Ngeow Pack Hua
Singapore
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head X be reduced by $10 in respect of subhead CAA 8201* (*The same amendment also stood in the name of Mr Ho Kah Leong). Sir, because of time I will just raise a few questions for the Minister for Finance.”
“Our Minister for Social Affairs obviously cannot measure up to the stature of Justice Pao but at least he should take the lead in this matter.”
The complete record
Every one of 24 lines we hold for Ngeow Pack Hua, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account.
“To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry whether he is aware that ventilation in Boon Lay Garden Shopping Centre is very poor and what steps he proposes to take to remedy the situation. 27.”
“But in regard to those worthwhile popular dialect programmes, it does not mean that we should be so rigid as to sacrifice them. Take Hong Kong's TV dramas, for example. I believe we all admit that Hong Kong programmes are of a good standard and better and more educative than some Taiwan programmes. Compared with them, our local programmes are, of course, way below their standards. Here, we should have some discretion and flexibility. Similarly Radio news broadcast in the dialects should also cater to the needs of the older generation. We should not act too fast or too drastically. Next, I want to talk about the increase in entertainment duty. According to UNESCO statistics, Singaporeans are the greatest moviegoers. They go to movies 19 times per annum on the average. The increase in entertainment tax may cause an increase in prices of cinema tickets. The Government can do what it likes, but the increased tax should not affect cultural promotion and cultural activities like concerts, dramas, and others. Various MPs have also stressed this point. However, I hope the Minister for Culture will avail of this opportunity to explain to us the basic and concrete plans for the promotion of culture that is healthy and economical.”
“In order to provide better programmes we should ideally have one more television station so as to provide competition which will lead to progress. This will also be in keeping with the Government's idea of making more money. If that is not to be considered, then there is a need to consider increasing the number of channels for the present RTS. The present two channels are used to telecast programmes in four languages. This is obviously inadequate. If we want more air time, it will then clash with the working hours of many workers. The only way to enrich the programmes is to increase the number of channels. I can give one example to show that the present two channels are inadequate to cope with four language programmes. The most obvious example is the News Bulletin. Apart from the two news bulletins in English every day, there is only one bulletin each in Chinese, Tamil and Malay. This is not enough. News telecast should be regarded as the most important programme. Of course, we need not adopt the practice of European and American countries with one news bulletin per hour. At least we should have two news bulletins per day, one of which is to include late news. Increasing the number of news bulletins will enable the TV station to give a more detailed news coverage. The next point is that we have too few live broadcast on sports. For example, football is a very popular game. How is that we are not able to give more live broadcasts of football games? Next, in terms of the dialect programmes, I agree to a more frequent use of Mandarin, English or Malay instead of the vernaculars and that Television Singapore should take the lead in the popularisation of such use.”
“(In Mandarin): Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head V be reduced by $10 in respect of item 1100 of Subhead Code VA-01 of the Main Estimates. Sir, among the tax increases this year there are two items which relate to the Ministry of Culture, namely, the colour T.V. licence fee and the Entertainment Duty. I rise not to oppose the two tax increases but to say that since we want members of the public to pay more, then they have the right to ask for better services. In this highly commercialised society in Singapore, culture has not been given the due attention and importance. We have been called a cultural desert. With the appointment of the new Minister for Culture, culture has seemed to increase in price. We hope that after the increase in cultural tax, we will have more money to enrich culture. In Singapore we talk about everything in terms of competition. Our slogan seems to be that only with competition will there be progress. So, we must have two for everything. We have two universities. We want to have two children. But the exception is we have only one television station. Although there are two channels of television, there is only one television station. Because of a lack of competition we have not been able to assess the popularity of the programmes. On this question, we are different from many countries. In other countries the spectators and viewers have an influence over the running of the station. But in Singapore it is the station that determines the programme for the viewers. Among our population, in terms of income and educational level, one television station is clearly not enough. Almost every family has a television set.”
“I withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. The following amendment stood in the name of Mr Ho Kah Leong. (10) That the sum to be allocated for Head X be reduced by $10 in respect of subhead DAA 8201.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head X be reduced by $10 in respect of subhead CAA 8201* (*The same amendment also stood in the name of Mr Ho Kah Leong). Sir, because of time I will just raise a few questions for the Minister for Finance. This is a provision of $245.9 million loan to the JTC for industrial development, housing and infrastructure developments. How much of this provision is specifically allotted to JTC for residential housing? Secondly, how many units of flats have been completed in Boon Lay Garden and how many are vacant and for how long, and why are they vacant? Thirdly, I would like the Minister to tell us whether action will be taken to improve the facilities in Boon Lay Garden especially with regard to the lifts. Fourthly, is the Minister aware that the hawker inspectors there are very fierce and unreasonable in their attitude towards the hawkers in Boon Lay Garden? I hope the Minister and JTC senior officials will pay close attention to this matter.”
“Sir, I feel that perhaps it is better for the Member for Nee Soon to quote the whole paragraph and not to quote it out of context. He should quote it at full length.”
“I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, yesterday evening at about 7.45 p.m. I spoke for five minutes. The Minister had the whole night to think over what I said. Today he, together with his Parliamentary Secretary have joined hands to counter attack me, and they fired a broadside. So I will now take the opportunity to make a few clarifications. First, the Minister should have replied to my points when I said that the main function of the Ministry of Social Affairs was to look after the welfare of the people. But the Minister dealt with sports first instead of welfare. That means he was not paying much attention to welfare work. He has paid more attention to football and sports. He has got his priorities wrong. The next point is that it has been said that I have described him as a man with a stony heart. I was not describing him personally. What I was trying to say was that he was so occupied with other things that he did not pay adequate attention to the welfare aspect of his work. I am not saying that he is by character a man with a stony heart. What I was trying to say was that he might have appeared not to have paid adequate attention to welfare work in Singapore. Now, talking about the white side and black side of the face of Justice Pao, as far as I am aware, there is only one colour on the face of Justice Pao. In fact, we can look into this further. I hope that after I have said this, the Minister and his Parliamentary Secretary will not use the regal sword against me. If there is nothing more, I shall withdraw my amendment.”
“Our Minister for Social Affairs obviously cannot measure up to the stature of Justice Pao but at least he should take the lead in this matter. The Ministry of Social Affairs should initiate relief action in such cases at least negotiate with the HDB or the PUB to be more flexible in dealing with such unfortunate people and should not leave it to the Members of Parliament alone to take up this responsibility.”
“Recently, there was an unprecedented tragedy of a family, a widow and her daughter. They burnt themselves to death in an HDB flat because of difficulty in looking for any means of livelihood. Does the Minister know about this? 7.45 p.m. Very often local newspapers, particularly the Chinese newspapers, have been taking the lead in organising relief to help such people. This is done as part of their social duty to render good services. All along, the response from members of the public has been spontaneous. Many people have donated generously, many anonymously. Only our Social Affairs Ministry is apathetic to such social tragedies. Normally, it is the Government that should take the lead. But it now appears that the Ministry of Social Affairs seems to be taking the attitude that such tragedies are merely some isolated family tragedies and it is not the business of the Ministry. I think it is the Ministry's duty. The officers concerned also should not just work to rule and be contented with merely engaging in investigation and doling out some little amount of money to such victims, and that is all. There should be a contingency `und to meet such a situation. If such a tragedy happens, the Ministry concerned should immediately take action. We have been talking about the traditional good virtues of Eastern people. Let me point out one which is to look after the orphans and widows and to render them assistance. This is the usual expectation on the Government by Oriental people. Why is the TV programme Pao Ching Tien, that is Justice Pao, so very popular? It is because we Orientals all look up to him to be not only just, but also humane and with warmth.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head S be reduced by $10 in respect of subhead AAA 1004* (*The same amendment also stood in the names of Messrs Teong Eng Siong, P. Govindaswamy and Ahmad Haleem). Sir, as Minister for Social Affairs one of his main duties is to look after social welfare work. Briefly he has the duty initially to help those unfortunate people in our society. Therefore, to be a Minister for Social Affairs, the first condition is not whether one can do it or capable or not capable but whether one has sympathy. Sir, after these few years I have come to this conclusion. I feel that the Minister for Social Affairs is one without sympathy. To be more frank, I feel that he is a bit like what the Chinese saying says, "One with a stony heart." To many unfortunate events in the society he has always been lethargic. If we read the newspapers we can always find that there are reports of frequent tragedies taking place in our society. Just as the Prime Minister has said, if you do not read the Chinese newspapers, you do not understand what is happening in our society. We have frequently come across unfortunate incidents happening suddenly to some families, the breadwinner of a family suddenly meeting with some tragedy, being killed at worksite or due to some other events, so that members of the family are left alone, high and dry. Overnight, the old and young are left helpless, with their livelihood going from bad to worse. So; has the Government taken any immediate practical steps to help such people? No, to be frank. Not only this, the HDB has also threatened to evict them because of arrears in rental and the PUB has also threatened to take action against them because of arrears in payment of PUB supplies.”
“On a point of clarification, Sir,I did not say that the amendment would adversely affect the newspapers.”
“Sir, although I am not happy with the reply given by the Minister, the reply given to the Member for Khe Bong is quite satisfactory. So I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.”
“In the Chinese section, there is the programme called "News Magazine" which is quite successful. However, the English section does not have such a programme. It has more programmes on entertainment than on news and education. RTS has very little time for daily news. Although there are two English news bulletins, there is only one news bulletin each for the Chinese, Tamil and Malay sections. The news broadcasts in the four languages could not include late news, such as MPs speeches as at 7 p.m. here. The Chinese Section does not include it in the news telecast. I suggest that both Channel 5 and Channel 8 should broadcast the late news briefly in all the four languages, English, Chinese. Malay and Tamil, before closing time. RTS is Government-owned and operated, therefore it should be a means to educate and to entertain our people. In Hong Kong, the television station is privately owned, yet their news broadcasting time is more than ours. Next, I want to talk about the news readers. We must be careful in the selection of news readers. If a news reader appears too often on television and becomes well known, then if he suddenly becomes an opposition candidate, it will be very embarrassing to all of us. I believe the Member for Serangoon Gardens will agree with me. Therefore, I suggest RTS should not engage any more guest news readers in future.”
“When the newspaper reporters came to know about this decision, they made enquiries at the Education Ministry. However, the officials in the Ministry tried to be equivocal and gave two versions to two different newspapers causing unnecessary confusion. In the end, people interested in education suffered and not the newspapers. We know that newspapers are owned privately and they are not under the direct control of the Government. However, the Ministry of Culture has a duty to help journalists in their work, which will also benefit the Government. The PRO in every department should have something more practical and meaningful to do and not just to write letters. Some years ago, various ministries used to have "meet-the-press" sessions. Now, there seems to be none. I remember when I was a newspaper reporter, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for National Development who was also the Chairman of the Urban and Rural Services Committee used to have this kind of meet- the-press sessions regularly, when the whole of Singapore knew about the URSC activities. I do not know why he does not have any more of these meet-the-press sessions. Is it because he has nothing more to say or has somebody not allowed him to speak? 3.45 p.m. Sir, in a country like ours, Government activities are one of the main sources of news for the newspapers. If the Government were to cut off such source of news, it would not do any good to the newspapers as well as to the Government. I hope the Ministry of Culture will take the initiative to solve this problem. Next, I would like to touch on the news handled by Television Singapore. By "news" I mean there are news items and views. In this regard, the Chinese section is doing better than the English section.”
“However, I must say with regret that the Government has not actively helped newspapers to disseminate news. Two years' ago, when debating the Budget not a few Members of Parliament criticised the newspapers for the paucity of news and the low standard. Some even said the newspapers knew only to print the Ministers' or MPs' speeches. The low standard of newswriting is due to the low standard of language education. However, this is not what we are discussing here. The main question is whether a newspaper can offer a good supply of lively and significant news to its readers. The difficulty of newspaper reporters now is the question of getting news particularly from Government departments which merely treat the newspapers as a medium for publicising Ministerial statements. If newspaper reporters go out of their way to get news from Government departments, they will invariably meet with objection. We seem to have formed the habit that the Ministers must be high on top and inaccessible and that civil servants know only to carry out their work according to rules and regulations and they are out-and-out bureaucrats. All enquiries by reporters are met with the answer "No comment". Many important departments have got Public Relations Officers. What are they doing? They only know how to write letters to the press to answer readers' enquiries. To newspaper reporters' news enquiries, they either disregard them or try to be' evasive or equivocal. In the Ministry of Culture, we do not even have a PRO. Sir, let me quote one example. Not long ago, the Ministry of Education decided to abolish the automatic promotion system. This is a very important decision. However, the Ministry was extremely embarrassed in having to make such a decision. So much so that it tried to do it stealthily.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head 0 be reduced by $10 in respect of subhead AAA 1004* (*The same amendment also stood in the names of Messrs. P. Govindaswamy. Teong Eng Siong, J. F. Conceicao, Ch'ng Jit Koon, Ho See Beng and Dr Ong Leong Boon). Sir, during the debate on the President's Address in this House, the Minister for Culture made a very important announcement to this House, namely, that the Government intends to amend the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act so that no one without approval would be allowed to own more than 3% of the shares of a newspaper company. The intention of the Government is to see that no newspaper is being controlled by any individual or family. This amendment will greatly affect local newspapers, particularly the structure of Chinese Newspapers. I would like the Minister to further explain, if possible, the contents and the objectives of this amendment Bill. When the Bill is presented for Second Reading. I will speak further on this. It seems that the Government is very concerned about the development of newspapers. This is a good thing. We all agree that a newspaper is a very important mass medium and it should not be made use of by a handful of people working against the interests of the country. On the other hand, we must also remember that the newspaper can contribute much to a country. However, the Government's concern is more from the negative angle rather than from the positive angle. As a medium of communication, one of the important functions of a newspaper is to disseminate news and views. With regard to relations between the Government and the people, it is a newspaper's duty also to publish Government policies and activities and to reflect the views of the people.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, who really considers the issue of licences? Is it the JTC or the Ministry of the Environment?”
“People here know what is bad about the communists but they may not realise what kind of threat is coming from Europe, particularly the non-English educated. In other words, they may not know the true meaning of the threat from this source. It is necessary to implement the Internal Security Act on which the Government is supported in the last election. But the ISA alone will not be able to wipe out the communist threat. So we must expose the true nature of the communists by educating our people in understanding the kind of life the people are leading in a communist society. It is only when they know what kind of life they will have in a communist society that they will be able to combat the communist philosophy or ideology. We must do more through the mass media by exposing what communism really is so that our young people will know the real threat of communism. In the Addendum on the Ministry of Education we are told that the emphasis henceforth will be on moral values and moral education. So we must do all we can to ensure that our students are imbued with Asian moral values so that they will not be influenced by contemporary Western life styles. In the Addendum on the Ministry of Culture, it is stated that we must make every effort possible to ensure that there is no erosion of our traditional cultural values. There is no doubt that we should do these things. We must also educate our young people not to accept ideologies which are irrelevant to our society. We must also inculcate in our youth an idealism that they will not allow themselves to be used or manipulated by the communists. Both are equally important. We must have the proper spirit coupled with good moral values. We must give our young people a proper understanding of these values. 5.35 p.m.”
“There should be emphasis on incentive rather than punishment. The trouble with the Chinese system which cannot be used in Singapore is that they emphasise more on penalty than on incentives. The system here is different. So we should encourage our workers to take their own initiative and reward them accordingly. Sir, the President stated in his speech that there will be slower economic growth and so we should adjust our spending habits accordingly. In this regard I think the Government should take the lead because over the past few years people have changed in their attitude towards spending. This is because we over-emphasise the materialistic aspects of our living. For example, many discharged national servicemen have become very choosy and expect more from their employment or their jobs. So we should inculcate the proper values in our national servicemen while they are in the national service. We must correct their attitudes. It is through the process of education through the mass media that we will be able to correct this attitude. We must teach our young people that if they spend two hours in a coffee house they are spending more than a day's wage. So we must teach our people to be frugal. We must correct their attitude. If we switch on the television, we can see lots of advertisements on the Big Sweep and Toto. Everybody is urged to get rich quick. This entirely runs counter to our political philosophy. There is another more serious problem. Sir, and that is the problem of communist threat in the years to come. Such a threat, no matter whether it comes from the Malayan Communist Party or the Euro-New Left, there is a threat, We are exposed and susceptible to their subversion.”
“So unless we can lay down some form of guidelines, there will be abuse and the workers will suffer as a result of this abuse. We therefore suggest that the NWC should review the question of productivity very carefully and make concrete proposals. I feel that the determination of productivity and the incentive therefor should not be determined by the management alone. Parliament should also debate on what is productivity and what kinds of rewards are to be given to workers. It is only after a debate that the rationalisation can be effected through the NWC. Sir, now I would like to touch on fringe benefits. Again, there is a lack of definition of "fringe benefit" or rationalisation. Before we rationalise or define "fringe benefits", there is a possibility for abuse or dispute. So since we want to learn from the Japanese, we must also emulate them on the bonus system because this is a system that acts as an incentive for the Japanese workers to work harder. Before we have a proper profit-sharing system, I think the bonus system is a good system. It is a kind of an incentive scheme, particularly in the Chinese business community where wages are low. And it is only through bonus as an incentive that productivity and performance can be improved. Mr Speaker, Sir, "From each his best; To each his worth." There is nothing wrong in this society. The principle is right but there may be some problems in its implementation. I think the second part is more important than the first. In the first part "From each his best", it should be taken to mean that everybody is given an opportunity to do his best. In the second part "To each his worth", what is a person's worth? There should be a proper personnel management system in all our factories or other organisations.”
“that future wage increases have to be orderly and related to higher productivity and economic growth Fringe benefits which have escalated in recent years must not be extended in range or quantum Those which are bizarre or not conducive to economic progress will have to be discontinued. The National Wages Council will examine the question of the full offsetting of its wage guidelines against all forms of increases of remuneration. It will also consider whether employees who job-hop should be granted the full wage increase recommended Rationalisation of fringe benefits will also be looked into by the Council. At the plant level, employers will be encouraged to implement productivity incentive schemes to ensure greater efforts on the workers' part and reward for such additional performance." Mr Speaker, Sir, although I am not from the unions, I have been an employee for more than 10 years and I know the problems of the workers. So we have similar views. All the time we hear the appeal to the workers to tighten their belts and there is conflict in this regard. On the one hand, the workers are condemned for being lazy. On the other hand, we hear people say that our achievements have been due to the hard work of our workers, So we do not have a consistent stand on this matter and workers are quite at a loss. There is no dispute that we should uphold the principle of productivity geared, with wage increase. But what is productivity? What are the norms of productivity? How is productivity to be measured? The NWC made its recommendations last year without any categorical definition for "productivity". There is no concrete proposal for implementing this principle. We have been talking about productivity for years and years but this has become a very abstract term.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I wish to congratulate you for having been elected as Speaker of this House I also wish to support the Member for Ulu Pandan in his Motion to thank the President for his speech on the 8th February on behalf of the Government. Sir, the People's Action Party once again swept all the seats in this House at the last elections. There is no other country in this world which has been able to win all the seats at one single election. Since the people of Singapore have made this great choice, it is for us to prove in the next few years that we will not let them down. The confidence of the people in us gives us an additional burden. Therefore, I support the statement from the President that no major policy or legislation should be passed without thorough debate in this House. As Backbenchers, we must also rise to speak the minds and the views of the people. In my view, these two must be related. Although Backbenchers have their duty to air the views of the people, the Ministers must also accept such airing of the views and such views. I would now like to add my views on the maxim stated by the President: "From each his best; To each his worth." In particular, I would like to relate my view on the wage policy in the light of this maxim. The President said: `My government holds firm to this simple truth: that to get from each his best, rewards and recognition must go to those who excel in consistently high performance' I want to tie this up with the addendum to the Presidential Address on the Ministry of Finance. It says: `We shall seek, through the National Wages Council, single annual wage increases which reward workers who produce more: This again is to be tied up with the addendum on the Ministry of Labour in similar light. It states: ...”