Toh See Kiat
Singapore
“Sir, on the issue of transparency, would it not be good for the banks, firstly, to make it very prominent by displaying perhaps on their premises the rules that they have in relation to not just small savers but all savers?”
“By the way, even though I do disagree somewhat with the Minister's reply earlier in this House that IRCs cannot be regulated, I think more education can be given to get parents to know that uncontrolled Internet use by their children can lead to problems and they must actually not use the excuse that they know nothing about Internet and i…”
“I was visiting China some years back and there was this official who actually talked to me about Sentosa's attractions and our tourist attractions and he said to me, "In Singapore, you have nothing to show tourists. And yet you have 7 million of them every year. In China, we have got so much to show them.”
“We are not going to review this part of the policy because the security and financial risks of Internet payments are still not yet fully understood.”
“Will the Ministry of Home Affairs consider making it an obligation for the Internet Service Providers to have some special service which would allow parents to block IRC services, if necessary? Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: Ultimately, it is a matter of education. We will monitor the situation.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, for the ISPs, because they have this added responsibility of making sure that the users of Internet use it responsibly, would that not be seen as facilitating the offences if they do not block such behaviour? Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: I think the IRC facilitates many activities.”
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“Yes. I can ask him to refer to the newspapers for the year 1990 and count how many times CASE brought up the issue of Government fee increases.”
“But I think it is time to revive this concept and have it for the whole education service and that person who is going to be the leader of the cluster of schools would not just be one of the other principals but would really have an office, administrative staff and a budget to support his work. I would really think that is the way to go. I see this Bill as the point of a wedge that would open the door for more breath of fresh air.”
“Sir, I rise to support this Bill and I would like to say that my support comes from the fact that this is but the precursor of many more changes to come. It is really part of a restructuring which makes the flat structure we have in school right now into a more manageable organisation where the leadership can be clearly shown. As part of this change, we are going to have a new concept called the cluster school concept. As I understand it, this is the way of making a group of schools to share resources and be led by a strong leader. The Senior Minister of State has said that schools have got to be headed by good and able leaders and I strongly support that. I would however say that when we have a system of many schools pooled together, it would require some kind of hierarchy and perhaps some kind of administrative support. We cannot just leave these clusters of schools to a super principal who would perhaps be a first among equals, because the way I understand it, "first among equals" usually has the last say of anything. I would say that the title "Director-General" inspires me to use another analogy. Our schools currently are basically battalions in the education service and the battalions are headed by principals who are the battalion commanders. Immediately after that, we have no other structure all the way up to the general who heads the service. Perhaps, we could have intermediate structures and the cluster schools could instead be called "school districts". I remember that when I was a school boy, we used to have school districts. I was very proud to be in the City District because we always used to beat Bukit Timah District in sports and all the other activities. That was really just for sports.”
“Sir, I just wanted to refer also to that example that I gave of a person who is a Ph.D in something and not a doctor, but of course we call him a doctor too. "Doctor so-and-so promotes this product that does good to your skin." Actually this happens. He is not a medical doctor at all. But the context of that advertisement makes people think, "Oh, he is a medical doctor and he is recommending this. Therefore, I must buy this." There is also the situation where a doctor who is not a registered medical practitioner in Singapore promotes something like an exercise machine. We do not allow our own doctors to promote things that are not related to medicine. Why should we allow a foreign doctor to do this?”
“It is not possible for the Health Ministry to be responsible for all the wide range of products that are available in this world.”
“I just want to clarify that when I talked about people with white masks and white frocks, yes, they could be in a lot of professions, including science, research and development. But when you are trying to sell a product that is meant to do some good for the body, which is referred to as a treatment for something, and you wear white frocks and white masks, and sometimes hanging a stethoscope around the neck, you clearly are alluding to the fact that this guy who is recommending the product or giving a testimonial for the product is giving it in his capacity as an expert. I was particularly referring to a situation where this person is also identified, on top of that, as so-and-so, MD, and that is really a situation where we must clamp down. Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, the particular example he gave just now was an advertisement for an exercise bicycle. There are recognised health benefits from exercising. Should we prevent a doctor from saying, "Look, you should exercise and this machine can help you to use up so many calories." I would rather not get into such peripheral areas. The objective of this Bill is to make sure that unauthorised people who carry out medical procedures, and therefore threaten the health of the person they are treating, would be facing very heavy penalties. At the end of the day, we must educate Singaporeans to rely on their family doctor and that when they have a problem, they should consult their doctor. Do not self-refer. Do not self-prescribe and self-medicate. See your family practitioner. That is the message that we are trying to educate Singaporeans on, and what they are talking about herbal cures and so on similarly applies. If there is any interest in all those products, when they next see their doctor, they should ask him.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Just a quick point. I do support Dr Tan on this point. It is because of my training that, as a lawyer, justice must not only be done but it must be seen to be done. When we deregister a person from a professional register, it casts a pall of something unsavoury. And it would perhaps be less draconian if we suspend him. Because he has breached his contract, we suspend his practising certificate until such time he pays up, rather than deregister him from the professional register.”
“And I would say that there have been instances even of businesses that call themselves "The specialists from Harley Street". And, of course, you and I know that Harley Street is the famous London street of doctors. Other than that, Mr Speaker, Sir, I support the Bill.”
“And up to this moment, I did not know until I asked them. So you have people who do things that seem to be practising medicine and the Act does not cover them. So I would like to suggest, Mr Speaker, Sir, that the Minister consider provisions that would cover these situations. That flows on to what I want to say about clause 22, which is the registration of specialists. Under this Bill that will be passed, there will be registration of specialists and there will be a highly qualified panel to decide who is one and who is not. But it is very easy for a person to advertise in circumstances that make him look like he is a medical practitioner. I have in mind, for example, lots of what we call "infomercials" that are screened past 12 midnight. I am an owl, so I watch them. And they have got this guy who is "Dr So-and-So", MD (maybe he is a real MD, but he is not a recognised medical professional in Singapore). He is a MD, he wears a white frock, he carries a stethoscope, perhaps even an injection needle, syringe, and then he says that, "Well, I recommend this particular thing." or "I recommend this exercise machine." And people would then gladly think that he is a specialist in this area and buy that product. I think these people deserve to be penalised. If not these people, because they are overseas, then their local promoters should be penalised. I would therefore urge the Minister to consider a provision that penalises a person who pretends to be a specialist either by conduct or perhaps by allusion to certain things. He could, for example, set up his business looking like a medical clinic with people walking around with white masks and white frocks.”
“Ds in unrelated sciences or even arts, promoting products like herbs, royal jelly, mushrooms, evening primrose oil - name it, you have it. And they are very much in the eyes of the consumers pretenders - wilful, false, all the elements, except that perhaps they have not been practising a branch of medicine. It is like, for example, with respect to Dr John Chen, instead of worrying about clogged arterial highways, he decides now to sell some kind of oil to unclog cholesterol in human arteries, because he is a "doctor". I think people will say, "Ah ha! Okay, I will buy it." Perhaps there are others who would call themselves something else. Instead of cosmeticians, they call themselves cosmetologists. Instead of beauticians, they call themselves acnetologists. And these people are clearly falsely pretending to the gullible and unaware consumer. Again, I would suggest that there is provision needed for such situations. Clause 17(c) talks about practising medicine or any branch of medicine, under any name, title, addition or description implying the practice of any branch of medicine. It is easy for a medical professional to say, "I see this name "cosmetologist", I know it is not a medical profession." But the man-in-the-street sees a big long word like this and he says, "I give it the benefit of the doubt." And so he or she gets conned, you might say, and I think we need ways of preventing the consumer from becoming a "conned-sumer". You have situations, for example, where this particular business might register a name in the Registry of Companies and Businesses as the "London Institute of Trichologists". I have confirmed with my colleagues in the House, the medical professionals, that trichology is not a medical speciality, but the man-in-the-street does not know.”
“Sir, thank you for allowing me to catch your eye. First, let me declare that I am not a medical doctor so that I would not be charged for falsely pretending to be one. My only interest in this debate is that of President of the Consumers' Association and I would like to address two concerns of consumers. First, under clause 17, any unauthorised person who practises medicine is guilty of an offence. "Practising medicine", I notice, is not defined and perhaps it is important to allow the judges to develop the meaning as the cases come along. But I would like to point out that there is a particular situation which clearly cries for attention, and this is the beautician who perhaps applies astringent to the skin or prescribes herbs or beverage type food-based laxatives and using non-controlled drugs in a practice that would allow him or her to prescribe slimming treatment (they even use the word "treatment"). This person may or may not be practising medicine. I believe that there should be some provisions to cover this sort of situation, because such so-called treatments can cause severe skin problems - I have actually encountered cases like that - and sometimes even health problems like bulimia and anorexia. Clause 17(b) talks about an unauthorised person who wilfully and falsely pretends to be a duly qualified medical practitioner. The people who are doing this kind of business are experts in skirting the grey areas of the law and they will look at this and say, "Well, if I do not do something that clearly is labelled as practising medicine, then I will be okay. And yet what I really want to do is to convince the consumer that I am highly qualified to prescribe this item." So we have actually - this is not hypothetical, Mr Speaker, Sir - cases of people who have Ph.”
“Sir, if housing agents are professionals, what would the Ministry say about the professionals who are qualified and who allow their names to be used by non-qualified people to conduct business?”
“Yes. Sir, I would like to urge the Ministry to perhaps consider whether there is this need to push the PSC programme so that we will have more scholars who are nurses and nursing can become a dignified profession again.”
“Sir, basically, I raise this question because we have been debating about the need to upgrade the image of nurses and because of the fact that nurses are treated more like drudges in Singapore. This is unfortunate because it is a high calling, and we need to upgrade this dignity.”
“Sir, I accept that prices would increase over time and labour cost will have to go up. I also accept that the bus services have to be viable. This is why I asked earlier on whether the Government could consider giving subsidies, eg, for replacement of buses. Because, obviously, if costs have gone up for bus operators, something can be done to help them. Then they would not have to impose fee increases on the commuters. Perhaps other sources of revenue, eg, at the interchanges even though they have to maintain the interchanges, from the advertisements that are put up there. Could the Ministry perhaps give them some other sources of revenue that will help them not to resort to increasing bus fares at every wave of the wand? 1.15 pm”
“Sir, the Minister has been very persuasive in his answer. I think the man-in-the-street does have this dilemma that the price of the RPS forces or at least gives him the message that he must get off the CTE, PIE and so on, and move on to the other streets or use public transport. But he says, "You ask me to take public transport and you increase public transport prices. So what message are you really giving me?" Could the Minister respond to that, please?”
“The technical details of the security system are already circulating on the Internet and instructions for cracking it will easily be picked up and used by the computer underground. Industry executives had acknowledged that steps must be taken to address this problem, as eavesdropping into cellular messages will prove to be a new kind of electronic blackmail. May I ask the Minister what measures will TAS adopt to ensure that GSM phone service providers in Singapore will secure their digital transmission systems?”
“Yes, I need one more minute. It appears that SingTel is named after its propensity to sing its own praises and tell tall tales. Sir, I would like to ask the Minister, firstly, are there clear standards for performance and advertising claims that the telecommunication providers are bound by? Secondly, what were the causes of the disruptions and what penalties were levied on SingTel and perhaps if heavy penalties do not work, we should be looking at other factors. Thirdly, are there enough telecommunications infrastructures that are in place? Are we making enough investments in these areas? Lastly, in connection with that investment question, are we perhaps placing enough emphasis on developing the Internet which they call Internet II using broad bandwidth technology and using this technology to launch us into the third millennium? Dr Ho Tat Kin (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Sir, when GSM cellular phone system was introduced, consumers were told that GSM was a new digital wireless system with security features which will not allow eavesdropping, unlike the conventional analogue mobile phones used at that time. Users of GSM handphone will have their privacy protected. But a team of well-known computer security experts in the United States has recently cracked a key part of the electronic code meant to protect the privacy of calls made on digital cellular phones. The experts claimed that the code is easy enough to crack and anyone with sufficient technical skills could make and sell a monitoring device that could be easy to use, like a police scanner. While such devices are not commonly available yet, a thriving grey market could quickly develop for these devices.”
“In February 1995, 15,000 CBD subscribers were affected by faulty switches. Last April, there was a series of disruptions in telephone services in the Orchard Road area. In the first instance, 5,000 lines were affected and then the problem increased. The Straits Times reported that as many as 17,000 subscribers were affected in the 7th April disruption. These included hotels on our tourist belt. The disruptions are damaging to our reputation as a place where everything works. Besides, it will scare away tourists and investors, just as the frequent "brown-outs" and "black-outs" did in some countries. Then on 5th July this year, pagers and mobile telephones had difficulty receiving calls. According to SingTel, the system was not down, but there was a congestion as one of two tandem switches was not operating. If that 50% outage is not "down", SingTel must have very low standards indeed. Then there was the matter of SingTel's CDMA trials. When M1 complained of interference with their GSM network, SingTel vehemently denied it was their fault. As it turned out, they had relied on their supplier's say-so that there was nothing wrong with the trial equipment. We have also had complaints about their ingenuous advertisements and even more ingenuous defences of those advertisements.”
“The Minister for Finance stated in his Budget Statement that this is a budget that will improve expenditure on infrastructure and tax incentives have been given for satellites and companies which can afford these things would probably capitalise on them. These are incentives, however, not Government expenditure. I have looked carefully at the Budget book but confess that I have not been able to pin-point the exact amount that the Government is investing to improve our telecommunications and to promote Singapore as an "intelligent island" that would draw investors to Singapore. I suspect that part of the reason is that the different Government agencies in charge have become autonomous agencies. I cannot find all the figures in one place in the Ministry of Communications' budget. Another reason is that there is no single Ministry that handles all matters relating to the converged technologies of telecommunications and information processing. This has been reflected in the current debate as we have Members talking about the Internet under the heads of expenditure allocated to at least three different Ministries. With the convergence of technologies, perhaps it is important and time for us to have one Ministry of, say, Information Technology. This would plan, lead, regulate and coordinate developments in the area. Otherwise, it can be a very disconcerting and confusing situation for those who wish to invest in Singapore. Which Ministry have they got to approach? Would Ministry A approve their project and Ministry B overrule it? The bureaucratic run-around is the greatest nightmare of any investor. In the last three years, Sir, there have been instances of massive telecommunication outages. In October 1994, a software bug affected 90% of the entire network in Singapore.”
“Presently, we have a system which allows the successful bidders to pay the price of the lowest successful bidder. Prices of COEs are tied to the demand and supply situation, so prices have supposedly been increasing because demand has risen. Sir, I wish to ask the Minister if he could consider some other possible reasons for the rise in the COE prices. It has been said in the market that the car dealers are manipulating prices. There is a suspicion that the major dealers act as a cartel to set prices. Some have admitted as much when they told the media that they would use their financial muscle to kill off competition by the parallel importers. Car dealers also use different techniques to force car buyers to accept their "recommended" bids, such as giving second class treatment to buyers who have obtained their own COEs. They are able to do this because there is very little information released and I think the Minister has promised that more information will be released in the future. Perhaps it is time for the Minister also to consider a pay-as-you-bid system or other means to encourage responsible bidding which better reflect the actual amount car buyers are willing to pay and also to consider making consumers put in their own bids, as is the system when IPOs for shares are done. Sir, may I move to my next cut?”
“Sir, for the past three years, motorcycle COEs have risen from $1 in January 1994 to $3,156 in July 1997. The prevailing quota premium, which is a running average of the COE prices, is now $3,022. From the charts the Minister has given us just now, it is heartening to see that the Ministry intends to increase the quotas for motorcycle COEs by about 25%. With respect, Sir, this is not enough. The Minister has said that motorcycles occupy 70% of a car's space. I think the way we drive in Singapore, we get three motorcycles into the space of one. So it is probably 33%. Sir, the smaller capacity motorcycles are used largely by the poorer segments of our population to earn a living and not just as a means of getting around. They need to be mobile to work their small businesses and occupations, but cannot afford to buy cars for that purpose. Such users include hawkers, delivery men, despatch riders and tradesmen. The rising cost of COEs inflicts great hardship on them as it eats into their meagre incomes. I would like to ask the Minister if he would consider giving a higher increase for motorcycles and, if necessary, fine-tune the system so that the increase is for the lower capacity vehicles rather than the bigger machines which are used for sports and recreation. Further, in the alternative, I would like to ask the Minister if it is possible to think of a way to make motorcycles more affordable for such users. Because unlike the bigger businesses and wage earners who can deduct the cost of vehicles as expenses, many of the users of motorcycles do not even earn enough to pay income tax. The Minister has just announced some good news about COEs and a review of taxes. Further, on the subject of COE, I wonder if the Minister would also review the system of allocating COEs.”
“Will the Minister of State review the system now that it has become so effective that there is hardly any congestion on the CTE?”
“Other deceptive conduct includes instalment credit schemes which do not state the number of payments; car financing schemes which quote deceptively low interest rates and periodic payments which are low; sham discounts and sales in the watch, jewellery and retail sectors; renovation contractors who send out circulars created to give the appearance of official notices from the HDB. The list goes on, Mr Deputy Speaker, ad nauseam. It is time we enacted a Fair Trading Act, a Consumer Credit Act and similar laws to curb these unsavoury practices. Lest some quarters should deliberately distort what I have said today to "prove" that Singapore is an unjust, ungracious and greedy society, let me say that this is not what I intend to do, because I have not been prescribing a cure for a disease but preventive measures. I am confident the good doctor up north will fully understand this. In conclusion, we must strive to remove the things that will make Singapore a less caring and compassionate society, and endeavour to build a people with a strong sense of equity, ethics and adequate spiritual ballast to make Singapore a gracious society and "our best home". Hence, I am happy to support the motion.”
“To paraphrase Mr Lawrence Sia, President of the Singapore Teachers' Union, could we not drop something from the curriculum if we see new subjects that need to be added, for there is a limit to what students can absorb? While we are at it, could we not reconsider the proposal for a five-day week and see that as a way of increasing, rather than decreasing, the productivity of workers? If nothing else, it would boost the dwindling profits of the retail and leisure sectors. Fourthly, market capitalism cannot be left totally unmanaged. Loathe as we are to subsidise consumption, there is perhaps a case to argue for subsidies for the capital and infrastructure investments for basic bus services, just as we have subsidised these costs for the MRT. Rebates can also be worked out for those in the lower income groups so that high transportation costs would not eat into their meagre incomes. The high cost of living, real or perceived, serves to demoralise these groups and would thus affect their productivity. In reality, therefore, these apparent subsidies would serve to make the market economy more effective. Fifthly, market capitalism cannot be left to run wild. Much as we dislike to interfere legislatively with the mechanism of market capitalism, there is obviously a case for laws which ensure that businesses deal with each other and with consumers fairly and in conscionable ways. In recent months, for example, the Consumers Association of Singapore had highlighted incidents of businesses which trick or exploit customers through misleading conduct and advertisements, hard pressure selling and deceptive labelling of products.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, how we bring about these things may be a function of National Education, even National Service. Parents and national leaders must also teach by example. In the short time I have today, I cannot elaborate on the programmes that are required. Let me just leave some food for thought. Firstly, we have to use the latest technologies to make our economy more productive, but we must ever bear in mind that systems are designed to serve people, and not as ends in themselves. We must not design systems which exclude the disabled merely because their presence would lead to inefficiencies or to more expense. Secondly, the Government and the civil service must remind themselves constantly that they are not dealing with one amorphous blob of commonality, but with individuals who have needs and feelings. Greater attention ought to be paid to those who fall in between the cracks of the system. Thus, while the new HDB financing rules, for example, are a sensible way of ensuring fairness in allocating highly subsidised flats, they can bring hardship on elderly persons who may need to purchase their own flats. We must not ignore such persons but find ways to help them. Thirdly, we must give Singaporeans, especially students and young children, room to play and be children; time to ruminate and appreciate the finer things in life. As the poet W.H. Davies said, "A poor life this if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare." With the shelf-life of information and degrees being so short nowadays due to the rapid advance of technology, do we need students to study more and more things, deeper and earlier than the year before?”
“In a market economy such as ours, where wealth is seen as an indicator of having "arrived", great pressure is put on all of us to make quick profits through easy schemes, by cutting corners and by outsmarting the competition, using any means fair or foul. A gracious society must temper these avaricious ways and show unequivocal disapproval of such conduct. In addition, the market economy employs meritocracy as the fairest means of bringing out the talents of the capable, but meritocracy must not unwittingly deny equal opportunities to the poor, the disabled, the under-privileged and those who suffer disadvantages not of their own making. Therefore, there is a need to emphasise, as the President did, the importance of maintaining a healthy balance between material and non-material pursuits and to realise that the more successful have a responsibility to help the less successful. In practice, Sir, what this means is that as a nation, we must build up in our young a sense of moral values and ethics and imbue in them a deep knowledge of our history and our traditions. The former will be the salt that keeps our society from moral decay, and the latter will be the light which will guide us on a course towards national pride and identity. We will then understand why we must come forth to protect the way of life we know and we love and, as one Member has said, the passion to defend our country. It is also critical that as we hurtle towards becoming a developed economy that our people do not lose the sense of tenderness and compassion, of right and wrong, of justice and equity. Then only will they look beyond themselves to the world around them, to make it a better place to live in, to make Singapore the best home we have.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support the motion of the hon. Member for Bukit Timah. His Excellency, the President, spoke of giving everyone a stake in Singapore's success, a sense of belonging and ownership; of a meritocratic society offering equal opportunities and instilling in everyone a desire to contribute to the making of Singapore as "our best home". Sir, giving every Singaporean a stake and a sense of belonging may not always need a materialistic solution. An over-reliance on material rewards as a means of promoting and measuring worth will create a society where it will be very difficult to encourage people to give up their time, effort, money and resources to help those who have no family or commercial relationship with them. Besides, a sense of belonging to Singapore cannot be inculcated from the possession of a few shares in Singapore Telecom or Singapore Power. Many beautiful paintings and beautiful poems have been produced, not of share certificates, but of "tanah tumpah darah ku", "jia xiang", "zu guo", "thaai nadu", the old home town, the fatherland. Ultimately, the Singaporean who truly belongs to Singapore will not pine for the salary he earned or the shares he owned in the Lion City, but the crispy roti prata in Jalan Kayu and the friends and family he used to eat out with. What motivates the Singaporean to give of himself, to step forward and volunteer, should not be the promise of more money or even high praise. The motivator will be a sense that this is his land, his people; and what he is doing is what he ought to do because of the sacrifices and contributions of those who have gone on before him.”