Lily Neo
Singapore
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I ask Minister for Health on MOH's capacity in coping with serious cases of COVID-19 in terms of adequacy in respirators and in our ICU beds. Am I correct to say that already half of NCID's ICUs are taken up? What will happen when it reaches its full capacity?”
“But even so, with the right measures of social and medical assistance in place to assist them with their daily living, they can still age gracefully in the comfort of their own homes.”
“Thank you, Mr Chairman. Yes, I will keep it short. Minister earlier said that MSF will proactively reach out to families in HDB rental homes to assist them, to possibly buy their own HDB flats. Many of these families lamented that they cannot afford it. How does the Minister plan to do it?”
“Thank you, Mr Chairman. May I ask the Minister whether there is a possibility of more widespread community spread of COVID-19? And will MOH be able to cope with this? And whether does our Government have more specific measures in place to cope with this scenario?”
“Thank you, Mr Chairman. Earlier in my speech, I asked whether there are assessments by HDB for applicants of Joint Singles Scheme (JSS) to ensure that they are free from mental illnesses and medical conditions before compelling them to stay together.”
“Many of them have lived in rental housing for more than six years and some more than 10 years. Thus, there are signs of entrenchment. What are the schemes in place and the success rate of such schemes, to assist them in looking for better options in their housing needs and to help them get out of their predicaments?”
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“Mr Speaker, Sir, may I ask the Minister whether the stent insertion procedure that can be done in a day surgery be applicable for Medisave application as well?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, may I beg to differ with the Minister for Community Development and Sports, because actually the attrition rate for female doctors now is about the same as the male doctors, contrary to what he said earlier. May I also ask the Minister whether it is correct to say that the National University of Singapore is the only highly ranked university in the world that deprives the entry of medical students on the basis of gender? Does this not hamper the vision of NUS as being a world-class university and does this not run contrary to the meritocratic system in Singapore? Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, I do not think in any way does this policy affect NUS in its aim to become a world-class institution. At the end of the day, I think we have to address the larger issue of how we maximise our resources, given the limited pool that we have. Secondly, on her first question whether NUS is the only university that discriminates against women, I have no knowledge of that as far as other universities are concerned, Sir.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, to me, about 400,000 people who opted out of ElderShield is a large number. I would like to ask the Minister of State whether he is aware that many older and poorer Singaporeans opted out of ElderShield because they cannot afford to pay the premium. Will the Minister of State extend more help to this group of people who are most in need of ElderShield?”
“Sir, the Minister for Health mentioned that ElderShield will provide an enhanced scheme. May I ask the Minister of State whether now is a good time to introduce an enhanced scheme in view of the large number of people opting out of ElderShield? Dr Balaji Sadasivan: Sir, first of all, I would like to disagree that a large number have opted out of ElderShield. It is all a question of opinion. A few months ago, very few Singaporeans had any kind of insurance against disability. Today, 800,000 people are covered. This is a very large number being covered today. As for looking at enhanced benefits, the scheme has just started. We need to monitor it over a period of time to see how the scheme works, and then we will review it.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, could the Minister also address my question on the ban of smoking at bus-stops? Could he also enlighten us on the anti-smoking efforts in schools, whether more can be done, and what else can be done?”
“Britain and some European countries supplied the new drug, Zyban, since the year 2000 and their Departments of Health said that the money was well-spent because the drug was particularly effective. May I urge the Ministry of Health to study their experience promptly in order to do likewise in Singapore. 5.30 pm”
“The Health Promotion Board can step up efforts to empower our young people with life skills to make sensible health and lifestyle choices. Madam, many people do not fathom the dangers of smoking and, therefore, there should be more public education on the various diseases caused by smoking. Some schools, supported by the Health Promotion Board, have started anti-smoking clinics. I would like to see all secondary schools having such clinics where students train to spread the smoke-free message through a special peer-leader training programme, to take lead in the school's anti-smoking efforts and to offer peer counselling. On the fact that female smokers have increased two percentage points to eight percent, the recent report by Canadian scientists that women who start smoking when they are teenagers are 70% more likely to develop breast cancer than non-smokers should be publicised. The prevalence and increasing incidence of smoking in teenagers is most disturbing. Mdm Deputy Speaker, we must do more to help this group. Many people smoke because their environment influences them. They are much more likely to smoke if there are smokers surrounding them, or if their favourite film stars smoke. Most teen smokers think smoking makes them look cool. Therefore, steps must be taken to project a "smoke-free" lifestyle as cool and socially desirable. Teenage idols and celebrities should be roped in more to promote this message. Madam, may I ask the Ministry of Health to consider subsidising nicotine-free pills like the new drug called Zyban, nicotine patches and a variety of other devices that help smokers quit the smoking habit? Such products should be given free to school children to help them quit smoking.”
“Legislation must result in the desired outcomes and getting the public better informed on regulations and stricter enforcement of the rules would be necessary here. Shopkeepers selling individual cigarettes claiming ignorance and selling cigarettes to those below 18 must be firmly penalised. I would like to support the call for new measures to scare young smokers off the habit with gory pictures. Section 16 of the present Smoking (Control of Advertisements and Sale of Tobacco) Act provides for the implementation of labelling. Will the Ministry of Health draw up an amendment to the Labelling Regulation to impose requirement on the printing of gory pictures portraying health hazard? Gory pictures may work at first but it is likely, Madam, that people become immune to the same pictures after sometime. Hence, to be more effective, these gory pictures should be changed regularly. It will be good if the pictures depict the different diseases caused by smoking: consider, for example, pictures of blackened lungs, cancerous lung growths, bloodied brains, brain tumours, fat-choked arteries, dead heart muscles, rotting teeth and mouth diseases. This way, not only do we get the scaring effect, we also create more public awareness on the side effects of smoking. About 11% of teenagers from Secondary 1 through to Secondary 4 light up at least once a month, according to a survey done a couple of years ago. It seems that peer pressure is an important influencing factor. The Ministry of Health, in partnership with the schools, should take increased measures to address this. The anti-smoking message should be innovative and interesting lest the students take them for granted.”
“It is likely that larger business corporations, especially the tobacco companies, do not contribute as much to our community and sports programmes because we do not have such an Anti-smoking Activists Group. Madam, I believe that these companies should be the biggest donors to sports promotion programmes in aid of our youth and anti-cancer movements. This is especially so when the young people are their biggest and growing customer base and when cancer is the leading cause of death and the third leading cause of hospitalisation in Singapore. An Anti-smoking Activists Group can champion this and ameliorate the rising incidence of cancers - lung cancer especially. Amendment to clause 11 of this Bill aims to ban the sale of smaller packs containing fewer than 20 sticks of cigarettes to make the habit more expensive to pick up or sustain. This is targetting especially the young people who presumably have less money to spend. If they see people around them smoking and if cigarettes are cheap and readily available to them, the tendency to smoke would be higher. A recent study in the British Medical Journal found that even one puff for those aged 12 to 13 could turn them into addicts because their brains are still at the developmental stage and the younger they start, the more likely the habits are going to stay with them. However, the argument against bigger-pack cigarettes is that the young smokers may encourage and persuade others to share and split the cost, thereby expanding the number of smokers. Bigger packs also do not help those who are trying to quit or to reduce smoking in terms of cost and in terms of temptation with a pack of 20 compared to a pack of 10.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I speak in support of the Smoking (Control of Advertisements and Sale of Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill. According to the World Health Organisation, smoking kills three and a half million people worldwide every year and this works out to be about 10,000 deaths each day. Smoking can cause cancer, heart disease and stroke. Seven Singaporeans die every day from smoking-related diseases and about 15% of the population still smoke daily. Cigarette smoking has been identified as the single most avoidable cause of death. It is common knowledge that smoking kills, but yet, the size of the hole it burns in the pockets of smokers and non-smokers alike remains huge. In 1999, $871 million went up in smoke with 3.23 billion cigarettes consumed. A smoker with a daily habit of 20 sticks will end up paying $68,000 over 30 years, and this is not considering the potential medical costs needed for smoking-induced related diseases. In light of this, measures to further reduce the smoking habit are therefore most timely and welcome. Non-smokers, children in particular, also suffer the ill effects from cigarette smoke. Therefore, smoking in public areas that affects non-smokers should be further expanded to protect the non-smokers. Madam, I would like to support the call to ban smoking at bus-stops, as commuters have no choice but to wait around for their buses to arrive. There are many Western countries with Anti-smoking Activists Groups; the one in America is especially active in their fight of tobacco use especially amongst their youth and in lobbying tobacco companies to support community and sports programmes for their youth. There is no such Anti-smoking Activists Group now in Singapore and the initiation of such a group should be encouraged by the Ministry of Health.”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister of State whether it is correct to say that the reason for this quota is because the attrition rate for female doctors was supposed to be higher in the past. But may I reiterate that according to the Singapore Medical Council's survey, 90 male doctors, or 2.8%, as against 67 female doctors, or 4.2%, were not working as at the end of 1999. And was this data not further confirmed by the survey done by the Association of Women Doctors recently? Therefore, what are the reservations now? Can we not abolish this quota for female medical doctors?”
“The Minister of State said earlier that usually, women are in the lower-paying jobs. May I ask the Minister of State why this is so as women in Singapore are supposed to be given the same opportunity in education and in job placements.”
“May I ask the Minister of State whether his Ministry will prioritise preventive care further in order to cushion future healthcare cost increases, identify prevalent diseases that need special attention now, continuously monitor and study the prevention of common diseases and the many aspects of preventive healthcare?”
“May I ask the Minister of State whether, in order to promote the cost-cutting initiatives, he would implement monetary incentives for public hospitals in accordance with the cost-cutting measures adopted by their respective hospitals, and encourage inter-hospitals' cooperation to share innovative and cost-cutting measures, especially those already proven effective, for implementation by all? Sir, may I also ask the Minister whether, in order to reduce hospitals' operating costs, he would review the number of managerial non-medical staff employed by the two clusters of public hospitals, review the duplication of services by the two clusters, discourage frills by the hospitals that incur costs, and delegate further less demanding tasks done by doctors and nurses?”
“May I ask two supplementary questions? May I ask the Minister of State whether his Ministry would seriously consider maximisation of our limited resource pool in the integration of the private and public healthcare sectors in the sharing of medical expertise, medical technology and facility? May I ask the Minister of State whether the two clusters of the public healthcare groups are in fact duplicating in management staff and healthcare services? My second supplementary question is whether, in order to reduce a patient's hospitalisation cost, he would develop community care and home care services, train community carers and family members to help look after the sick patients in the community, expand hospital day surgery and train more doctors for day surgery?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister of State did not answer my first question earlier when I asked why is it that the Ministry of Health cannot give more subvention to the public hospitals instead, in view of this economic downturn. I have two supplementary questions, Sir. May I ask the Minister of State whether his Ministry would give more flexible consideration to the eligibility criteria for Medifund applications to help Singaporeans who have difficulties in making ends meet, as a result of unemployment or less take-home pay. May I also ask the Minister of State whether he would step up public education on the use of Medisave, MediShield and Medifund and on the correct choice of hospital wards. Would he also publicise the detailed charges for various conditions by the different hospitals, for example, on the web-site?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, may I object to being referred to as Jalan "Bazaar" GRC MP. I am Jalan Besar GRC MP. May I ask the Minister of State whether the hospital fee increase could have been avoided this time, since it has been announced that the hospital fee increase is small? Therefore, can the Ministry of Health not give more subvention to the public hospitals instead, in view of this economic downturn?”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister of State whether it is correct to say that many HRT products contain different compounds in different dosages? Therefore, should the WHI result, mentioned earlier by the Minister of State, be applied to any other HRT products other than the one investigated in the trial? Am I correct to say that market research confirms that the relief of menopausal symptoms is the number one reason why women take HRT? But the effects of the HRT product on menopausal symptoms and the quality of life were not measured in the WHI trial. Should this not be included in any comprehensive trial?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I disagree with the Minister because the medical assessors have already done physical examinations on many IDAPE cases, and they were really strict on these cases. May I seek a last clarification from the Minister? On the report in the Straits Times published on 7th August, it was stated that the Minister for Health said that he felt like a koyok seller when he chaired a press conference on ElderShield. Mr Speaker, Sir, my understanding of a koyok seller, and I am sure of many others, is a medicine man selling products that are less worthy and often fake medicines that do not work! Therefore, could the Minister explain what he meant by referring himself as a koyok seller with regard to ElderShield?”
“Thank you. Could I ask the Minister whether it is correct to say that the specified medical assessors appointed by the insurers have to place very strict criteria on the other cases and all policyholders of ElderShield claims during their physical examinations? Is this not unfavourable to policyholders and working to the advantage of the insurers? May I ask the Minister what kind of percentage out of the present 8% of severely disabled people that can qualify for these claims? Based on the strict criteria by the medical assessors, I should think that this percentage must be very small indeed. Therefore, is this not a very profitable scheme for the insurers? May I also ask the Minister whether the criteria set for ElderShield claims on the aid of special equipment will be increasingly disadvantageous to policyholders as technology becomes progressively more advanced and efficient? May I also ask the Minister on the repeated publications by the Ministry of Health and the insurers citing that based on the British experience, men have 35% risk, and women 45% of being disabled some time in their lives. May I ask the Minister whether we should be more explicit and less misleading by adding that the majority of this disability will be either temporary or mild to moderately severe; therefore, they will not be eligible for ElderShield claims. But, more importantly, on a bigger picture, should the Ministry of Health and people not be alarmed by such possible high disability figure; therefore, more proactive actions on preventive measures should be embarked on urgently to prevent getting such incidents?”
“Okay. I am just trying to figure out which questions that I want to ask. Could I seek a clarification after my question to the Minister?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, since we are discussing an important national issue involving many Singaporeans, in fact 1.2 million people, could I seek your indulgence to allow at least two more questions and one more clarification, please?”
“May I ask the Minister whether he agrees that a person who is unable to do three activities of daily living is unlikely to get better and, in fact, most likely to get worse with time? Therefore, is it not inhumane to cut off payment after five years? The Minister will probably reply that the majority of the disabled will not need aid for more than five years. My question to the Minister is: what about those who survive more than five years, by which time their financial needs will even become more critical?”
“Sir, the Minister just mentioned top-up or enhanced scheme. May I ask the Minister whether the enhanced scheme will be accompanied by a hike in premiums? Will Singaporeans feel the burden if premiums rose? And will people feel short-changed having to pay more and more for ElderShield coverage after some time, despite paying for many years, as the ElderShield premiums will only remain unchanged for the next five years?”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister whether it is correct to say that the majority of Singaporeans take up insurance for peace of mind and for any eventuality? Therefore, if ElderShield does not adequately address this basic issue, then it is deficient. The purpose of this national insurance scheme as ElderShield can only lessen the load of the people and not help in their needs. Therefore, the rich, as the Minister has said, probably do not need this scheme, and those who are poor and the ones that are most in need will find this scheme inadequate to ease their difficulty.”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister whether it is correct to say that the insured can only claim $300 per month should he or she be unable to do three activities of daily living of washing, dressing, feeding, toileting, mobility and transferring? Even with the aid of special equipment and always requiring the physical assistance of another person throughout the entire activity, may I ask the Minister how would the $300 help such a person, as employing a maid would probably cost twice that amount with levy?”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister whether the fact that about 270,000 people or about 23% of those eligible have rejected ElderShield means that this scheme may not have been well designed, therefore requiring further review urgently?”
“How do we overcome this and encourage people to consider affordability issues and not to over stretch themselves? Sir, the new HDB policy may compel people to think very carefully in committing to a property within their means and would therefore enhance individual responsibility. However, I feel that the implications I mentioned earlier are too big a price to pay for this. The resultant repercussions, when unforeseeable tragedy hits, will be great distress to many Singaporeans. We may argue that there is a need to restructure and revamp to move forward. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I feel that there are certain policies that are part of the obligations of a good government, and even if a policy may be less advantageous to the Government, as long as it is beneficial to the people, the policy must remain.”
“The other worry is that since banks always consider the tenure of properties for mortgage, those HDB flats with less than 99-year lease will be less favourable to them. This may result in a drop in prices of older HDB flats and may, therefore, affect the whole HDB resale market. How will the Government prevent this undesirable consequence? I am also concerned with the fact that the bank will have first, and the CPF second, claim to the mortgaged HDB property during forced sales in default situations. This is disadvantageous to the home owners. CPF is the most important saving of the people, and it worries me that people may lose their savings should they be unable to service their housing loans. Banks will sell the flats under mortgagee sales in default situations, ending up with less than favourable prices. Thus, the HDB owners will invariably lose the CPF part of their money. These unfortunate people also end up with no roofs over their heads. How do we address such situations? Do we have enough HDB rental flats to house these people? Does the Government have any plans to build more HDB rental flats in anticipation of such situations? My colleagues in this House would agree with me that many of us had appealed to HDB and succeeded in allowing many defaulters to settle arrears by instalments or deferment of mortgage loans and so on. MPs cannot be appealing to the private sector financiers. How do MPs help such defaulters then? I can therefore see one of the useful roles of MPs being eroded. I would like to ask DPM Lee whether one of the CPF proposals on the 120% cap on withdrawal limit may run contradictory to the aim of discouraging over-investment, as buyers may go for properties with higher values to make sure that the valuation cap is not breached.”
“23 pm Private banks are more stringent with loans and are stricter with compliance of monthly payments. Foremost with private banks is the interest of their shareholders. Default in payments will usually end up with repossession of the flats. The social role of HDB tends to make it a more understanding financier, that is, more forgiving of defaulters. The HDB is more willing to offer assistance and alternative payment methods to ease the burden of people in difficulty. It is a fact that several financial assistance measures are readily available for sold HDB flats. These include the extension of loan repayment period scheme, reduced repayment scheme and deferment of mortgage loan instalment payment scheme. The HDB is also more sensitive to the plight of people during economic downturns, such as this one. For example, HDB announced last month on the revised reduced repayment scheme to further help those in difficulty in loan repayment. Sir, private banks do not have such readily available schemes and may not want to offer such schemes to those in difficulty. Prices of property may fluctuate and banks have known to reassess housing loans in tandem with this fluctuation. There is a saying that "commercial banks tend to give you an umbrella when it is sunny, only to take it back when it rains". There were many instances of banks recalling bank loans during the financial crisis of 1997. Although HDB flat prices may not fluctuate as much as private property prices, banks may still call for top-ups if HDB flat prices drop. This will hit a lot of HDB flat borrowers, the average Singaporean heartlanders, real hard as property prices usually fall during economic downturns.”
“75%. However, HDB's interest rate may not be more than the private banks for too long as the HDB market rate on mortgage loans is pegged to the housing loan rates that DBS Bank charges mortgagors. As and when DBS Bank adjusts its housing loan rate to these mortgagors, the HDB market rate will also be revised. The attractive first and second year interest rates offered by private banks may be short-lived during this economic downturn due to the fact that banks are flushed with funds at the moment. The interest rates offered by private banks may be lower than HDB's rate now but they had hovered at around 6% for the last decade. In this new policy, many new HDB buyers are forced to hunt around for banks to borrow money for their HDB flats. They also have to be wary on terms and conditions of the different banks on top of the different interest rates offered by different banks. I am concerned for those who may be less savvy on this. They may have trouble looking for loans and they may even end up with unfavourable loan terms. This is definitely a disadvantage compared to the previous hassle-free HDB loan application. This new ruling will also make it more difficult for those who are not eligible for subsidised loan and having to upgrade or change flats for whatever reasons. Borrowers in the private sectors are subject to loan criteria. They now not only have to search for loans but also to consider their eligibility for the loans. The quantum and the period of repayment of loans will become issues depending on the income level and the age of the borrowers. This new ruling therefore is a hampering factor for many in the group of people who have to change flats for various reasons and circumstances. [Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Chew Heng Ching) in the Chair] 5.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, my parliamentary colleagues speaking before me have spoken eloquently on the CPF changes. I should not repeat what they have said. But I would like to comment on the part concerning changes on HDB policy that DPM Lee announced earlier. I notice that our Government is shifting its stand on previous HDB policy and I am uncomfortable about this shift. Indeed, I am concerned for fellow Singaporeans over the untoward repercussions that may arise as a result of it. I shall further elaborate on this. Singapore has one of the world's highest home-owning population as a result of the Government's consistent and sound policy over the years. More importantly, it has been successful in fostering cohesive communities amongst Singaporeans through HDB housing. And, over the years, Singaporeans have relied on the PAP Government as the provider for their basic necessity of having roofs over their heads. They have rested their trust and confidence on the Government and they have peace of mind. The Government's policy has enabled the people to enjoy affordable and hassle-free housing needs. This had translated to the people's support for the PAP at every election. Sir, our HDB policy has been sound all these years and my question is: why fix it if it ain't broke? I have my reservations on new HDB buyers who, being ineligible for subsidised loans, have now to borrow from the private banks rather than the HDB itself. Allowing home owners to get better market interest rates from the private banks is not a sound reason here because the interest rates charged by the private banks may be better only for the first, or second, year and subsequent years may work out to be more than the HDB's interest rate. The market interest rate for banks now is 2.8% compared with the HDB's 3.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I think the Minister did not get my question. I did not ask on the success of his programme. I asked whether any study had been done to ascertain why more men committed suicide compared to women, and whether anything can be done about it. Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, no study has been done to ascertain why there is a difference between men and women. Perhaps, given the data that we have, we can actually look back again. But, more often than not, we have to look into the case file, because this goes back to the Coroner, who would investigate the case. It is always very difficult because we have, in a sense, to do some inference looking at the background of the particular person - what may have happened - and make informed judgments. But a study can be conducted to understand some of those reasons.”
“We have to look over time how best the various community service providers will adopt some of these training measures that we have imparted to them.”
“May I ask the Minister whether it is correct to say that more men committed suicide compared to women, and that the ratio is 60:40? Has the Minister done any study to ascertain the reason for this fact, so that better preventive care can be implemented? If the answer is yes, could he share with this House the outcome of this study and the pro-active actions to be taken to improve the suicide rate? If the answer is no, could the Minister undertake such a study? Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, the Member is right. Just to give Members a feel of the figures, according to the data that we have obtained from the Subordinate Courts, more men than women actually committed suicide between 1995 and 2001 - roughly above 56%. As to whether or not we have been successful in preventing it, this we will have to see over time, as we have already put the system in place. We are monitoring the figures very closely, and these figures have come from the Subordinate Courts. A lot would depend upon the training conducted by the Golden Life Workgroup, together with the various community service providers, in how they can successfully identify those potential cases and prevent them from taking place. Our basic philosophy is that if we can continue to engage the elderly within the community, that would be one of the best steps forward, as that will bring them into contact with community service providers through the neighbourhood links, the activity centres, which can then help to identify potential cases and suicides can be prevented. I do not have a study to say that in the last five years this programme has been effective. We have just put in place some of these preventive programmes.”
“May I ask the Minister whether he agrees with me that many suicides are as a result of depression, and that depression is treatable and preventable? Therefore, will the Minister facilitate the early detection of depression by all those involved in the community through promoting their awareness and the early referral of depression by people such as community caregivers, family service providers and VWO providers in order to reduce the suicidal rate? Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, as I mentioned in my reply, two reasons were cited during the study. One of them was, of course, depression, and we have taken that into account. The Golden Life Workgroup has produced a training manual which will be used by all the caregivers to help them identify potential suicide cases. Once they have been identified, they can be referred, depending on their level, either to counselling or to various specialists at the Institute of Mental Health, to provide counselling and whatever curative care that is needed. So I would like to assure the Member that we have such a system in place at this point in time. A lot would depend on the cooperation of the various centres to use the manual that we have given to them, and also to use the skills that we have imparted to some of the counsellors who have been trained under this training programme.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I disagree with the Minister's answer to my earlier question when he said that the reason for women workers earning less than $400 was because quite a number of them were working part-time. Could I quote the Minister the following figures to make my point? The total number of women workers earning less than $400 a month is 129,737, and after deducting the number working part-time, 50,802, and temporary part-time, 12,831, and some working full-time flexi hours, 15,085, the number of women, supposedly working full-time, yet earning less than $400 a month, is in fact 51,019, or 2.5%, of the labour force.”
“My question was actually - may I just add - since many of them came from the manufacturing jobs that will not come back, how many were redeployed?”
“The Minister said earlier that more women are in the electronics factory jobs. May I ask the Minister whether it is correct to say that as many as 34,000 female workers were retrenched during this economic downturn? May I ask the Minister how many of them were redeployed and how many of them received the skills retraining programme? My next question is: am I correct to say that there are as many as 119,000 female workers earning below $400 compared to the total number of about 172,000 of such workers? What kind of help can we give to these workers?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister said earlier that he did not have the outcome of the study of the wage gap. But, am I not asking the question on wage gap today? Therefore, am I supposed to file another Question for Oral Answer to get the results? I am disappointed because I feel that the Minister could have better prepared for this Question for Oral Answer. May I ask the Minister on his point that he was trying to close the skills gaps between the men and women. But, am I not correct to say that according to the study done by his Ministry, in fact, the skills and the educational profile of the female labour force closely match that of their male counterparts? So, my next question is: Could he give the House an explanation why is it that female workers form the majority of the lowest gross monthly income, according to the data by the Ministry of Manpower, as at June 1999? My next question is, despite all these facts, why is it that women are still very much under-represented in the administrative and managerial positions?”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister for the outcome of the study which he agreed to look into when I raised the issue of the wage gap in 1997 on the challenges faced by women in employment, such as the general opinion of the employers with regard to the role of women in the workplace, and also the difficulty of balancing work with family responsibilities?”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister whether he is satisfied with the rate of the narrowing of the wage gap in the past five years? What has his Ministry done to narrow this gap? And what else can be done to further accelerate the narrowing of this wage gap?”
“Sir, may I ask the Minister whether there is any plan to use NEWater directly and whether there is any need to improve the NEWater further by altering the PH of the NEWater after production?”
“Sir, the Minister of State has said that the shortage of doctors here is temporary. Can he assure the House that this assessment is correct this time, or is it going to be skewed again? How would he respond to the visiting Harvard don who said that Singapore needs another medical school to train more doctors, in view of the long-term needs of the life sciences?”
“The Minister of State just mentioned about conditional registration. Could he explain to the House the meaning of "conditional registration"?”
“Why did the Minister of State contradict himself? Earlier, he said that the policy was implemented and yet, in the next breath, he said that they had been recruiting doctors from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia. These are not the universities in the Schedule at all.”
“Sir, I disagree with the Minister of State on that, because there are many types of registration. Is he saying that the local graduates are exactly the same? Surely, they are under different medical registrations.”
“Sir, I would like to pursue on what the Minister of State said earlier. He said that these doctors are allowed to practise here under strict supervision. Can I seek a clarification on what he has said earlier?”
“Sir, we are talking about the principle of the issue here, and it does not matter whether it is one, seven or 15. May I ask the Minister of State whether it is right to take risks on the care of our patients in the public hospitals?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister of State did not answer my question on whether it will diminish our reputation and our standards by employing doctors from the neighbouring unrecognised universities.”