best retirement investment in Singapore in the future. Having half of Singaporeans’ wealth in a single, relatively illiquid asset is a financial risk. Contrary to the common perception, other asset classes have also generated returns comparable to Singapore's residential real estate, even in the Singapore property boom period, especially after factoring in costs related to holding and transacting properties. As I had mentioned in my speech on the Motions on public housing in February, we need to moderate the growth in housing prices and ensure they do not outpace Singapore’s economic growth. It is unlikely that Singapore’s economic growth will be anywhere close to what was achieved in the past few decades.”
“To improve our financial resilience as a nation, there is a need to plug the current financial literacy gap among Singaporeans and empower Singaporeans with the knowledge and confidence to take greater ownership of their financial well-being. I would like to share three suggestions to systematically uplift the financial literacy of Singaporeans and empower them with the knowledge and confidence to manage their own financial health. First of all, I would like to suggest that the Government develop a National Financial Literacy Framework to provide a systematic basis for benchmarking improvements in financial literacy levels over time. In the Financial Literacy Survey conducted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in 2005, a scoring system was mooted, covering both knowledge and action. However, it appears that the scoring system was discontinued in subsequent surveys. Aggregate financial literacy statistics of Singaporeans should be established, measured and tracked as part of ascertaining Singapore’s financial resilience. Second, I would like to suggest that the Government establish a National Financial Education Programme under MOE to provide proactive and comprehensive financial education for Singaporeans across all ages. I note that the Minister for Education had mentioned previously that financial literacy is infused into subjects such as Character and Citizenship Education (CCE), and that the Student Learning Space provides self-paced lessons for students to learn financial literacy. However, I believe financial literacy is such a critical subject matter that we should not adopt a “by-the-way” approach. Instead, we should equip Singaporeans across all ages with deeper financial knowledge and confidence.”
“Billions of investment funds are raised and managed in Singapore. Yet, Singaporeans generally lack the financial know-how and confidence to manage their own personal finances and plan for their future. In a private sector survey in 2022, more than half of Singaporeans considered themselves “financially illiterate”. The same survey showed that financial literacy is the lowest among the age group of 18 to 24, at only 35%. In the MoneySENSE National Financial Capability Survey 2021, four in 10 respondents said they lacked knowledge of basic financial concepts, such as risk diversification and simple and compound interest, and more than half had not developed a retirement plan. MoneySENSE is Singapore’s national financial education programme. In the two decades since it was started, it has launched various programmes and provided resources to help Singaporeans better manage their finances. However, the programmes seem to be mostly ad hoc and campaign-driven. Various surveys have been conducted on financial literacy among Singaporeans since its launch, but it is not clear how much the financial literacy of Singaporeans has improved over the last two decades, as these surveys do not seem to have followed the same scope or framework. Based on the results of the recent surveys, it appears that a lot more needs to be done to enhance Singaporeans’ financial capacity and literacy. And instead of doing more, it appears that some co-funding of financial literacy workshops for schools under MoneySENSE has been discontinued. For a developed country, with such high educational, wealth and income levels, and an established status as a leading international financial hub, the survey results show worrying statistics about the financial literacy rate in Singapore.”
“In contrast, the Workers’ Party has proposed a 10-year through-train programme from Primary 1 to Secondary 4 as an option for parents who want their child to bypass the PSLE. Our proposed through-train programme gives students 10 years to prepare for their first major examination at Secondary 4, allowing them to learn at a pace suited for them while developing other areas of interest. The 10-year through-train programme will pair up existing primary and secondary schools and complement, not replace, the non-through-train tracks in these schools. My hon friend, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, elaborated on this proposal in detail during the COS debate earlier this year. We need to make our education system less of a sorting mechanism for identifying students’ abilities and more of a launchpad for students to discover their strengths and interests and develop deep skills in their areas of interest. Students should not be channelled away from their interests just because they did not obtain a certain cut-off point in their examinations. There might be concerns that some so-called “kiasu parents” will push their children to take subjects that are far beyond their abilities. However, I believe that most Singaporean students and their parents are keenly aware of their own limitations and will not bite off more than they can chew. After all, if a student takes a subject at too challenging a level, they will have difficulty scoring the much coveted "A1"s in national examinations. I would now like to move on to another aspect of education which needs more focus in Singapore – financial literacy. Singapore is a major financial hub, with numerous global, regional and local institutional investors and high-net-worth family offices based here.”
“National examinations induce tremendous amounts of stress on students, as they determine their future educational pathways and, consequently, their future careers and earning potential. While it can be argued that it is good for young people to learn to cope with stress, when stress becomes toxic, it can have negative effects on learning and knowledge retention and, in extreme situations, could become chronic. By channelling their energies into preparing for examinations, students may forgo opportunities to experience the joy of learning and achieving mastery in what really is important for life. The streaming approach puts students through a standardised test like the PSLE, sorted them into good, average and weak students, and put them on different education streams in secondary schools with different subject combinations based on their test scores. The new Subject-based Banding approach also sorts students into good, average and weak students for each subject, and channels them into subject combinations based on their assessed ability in each subject. While subject-based banding is less rigid than streaming, it is still based on the same principle. A student has to meet a specific test score in order to study the subjects they are interested in. The ostensible reason for implementing this sorting mechanism is to provide some assurance that the student can cope with the rigours of that subject or subject level before being allowed to take it. This is probably why through-train programmes are currently available mainly to an elite few students who qualify for the Integrated Programme by virtue of their stellar performance in the PSLE. There is little risk that these students will become early dropouts of school.”
“Many mid-year examinations have been done away with, but these have been replaced with weighted assessments which occur throughout the school year. The major national examinations like the PSLE, "N", "O" and "A" levels always loom just around the corner. Perform poorly in any of these examinations and the students will find their future educational options narrowed down or delayed – a prospect that many students and parents fear, no matter what the Government says about the many pathways to success. There are positive effects of examinations. They can incentivise teachers to cover their subjects more thoroughly, a skill which our local educators excel in. Examinations motivate students to work harder to gain a sense of accomplishment. However, there are also negative effects of examinations. They can motivate students to aim for test mastery instead of subject mastery. Tests encourage teachers to narrow the curriculum and lose instructional time, which could lead to “teaching to the test”. Examinations, typically, assess only certain aspects of a learner's knowledge, potentially overlooking other aspects of their education. Examination outcomes may not be definitive since they are solely based on a student's performance on the examination day. If a student is unwell or performs poorly under stress, it could adversely affect their examination results and their scores may not be an accurate reflection of their grasp of the subject matter. If the student fails to achieve their desired examination results, they will have to settle for courses of study in secondary schools or tertiary institutions that they may not be so inclined towards.”
“Mr Speaker, in her address to Parliament, the President called for a “broader and more open meritocracy that works well for all Singaporeans”. A lynchpin of our system of meritocracy is our education system, which is the subject of my speech today. Singapore’s education system has gone through several changes over the years, from the introduction of streaming in 1981, to the introduction of Subject-based Banding (SBB) in 2014, to the roll out of Full SBB starting in 2020. Yet, even with these changes, one major feature of our education system remains central – examinations. As a parent of two children who have gone through PSLE and are now in secondary school, I am rather familiar with both the joy and – more often – the frustration that parents go through when helping their children through major national examinations. Tutoring my own children has also provided me insights into the academic curriculum and its continued focus on examinations. I remember spending an inordinate amount of time working with my children through assessment books and past examination papers. I would often have to peek at the answer sheets behind, so I could teach them how to answer science questions with just the right number of points while putting up with taunts from my own offspring, which went along the lines of, “See, you also don’t know!” I would also have to repeatedly drill my children on mathematics problem sums. To get a good pass in Singapore’s examinations, students need to not only answer questions correctly, but also quickly, or risk the “horror” of having many unanswered questions at the end of the paper, due to examination time limits.”
“I thank the Senior Minister of State for her reply. I understand that those who have committed offences like rape, murder and kidnapping will not get a licence. And I think that is a reasonable safeguard for passengers. However, I have met residents who told me they cannot get back their VL for past convictions for less violent or non-violent offences. This prevents them from earning a living and re-integrating into society. So, can the Senior Minister of State please provide more clarity on what offences will debar a person from obtaining this licence? I think this will also give some clarity to the passengers to know that drivers who have gotten offences in the past will not be a safety threat to themselves.”
“Mr Speaker, I have just one clarification for Minister Ong. In July 2021, I asked if the Government could develop a COVID-19 risk index that aggregates indicators to provide guidance to policy-makers on decisions to ease or tighten SMMs. Minister Ong replied then, that it would not be wise to define a definitive threshold for full reopening and that it would not be very useful to devise an index to guide our public health actions. However, just now, Minister Ong just announced that four public health situational tiers will be introduced as part of an amended Infectious Diseases Act (IDA). Will objective thresholds and matrixes be used to decide which situational tier we are in, and how does that differ from a risk index that relies on factors, such as the number of daily infections, hospital capacity and vaccination rates?”
“I thank the Minister for his reply. Can I clarify with him, what is the material difference between the periods as far as campaigning is concerned before: one, the Writ of Election is concerned; two, from the time the Writ of Election is concerned until Nomination Day; and thirdly, from Nomination Day until the day before cooling off day? And are canvassing for votes and general interaction with residents by potential candidates allowed during each of these periods?”
“Can I clarify with the Minister what he means when he says members of public. Does that include the Members of Parliament as well or the former Members of Parliament, who are now members of public after the Writ of Election is issued?”
“I thank the Senior Minister of State for his reply. Can I check if the Government has any intention to publish any guide on wayfinding that can be used by developers and other public institutions, as well as private institutions, to include and mention about how it is important to use the vernacular languages in some instances, especially places where senior citizens are frequenting, like hospitals and MRT stations?”
“Is this unique role part of the Government's mandate for this Fifth Schedule company? I appreciate the work that Temasek companies and their employees did to keep Singaporeans safe during the pandemic and the resources they spent doing so. But I think it is important for the House to know if Temasek's expenditure on COVID-19 constitutes a draw on our Reserves and, if so, whether the approval of the President was sought and obtained? Sir, it is a truism that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. Notwithstanding the absence of a Committee of Inquiry, which the Workers' Party had called for, we still have many lessons to learn from in the White Paper and this debate. For the sake of our future generations who may have to go through catastrophic pandemics like these, we have to both learn and implement these lessons. In this spirit, Sir, I support the Motion.”
“Will the Government consider legislation akin to the US Defense Production Act, which empowers the executive to direct private companies to prioritise orders from the federal government and take actions to restrict the hoarding of needed supplies? I now turn to the role, during the pandemic, played by one major local company – Temasek Holdings. Temasek-linked companies played an outsized role during the pandemic. Almost all the private sector partners named in the White Paper are Temasek-linked companies. The White Paper stated that private sector companies like Temasek were indispensable sources of support during COVID-19. This may point to an over-dependence on the Temasek ecosystem. Would it be better to diversify the base of private sector partners that can support the national effort in times of crises? During Question Time on 3 March, I asked Senior Minister of State for Finance Chee Hong Tat if the Government's total COVID-19 spending of $72.3 billion included the amount spent by Temasek Holdings, Temasek Foundation and other Temasek-linked companies for their COVID-19 activities. The Senior Minister of State gave a rather convoluted answer, but I believe the answer was no. This being the case, can I ask – how much did Temasek and its related organisations spend out of their own budgets on COVID-19 initiatives like face masks, hand sanitisers and oxygen concentrators, which were made available locally and overseas? The White Paper stated that while Temasek's main goal remains to deliver long-term returns on its assets, it plays a unique role in supporting a robust portfolio of local companies that can anchor important capabilities for Singapore in a crisis. Does Temasek have goals other than to deliver long-term returns on its assets?”
“While concerns over panic buying and hoarding by the public were not unfounded, the Government had stockpiles of surgical masks for healthcare workers and should have had the power to requisition more masks from the commercial market. This brings me to my next point – why did Singapore not have the sufficient domestic capacity to manufacture items as basic as face masks? Was the Government not able to marshal local companies to accept and prioritise contracts for the manufacture of materials deemed essential for our defence against COVID-19, including face masks and ventilators? The White Paper mentioned that the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act gave the Government the option of mobilising civilian resources, using the Requisition of Resources Act (RORA), but it chose not to use those powers. Instead, the Government said it will leverage alternative structures, for example, through strategic partnerships or cooperation agreements, to effectively harness civilian resources for crises. I agree that it would not have been appropriate to use RORA for the COVID-19 pandemic, given that the Act is a rather blunt tool which is meant more for wartime scenarios than a public health crisis. In any case, RORA does not appear to give the Government the authority to ask the private sector to prioritise orders from the Government, short of requisitioning the entire line of services. For example, it is not clear the Government can ask a company to prioritise orders from the Government for the manufacturing of masks without requisitioning and running the entire mask production facility on its own.”
“They pointed out that these measures were better than no mask at all. In response to the four doctors a few days later, the Director of Medical Services at MOH said that "it is not wearing masks that's most important, it's hand washing" – even though the two actions were not a binary choice. The Straits Times ran an article to "educate" the public on questions like "Is it really true that you do not need to wear a mask if you are not sick? Is hand washing better protection against viruses than a mask?" These statements were incongruous and did not seem to be consistent with common sense. People intuitively knew that any layer preventing the spread of droplets would be better than not having one. It took a leaked recording of a Minister at a closed-door meeting in February 2020 to reveal that Singapore was rationing masks to save them for healthcare workers. The White Paper stated that "in hindsight…the Government could have encouraged Singaporeans to devise their own face masks while we set up manufacturing lines to ramp up production of surgical masks." This was not hindsight – it was what the four doctors advised in the first place, which the Government did not heed. It took another three months for the Government to stop discouraging people from wearing masks by updating the guidance on 3 April 2020. The result of this about-turn, as acknowledged by the White Paper, was that public trust in the Government was eroded. Singaporeans saw through the Government's initial statements – that the real reason why they were discouraging those who were well from wearing masks was because there were insufficient supplies of surgical masks, not because mask wearing was less effective than hand washing.”
“The next section of my speech deals with the public communication on pandemic mitigation measures. In January 2020, the Government issued an infographic titled "Advisory on wearing masks" which highlighted that "masks are generally not needed for people who are well." The infographic, which was also posted on social media, added that "there are sufficient masks in the warehouses and Government stockpiles." The then-chairman of the PAP's Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, Dr Chia Shi-Lu, echoed the Government's line later that month when he told the New Paper that "surgical masks can prevent the passing of virus from a wearer, but when it comes to protecting (a healthy wearer), the masks won't protect from viruses." The Prime Minister, in January 2020, said Singaporeans should follow doctors' advice on how best to protect themselves from the virus, which includes not wearing a mask when they are unwell. The Prime Minister rightly pointed out though, that the "Wuhan virus" – as it was then called – was "probably more infectious than SARS, and possibly infectious even before people have symptoms." This was on 31 January 2020. The fact that the Government knew in those early days that asymptomatic transmission of the virus could occur should have prompted them to advise everyone to wear masks when in contact with other people. On 10 February 2020, four local doctors did just that by issuing a statement urging Singaporeans to wear masks always when leaving home, even if they were well. Dr Colleen Thomas, Dr Judy Chen, Dr Tham Hoe Meng and Dr Lim Pin Pin acknowledged the difficulties in obtaining new surgical masks every day and urged the use of creative solutions like washable cloth masks or scarves.”
“Nurses in Singapore are often still seen as the assistants to doctors instead of being professionals in their own right. They should instead be granted more autonomy and entrusted with higher level responsibilities. In the UK, nurses run clinics, diagnose patients, take on high-level management roles and help to lead medical research. We should accelerate efforts to achieve the target of 700 Advance Practice Nurses by 2030. Beyond pay, management culture, work recognition and working hours are also areas that need to be examined for a holistic improvement of the profession. Next, during the pandemic, many persons with disabilities (PwDs) experienced difficulties coping with measures such as the blocking off of regular exits and entrances, shifting access points for PwDs and having to locate and scan SafeEntry codes. Many wheelchair users and people with developmental disabilities, visual impairments and autism spectrum disorder had difficulties with SafeEntry scanning. Measures such as COVID-19 swabbing and mask-wearing were difficult for some people. I recall a resident of mine who was very worried that her son, who had a mental disability, would struggle and hurt himself when made to undergo mandatory swabbing at his block when an outbreak occurred there. While support for PwDs was eventually introduced, much of this was reactive. This could be due to an absence of meaningful participation by PwDs when safe management measures were implemented. Moving forward, it would be advisable to have at least one member of the disability community on emergency task forces so that the community's views can be adequately represented. More importantly, all policies rolled out need to take into account the unique needs of PwDs, to ensure that they are not excluded.”
“Nearly a third of healthcare workers witness or experience abuse each week, according to a tripartite workgroup's findings, which the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Rahayu Mazam, shared earlier this month during the Committee of Supply debate. Additionally, some healthcare workers are also drawn to work opportunities overseas, where they can receive higher remuneration and more societal recognition. For example, a nurse that CNA interviewed mentioned that after moving from Singapore to the US, he felt more highly esteemed by the public, citing an example of how his car loan was approved immediately after he said he was a nurse, despite having no credit history. Urgent changes are needed if we are to reverse the departure of nurses and boost their numbers in Singapore. Nurses' basic pay should be benchmarked to that of their contemporaries in other essential public services. This is a point made by Assoc Prof Jeremy Lim from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health during a recent CNA interview. Such services could include the Police, army and the education service. The salaries of nurses in other jurisdictions like Australia, Hong Kong and Canada should also be considered in the benchmarking. It should take into account the longer hours that nurses have to work compared to many other professions. This is to ensure that the opportunity cost of taking up nursing instead of another profession would be minimised. We also need to make the nursing profession more highly esteemed by the general public. Another way to attract more Singaporeans to take up nursing and increase retention would be to enhance their professional development opportunities.”
“In October 2016, then-Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong launched the Healthcare Manpower Plan 2020, which highlighted the need for 30,000 more healthcare workers from 2015 to 2020 to look after Singapore's fast-ageing population. It is now 2023. How many of these 30,000 additional healthcare positions have been filled? During the debate on the Healthier SG motion last October, Minister Ong Ye Kung said that another 24,000 nurses, allied health professionals and support care staff are needed to operate hospitals, clinics and eldercare centres by 2030. Recruitment alone is not sufficient. There needs to be a corresponding transformation in the remuneration of healthcare workers. The group that bore the heaviest burden of caring for COVID-19 patients were nurses. Their long working hours and lower starting pay compared to territories like Australia, Hong Kong and Canada, could have contributed to their high attrition in recent years. In 2021, the proportion of nurses resigning hit a five-year high, with 7.4% of local nurses and 14.8% of foreign nurses leaving their jobs. Why are so many nurses leaving the healthcare sector? A study on healthcare workers conducted by researchers Celene Ting and others from the Saw Swee Hock School for Public Health, Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the NCID highlighted that healthcare workers reported burnout from being overworked, emotional exhaustion and at times feeling a lack of appreciation or support at work. This was exacerbated by having to care for difficult and sometimes abusive patients.”