Tay Eng Soon
Singapore
“Sir, up to now, the numbers involved are very small. Quite often, it is a small group, together with the lecturers, who work out the project. In other words, it is their initiative. Included in that is fund-raising, which they do.”
“The universities are also planning to introduce a modular and semester system for some of their courses. This will enable their students to do part of their course in overseas universities and gain credits for these modules towards the fulfilment of their degree requirements in NUS and NTU.”
“The polytechnic graduates who go overseas are quite a mixed group of people. Many of them do have working experience. In fact, they save the income from their working experience before they go overseas. So many do have working experience before they go overseas. PRE-SCHOOL CLASSES RUN BY PRIVATE ORGANISATIONS (Regulation) 8.”
“I think this is something which we can ask the universities to look into. Mr Umar Abdul Hamid: Does the Ministry have statistics to show that graduates who went overseas do have industrial experience before they get into the university?”
“Sir, the experience of the universities with polytechnic graduates is that they do well when they have practical working experience in addition to the diploma course that they have done.”
“They may not be highly educated themselves. Many of them are, in fact, not rich at all. They are refugees. But they pay attention to what their children do, they encourage them, they supervise them where they can, and as a result of that kind of encouragement, the children concentrate on their work and they do well in the American system.…”
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“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, the recognition of university degrees for the civil service is determined by the Public Service Commission.”
“Sir, I have said that there is no secondary school teacher's pay as opposed to primary school teacher's pay. It is a question of whether the teacher is a graduate and accepted as such by the Public Service Commission. If the teacher has a degree and applies to the Public Service Commission and is accepted as such as a graduate teacher, then he will be put on the graduate teacher's salary scale, irrespective of whether he is in a primary school or a secondary school.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, there does not exist a salary scale for secondary school teachers. Teachers' salaries are determined by academic qualifications and experience. Teachers are broadly classified into two groups, university graduates and non- graduates, and they are placed on separate salary scales. Generally, graduate teachers teach in upper secondary schools and junior colleges and non-graduate teachers teach in primary schools and lower secondary classes. A transfer from a primary school to a secondary school does not entitle the teacher to a graduate's pay.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have already said that those parents who were sterilized after one or two children have the highest priority under Phase 2 at any school in Singapore. This was the same understanding which the Ministry announced in 1974. I refer the hon. Member to the Straits Times of 22nd July 1974 in which we said that if one of the parents had undergone sterilization, the children would be given priority under Phase 2. This is applicable to all schools. SALARY OF TEACHERS 2. Mr Ho See Beng asked the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education why a primary school teacher who applied for a teaching post in a secondary school has been told that he would not be paid salary of a secondary school teacher despite approval of his application.”
“Mr Speaker, may I join in this debate on reservists? I am very glad to hear the Hon Minister putting a great emphasis, as he should and as we all should, on the reservists as being our front-line troops because they are the mainstay of the Army. I read somewhere that before the American marines went into battle against the Japanese in the Pacific islands, they spent more than a year in physical training to get themselves fit, because experience has shown that not only are physically fit soldiers able to win wars but they are also able to survive better. Somebody made a remark, during one of our National Day parades, that the SAFRA contingent had a few people who had a paunch, indicative of the lack of physical fitness. I know that MINDEF has been active in promoting physical fitness. The question I want to ask the Minister is: what has MINDEF's programme been to improve the physical fitness of reservists, and what results have been achieved by these physical fitness programmes for the reservists?”
“Yes, Sir. The question I want to ask is: can the HDB increase the fine, which I understand at present is only $500, so as to make this offence more serious, and also to deter people from such unsocial acts?”
“With Your permission, Sir, I would like to expand on this point about littering in lifts as well as littering outside lifts. As we all know, there is a certain amount of throwing of rubbish from the upper floors of HDB estates. Recently a woman was injured when a tin of water fell on her head. Fortunately she did not die. In my visits to HDB estates in my constituency this complaint of residents thoughtlessly throwing things down from their flats, thus dirtying clothes that are hung out to dry, has become fairly frequent.”
“Sir, I would like to ask the Acting Minister for Social Affairs what more can be done by his Ministry in this very worthwhile work they are doing to support voluntary welfare organizations. I think all of us. in this House are happy to note that there are so many voluntary welfare organizations in Singapore helping those that are aged, the young or the disabled, and they give us the hope that some of us at least are not becoming crass materialists. So my question to the Minister is, what more can the Ministry of Social Affairs do to promote voluntary organizations and people to go into such organizations?”
“I understand that the Skills Development Fund has been used principally for the provision of training for lower level workers and so on. Can the Minister tell us whether the Fund can be used for middle and higher levels of managers in firms? In view of our plan to go into higher technology, I think the middle and higher levels of staff are very important, and so whether the Fund can be used for that purpose.”
“A long stop. Yes, thank you. He also said that it was not the intention of the Bill that abortion should become so freely available as to be abortion on demand and there was also no intention that abortion should be a substitute for the conventional methods of contraception, but that it should merely supplement contraception. And he expressed the hope that not more than 10% of births would be aborted and that there was no real risk that people would turn in a big way to abortion. Now, with nine years of hindsight, I think some of his hopes have not been met and the trend that we observe is that more and more women seem to be turning to abortion for family planning. As it was not raised by the Minister for Health, I do not feel it is appropriate for me to take my argument to the next point, which is that of moral concern for this trend. But if you allow me, Sir, I just want to say a few words on it. What this trend suggests to me is that we have people today, not all because there are some, I am sure, who need abortion for sound medical reasons, who because of the free availability of abortion have an attitude that they can terminate their pregnancies at will when it suits them. This brings up the question: is that the type of moral responsibility, or even the sense of responsibility, that we would like to see among mothers? As I said, I do not want to carry further the arguments about morality. There may be another occasion for us to debate this. So on that point, I would like to rest. 3.40 p.m.”
“I was able to find another set of numbers, this time published in the Studies in Family Planning [Volume 11, No. 11, November 1980] and this paper was written by members of the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board. And in Table III of that paper they quoted several very interesting statistics. In 1970, the abortion figure was 1,913, as I have just mentioned, and in that year, new acceptors of oral contraceptives totalled 12,400. But by 1979, the number of abortion cases in that year, and they included menstrual regulation, had risen to 16,999 but the number of new oral contraceptive acceptors in 1979 had dropped to 5,779. I think these figures suggest that women are not turning to the use of contraceptives as there is a convenient way out through abortion. I offer these figures because preliminary indications are that there may be a cause for concern in this area. There were reasons that prompted me to speak on this subject, and I assure you, Mr Speaker, Sir, that I do not intend that this should become a debate this afternoon, especially as a lot of debating has been done on this subject by many Members of this House. My concern is that when the Bill was first introduced in 1969, there were many cautious remarks being made by the then Minister for Health and Member for MacPherson, and he assured the House that the Bill was not intended to encourage abortion but that it was meant to be a last resort or as, he used a very colourful expression, "a long shot" (an expression used in cricket) for those who needed abortion.”
“Sir, I was advised by more experienced and more battle-scarred Members of Parliament yesterday that as a new Member of Parliament one should expect to be involved in cuts and thrusts and to expect to receive some cuts. So I rise to reply to some of the points that the Hon. Minister for Health has mentioned about the Abortion Act. I assure him that my feet are firmly on the ground and not in the air. As a matter of fact, I have been wading through Hansard through the debate on the Bill when it was first introduced in 1969 and again in 1974 when amendments were made to that Bill. The Minister for Health has chosen to speak on the point about the abuse of abortion or my allegation that abortion is being used today as a means of birth control, and he has not provided any figures. But, fortunately, I have been able to dig up some figures and I would like to present these figures to this House for information. The Hon. Minister is quite right in pointing out that over the years the rate of abortion has increased and I would like to refer to some figures which strongly support this. For example, after the Bill was introduced in 1969, there were just under 2,000 legal abortions, 1,913 to be precise, and this number constituted 4.2% of live births. But by 1979, according to the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board, this figure of legal abortions had risen to 14,855, an increase of 7.8 times and it constituted 36% of live births, that is to say, for every four babies born there was one being aborted. It might not be possible simply to conclude from this that people are turning to abortion as a means of birth control, although this huge increase suggests that there must be a reason for its popularity.”
“I agree with the Acting Minister for Social Affairs, but I think the study must originate in the Ministry of Social Affairs before it can be submitted to the Ministry of Finance. I realise that "subsidy" is sometimes a dirty word, but it may well be worth considering how much more the Government will have to spend to operate the services if the voluntary organizations cease to function through lack of funds. ADJOURNMENT With the consent of Mr Speaker and the general assent of Members present, Question put, and agreed to. Resolved, "That, notwithstanding the Standing Orders, Parliament do now adjourn." - [Mr E.W. Barker]. Adjourned accordingly at Thirty minutes past Five o'clock p.m.”
“In my contact with a few of them, I have noted that they are operating on a tight budget, which is hard hit by rising costs. What is disturbing as a trend is that such organizations will have to spend more and more of their time on fund-raising instead of their main purpose of providing social services. I would urge the Ministry of Social Affairs to study this problem and to consider if some kind of annual grant-in-aid scheme could be started to help worthy cases. The Acting Minister for Social Affairs (Dr Ahmad Mattar): Urge the Ministry of Finance!”
“It leads to the deplorable attitude that sex is for fun and if a wife or girl friend becomes pregnant, just send her for a quick abortion to rub off the mistake. I believe that abortion has become so permissive that it is now one of the major methods of birth control. Do we want to encourage this irresponsible and immoral attitude, which is the antithesis of what we are trying to teach our children? Morality apart, performing abortion is not a particularly rewarding or satisfying job for our doctors and nurses who, I am sure, would rather tend to the sick. Imagine also the costly manpower and facilities tied down for abortion when they could be better employed in more worthwhile medical vocations. If other forms of contraceptives were not available, a case might be made out for abortions. But contraception is both effective and at low cost today. I strongly urge the Abortion Act be re-examined with the purpose of making abortion less liberal. Finally, Sir, I would like to speak on the subject of voluntary social work. The Ministry of Social Affairs is to be commended on its aims of enhancing and improving the various social services. I must confess, however, that references in the Addenda to programmes to strengthen the family units and rehabilitative programmes are rather vague. I look forward in the coming sessions of this Parliament to hear more details of these schemes. My attention, however, was drawn to the intention of the Ministry to give more encouragement to voluntary organizations. For a country of our size, we can be justly proud of the many active voluntary organizations existing in our midst. To me, apart from the much good work they do, they symbolise the kind of voluntary community caring that we all want to encourage.”
“This over-heating of our construction industry is no good at all for our public housing project. I understand that last year HDB missed their target of 25,000 flats by 5,000 units because there were not enough contractors willing or able to tender for HDB projects. Presumably many contractors found the inflated private projects much more lucrative. I submit, Sir, that we cannot allow speculation in the private housing market to hamper our public housing projects. I would humbly urge the Minister for National Development to look into how speculation by both locals and foreigners can be effectively curbed. The last thing we want is the property situation in Hong Kong which has become a damper on their economic progress. I turn now, Sir, to speak on moral education and our liberal abortion policy. As we all know, the Ministry of Education is trying very hard to introduce an effective moral education course into the school curriculum. Its adviser, Dr Balhatchet, has rightly pointed out that moral education cannot just be taught as a classroom subject without reference to the school environment and, indeed, to society itself. In principle, I believe he is right although it is encouraging that many of us managed to grow up as morally upright citizens despite the existence of immorality and imperfection around us. However, I would like this House to consider the long-term pernicious effects of our liberal abortion policy on morality. Whatever the arguments about whether the aborted foetus is a living human being or not, although I personally believe that the creature scraped out of its mother's womb is as human as you or I, the danger of freely available abortion is that it encourages an irresponsible, careless and immoral attitude towards a God-given act of procreation.”
“On the other hand, I do not recommend pointing our fingers at job-hopping workers and preaching to them. These actions are, at best, futile. I would also caution against implementing the Anti-Job-Hopping Incentive Fund Scheme. I think it will be ineffective because we will not be tackling the root causes. The scheme reminds me of anti-absenteeism incentive schemes, which are being used elsewhere. In both, we will be paying a ransom to a person to prevent him from doing something undesirable. Where will it end? Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to say something now about speculation, which seems to have hit our private property market. The present state of frenzied buying and speculation reminds me of the heady months when our stock market went wild in 1972 and 1973. But the difference is that while some people lost their shirts in the stock market in 1972 and 1973, the speculation in the property market and the way prices are being pushed up artificially has, I believe, serious implications. First, the prices have reached such heights that many Singaporeans see no hope of acquiring their own home, particularly if they are outside the HUDC bracket. Even with the imminent release of CPF funds for private property purchase, the prospect of buying a house is rapidly diminishing for many. What proves to be particularly galling to Singaporeans is that many of the speculators and purchasers seem to be foreigners with ready cash. Surely we have enough speculators of our own without needing the additional services of foreign ones. Secondly, granted that real cost has gone up, how much more has speculation, both in the private and commercial construction projects, caused prices to be further jacked up?”
“As we are set on the road to upgrading our industrial economy and to acquiring more skills and knowledge-based industries, it will pay us to explore carefully how we can develop the skills of our managers, not just in the technical aspect but, more importantly, in the human relations and behavioural aspects. Much is now known about behaviour and motivation. I strongly suggest that we should bring the expertise on motivational training into Singapore as one measure linked to our economic restructuring exercise. Job-hopping has been mentioned by a number of hon. Members, and they have correctly pointed out that job satisfaction or the lack of it is one of its causes. As our population becomes better educated, the need for job satisfaction will become as important as, if not more than, pay. It is worth noting that despite the wide publicity given to job-hopping, there are actually firms in Singapore with a very good record of low staff turnover despite a tight labour market. What is even more fascinating is that similar firms down the road, so to speak, may have a high staff turnover despite being similar in pay and physical working conditions and employing the same Singaporean workers. A closer examination reveals that the key difference is the quality of supervisors and managers and top management philosophy. In one firm the management is enlightened and is able to create a climate of security, participation and teamwork. In the other, the management is aloof and autocratic. Clearly, we need to know much more about job-hopping by carrying in-depth case studies of firms. We may well discover that there is a vital link between worker loyalty and dedication and management philosophy and attitude. I recommend that such studies should be carefully carried out.”
“In this respect, the proposal made by the Member for Mountbatten to form MP groups to be centred around each Ministry has distinct merit and should be explored further. May I now turn, Sir, to several issues which have been raised in the Addendum to the President's Address and by hon. Members during this debate. I want to thank the Member for Mountbatten for persuading us convincingly that the view that men are mere digits of production alongside machines is out of date and must be replaced by one in which workers must be treated as human beings who are capable of giving of their best under enlightened leadership. He spoke of how QC circles could become the means whereby workers and management could work as a team for the common goal of raising productivity. I would actually go further by asserting that you cannot go very far up the technological ladder without making changes in your management philosophy and style. This principle seems to be true, whether you are managing precision tool makers, software designers, or research and development engineers. For example, in the field of R & D, in which I have some experience, the manager must be able to create close team work and rapport among his R & D workers, if any result is to be achieved. Very little would be achieved if you put an autocratic taskmaster in charge of an R & D team, no matter how brilliant he is. The team will simply break up and its members hop off elsewhere. What seems to be evident from experience and research findings is that for a given organization or task there is a type of management which is best suited to it.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to support the Motion moved by the Member for Mountbatten expressing our thanks to the President for his Address at the opening of this Fifth Parliament. In his Address, the President crystallized for us the main issues which will confront our nation in the 1980's. The clarity and cogency with which issues are stated have become the hallmark of our Government which believes in stating the plain facts to the people. A distinct quality of our Government over the years has been its ability to explain basic issues clearly and convincingly to our people and to evoke their response in support of these policies. How else could one explain the successes that have been achieved, often against severe odds in fields as diverse as tripartism in industrial relations and our bilingual policy? In the years ahead, we will have to find solutions to the problems outlined by the President in a period when the world economic situation will face severe recession. This will test our Government as well as our people. Thanks to the efforts of a wise Government which has laid a strong foundation, we should be able to face the vicissitudes of the 80s with confidence and resolve. The President has given Members of Parliament an injunction to mirror the hopes and aspirations as well as the doubts and anxieties of our people. We are to subject all bills and legislation to the strictest scrutiny and to ensure that nothing should be passed without thorough, critical, and open debate. This injunction means that Members of Parliament will be involved in communicating Government thinking and policy to the people, as well as the feelings and problems of the people to the Government.”