Yeo Ning Hong
Singapore
“The SAF always reviews and enhances its training system to maximise the contributions of NSFs to national defence during their NSF stint. We will continue to ensure that the training syllabus is relevant to the defence needs of Singapore, and NSFs' time in the SAF used meaningfully and efficiently.”
“New recruits will find military training less onerous if they take on the personal responsibility of preparing themselves well physically before enlistment. AUCTION OF #03-06 PEK CHUAN BUILDING 6.”
“Sir, on a point of clarification. I believe Dr Ahmad Mattar had earlier on attributed some comments to me. I just want to clarify that I am not waiting for July to have my views on SBC made known to the Minister for Information and the Arts.”
“Sir, to encourage the new NSmen to maintain the same physical fitness that they have achieved while they were in full-time National Service, Mindef will increase the IPPT pass standards for new NSmen who ROD on or after 1st April to the same level that they attained when they were NSF.”
“Sir, I do not think Mr Chiam has any clue whatsoever about what is involved in basic military training. It is not fitness. It is the acquiring of basic military skills, to know how to fight, to know how to ensure that you do not get killed.”
“Sir, Mr Chiam would make a most popular Member of Parliament in Kuwait - if only they had a Parliament in Kuwait. That is exactly the sort of situation that had brought the Kuwaitis the disaster they had a year and a half ago, when people are only interested in having a better life and are not prepared to make the effort to ensure that th…”
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“Sir, there is no necessity for a merger because with a revenue-sharing system, which means some measure of cross-subsidy between the buses and the SMRT there is no need for them to come under one company.”
“As soon as HDB has plans for the detailed development of the East Coast Area, including Changi Constituency, and as soon as demand is sufficient to pay for the operating cost of the route, we will take the MRT to Changi Airport.”
“Fares should come down a little for those taking trunk route buses from their housing estate to the MRT station. Sir, while the problem obviously needs to be solved, I also want to remind the House that at the moment about 80% of the population are living in HDB housing estates. So, while it is a problem, it is not that acute a problem. Notwithstanding that, we are pressing ahead to resolve that. Sir, the Member for Changi, Mr Teo has pleaded again for the MRT to be extended to Changi, to Changi Airport in particular. Sir, I have noted his proposal. Indeed, this particular suggestion comes up again and again, very regularly, as are the suggestions from people living in other parts of Singapore wanting to have the MRT go to where they live or where they work. Sir, I have stated Government's policy, which is, we will build the MRT in places where there is a need for them, where there are enough passengers to make that particular route viable economically, not to pay for the capital cost but just to make it viable for operational purposes. I want to explain to the House why that is very important. If a particular route is not viable, then commuters in other parts of the island, whether they are living in Ang Mo Kio or Toa Payoh or Clementi, travelling along the busier parts of the MRT route, will have to subsidize the very few people who are travelling to and from Changi Airport. And that would be extremely costly and unfair to the former commuters. So there must be a certain minimum load, a minimum number of people served by a particular route before that route can be extended. The intention is to exploit fully every square metre of land that we have in Singapore. And the MRT provides us with the means of doing that. But it must be done sensibly.”
“Sir, the Chairman of the GPC has raised a very good point, which is to encourage the availability of feeder services to bring passengers from the vicinity, public housing estates, maybe even private housing estates, to the MRT so that they can also take advantage of our MRT system. This is being looked into very closely by both bus companies, namely, SBS and TIBS together with SMRT. The problem at the moment is not that there are no bus routes available, to bring people to the MRT station. The problem is one of fares. Under the present structure, the buses operate two different fare structures - one known as feeder fare which is 15 cents and the other one known as trunk services which starts at 40>. The bus services cross-subsidize each other because normally a person would take a feeder bus to an interchange and then take a trunk route. They pay less than economic fare for the feeder and they pay slightly more than economic fare for the trunk service. Trunk services are presently available from many different parts of Singapore and they are available to bring residents to the MRT stations. What is needed is a fare structure that will permit some kind of cross-subsidy from the MRT system to the trunk service that brings residents from beyond walking distance of the MRT station to the MRT station. This is currently being actively looked into by the three operators, TIBS, SBS and SMRT. We want to have this out as soon as possible but, as I have explained in this House before, Sir, the problem is the lack of ticketing equipment. The companies are on the verge of going out for tender. They should be able to make a decision on the equipment required very soon. Then it will just be a matter of equipping all the buses and then this problem should be less severe.”
“Taxi demand? That we leave to the market to decide. Taxi fare should be determined by taxi operators and not by the Government. Indeed, we have moved in that direction already, except that when we have built in as a safeguard the Public Transport Council which, Members will remember, was proposed by the former Government Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information.”
“[Copies of Table circulated to Members]. table - ANOMALIES IN TAXES FOR TAXIS AND CARS (Cols. 739 - 740) Sir, the table gives a list of the anomalies in taxes for taxis and cars. A taxi is a car with four wheels just like an ordinary car. It may be painted blue and carries the label "NTUC Comfort" or it may be painted white and red and carries the label "Singapore Commuters Ltd". But a taxi is a car. And because a taxi is a car, it it contributes the same degree of congestion. Members can look at the table that I have just circulated and they will see that the duty on petrol is 50 cents per litre. The duty on diesel is 8.8 cents. There is a factor of approximately six times. The duty on petrol is approximately six times that of diesel. And the $6,600 is just a simple attempt to correct that anomaly. Going down the table, Sir, you will notice that the road tax for taxis is only $1,100, relative to the equivalent road tax for a 2-litre car of $2,100. So there is another area of discrepancy. Further down, if you look at the PARF payable, if a taxi were to be scrapped for a new taxi and if the scrapped taxi is less than five years old, there is no payment of ARF at all for the purchase of the new taxi. If the old taxi is less than six years old, there is only a $2,000 PARF, and if the taxi is less than seven years, it is $5,000. Compare that for the cars and we see another very large discrepancy. Sir, these are the anomalies that are in our present system. So the diesel tax just goes a small way in correcting that anomaly. The Government has decided to liberalize the taxi industry to permit market forces to determine the number of taxis on the road. The number of taxis on the road is determined by the taxi operators: NTUC Comfort, SCL and the other taxi operators.”
“However, I want to mention that even if the read only technology is adopted rather than the "smart card" technology the question of privacy will still not be a serious one. Because the computer is not interested in who is in the car. The computer is only interested in whether a particular car has gone past and how much money has got to be deducted from the account holder. Sir, I move on very quickly to the comments made by the Member for Aljunied GRC, Encik Wan Hussin. I thank him for bringing to our attention the traffic situation in Kampong Ubi. I shall ask SBS to look into the details as to why the bus turned left instead of turning right when there is supposed to be more people on the right. Sir, Dr Low raised the question of whether we should be moving towards lead-free petrol. I believe this subject was raised earlier on with the Minister for the Environment. I have ascertained from the Ministry of the Environment that the present low level of lead in petrol is very satisfactory. It is the same as that used in many developed countries. As for noise pollution, the MCI is looking at the problem and ensuring that we keep up with the latest requirements worldwide, ensuring that our vehicles are as quiet as present technology. And this we will continue to do. Now I come to take up a number of questions raised by a large number of MPs on the question of taxi fares. The Member for Tanglin and the Member for Pasir Panjang GRC, Mr Lew and Dr Wan, have spoken very eloquently on the need to lower the diesel tax. They said that the diesel tax is too high. Dr Wan, together with Dr Beng, have gone further and said that the diesel tax is not relevant, that there is no anomaly. Sir, with your permission, I would like to circulate copies of a table (Cols. 739 - 740) to Members.”
“And then the outer roads which is Adam Road/Farrer Road going on to Queensway. The objective is to try to ensure that the flow of traffic throughout these three key areas does not suffer severe congestion. And if we are able to achieve traffic flow of about 90% of the capacity of the road design, then that would be give us a smooth flow. What is 90% of road capacity in terms of something that we can understand as motorists? 90% means that at a traffic junction, you will have to wait for one or two changes of light. In other words, you will have to meet the red light at most twice. That is roughly 90%. If you get too close to 100% of design capacity, you may have to wait three, four or even more times, more changes of light. With a good system for the distribution of traffic flow throughout the island, we can get closer to the 90% objective. Sir, the Chairman of GPC also touched upon the issue of privacy if we should move to having an electronic road pricing system. This concern has been expressed on a number of occasions to us. No decision has been taken on the ERP system that would be selected eventually. PWD is at the moment talking with the different manufacturers. Some systems go closer to the idea proposed by Dr Hong Hai which is to use "smart card" technology. Then each time that particular vehicle goes past the checkpoint, a certain sum of money is deducted. The technology is fairly complex. It has not completely stabilized yet. We do not know whether it is applicable to our circumstances. Other systems use simpler "read only" technology, which means that each time you go past, the detector reads the passage of a particular vehicle. We will look into the details bearing in mind Dr Hong's comments.”
“The Chairman of the GPC, Dr Hong Hai, asked yesterday whether there are any predetermined targets for the number of passengers that we want to see on our MRT, the number of passengers that we want on buses, cars, taxis, the lot. The answer is no. This is not the way we plan our land transport system. We concentrate on the congestion created, and not on the absolute numbers using each of the different transport modes. But there are planning parameters which the bus companies and the MRTC use for their own internal planning. They are looking at approximately 2.8 million passenger trips per day on buses for the year up to 1995. And approximately 800,000 passenger trips per day on the MRT by the year 1995. The transport situation is not something that you can predetermine, come up with a number and say this is a number that we want to work to. Because the transport situation is a dynamic situation, dependent very much on the extent of usage which is in turn dependent on the state of the economy. All of us know that when the economy is doing well, more people travel, more people go for outings, for dinners, for visits to the Bird Park, beach and so on. So more trips result. The flow pattern of our traffic is also very important. You can have the same number of trips made but if the trips are made outside of the CBD, they do not contribute to the congestion within. The Public Works Department looks at the overall flow of traffic throughout the island, in particular at three areas. Firstly, CBD for obvious reasons. This is where the highest concentration of employment is. Secondly, it looks at the flow of traffic through the inner ring roads going through Scotts Road, Patterson Road, and Newton Road.”
“Sir, I will try to go through the answers very quickly.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, construction of the Mass Rapid Transit line to Bukit Batok, Bukit Gombak and Chua Chu Kang is progressing smoothly. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the line should be operational by the middle of next year. WATER AND ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION RATES 6. Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what is the average rate of water and electricity consumption per month by residents of Housing and Development Board flats and those in private estates.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to report that the Committee of Supply has made further progress on the Main and Development Estimates for the financial year 1989/90, and ask leave to sit again tomorrow.”
“I will finish in another minute, Sir. Sir, the Member asked about the introduction of card phones. This is something that is happening worldwide. The trend is to move away from coins to the use of cards and we are moving in the same direction. Coin phones have a lot of problems. Mechanically they are problematic. They malfunction, they are subjected easily to vandalism. Whenever the box is full of coins, there is a high incidence of theft. So most of the time you have a number of phones around, but many of them are not operating. There are less problems with the card phones. There will still be lots of coin phones available. They will be in places like shops, and supermarkets, where there is some level of supervision and therefore the problem of vandalism and theft will be minimized. There will about 12,000 coin phones even after public phones have been converted into card phones.”
“So we will be keeping prices down by working with manufacturers with experience in the use of very large scale integrated circuits. As for the overall performance of the system, we will improve as we go along. Types of services provided? We will adapt according to the needs of businesses, of homes, of individuals. The experience of other cities, in particular, Paris and London, is that this system will be viable. In London they have the Prestel. It has a user base of approximately 75,000 business users. They have oriented their system largely for business users. In France, they have taken the other approach reaching out to private users. They have about 4 1/2 million terminals throughout the country. With the approach that we have adopted, i.e. using it as a tool, and as an information base that can be made available to families, we will be able to make the system economically viable. It will form part of our infrastructural development for high productivity. We are not looking for immediate returns but at the long term, to recover the investment in this project. We are looking at something like 10 years as a pay-back period. The Chairman: Dr Yeo, we are running out of time.”
“Sir, the Member for Changi has brought to our attention the problems of late postal delivery and what he referred to as non-delivery in his Constituency and also in the Northern and Eastern parts of Singapore. Sir, during the festive periods, Christmas and Chinese New Year, the volume of mail to be delivered increases significantly by more than 20%. During this period, Telecoms employs large numbers of temporary workers in order to tide over the extremely high demand for delivery of mail. Around this period, errors of delivery do occur occasionally, late delivery also occur because newer workers are less familiar with the routine. However, in cases of non-delivery, I hope the Member will give me the details so that I can ask Telecoms to do an investigation into this problem. Sir, Dr John Chen asked about the economic viability of Teleview and also whether the cost of a terminal would be made affordable to the majority of Singaporeans. The Teleview system was launched publicly last year on the 1st September 1988 at Raffles City. More than 50,000 Singaporeans turned up to look at the system and to experience hands-on interaction with the system. The survey that we conducted among the people who came for the exhibition was very positive. At the moment, we have approximately 400 terminals placed with business users to give us feedback on the sort of services that businesses and homes would like to have for Teleview. We will be carrying out this trial for another six to eight months, collecting the feedback. By then we should have, a terminal that we hope to make it sufficiently affordable to a large number of Singaporeans. The pricing has got to be kept low because we want this to be a productivity tool available in homes in Singapore.”
“Sir, Mr Chng Hee Kok asked about the number of airlines which was reported to be fixing fares. I just want to point out to the Member that the determination of air fares is a commercial decision best left to airlines. We operate in Singapore a market economy. We do not tell companies what to do and what what not to do. However, the Member may like to write directly to the Market Development Programme to get them to give a more detailed explanation because the airline industry is a complex industry. No airline flies all routes all over the world, and therefore in that particular industry there is a fair amount of discussion of fares so that passengers transferring from one airline to the other can be charged accordingly. Our approach in Singapore is to adopt a liberal "open skies" policy encouraging as many airlines to fly to Singapore as possible. When there is a lot of airlines competing one with another, it is very difficult for any cartel of any sort to try to fix prices because airlines that are not part of that group would break the cartel without any difficulty. This kind of groupings are not uncommon worldwide. I am sure the Member is familiar with the International Air Transport Association (IATA). There is also the other organization, the Orient Airline Association. Such collaborative arrangements occur all the time. Indeed, most of the government to government air services agreement have a clause in the agreement which allows the designated airlines to consult one with another when they are operating over certain parts of the route contained inside the air service agreement. That clause is a standard clause recommended by the International Civil Aviation Association (ICAO).”
“Together with other ministries, such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of National Development, my Ministry is actively looking at and coming out with a package of measures that will affect not a small group, but will affect as many people as there are who contribute to the traffic congestion. These measures include higher duty on petrol, parking charges and the possible extension of the ALS by way of its application to all vehicles contributing to the congestion. Sir, I hope when these measures are finalized in about two to three months' time, Members of this House,who have advocated strongly the use of measures to restrain usage, will give the Ministry their full support. Sir, I have outlined very briefly our land transport policy, explain why the do-nothing approach will get us into serious trouble, and mentioned also some of the possible restraint measures that we are looking at. I hope we can all work together, accept a little restraint together, and keep our traffic conditions the way it is today. Sir, I will take up the other points later on in the afternoon because there are a number of other Members of the House who want to speak on different aspects of land transportation.”
“Sir, different people come up with different suggestions and, rightly so. Typically the individual comes up with a suggestion that will be least painful to himself and that will restrain the others. For example, car owners. A favourite suggestion of theirs is, let us have a one-for-one trade-off, then their car will go up in value, because the price of a new car must go up. Or if we do not have a one-for-one exchange, how about having a very high ARF, keep those who are not car owners from coming in and adding to the congestion. Quite obviously, those who do not own cars do not favour this approach. Other people suggest a kilometre tax, higher petrol duty, because they do not drive their cars a lot. Those who live in Jurong, those who live in Yishun, those who live further out from the CBD and have to travel long distances, they do not like it at all. How about higher parking fees? There was a letter to the Straits Times the other day - don't allow those earning less than $3,000 to own a car. Obviously, those earning less than $3,000 are gong to be very unhappy with that approach, and so on. There is no agreement because there is no one single panacea that will solve allour problems. Our approach therefore must be to have a group of measures that combined together gives us the maximum effect for the lowest taxation that we impose on the public. In other words, if everybody pays, everybody pays a little. If we constrain everybody, then that constraint is at the lowest level needed to achieve our objective. Our approach is a preventive approach - to keep our traffic free-flowing so that people can go to work and come home in the minimum amount of time. That is what we are working on at the moment, Sir.”
“Indeed, I have not seen any newspaper editorials advocating a do-nothing approach. In my 5(r) years in the Ministry of Communications I have met large numbers of Singaporeans in a variety of context and I am happy to say that no Singaporean has ever advocated a do-nothing approach. Hence, the Singaporean, as I said a moment ago, is realistic and pragmatic. We have got to work towards the common objective of keeping our traffic free flowing. If doing nothing will get us into trouble, let us do something. This is where the interesting part of discussion normally gets started in discussion groups. What do we do? And here different people have different suggestions.”
“The Chairman of GPC had mentioned a number of Asian cities but you can see exactly the same problems in other cities in Europe, in the United States. In fact, the approach of doing nothing and hoping for the best is such a common approach practised by many cities for one reason or another, mainly political because restraint measures are unpleasant to implement. That approach is so common that "The Economist" in its issue dated 18th February 1989 coined a term for the approach and called it "rationing by purgatory", ie, you allow the roads to get to be so bad that you get hellish traffic conditions, in the hope that it will discourage people from wanting to use the roads at all. Unfortunately "The Economist" concludes: "Purgatory is not a policy". The approach does not work. A week after the article was published in London the traffic almost came to a total collapse. I quote from the Times of London, dated 6th April 1989, giving a lengthy report of the traffic conditions in London on the 27th February 1989. "Massive traffic jams over very many different parts of London, traffic jams of up to 11 miles long in some instances." 11 miles is 17.6 km. 17.6 km from the city embraces practically all our housing estates. In other words, imagine traffic jams stretching from the city all the way up to Yishun. Yishun is only 15 km from the CBD. Imagine traffic jams stretching from CBD all the way to Jurong, and Jurong is only about 14 km from the city! Sir, I have listened very carefully to the speeches made by different Members of Parliament in this House and I am happy, very gratified, to note, that so far no Member of this House has said that we should adopt a do-nothing approach. So we start off with common agreement.”
“Roads having severe congestion during peak hours: the Pan-Island Expressway; Dunearn Road, Bukit Timah Road, Farrer Road, Scotts Road, Lavender Street, Jalan Besar Road, Bras Basah Road and so on. Along many of these roads, traffic flow can be as slow as 10-12 kph. What is 10-12 kph? What does it mean? It means that at this speed, people living in housing estates 10-12 km away from the CBD will take an hour to get to work if they are working in the CBD. Housing estates such as Clementi, Hougang, Bedok, are about 10 km away. And if you are living a little beyond, in housing estates like Bukit Batok, Jurong East, Tampines, Yishun, these are even further away, you are going to take a lot longer time to get to work. If we do nothing and we allow the number of cars to increase, then almost certainly these roads are going to be more congested, and other roads too are going to be more congested. Then you may even see our national servicemen overtaking the cars because our national servicemen can run their compulsory 2.4 km in less than 10 minutes, and that is, 15 km an hour. Not a very encouraging prospect for us to look forward to if we do nothing. The latest figures available showed that for the 12 months ending January 1989, the increase in the number of in Singapore is 7.6%. And if you look back, say, to 1980-84, during that five-year period the increase in the car population was well over 50% in spite of fairly sizeable increases in road tax and petrol duty. So we can expect something similar, if not worse, if we do nothing for the years 1990-94. Sir, Singaporeans are pragmatic. We are a realistic people. We know that if we do nothing we are going to be in serious trouble as far as traffic conditions are concerned. We can look at other cities.”
“This is an example of what is generally referred to as electronic road pricing. We did a very careful study which indicated that the approach is feasible. The hardware is available. But unfortunately the software is not. There is not a system that we can buy off the shelf and use it on our roads right away. No other major city in the world has such a system. But many cities in the United States and in Europe are looking at it at the moment. PWD is currently talking with the different manufacturers of different systems available and discussing with them the various features that are relevant to our circumstances. It would take about three years or so to develop the software. It will probably take another year or so to carry out the pilot trials, work out all the bugs in the system, and then maybe another year or two to make available all the electronic number plates that will be necessary. So, all in all, we need another five to seven years before such a system can be operational. We are working on this with urgency. I expect that we will be among the first of major cities to use such a system. Sir, in the meantime what do we do, since the computerized area licensing scheme or electronic road pricing would be available only five to seven years from now? There are two broad options available to us. (1) Do nothing, and hope for the best or (2) To do something about the problem, to prevent the situation from getting worse. If we choose to do nothing, what are the consequences? Many of our roads are already congested. Members will remember an article in the Straits Times a few days back giving a list of roads where we are already experiencing traffic conges- tion.”
“In short, it is a differential road toll system, a system where there is a differential charge for the use of a road. We are aware of that principle, Sir. Unfortunately, this system of differential road tolls cannot be implemented, using a manual system. Because a manual system of collection of tolls would create the very congestion that we are trying to prevent. Therefore, not having the means to do direct pricing, over the years the Government had depended upon a mix of other approaches which serve as proxies, to achieve the objective that we wanted. In other words, indirect approaches. We used such proxy measures as ALS (Area Licensing Scheme), ARF (Additional Registration Fee), road tax, petrol duty, car park charges, and so on. Some of them concentrated on the restraint on growth of cars, others concentrated on the restraint of usage of cars. Naturally, since these are indirect measures, none of them is ideal. Each one of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. But on balance, overall, the mix of different approaches have given us a traffic situation that is by and large better than most of the other major cities in the world. In other words, the mix of measures have worked and they have generally been equitable to most road users. Sir, four years ago, in 1985, the Government began seriously looking into the availability of computerized systems that were beginning to be available on the market. Systems that would help us to create a computerized area licensing scheme. I am sure Members of the House are familiar with the area licensing scheme that we have in Singapore. And they know that it has worked and worked well. We want to be able to computerize it so that it becomes more effective, and less labour intensive.”
“It does not include all the extra time spent by non-employed Singaporeans, those not in the workforce, on their social visits. It does not include the other non-tangible ill-effects such as increased air pollution for all Singaporeans, and the increased frustration of being caught in a traffic jam and not going anywhere for a long time. It does not include also a lower standard of living, a poorer quality of life, because we all have got less time now, less time to spend on sports, less time to spend on recreation, less time to spend with our family. Sir, over the past few months many Members of Parliament have called for greater restraint on the usage of vehicles rather than the growth of vehicles. Members of the public have also expressed similar sentiments. So too have some newspaper editorials. Sir, I want to thank them all for their interest. Where specific suggestions have been made, I have asked my officers to study them for possible implementation in due course. This call to regulate usage is conceptually a sound one. Because, after all, vehicles cause congestion only when they are on the roads, when their owners use them particularly during the peak hours, going to work or returning home. Therefore, the ideal approach would be to charge for the use of roads directly. The more a road is used, the heavier the traffic congestion, the higher the charge for that particular road. And that charge must be tailored to the individual roads used. That charge must also vary with the time of the day. For examplem, there is no need to charge for the use of Orchard Road at 3.00 am in the morning. But there should be a charge, a very hefty charge, for the use of Orchard Road during peak hours.”
“The United States Federal Highway Administration estimates that delays on their urban freeways cost approximately $18 billion in 1984. And they estimate that by the year 2005, the cost will be six times as much, that is well over $100 billion a year. Sir, traffic engineers can do this kind of calculations. They do it all the time in order to forecast cost effectiveness and demands for different transportation systems, and they do it with a fair degree of accuracy. I do not want to go into detail numbers today. I just want to illustrate with a very simple calculation how costly it would be to Singaporeans if we were to have a delay of an extra hour a day, half an hour going to work and half an hour coming back. Let us assume that the average Singaporean earns $800 per month, working eight hours per day. So every hour of every working day is worth $100 per month to the worker, ie, $1,200 a year. In other words, that extra hour is available to him if it had not been wasted in traffic jams, available to him to earn another extra $100. Or if he is working overtime, maybe even more. We have a workforce of 1.3 million people. Multiply the two together, the cost of wasting one hour for every individual Singaporean in the workforce is $1.56 billion a year. And this is the cost that has got to be borne by all Singaporeans who use our roads. Sir, the Member for Leng Kee talked about externalities. This is an example of the cost of the action on the part of some people being borne by the entire population at large. Of course, that $1.56 billion does not include a lot of other things. I simplified it in order to make it easy to understand. It does not include all the extra time that our children will have to spend on the roads.”
“The Government has also spent $5 billion building the Mass Rapid Transit System. The Government will not recover the capital expenditure for the Mass Rapid Transit System. All these emphasize the importance that Government places on mass transportation. Sir, notwithstanding our efforts in the three areas which I have touched upon briefly, if we do not exercise restraint on the growth and usage of private vehicles, then our efforts in the other areas would be in vain. Buses will be brought to a halt. Large numbers of people would be unable to travel about. Our emergency services, for example, ambulances, fire engines, police vehicles, would not be able to move about speedily in the event of any accident or disaster. As was the case in London recently. A report showed that if fire engines had been able to get to King's Cross Station fast enough, what would probably have been a small fire and hence containable, turned out into a conflagration involving the lives of very many people. Sir, we cannot afford massive traffic congestion in Singapore. Other cities may be able to get away with it. They have stronger economies. They have large hinterlands. They can afford transportation paralyses. We cannot. I have taken a bit of time to outline our general land transport strategy so that Singaporeans who are unfamiliar with it will better understand how the measures that we implement to restrain growth and usage of private vehicles fit in, and why they form a necessary part in this integrated approach that we are taking in solving our land transport problems. Why is it so important that we should try to prevent traffic jams? The answer is simple. Traffic jams are very costly. They are costly to the economy. They are costly to individuals.”
“Those are the four major components. Sir, town planning and road building come under the Ministry of National Development. Town planning specifically under the HDB and building of roads and expressways under the Public Works Department. These two departments are to be congratulated for having done very well. Indeed, so well that their performance has more or less been taken for granted as far as land transportation is concerned and hence not adequately recognized. Sir, I said a moment ago that the Government places strong emphasis and gives top priority to the provision of public transport in Singapore. The public transport system is responsible for 3.1 million passenger trips a day. Buses carry approximately 2.8 million passenger trips per day and with the partially completed MRT carrying approximately 300,000. Members will recall that in the 1970s, when the land transport system in Singapore was inefficient, Government sent a team of senior officers to revamp the entire bus network in Singapore, to run the bus companies, and lay the foundation for the present network of buses, which is now able to cope with the demand of an increasingly developed economy. Sir, the Government also keeps fares down by providing free of charge a number of infrastructural features for public transportation. These include the modern bus interchanges. The one at Tampines, for example, costs approximately $21 million. Government also provides bus terminals and bus shelters. The Government has also gone to the extent of creating special bus lanes so that buses can travel speedily, even during peak hours. This is important because if buses cannot move speedily, then the large number of people who depend on buses will have to spend a lot more time travelling.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the Chairman of the GPC, Dr Hong Hai, for his comments on the Ministry. I thank him for the suggestions that he has made on land transportation in Singapore. I also want to thank the many other Members of Parliament who have spoken on this subject during the debate on the President's Address and during the debate on the Budget Statement. Sir, the Government's land transport policy objective is very simple, and that is, to keep a free flow of traffic for purposes of transportation of goods and people in Singapore. This will help us maintain our position as an important financial, commercial and manufacturing centre. And in the process, make it attractive for local as well as overseas investment in Singapore, in the process, creating jobs for our people and giving our people a good standard of living. In the broadest term, our land transport policy consists of four components. Firstly, systematic town planning, creating housing estates all over Singapore with their own offices, schools, shopping complexes, and other facilities, all these to minimize travelling. Secondly, building the best possible network of roads and expressways and then managing it well. Since we have very limited land, there is only a limited amount of roads and expressways that we can build. Having built them, we must manage them well in order that we get optimal flow of traffic through these roads and expressways. Thirdly, giving priority to mass transport system, because they carry the largest volume of traffic. Most of our people travel by bus and the MRT. Fourthly, managing the private vehicles, both the growth and the usage of such vehicles so that they do not create severe congestion and in the process make it impossible to travel about freely in Singapore.”
“Sir, the answer is yes. Telecoms will install public pay phones at all new HDB blocks with void decks in Simei Housing Estate. There are already 42 such phones in the estate. The remaining 16 blocks will also have public phones by the end of the month. PRIVATIZATION OF FULLY GOVERNMENT-OWNED COMPANIES 4. Dr Lee Siew-Choh asked the Minister for Finance if he will state which fully Government owned companies have been privatized either partly or wholly and what amounts Government has been paid in each case.”
“Sir, it is not possible to say whether the local services are being subsidized by the international services, because of the overlap in the use of the infrastructure provided. For example, the same network of lines between homes in Singapore is also used for calls from those homes to countries overseas. So it is not possible under our present practice to have a clear partition of all cost factors. These costs are partitioned in a manner that is generally acceptable internationally. MEDICAL BENEFITS FOR WIDOWS OF GOVERNMENT PENSIONERS 5. Mr Leong Horn Kee asked the Minister for Finance whether he will allow the wives of government pensioners to continue enjoying medical benefits after the death of the pensioners.”
“Sir, the objective of restructuring Telecoms is to further improve its efficiency and its productivity, and to make the organization more responsive to the needs of its customers. Currently, Telecoms provides a service that is comparable to the best in the world by way of pricing, range of products and services and the sophistication of those products and services. For example, with pricing. In calls to countries all over the world, it is cheaper in a very large number of cases to make the call from Singapore to the other country than to have the call made the other way round. Sir, with your permission, I will ask the Clerk to circulate a short list (Cols. 715 - 716) of some of the rates that Singapore Telecoms charges and compare them with the rates for incoming calls. [Copies of Table circulated to Members.] Sir, the list shows that in a large number of cases, the rates charged by Singapore are much lower. In some cases, Telecoms' rates can be as low as half the rate for the incoming calls. list - SINGAPORE IDD RATES VS. CORRESPONDING INCOMING RATES (Cols. 715 - 716) Telecoms' pricing philosophy is simple - to provide the best possible service at the lowest possible cost, subject to full recovery of the services provided. With increased efficiency and productivity resulting from this restructuring, we can keep the operation costs down and savings made can then be passed on to the consumers, as had been done over the last 10 years.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, that matter is under the purview of the Ministry of National Development. I am sure if the Member for Braddell Heights will bring this to their attention, the Minister will look into the matter. DRUG PROBLEM (Assessment) 3. Dr S. Vasoo asked the Minister for Home Affairs if he will give an assessment of the current drug problem and the steps which are being taken to strengthen the control of drug flow through the Woodlands check-points.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the Government has decided, in principle, to extend the MRT system in a north-easterly direction, from the vicinity of Chinatown and the City to the vicinity of Punggol and Jalan Kayu. The timing for the construction will, of course, depend on the development of housing estates in the north-easterly sector, because unless there is sufficient demand for the MRT, the MRT will not be economically viable. Presently, MRTC, URA, and HDB are studying possible route alignments for the MRT extension bearing in mind the future housing and urban developments along that corridor. Detailed MRT engineering and soil studies will begin when HDB and URA have completed their plans.”
“Sir, the Member also urged the First Deputy Prime Minister to ensure that parliamentary bills should be made available to the members of the different GPCs. Sir, it is a practice that we have been doing in the Ministry. MRTC (Amendment) Bill, a copy was made available to the Member for Fengshan and his GPC Members on the 9th May 1987. The First Reading was on the 20th. Public Transport Council Bill, 14th May 1987. First Reading on 20th May, 1987 and so on. I think that was a good point but it is something that is being practised. Sir, I want to conclude this very brief interruption to the overall discussion on the President's Address just by reiterating my Ministry's commitment to consultation with the Government Parliamentary Committee. Shortly after the names of GPC Members were announced, I called up the hon. Member for Bedok GRC, Dr Hong Hai, to congratulate him on his appointment as Chairman, GPC for Communications and Information and to tell him that we are ready to have discussions on matters of interest to his Committee beginning with a broad overview of the Ministry and then going into greater details in areas that he and his Committee may have interest. We have already finalized a date for the first session. My Ministry is committed to consultation with the GPC. I am personally committed, as I have been, over the past two years, and earlier on, Sir, with you, as the Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Communications and Information. I want to emphasize that and make absolutely sure that there is no misunderstanding. I have no doubt that my other colleagues in Cabinet are equally committed to consultation with the Government Parliamentary Committees.”
“I should have made very clear to the Chairman of the GPC that all those discussion sessions are treated seriously by the Ministry, that they are no simple social chit-chats just to pass away the time. Each session of an hour and a half to two hours is solid work and we appreciate the comments that he made; and he has made a lot of contributions. I think one that is probably the most obvious example of consultation is the comment by the GPC - the proposal that we set up the Public Transport Council. We have taken their proposal into consideration, looked at it, work it through and implemented it. There have been many occasions when the Ministry worked with the GPC on land transportation policies, very lengthy briefings on problems of bus integration with the MRT, how best to do it, such that we provide as best a public transportation service as possible, problems of fare restructuring, what are the areas likely to present some measure of unhappiness and so forth. Sir, the question of diesel tax and road tax came to the Member for Fengshan as something out of the blue? He found them unexpected? Ever since the figures released by ROV showed that the cars were growing by more than 1%, everybody in town was expecting the road tax to increase. How could it possibly come out of the blue for the Member for Fengshan? As for the diesel tax, systematically we have been reminding taxi operators that diesel tax will be increased. Way back in 31st August 1985, and then 25th February 1986, 23rd March 1987, 27th January 1988, again on the 18th March 1988, the same message again explaining why there is the need for diesel tax to be implemented and emphasizing that we will implement it in stages when fare collections for the taxi drivers are more than adequate to pay for any increase.”
“But by giving this impression that there has been no consultation, no discussion of issues, of principles involved, they may leave the impression for those who re not familiar with their work that they are a do-nothing GPC and that the Ministry has not worked closely with them. Sir, let me give some of the figures to demonstrate how hardworking this particular GPC has been under the leadership of the Member for Fengshan. It seems ironic, Sir, that I have to the House that the Member and his Committee have been actively participating in the discussions of policies of the Ministry across a very wide range over a long period of time. Sir, over the last two years, 1987 to 1988, the Committee met me and my Ministry officials over a total of 19 occasions, that works out to an average of about one a month, or one every 40 days. That is a lot of hard work put in by the GPC. The Ministry has always been forthcoming in discussing all matters with the GPC. I participated in eight of these sessions together with my Senior Parliamentary Secretary, my Permanent Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries. Sir, we take the GPC seriously. We take their views seriously. We take their proposals seriously. And we take consultation with them very seriously. Sir, my Ministry officials have also worked closely. Where it is not possible for me to be present during discussion they worked closely with the GPC in providing the GPC with information that they require, giving me the benefit of the comments that the different GPC members have made. So I believe that there has been very extensive consultation over the past two years.”
“Sir, I think this is very important. When Government is accused of reneging on its promise to be consultative, it is not a laughing matter. It is a very serious matter. Sir, the Member in his speech yesterday used one single example, the reasons for which I personally have explained to the Member earlier on prior to the press release on this particular matter why we cannot as a Ministry, as a Government, discuss this matter with him earlier. Sir, the principles for the tax increase for cars and for the diesel tax have been discussed many many times, ad nauseam, some of my fellow Members in this House have told me. In 1985 I went into great lengths explaining why the diesel tax was necessary, and ever since then every year the subject has been brought up and I have made explanations on the need for the diesel tax and for road tax. Sir, I think if the Member were to convey the impression to the House and via the media to the public in general that the Government has not kept its promise in seeking to be more consultative, particularly with respect to the Government Parliamentary Committees, I think that is a matter for grave concern. And I see it as my duty to lay the facts on the table for Members of this House to understand and also for members of the public. Sir, in conveying that impression, the Member for Fengshan has sold himself short. He has also sold his Committee short, because the Government Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information has done a good job, an excellent job, if I may say so. They have been extremely hardworking.”
“Sir, I asked specifically concerning the Ministry of Communications and Information over the last two years when the Member was Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee.”
“Sir, I concede that point. My Minister of State has given the explanation as to why it is not possible to discuss matters that are time sensitive or price sensitive or tax matters. It is Government's policy to ensure that none of our MPs can ever be falsely accused of taking advantage of information that they may have obtained in their capacity. In this way we protect our MPs. Our MPs do not know time sensitive tax matters. Sir, may I ask the Member before he rises again another question: whether he had been satisfied with the level of consultation on other matters other than the fact that he had not been told the timing and the quantum of road tax and diesel tax. Dr Arthur Beng Kian Lam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Minister for his concern for us MPs. But surely the Minister can consult with the MPs on matters of principle. I am not asking him the quantum of the tax or when tax is going to be implemented. Principles can, of course, be discussed. As far as the level of consultation, if you refer to my speech, Sir, I would say that I have mentioned that in the last five years that we have made good progress in consultation. It was these few examples that I brought up which to me are a cause of concern and I was expressing them.”
“Sir, may I ask the Member whether he did intend to convey the message, the impression, that there had been no consultation with the Government Parliamentary Committee?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, thank you for allowing me to respond to the Member for Fengshan. Sir, the Member for Fengshan gave a very spirited and vigorous speech yester- day. I believe he left the impression with the House and definitely with the media that there has been little or no consultation. And as a result of that the Straits Times in its article today started off its article on the speech by the hon. Member, and I quote: 'Dr Arthur Beng (Fengshan) yesterday chided the Government for reneging on a promise to adopt a more consultative approach when formulating important policies.' Sir, I want to ask the Member for Fengshan whether the Straits Times has got him right, whether that was his intention, or whether he might have been misunderstood, that he was saying that the Government has gone back on its promise to be more consultative, in particular with respect to the Ministry of Communications and Information.”
“However, except for the change in the instruments giving effect to the Conventions, there will be no substantive change in the legal status of the Conventions in Singapore. I shall now highlight some of the provisions of the Bill. These are features that are common to legislations in many other countries. Clause 3 provides that the Warsaw Convention and the amended Convention shall have the force of law in Singapore. Clause 6 provides for the application of the limits on liabilities in our courts. In particular, it allows our courts to reduce the damages awarded where the claimant has also commenced other related proceedings in Singapore or elsewhere. Clause 6 also empowers the Minister to prescribe the amount in Singapore dollars that is equivalent to the sums expressed in gold francs in the Conventions. Clause 10 enables the Minister to exclude aircraft used for military purposes from the provisions of the amended Convention. Finally, Clause 12 enables the Minister to apply the amended Convention to carriage by air which is not governed by that Convention. Question proposed.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time." Singapore is a major air junction with links to many countries. We serve a total of 48 airlines with flights to 100 cities in 52 countries. According to readers of the magazine Business Traveller, our Changi Airport is the best airport in the world. The Business Traveller is an international travel magazine with readership in some 50 countries. Our national airline, Singapore Airlines, is also considered the best airline in the world. Sir, our workers in Singapore have done us proud. It is important for us as a major participant in the civil aviation industry that our legislation should enable us to keep pace with the latest international conventions. This Bill illustrates the Government's approach of planning for the future in order to stay at the forefront of the civil aviation industry. The Carriage by Air Bill is to give effect in Singapore to the Warsaw Convention which relates to international carriage by air and the Convention as amended by the Hague Protocol. Both the Convention and the amended Convention have been acceded to by Singapore. The Conventions already have the force of law in Singapore by virtue of section 5 of the Civil Law Act (Cap. 43). This allows us to receive into Singapore the law in the United Kingdom relating to carriage by air. Although this particular arrangement has served us well, it is now appropriate for us to incorporate the Conventions into our own legislation in preparation for the future. This will enable us to meet future developments in the international civil aviation industry expeditiously. With the introduction of the Carriage by Air Bill, the United Kingdom law relating to carriage by air will cease to apply in Singapore.”
“Such a climate is conducive for growth throughout the region. It is in our interest that our neighbours do well, whether it is Thailand, or whether it is the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia or Malaysia. Some economists believe that Thailand has the potential of becoming a fifth Newly Industrialising Country (NIC). If it does so, Singapore will have to fight harder for our share of foreign investments, and for our markets in the developed countries. We will have to work harder to upgrade our skills and industries to remain competitive. But these we must do anyway. Otherwise, even if Thailand fails to overtake us, other countries more advanced than Thailand, such as South Korea or Taiwan, will leave us behind. In point of fact, the statement that the Thai economy is "growing faster than any of the other ASEAN countries" is not correct. In 1987, Singapore's growth of 8.8% exceeded Thailand's figure of 6.6%. Value-Added (VA) Per Worker of New Manufacturing Investment Commitments, Skill Profile of Workers of New Investment Projects (Cols. 61 - 62)”
“As at 31st March, 1988, 17 persons have applied for and have been granted approval to import, reproduce and distribute copies of FEER. My Ministry does not monitor the sale of reproduced publications. TOURISTS FROM ASEAN COUNTRIES 6. Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Minister for Trade and Industry whether the number of visitors from ASEAN countries has dropped and, if so what steps are being taken to encourage more ASEAN tourists to visit Singapore. BG Lee Hsien Loong: ASEAN has been and will remain as one of Singapore's major sources of tourists. Between 1980 and 1987, ASEAN accounted for about 36% of total tourist arrivals to Singapore, making it the largest single tourist -generating market. Arrivals from ASEAN countries rose by 7.3% in 1987. This reversed the decline in arrivals in the past four years, caused by the introduction of travel restrictions by other ASEAN countries. The pick-up in arrivals continued into January 1988, with a robust growth of 14% as compared to the same month last year. With more promotional activities undertaken by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in the ASEAN region, continued growth in ASEAN tourists can be expected. THAILAND'S ECONOMIC GROWTH (Effect on Singapore) 7. Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Minister for Trade and Industry whether the rapidly expanding economy of Thailand which is growing faster than any of the other ASEAN countries will have in the long term any adverse effects on Singapore's economic growth. BG Lee Hsien Loong: Singapore's prosperity does not depend on the poverty of our neighbours. On the contrary, when our ASEAN partners prosper, our trade with them increases, and all the countries enjoy a more harmonious relationship and a more stable South East Asia.”
“The answer is no. FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW (Reproduction and Sale) 5. Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Minister for Communications and Information how many local agents have been appointed to sell vetted duplicated copies of the Far Eastern Economic Review and how many of such FEER copies are sold each month.”
“Sir, if there is zero growth in the car population, there is no necessity for any increase in road tax and all the other fiscal measures. PASIR PANJANG NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICE POST 7. Encik Abbas Abu Amin asked the Minister for Home Affairs whether he will expedite setting up a Neighbourhood Police Post along Pasir Panjang Road.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, our land transport policies are designed to ensure that there is smooth traffic flow on our roads. We do this by providing a vast network of roads and a public transport system that is efficient, affordable and relatively fast. At the same time, we keep the growth of vehicle population under control. To date our objectives have been achieved. Our present network of roads can just about cope with the current population of about half a million vehicles, about half of which are cars. At the moment there are only traffic jams in localized areas each day, particularly during the peak periods. Our road building programme is coming to an end, shortly after 1990. Any significant increase in vehicles must obviously increase traffic jams, particularly along roads in the City when no more roads are being widened or added. The present level of increase of cars at an annual rate of about 1% or less is manageable nationwide, at least for the next five years. If there is zero growth in the car population, then there is no necessity for increase in road tax.”
“So while I accept the principle that wherever possible we should have multi-racial participation in the various programmes that we produce locally, I want to approach this very cautiously. Maybe when we get round to producing more local programmes in English, that problem can be more easily circumvented. That brings me to the point raised by the Member for Thomson. We will look into the possibility of having new serials in English as and when the subject material is appropriate. But it is a very expensive project and I want also to approach this very cautiously. The final point from the Member for Thomson is whether we could have educational programmes for adults in the time slot between 7.00 and 8.00 pm. Sir, this is already the case. On Channel 12, we do have programmes of this sort. I think one of the latest is "I bought a computer" which is a simple, elementary way of introducing the complexities of a computer to the lay public. I believe the programme has some measure of support. We would do more of such programmes if there is a need and a demand for it.”
“Sir, the Member for Changi asked if we could have more newsreels in our News programme. Indeed this is something that SBC has been working towards. SBC was previously a subscriber to two providers of newsreels via satellite. They are the organization referred to as WTN and Visnews. SBC has just recently subscribed to a third satellite Visual Feed. It is called Visasia. So we can expect in due course more newsreels to be incorporated into the News programme, not a separate Newsreel. The purchase of an electronic news gathering equipment which I referred to on Friday will also enable us to have more local coverage. The problem here is not the shortage of visuals or newreels but the shortage of time. Anybody who is familiar with the business of a medium, whether it is in newspaper or in broadcasting will know that there is always a vast quantity of material from which the editors have got to trim down to the given space or to the given time. This is really the limiting factor rather than the quantity of material available. The Member also asked whether it will be possible to have a multi-racial representation in our serials. Sir, this has been indeed the case in some of the programmes. We have had Malays and Indians in Chinese drama programmes and we have also had Chinese in Malay and Indian programmes. But I want to caution the House that in dealing with matters of this sort, one has got to be very delicate, one has got to be very sensitive, because if one were to get a Malay or an Indian speaking in Mandarin for a local drama produced in Mandarin, unless people are not sensitive, it can arouse some unhappiness among the different communities.”