Hansard, 1991-03-21

asked the Minister for Home Affairs whether any decision has been made in the police investigations into the Workers' Party appeal for funds.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the police have completed their investigations and have sent up the investigation papers to the Public Prosecutor. It will be the Public Prosecutor who will make the decision on prosecution.

Can the Minister inform the House if there is any indication of a prosecution coming up?

Sir, I do not know. Under the Constitution, the Attorney-General has the power, "exercisable at his discretion to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for any offence." He is an independent entity. He does not report to me or get instructions from me.

How long does it take to know exactly what is going to happen, Sir?

Sir, I do not know. I will assume that the Attorney-General will examine the papers and make a decision without any delay.

Sir, in the meanwhile, will the money now seized by the police be given back to the Workers Party?

Sir, as I said, it must depend on the Public Prosecutor's decision.

asked the Minister for Communications what were the reasons behind the recent increase in postal charges, in particular the substantial rate increase for registered mails.

Sir, mail delivery is a very labour-intensive service. The increases in postal charges were necessary primarily to meet the increase in labour cost. For the information of the House, labour costs comprise about 35% of postal costs. The delivery of registered mail is a personalised service, because Telecom has got to keep track of every registered letter that is posted until it is delivered to the addressee at his doorstep. And if the addressee is not at home, Telecom has to make a second trip. So it is even more labour intensive than ordinary post. The fee for the registered letter reflects this very high cost of providing the service.

Sir, I would like to ask the Minister whether these increases could have been moderated by spreading them over a longer period of time.

Sir, the Member may recall that the increases have indeed been spread over a number of years.

Sir, I would like to find out from the Minister what Singapore Telecom intends to do with the revenue stream that was used previously to cross-subsidise these services.

We give it back to users of other services whenever productivity gains permit us to do so.

asked the Minister for Communications, with the extension of the Mass Rapid Transit system to Woodlands, whether an extension to Johor Baru is under consideration and, if so, when will that be implemented.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the possibility of extending the MRT from Woodlands to Johor Baru has been endorsed and agreed to in-principle by Ministers in Malaysia, the Menteri Besar of Johor and Ministers in Singapore. However, before such a decision can be taken, detailed feasibility studies must be carried out. The Woodlands MRT line will be designed such that as and when it is decided to build an extension to Johor Baru, the connection can be easily made.

asked the Minister for Communications how Singaporeans will benefit from the expected improvements in the public transportation system after the proposed bus/MRT integration has been completed, and whether the curtailment of bus routes to dovetail into the MRT system will cause greater inconvenience and higher cost to the connecting public.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the integration of the MRT and the bus services was the basis upon which the Government decided to build the MRT system. Integration of the public transport system is necessary to reduce wasteful duplication of services, so that operating costs can be kept low, and fares affordable. The integration of the public transport system involves not only physical facilities but also fare systems and routes to provide for easy connection between buses and the MRT. Bus interchanges and termini have been sited as close as possible to MRT stations. Covered walkways have been constructed to provide protection from the sun and the rain for those walking between the MRT stations or bus interchanges and nearby flats. With the introduction of the Farecard, a common ticket can now be used on both the buses and MRT. Apart from the convenience of cashless travel, the common ticket allows for through-ticketing, and makes it possible for the operators to give a transfer rebate when transfers are made. Since the commencement of MRT operations in 1987, the bus operators, with the approval of the Public Transport Council, have been making gradual adjustments to the bus network to provide for easy connection between bus and MRT. This rationalisation of the bus network is an on-going process to meet the changing transport needs of the population. Wasteful duplication of services will continue to be removed, wherever possible, with minimum inconvenience to commuters, and more buses will be redeployed to serve high demand services. All these measures, taken together, will provide for a more comfortable, accessible and affordable public transport for Singaporeans.

Sir, I would like to ask the Minister whether his Ministry has any plans to launch a PR exercise to educate the public in the use of the new integrated public transportation system.

Sir, the public bus operators and the MRT have formed a company known as Transit Link which is responsible for the integration of the bus and MRT services and also for the introduction of a common ticketing system. The company will be responsible for also providing the public relations to make sure that these services and changes are as widely publicised as possible. However, if there are any gaps in the PR at the moment I will be happy to ask Transit Link to address this issue.

Order read for consideration in Committee of Supply [7th Allotted Day].

Head P (cont.) - Amendment moved [20th March, 1991], "That the sum to be allocated for Head P be reduced by $10 in respect of Code PD 1500 of the Main Estimates." - [Mr Yeo Toon Chia].

Sir, yesterday, before Parliament adjourned, I was talking about the long waiting time to see the doctor as well as to get the medicine. Allow me to continue. Sir, in order to cut down on the long waiting time and to improve the efficiency of the hospitals, may I suggest that the Ministry look into: (1) training courses for the counter staff to familiarise themselves with common medical terms and standard medical procedures should be given so that patients can be correctly advised and not having to go round looking for nursing staff for answers; (2) appointment times to be fixed at a more realistic interval and that the patient's file with related medical documents ready for the doctors on the day of appointment; (3) more computers to be installed to cope with the heavy workload. If it is feasible, computers should be linked to the clinics and the pharmacy so that whenever medication is prescribed by the doctors, the information can be immediately keyed into the computer and relayed to the pharmacist, thus reducing delays and waiting time; and (4) the long waiting time and overcrowding at the pharmacy should be improved. Perhaps we should consider employing more staff and expand the pharmacy or to set up more than one pharmacy in the hospitals to solve this problem.

Sir, I would like to ask the Minister for a progress report regarding the restructuring of hospitals. In addition to the issues raised by the Member for Ang Mo Kio on restructured hospitals, I hope the Minister can also enlighten us on the improvements made in the infrastructure such as the education and training of staff, in the service provided to patients, in the upgraded physical environment, and in new services provided. Although patients in Class C and B2 wards are subsidised by the Government, there are concerns that admissions to such wards are more difficult and, even when admitted, patients are receiving a lower level of care in terms of medical attention and service of staff. I hope the Minister will carry out a full investigation if such concerns are justified. Finally, may I ask the Minister what financial assistance can the Government provide to patients who cannot even afford to pay for the Class C and B2 wards or for the high cost of the medicine provided. For example, will the restructured hospitals be prepared to accept payments by instalments when so requested by the patients, or for a complete waiver of hospital charges for those who are unable to pay?

Sir, our hospitals provide inadequate sports medical services. There are only seven medical doctors in Singapore who have specialised degrees in sports medicine - three in the Singapore Armed Forces, two in the Singapore Sports Council, one in the Singapore General Hospital and another one in private practice. I think it is grossly inadequate. Sir, the Ministry of Health is placing a greater emphasis on health maintenance which is expected to reduce health care cost. The Health Minister, Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, in announcing the setting up of the National Institute of Health, has said, and I quote: 'The most effective way of keeping down rising health costs is for everyone to know how to stay healthy.' Sir, sports medicine was clearly defined by the Council of Europe in 1973 and I hope the Ministry of Health will adopt this particular definition which places an important emphasis on health maintenance. Sports medicine should not be considered as a branch of medicine which only manages sports injuries in competitive athletes. To enable sports medicine to further assist in the area of health maintenance, the Health Ministry is urged to look into the following so as to be able to recruit and retain the necessary manpower: 1) Recognition of sports medicine as a separate medical specialty or sub-specialty and full recognition of specialist degrees in sports medicine for doctors, for example, Diploma of Doctor of Sports Medicine from West Germany and Master of Science in Sports Medicine from the United States. These two degrees are currently recognised only by the SAF and the Singapore Sports Council. 2) Recognition of the need for other sports medicine specialists and specialist qualifications, for example, fitness instructors, sports/athletic trainers and physiotherapy assistants, and other degrees in exercise physiology, bio-mechanics, sports psychology, etc. 3) Inclusion of sports medicine in the training curriculum of doctors and other para-medical personnel. Sir, in Singapore, if we want to maintain our health cost low, one of the main things we must pursue is to make sure that we have adequate sports medical personnel and sports medical care. 12.45 pm

Sir, Dr Wong Kwei Cheong has asked for a status report on the restructured hospitals and Mr Yeo Toon Chia has talked about the poor service in the restructured hospitals. Sir, within the limited time that I have, I would not be able to give Dr Wong a full status report, but what I will try to do is to give a very brief overview and then answer Mr Yeo Toon Chia. Sir, the restructuring programme, which is meant to give the management of the hospitals full autonomy, has worked very well because now the hospitals only have to go to their Boards to get approval and implement whatever improvements they want to have. They do not have to go through a long chain of approval processes. As such, the hospitals have been able to make many physical improvements, for example, Toa Payoh Hospital and Kandang Kerbau Hospital. I think any visitor going there today would be quite pleasantly surprised by the very drastic change, which has not incurred very much expenses at all. They have managed to renovate their Specialist Outpatient Clinics (SOCs), make them more pleasant and better ventilated. They have installed better signages. Patients now would not get lost wandering round the hospital and, therefore, the place is more patient-friendly. They have also managed to repaint their hospitals with warm friendly colours, not the normal sterile white colour. So, overall, the physical environment has improved. He has asked for staff training. Sir, in the restructured hospitals, all staff are provided training in two areas. Firstly, hospital policies and procedures. This meets the point raised by Mr Yeo Toon Chia. The staff are given training in the hospital policies, procedures and medical terms. I think the problem here is that the restructured hospitals have recruited many clerical and administrative staff in the last two years. It will take the staff sometime to be familiar with the many terms and procedures. So I think we should try to give them more time and I am sure their knowledge of the hospital operations and medical terms will improve. They are also given training in public relations and communications. This will enable them to interact in a much friendlier and more effective manner with the patients and the public. Sir, to-date, the number of staff that have been sent for training has been quite significant. For example, in the Singapore General Hospital, 2,700 of their staff have been trained in these areas, in Kandang Kerbau Hospital, 970 and in Toa Payoh Hospital, 500. In terms of service quality, the hospitals' objective has been to improve the service quality. The key areas are in the clinics, in the pharmacies and in the admission waiting areas. What they have done is to review the work flow, the work processes, and they have streamlined them. Because of the greater autonomy that they have, they have been able to recruit more staff and therefore to reduce the vacancies. They have also made better use of computers and introduced more automation. The main complaint so far is, as Mr Yeo has brought up, queuing times in the various departments. Sir, the hospitals have made attempts, and I think they have achieved some improvements in the service areas. Let me give some examples. In the specialist outpatient clinics, in Toa Payoh Hospital in 1989, ie, before they were restructured, the median waiting time was 60 minutes. Last year, after restructuring, they had reduced it significantly to only 25 minutes, a reduction of 35 minutes in the median waiting time. Kandang Kerbau Hospital started off with 69 minutes median waiting time. By last year they have reduced it to 53 minutes, a reduction of 16 minutes, but it is still long at 53 minutes. For the Singapore General Hospital, in 1989, it was 48 minutes. Last year, it had reduced to 37 minutes, a reduction of 11 minutes. Sir, there are some reasons as to why these figures are there. One reason is that when Toa Payoh Hospital was restructured, we transferred some departments over to Kandang Kerbau Hospital. Therefore, their attendance rate has dropped and that has enabled them to improve their level of service. For Kandang Kerbau Hospital, they face a big challenge. When they were restructured, we transferred many departments from Toa Payoh Hospital and Alexandra Hospital to Kandang Kerbau Hospital. As a result, their patient load went up from 28,000 in the first quarter of 1990 to 48,000 in the fourth quarter of 1990. This represents a 70% increase in patient load. I think in any institution, such increase would swamp the operations. For Kandang Kerbau Hospital to have been able to improve the median waiting time to 53 minutes is still very commendable. For the Singapore General Hospital, this is the hospital with the biggest patient load. For the first quarter of 1989, 90,000 patients in the specialist outpatient clinics. For the fourth quarter of 1990, the numbers had increased to 117,000. This represents an increase of some 30% over eight quarters. So patient load is increasing, yet at the same time they have managed, on the average, to reduce the waiting times. Sir, again, the waiting times are not uniform. When I said "median", it does not mean that in every department the median waiting times are the same. There are many departments. Some departments have smaller patient loads, others have had big increases in patient loads. So when I say the median time is 37 minutes, it means that for SGH, 900 patients every day wait less than 37 minutes; but it also means that another 900 patients every day wait more than 37 minutes. Sir, the problem is that in the specialist outpatient clinics, the waiting times are not very predictable. There are many reasons. One is that some of the cases may be more complicated than anticipated and therefore the doctors will have to spend a lot more time examining them than would the average patient. This is also because as these are general hospitals, they will also have to be called away occasionally to deal with emergencies in the A&E; they may be called away to deal with emergencies in the wards as well as for deliveries. And for surgeons who are scheduled to go to the outpatient clinics after surgery, certain operations may take longer than anticipated. Therefore, they turn up late and then the queue builds up. The answer to all these is, firstly, as pointed out, to ensure that the appointment times being allocated are realistic. The hospital will continue to review this and make sure that there is a close feedback loop. They will review what are the actual times taken, feedback to the appointment system to make sure their appointments are scheduled, take those times into consideration. Secondly, for those cases where the doctors have to be called away on emergencies or other reasons, to keep the patients informed as to why the doctor is not there, and to give the patient an estimation of how much time he has to wait and to provide the patient with an alternative doctor. For example, "Dr XYZ has to be called away. He is likely to be away for an hour in the operating theatre. In the meantime so and so is available. Would you like to be seen by that doctor?" This would give the patient a choice of waiting for his own doctor or to be seen by another doctor a little bit earlier. In terms of other areas, there have been some improvements too. For example, in the registration time before seeing the doctors in the clinics. In SGH, in 1989, it took a patient 30 minutes to be registered. It was a long wait. Even before going to the clinic he has to wait for 30 minutes. Today, that waiting time has been reduced to 12 minutes, again, a significant improvement. The area where we have had problems, and that is the area that has been identified by Mr Yeo, is the pharmacy. I admit that the pharmacy faced a little hitch. When SGH was restructured they managed to improve the pharmacy waiting time. For example, prior to 1989, the median waiting time was 30 minutes or thereabout. By August 1990, they had managed to bring their waiting time in the pharmacy down to 22 minutes, from 30-plus minutes down to 22 minutes. But between August 1990 and December 1990, they faced certain problems and the median waiting times in the pharmacy increased to 41 minutes, almost doubled. There were two reasons. One is between the middle of the year and the end of 1990, the patient load in the Singapore General Hospital increased by 15%. All these patients were channelled to the pharmacy for their medication and the pharmacy was not able to respond to that significant increase in throughput. Secondly, they were facing some staff shortages as well. It is a common story among many companies in Singapore. SGH faces the same problem. They have some staff shortage in the pharmacy. I think most companies find that January is an easy time to recruit staff. So they were able to make up for the staff shortages. And by late January this year, I am happy to inform Mr Yeo and Members of the House that the waiting time in the pharmacy in the Singapore General Hospital has again been reduced to 28 minutes. This is an improvement, but I think much work still has to be done. Mr Yeo also brought up the situation of medical records not being available. Sir, this has been a perennial problem in all our hospitals. With restructuring, I think we have managed to make much headway. For example, in Kandang Kerbau Hospital, before restructuring, 9% of the patients found that when they arrived at the clinic their medical records were not there. By the end of 1990, that number had fallen to 0.1%, ie, from 9% dropping to 0.1%. That again is a remarkable achievement. For the Singapore General Hospital, in 1989, they had 4 1/2% of missing records. By the end of last year, that figure had dropped to 1.4%. Again, some improvements, but work is still needed in this area. 1.00 pm The problem is many patients in SGH tend to turn up without appointments. Therefore, when they turn up without appointments, the records understandably will not be there, and so they have to wait for their records to be located. Some of the records are with the doctors, others are still in the wards, especially for patients who have just been discharged a few days earlier. Their records may still be in the wards while the doctors work on updating the records. Sir, the problem I foresee will get tougher to solve in the years to come. Because as the service quality improves, I think those hospitals that are improving faster tend to also draw in more patients. So it is going to be a spiral - you improve, more patients, your service gets back to square one, make improvements again. So that problem will have to be faced. And the answer to that is to upgrade the other hospitals and give them more flexibility to respond to problems. This is best done through the restructuring programme, and we will extend it to Tan Tock Seng Hospital early next year. We also find that patients tend to go to newer hospitals, for example, SGH, NUH, which are highly in demand. The older hospitals are not so preferred by the patients. As Dr Hong Hai pointed out yesterday, our hospitals are fairly old, especially Woodbridge Hospital. And that is why in planning the rebuilding programme, we have to prioritise. Since Woodbridge Hospital is the oldest and hardest to renovate on a short-term basis, we decided to rebuild Woodbridge Hospital. Now we are planning to rebuild the three hospitals - Tan Tock Seng, Kandang Kerbau and Toa Payoh Hospitals. The fact that we are able to undertake the rebuilding of all three hospitals at the same time is also due to the fact that the hospitals are now able to handle these projects on their own. In the past, all hospital projects were handled at the HQ. With restructuring, we have been able to give the job to the restructured hospitals and then they recruit to make sure that they have the required expertise to undertake the rebuilding programme. So it has also allowed us now to proceed with all three hospitals, instead of having to stagger them over maybe 10 to 15 years, which would have been the case if we have to do it at the HQ. Sir, to sum up, improvements have been made, but I think there is still more work to be done. The hospitals will have to explore more cost-effective ways to achieve these improvements. But since these services are provided by people, inevitably, more manpower will have to be found. All these mean higher costs. We hope patients will bear with us and be prepared to pay for the much better services that they request for and which they will be receiving.

Mr Yeo, we are running out of time on this amendment.

Dr Wong Kwei Cheong has also asked whether we can help the B2 and C Class patients who are facing problems. Sir, we will definitely help them. Those who request to pay by instalments, we will definitely allow them to pay by instalments. And for those who cannot afford, we will waive the fee.

I will reply very briefly to Mr Choo's concern over sports medicine. Sir, we cannot agree with Mr Choo more on the importance of sports, recreation and exercise as methods to promote healthy lifestyles. In fact, in all our public education programmes, we have stressed that we should keep fit, and therefore stay healthy. We also recognise that sports medicine, as a medical specialty, is a specialty in its own right. However, our Ministry does not have any department specially devoted to sports medicine. We have orthopaedic surgeons and rehabilitation physicians who specialise in the management and rehabilitation of patients with sports injuries. There is no sports medicine specialist in the Ministry. I believe Mr Choo is concerned about the recognition of the postgraduate degree for the purpose of appointment and promotion to a consultant within the civil service. Unfortunately, this is under the purview of the Public Service Division. Since we do not have any sports specialists in our midst, we have not taken this matter up with the PSD so far.

Point of clarification, Sir. Will the Minister of State consider bringing this particular issue up to the PSD so that sports medicine specialists will be given due consideration? Also, I would like to ask the Minister for Health whether he is aware of the fact that there is a huge price difference between standard drugs and non-standard drugs, and whether the Ministry will find a way to inform a patient of the charges of drugs before he gets to the Pharmacy Department. Also, how will the Ministry attempt to avoid patients being stranded at the Pharmacy Department because of insufficient funds to pay for the drugs?

As I mentioned, within our hospital services, we have orthopaedic surgeons and rehabilitation physicians who can take care of cases of sports injuries. But for the recognition of the degree, I think Mr Choo should direct his inquiry to the relevant department.

Sir, yes, definitely, I will ask the hospital management to let their staff know that when patients are being prescribed non-standard drugs, they should be told about the prices. This way they will not be stranded.

Sir, I would like to speak on community hospitals. Sir, first of all, I would like to congratulate the Ministry of Health for embarking on this programme to build community hospitals. I am sure my other Members from the Ang Mo Kio area welcome the setting up of one of the community hospitals in Ang Mo Kio. Sir, I would like to take this opportunity to urge the Minister to have a re-look at the community hospital concept. I would like to suggest that the community hospital should concentrate on providing basic medical health to the residents, that is, without the frills and trimmings that one sees nowadays in restructured hospitals. Sir, the community hospital should en- deavour to keep cost at the lowest possible level so that it is affordable, particularly to the lower income group in our community. In this respect, I would urge that community hospitals do away with various classes of beds - class A, class B, B1, B2. There should be just one class of beds and one class of treatment for the people in the community. If somebody goes there with a headache, prescribe just aspirin, or whatever it is, but do not put him through a brain scan. If people want brain scans, they can go to private hospitals like Mount Elizabeth, or even SGH or NUH. Basically, they should provide care that people can afford. Sir, I sincerely hope that the Minister will consider this suggestion in the implementation of community hospitals. I believe this would give hope to a lot of the lower income group who for some reason are now perceiving even the General Hospital as a very expensive hospital. And if this perception goes on, I do not think it does the Ministry of Health any good. So if community hospitals can provide basic medical care at affordable prices, then I think the Ministry of Health would have done a very great job.

Sir, some months ago, the Minister for Health publicly announced that a new hospital will be built in Simei Estate which is within Changi Constituency. Although, generally, the people living in the eastern sector of Singapore will welcome the construction of the hospital away from the city area, many of my residents living in Simei Estate, in particular, have expressed their concern about the proposed hospital which is being planned to be built in this estate. They fear that the hospital will be built too close to their dwelling apartments. I would like to request the Minister to take into consideration my residents' fear and concern with regard to the planning of the hospital for this estate. Sir, may I ask the Minister what are the reasons for selecting Simei Estate as the site for the new hospital? I would appreciate it if the Minister could enlighten the House with a more detailed plan of the hospital and the type of services it will be providing to the general public. May I also ask the Minister whether or not the Changi Hospital, which is also in my constituency, will be closed when the new hospital is completed?

( In Mandarin): Sir, the View Road Hospital is a hospital for mental patients. It is not well known to many people. It is for patients who need to have a long period of recuperation. With the new Woodbridge Hospital being developed, I would like to know what is the Ministry going to do with the View Road Hospital. Sir, this View Road Hospital reminds me of mental disease and also all the facilities that are lacking in a mental hospital. To the best of my understanding, we are greatly short of experts in the field of mental diseases. So I hope that the Minister for Health can tell us whether his Ministry has any solution to this shortage of manpower. Whenever we mention "Woodbridge Hospital", many people will laugh. They take this as a laughing stock. This is actually the perception of our people towards mental patients. From the various signs before us, the mental patients are not readily acceptable by society. It is very cruel. They are people who are being left behind. For the mental patients themselves, they feel that there is a stigma on them. They will not dare to face reality, neither will they have the courage to speak to others. In fact, some of them did not even dare to seek treatment. Many of them failed in their studies, they could not pursue a career, and sometimes even their families desert them, and they frequently have problems with their finances. If we treasure our human resources and treat these as our only resources in Singapore, I feel we should pay more attention to these mental patients. I understand that in our society, out of every five persons, there is one who would suffer some form of mental disease in his life time, be it depression, anxiety or nervous breakdown. But I understand that every year there are two to three thousand new mental patients. On the front page of the Lianhe Zaobao today, it is reported that there are some thousands of students needing psychiatric care. This is perhaps due to too much pressure exerted on them by the family. But I believe the pressure also comes from society. I urge the Government to pay more attention to these mental patients and I hope that the Government would start an educational campaign to let our people understand what is mental disease and what is psychiatric problem so that these mental patients would have the courage to seek treatment. The Government should educate our people and teach them how to maintain good mental health. Perhaps, the People's Association could help in this aspect. 1.15 pm At the same time, the Ministry of Health should educate our people, particularly the bosses, the employers, the proper approach to accept the mental patients. Perhaps, the mental problem may be a very minor one. The employees would not dare to disclose this in their application forms because they are afraid that they may be rejected or dismissed when this is known to the employers. I also hope that the Government will continue to educate these patients so that they will accept treatment at the Government hospitals. Perhaps, we could decentralize them so that they may not have to go to Woodbridge Hospital. They can receive treatment even at our polyclinics. We should even have a "Mental and Psychiatric Week" so that our people will understand and accept that this is part of life. It is not something that is incurable. Mr Chairman, Sir, if we say "Health is Wealth", then I hope the Government would actively consider providing better and more effective treatment for the mental patients.

Mr Choo, would you like to finish the last item?

Sir, with regard to the dialysis centre, I am more concerned about the private dialysis centres. I have only one question to ask the Minister and, that is, how does the Ministry intend to control the setting up of private dialysis centres, or private dialysis clinics, in terms of its location and convenience to meet all medical and nursing standards and to ensure that there are adequate equipment, facilities and manpower to protect our patients?

Sir, I will first deal with Mr Choo Wee Khiang's question on dialysis centres. At the present moment, we have no means to control them, but we intend to control them this year through the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act which will be brought into operation later in the year. The Accreditation Unit which I announced yesterday will then publish the guidelines setting out the necessary standards that would have to be achieved in terms of staffing, in terms of having trained renal physicians on hand and all the other items. They will make sure that there is full compliance. The guidelines will also ensure that the operations will pose no medical hazards or health hazards to the people who are living in the vicinity. My Minister of State will answer the other questions.

Will the Ministry look into the existing private dialysis centres as well?

Yes, we will also be looking into the existing ones.

Sir, first, on the question of the community hospital. The community hospital, as Mr Chandra Das pointed out, is indeed a low-cost hospital, catering to those cases which do not require the very intensive and high-powered level medical care. So the majority of the patients would be those who would be convalescing from recent illnesses or those who need only simple treatment, observation, assessment or rehabilitation. On the question of provision of different kinds of wards, you have to look at the profile of the patients who can afford different types of wards. In all the Government and restructured hospitals, we have a full range of wards from A to B1, B2 to C. These are to cater to the different abilities and the different preferences of the patients. It is true that the Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital would be run as a low-cost hospital. All the wards would be charged at cheaper rates than acute hospital wards. But there will always be some patients who would prefer and are able to pay for better accommodation and greater privacy. If we do not provide for this, we may end up with a situation where, for those who prefer and can afford to pay for better wards, they will be forced to stay in less well-furnished wards, in which case they will even be taking beds away from those people who can only afford the cheaper wards and who require Government subsidies to stay in them. The community hospital is a relatively new concept. In fact, it is meant not just for patients to transfer out from the acute hospitals to stay for convalescence. It is also to accept patients directly referred from the private sector who can be managed by their own GPs or specialists. There would always be a proportion of these patients who also would prefer to have a choice of better wards. Our bed complement for the community hospital is actually not out of line with our general Government hospital bed complements. In fact, the proportion of subsidised wards would be slightly higher at the community hospital than compared to the Government and restructured hospitals. I come to the question of the Eastern General Hospital in Simei which was asked by Mr Teo Chong Tee. The new Eastern General Hospital is going to be a medium-sized hospital with about 800 beds. It will provide specialties of general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedic surgery, geriatric medicine, psychological medicine and rehabilitative medicine. The reason why we choose the site to be where it is for this Eastern General Hospital is its relatively central location and accessibility in relation to the HDB new towns of Tampines, Pasir Ris, Simei and Bedok. It is also very near to the MRT station and the Pan Island Expressway. So it is highly accessible. With the completion of this hospital, it will replace the existing Toa Payoh Hospital and also the Changi Hospital. Let me assure the Member that in planning for the location and the layout of the hospital grounds, we have taken great care not to inconvenience the residents of the nearby HDB blocks. In fact, we have taken more than sufficient care to ensure that there is a wide enough buffer area between the hospital and the nearest HDB blocks. We will be providing in excess of what the Planning Authority has required. The hospital will be facing in the north-south direction so the wards will be looking away from the HDB blocks nearby. We do understand of course that some residents are very concerned about the location of the mortuary. The mortuary will be located at the basement level and will be away at the farthest distance from the blocks. We would appreciate it if Mr Teo would let his constituents know and ask them not to worry as we have taken due consideration of their concerns. View Road Hospital. The View Road Hospital has been catering for the rehabilitation of long-stay psychiatric patients. It also provides accommodation but under supervised care for some patients who are considered fit to be released for employment outside the hospital but who do not have any family members to look after them. So they go back to the hospital in the evening where they would sleep under some supervised care. The need for such kind of facilities will always continue. In the new Woodbridge Hospital, this kind of facilities would not be provided to any significant extent. It is likely that the View Road Hospital would be retained for some years. We will continue to upgrade it and enable it to discharge its functions properly. I share Mr Choo's concern over the plight of the mental patients and for the so-called large proportion of the population who suffer from some minor psychiatric illness. The figure that he referred to actually comes from a survey done in 1987 by the Singapore Association for Mental Health. No doubt the survey shows that about 18% of the population is said to be suffering from these minor symptoms but, in fact, only about 1% of the population actually suffers from psychosis, or the more serious mental illnesses. I recognise this problem of stigmatisation. Mental patients are not well-received by the community and sometimes not even understood and well-received by their own family members. To combat this stigmatisation, a lot of public education on the different types of mental illnesses is called for. We have to appeal to people's understanding, sympathy and also their sense of community responsibility towards these mental patients. We do intend to mount a wide publicity exercise next year in connection with the opening of the new Woodbridge Hospital so that we can educate the public on the nature of the problem, and to emphasise specially on the treatability of a lot of the mental ill health problems. Unless people realise that this illness is treatable, they will continue to shun people with mental illness and people with mental illness will also lose hope. So we will emphasise the treatability of this problem. Another strategy to help the community accept mental patients and for mental patients not to feel too ashamed and therefore become late in seeking treatment, we have already instituted a system of community-based psychiatric health services. I am sure Mr Choo knows about the outpatient psychiatric clinics which we have started to run in the polyclinics. We also have community psychiatric nursing, ie, nurses from Woodbridge Hospital have been visiting patients at home and following them up. In fact, we are going to decentralise these psychiatric nursing services to all the polyclinics when we are ready. With this, I hope that he would rest assured that we are taking a close look at the problem and we are doing what we can. In fact, we all share his concern over the problem of mental ill health.

( In Mandarin): I would like to ask the Minister of State whether anything has been done for our children who are suffering from this psychiatric sickness as it is highlighted in the Chinese paper today. What is the Ministry of Health going to do about it? I am sure many parents are very concerned with this problem. And also, how is the Ministry of Health going to educate the parents so that they will not exert too much pressure on their children?

Could I seek a point of clarification from the Minister of State? It is on the question of the different classes of wards for the community hospital. The concern is that if we allow those who can afford Class A or Class B to go into the single class ward, then you will deprive those who are going into Class C. If the space available for Class A and B is, in fact, used for the single class ward, and based on the assumption that the space per patient in Class A and B wards is bigger than that in the single class ward, would it not be true that more patients could be accommodated if there is only one class in the community hospital?

Mr Chairman, Sir, one question for the Minister of State. With regard to the hospital in Simei, I would like to ask when will the construction work begin and when will it be completed. 1.30 pm

Sir, with regard to Mr Choo's question on the problem of mental health among young children - I also read the article in this morning's papers - I would like to inform him that we also have child psychiatric services in our polyclinics and at the Institute of Health. On the problem of stress among young people and among adults, I think the population has to realise the importance of maintaining a rather balanced outlook on life and a balanced lifestyle. But I like to inform him that many of the parents like to bring their children with mild behavioral problems to see general practitioners. Our Ministry has already taken steps to include in the training of doctors, ie, for those who want to be family doctors, psychological medicine as part of the family medicine degree. So we are working on the situation. As regards Simei Hospital, it will be completed by the year 1995. I would ask the Member for Changi to be a bit more patient. In fact, the plans for the project are more or less finalised. We are waiting for approval of the more detailed plans for building. In 1995, his residents as well as residents in my constituency, which is in the Tampines area, would be enjoying a new hospital. In addition, we are reserving a piece of land next to the hospital for a second community hospital. Mr Lau asked whether more beds would be made available if there are no A class beds in the community hospital as this would free more space for the B2 and C patients. Whether there are enough B2 and C class beds available has to depend on the pattern of utilisation of hospital beds. We are prepared to review the bed complement after we know how the hospital operates. It is a new concept. We are willing to experiment. We are willing to try. But the basic principle is to provide people with a choice. And for those who prefer and who can afford, we want to provide them with a choice.

Sir, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Amendment No. (4), Encik Abbas is not moving. Dr Koh.

Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head P be reduced by $10 in respect of Code PE 1500 of the Main Estimates. Sir, I am going to speak on the topic of preventive health care and I will not say anything that I have any personal interest in. But in the event of being wrongly implied, I will declare my pecuniary interest as a private medical specialist. Sir, the Ministry of Health has done well with its hospital care programme with restructured hospitals and better medical care in general. But I remain quite disappointed with its preventive health care programme. There has not been enough attention despite the Minister's statement some five years ago that preventive care was going to assume the highest priority. In that time, there has been no programme worthy of note. In as far as resources are concerned, the bulk is still being channelled for hospital services with only a small increase in preventive health care. I note too with disappointment that the Ministry of Health (MOH) does not think it sufficiently important to include preventive health care as among the areas that the Review Committee will look into. When MOH talks of its national education health campaigns and its immunisation programmes, they are not new programmes. They have been going on for many years. Even its screening programmes are not widespread enough and do not reach the target group. I think it is time that MOH became more innovative and devised schemes to reach a wider mass. For instance, why can it not introduce a scheme like the maternal and child care programme where all pregnant women are screened and new borns given immunisation? We can call it the senior health care service for people above the age of 50 to be given the opportunity for a regular health check. We must of course provide incentives and the care be subsidised. Sir, it is well and good that MOH has upgraded the polyclinics, but they reach only 30% of the population. The remaining 70% go to the GPs who, like the Minister has pointed out to me once, are too busy even to hand out leaflets on preventive health care. Upgrading of the polyclinics will pose a challenge to the GPs sooner or later. And here the MOH can consider a scheme for the GPs to upgrade their own facilities in return for ensuring that GPs actively promote preventive health care. Perhaps even the Skills Development Fund can play a role by retraining staff and provide such facilities as video terminals and other computer aids in GP clinics. The biggest problem, of course, is to get the GPs to be involved and one way perhaps will be to allow the use of Medisave for visits to GP clinics. Sir, the other equally important concern which I have is that so far very little attention is given to geriatric medicine. The aged as a whole must be regarded as a handicapped group or "at risk" group. There are many facets to their problems, like loss of family, social contacts, isolation that breeds depression and even alcoholism. Then there is loss of income, leading to less nutritional food and even medical care. Often, the aged find that minor disabilities lead to an inability to carry out daily living activities. Added to all this, some GPs handle their elderly patients in a cursory manner, leading to the repeat prescription type consultation which simply means that the elderly do not get the attention they warrant. Sir, the MOH must formulate a national plan for geriatric service with a view to establishing, firstly, an "at risk" register. They should also collect and collate information on the aged, conduct epidemiological studies on geriatric diseases, coordinate health education, train and reorientate medical students and medical practitioners and promote preventive geriatric medicine. There must also be an aggressive public programme for the elderly where the primary aims must be to get the elderly to understand that ageing is not a disease, promote healthy lifestyles and recognise the importance of periodic health screening. The elderly must also be in a position to recognise disability and symptoms of diseases and ask for help. Sir, a screening programme for the aged is vital, but it will be difficult to implement because of the cost factor. One way would be for the MOH to allow the use of Medisave from which GPs can get payment for treating geriatric patients. The GPs would have to maintain a register of patients assigned to them and provide follow ups periodically. Unless there is such a scheme, MOH will not be able to get GPs involved or committed to treating geriatrics, and that would be a shame for we all recognise that Singapore has a greying population.

( In Mandarin): Sir, I would like to bring to your attention a problem which has caused concern among many people, ie, the increasing number of students wearing spectacles. I remember when I was in primary school, if one wore spectacles he would be the butt of ridicule and teased as "4-eyed" or "Doctor of Philosophy". Today, the wearing of glasses is so common that even Primary 1 students are bespectacled. I also note that many of our MPs are wearing spectacles and I myself have been wearing glasses for more than 30 years. I hope that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education will set up a special committee to look into the causes of this increase, find out the root of this problem and put forward remedial measures to correct such abnormal trends. I am aware that the Ministry of Health has implemented a dental care programme in all primary schools. Under the programme, students are taught correct techniques in tooth brushing and "hands on" sessions are conducted for students in the lower primary levels. As a result, our students have acquired the correct techniques for tooth brushing and the standard of dental care of students has been raised. If the Minister for Health could also adopt a similar programme for eye care, I am sure it would greatly help to alleviate the problem of poor vision among students. I hope the Minister for Health as well as the Minister for Education would also take into consideration the following factors which affect the students' vision adversely: (1) The growth of surrounding trees and shrubs around the school could cause present lighting in the classrooms to become insufficient. (2) To consider the installation of light sensor system in the classrooms which would signify automatically when the light level is insufficient. (3) As an aid to eye care, tables and chairs with adjustable height to suit students of different stature and build should be provided in the classrooms. (4) Educating our students to acquire good habits while watching TV or reading. (5) Consider the standard of print size used in school texts and supplementary materials. (6) It is also important to conduct regular check-ups on the eyesight of students and ensure that they are wearing spectacles with the appropriate power. (7) To provide more theatrettes or curtains in the classrooms with the increased use of audio-visual equipment such as overhead projectors and slide projectors. These would help prevent unnecessary strain on the eyesight of the students. I therefore hope the Ministry of Health would implement an eye-care programme in addition to the existing dental care programme in order to correct this unhealthy trend of poor vision among our students.

Dr Koh Lam Son unfortunately was not here yesterday when we discussed the health care services for the elderly as well as our discussion on preventive health care and health promotion. I disagree with him a bit about the lack of effort on the part of the Ministry to promote primary health care during the last few years. In fact, I would say that it was during the last few years that we saw the new generation of polyclinics being completed. We can see these very well constructed polyclinics in places like Jurong, Tampines and recently in Hougang. And within the next five years, by the year 1994, five more new polyclinics will be developed. If the 16 polyclinics are not enough, we are prepared to look into other areas where there is a need. We have also done quite a bit by way of health education and health promotion. Our Department of Training and Health Education produces quite a large number of pamphlets and we have also educational materials in the form of video tapes. GPs would be welcome to borrow them. They could be loaned free of charge. The pamphlets are given out free of charge and they could become excellent materials in the waiting rooms for the general practitioners' patients while they are waiting to see the doctors. Health screening for senior citizens has also started in our polyclinics. While the number we screened last year was 4,700, we aim to reach about 5,000 next year. I hope he would also appreciate the fact that health screening for our senior citizens is given completely free. If the senior citizens had gone to GPs, they have to pay a fee. But I do concede that we should try to do more in this area and make it an annual screening exercise to follow up on the elderly patients. In fact, health care services for the elderly will be one of the priorities that the Review Committee will be looking into. We would definitely look at the question of health care services for the elderly. 1.45 pm On the question of Medisave as an enabling condition for the general practitioners to see geriatric patients, I am a little bit disappointed. If the general practitioners do not want to see geriatric patients unless they are given the facilities of Medisave, I think this is not right. Medisave is really meant for hospitalisation. It is mainly for the hospitalisation needs of the elderly. Yet for general screening and periodic checkups by the GPs, Medisave is not really used for that purpose. Moving to the question of eye care programme, Mr Peh has spotted a rather common health problem among the Singapore school children. In fact, defective vision is the most common health problem among our school children. Statistics show that as the children progress in school, the prevalence of defective vision seems to get worse. I have some interesting figures here. In 1989, 12% of the Primary 1 students were found to have defective vision, 47% of the Primary 6 students had defective vision, and 54% at the Secondary 4 level had defective vision. The greatest majority of this is short-sightedness. Interestingly, 10% is long-sightedness, and the remainder is said to have "lazy eye". We do not know exactly what is the cause of short-sightedness. So I am not able to answer Mr Peh's point whether it is due to the environment or something in the genetic make-up of a certain proportion of the population. But we do know that myopia can be precipitated by prolonged close vision work such as reading and watching TV. With the objective of controlling and ameliorating the situation, my Ministry has a programme of checking the eye-sight of students. In fact, we have had a vision checking service for a long time at certain levels of primary and secondary schools. But since 1989, we have extended this service to annual vision checking and screening for all the school children at all the levels, both in primary and secondary schools. If a student is found to have defective vision, he or she would be referred to the Institute of Health for further eye testing. This is especially at the Primary 1 level. Students at other levels are referred to the optician for spectacles. I do not think we should be self-congratulatory, but, statistically speaking, if you check more and the children are found to have defective vision, then more are referred to the opticians, and, of course, more students would be wearing glasses. That is good for them. They should start wearing glasses early. But this is a problem. We recognise the problem. We have given guidelines to the Ministry of Education on the lighting and furniture requirements for classrooms, the selection of blackboards and the colour of chalk to be used, the print size, the colour of print and paper, and the texture of paper for the textbooks. We will work more closely with the Ministry of Education and the Public Works Department to ensure that the guidelines are followed. With that, I thank the Member for his concern.

Point of clarification. Sir, I want to correct the Minister of State when she said I was not here yesterday. I was in fact here all the time yesterday, right behind her, listening to every word she said about preventive health care, and I still disagree with what she said. She mentioned about the upgrading of polyclinics. I did not argue with her on that. I only said that it is well and good but the polyclinics will only serve 30% of the population. And if you are talking about preventive health care, you are talking of reaching out to the masses, to the 100% of the masses, if possible. She said just now that for the first year of the health screening programme, the number they could screen was 4,000 and next year they hope to screen 5,000. That is 5,000 out of so many thousands. If we are talking about 8% of the population aged 60 and above, we are talking somewhere in the region of about 200,000. The other point is about Medisave and she said that she would be surprised that GPs would only treat geriatric patients if they can claim from Medisave. I did not say that. What I said was, if you want to encourage the GPs to practise preventive health care, in other words, to change their style of practice, because preventive health care is time consuming and at the moment GPs are not interested in practising preventive health care, we should allow Medisave to be used for preventive health care.

My apologies to the Member for Telok Blangah, because I could not see that he was sitting behind me. I wrongly assumed he was absent because he did not speak on his amendment on hospital services. I do appreciate the fact that health screening for the elderly is not seen to be reaching to his target yet. But I do hope the Member will have a bit more patience with us. We just started the health screening programme not too long ago. We have to reach out. We would strengthen this arm of the programme.

The Minister of State has not answered my suggestion of having a senior health service, like the maternal and child health service, in the polyclinics.

I beg your pardon. At our polyclinics, we have had senior citizens' health care centres for quite a while. Within the Ministry, we have the Department of Health Services for the Elderly and we work very closely with the Home Nursing Foundation at the polyclinic level. There, we actually have the premises and all kinds of facilities for them.

Sir, this debate can go on, but I would withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. The sum of $521,224,880 for Head P ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates. The sum of $466,063,100 for Head P ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates. Head R -

Sir, I beg to move, That the total sum to be allocated for Head R of the Main Estimates be reduced by $100. Sir, first I want to assume that two points are taken as givens. One is that the Government wishes to promote the arts and culture for various obvious reasons - to enhance the quality of life in Singapore, needed as part of a more affluent lifestyle in Singapore, as a necessary ingredient in preserving our cultural heritage, racial and religious harmony, as a bulwark against undesirable external forces, and so on. The second point is that the Government recognises that the arts and culture must be financially supported, not only by the community alone, but also by the Government. Sir, I have no disagreement on these two crucial points. But what I dispute is the manner in which the arts is being supported by the Government. Let me quote part of the Prime Minister's speech he made at the opening of the National Museum in November last year: 'Now that we have achieved our economic goals, we can spend some money on the finer things in life. We can build more art galleries, theatres and concert halls. We will bring in world class performances and exhibitions for Singaporeans to enjoy. At the same time, we will help Singaporeans to develop their own talents to the fullest.' Sir, there is nothing wrong with that, except that he also added a caveat, which was, and I quote: 'We can afford to do this only if the economy continues to grow steadily.' Sir, this is precisely what is wrong with the Government philosophy of financial support. Treating arts and culture as a luxury, supporting it only when there is spare cash, and letting it to be the first to lose its financing, perhaps even all its financing, at the first sign of trouble. Arts and culture cannot survive in such an environment. Financial support for it must be regular for it to flourish. That is why I am arguing for its own stable sources of finance. Sir, during the budget debate, I suggested the conversion of the remaining entertainment duty of 5% to an arts cess, and the diversion of 1/2% of the tourism cess to the Arts Council. It was summarily dismissed by the Finance Minister on the basis that revenue should not be linked with expenditure, or rather expenditure should not be linked with revenue, and that all revenue should go to the Consolidated Fund. Sir, I am aware of the arguments put forward by the Minister for Finance, but I was not suggesting such a linkage. I am suggesting that since the amount is only $7 million he abolishes the entertainment duty altogether. But at the same time he allows the Ministry of Information and the Arts to impose a 5% arts cess on entertainment, similar to the tourism cess. However, if the Finance Minister feels that the Consolidated Fund cannot afford to lose this amount of $7 million, then keep the entertainment duty at 5%. But, nevertheless, allow the cess to be imposed over and above the entertainment duty. In any event, lest the Finance Minister still feels that my suggestion contravenes the holy grail of public finance, let me give three instances where versions of my suggestion are today being practised. There is the tourism cess and it goes to the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board. The TV and Radio licences go to the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. The export levy on garments goes to the Trade Development Board. Sir, there are more, but I think these examples are adequate to show that the concept of an arts cess is not a linkage, but it is in fact being practised right now in various Government bodies. So why reject it on that basis? The point is that the proposed Arts Council needs adequate funds to carry out its functions. Sure, it can solicit funds from the public, from the private sector, from well-wishers. But would such donations be adequate? If the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board can have its Tourist Promotion Fund, if the Trade Development Board can have its Trade Development Fund, why can the Arts Council not have its Arts Promotion and Development Fund? Sir, perhaps the Government can consider giving an endowment fund to the Arts Council, like Edusave, for example. In the context of Singapore in the next lap, is proper and adequate funding for the arts and culture any less important than those for tourism, trade and broadcasting? If the aesthetic arguments for better financial support of the arts are not strong enough, perhaps I can just be as hard-headed, and let me advance two economic arguments. I hope economics will succeed where aesthetics have failed. One is that such funding could be viewed as supporting an infant industry. Looking at the arts industry in London and New York, I see no reason why Singapore cannot be a major arts centre if we put our minds to it. We have a rich heritage of Asia's major cultures right here in Singapore. We are in the midst of a culturally rich area - Indonesian, Thai, Filipino, Malay, and so on. Already, more than four million tourists visit our shores annually. Sir, all the necessary ingredients for the promotion of arts as an exportable industry are here. Financial support given now should be considered as supporting an infant industry. If properly nurtured, such support could reap huge dividends in the future. Sir, the other is the role of arts in the economy of a modern industrial nation. As Prof. John Kenneth Galbraith, a prominent economist, has said, "Artistic achievement has become essential for other and more orthodox industrial development." Sir, in this context, I can do no better than to continue to quote from the Professor, and he said: 'The basic point is a simple one. It applies to the widest range of industrial products. After things work well, people want them to look well. After utility, comes design. And design depends not alone on the availability of artists. It evokes depth and quality of the whole artistic tradition. It is on these that industrial success comes to depend.' Sir, as our industries move from contract manufacturing to making our own Singaporean designs, brands, labels and products, I hope the Government quickly realises the importance of an artistic base to our industrial programme. Sir, I have advanced both aesthetic and economic reasons why arts should be supported, not according to the whims and fancies of the Consolidated Fund, but with a firm and strong financial base of its own. Hence, my appeal for an arts cess and part of the tourism cess. I hope the Acting Minister for Information and the Arts agrees with me, and likewise, convinces his Cabinet colleagues. Sir, if arts and culture are to flower as envisaged, we, unfortunately, cannot afford to ignore the question of censorship. Singapore was never an island in terms of influences by the arts, culture and information from abroad. With increased literacy, affluence and travel, many Singaporeans are now exposed to more liberal lifestyles and attitudes. The current censorship parameters need to change. 2.00 pm The Minister has on several occasions mentioned the need to broaden our censorship boundaries with particular reference to film censorship. May I ask him to provide this House with more details, including those not related to films. For example, would videotapes be also similarly classified? If so, will enforcement be a problem? Should the Government be too concerned because parents can also exercise their right of censorship? Another example, what about books and publications and magazines?

Sir, I would like to touch on the issue of cultural development. Sir, in the Addendum to the President's Address, the Acting Minister states that the Government "will preserve and develop our rich multi-cultural heritage". I think this is a very reassuring statement. But this general statement falls short of addressing the question - what approach should we take? Personally, I strongly believe that evolving a Singaporean identity and preserving our multi-cultural heritage should go hand in hand. These two are not mutually exclusive. This is the so-called unity in diversity approach. In case there are still people who do not understand what it means, I think Swizterland is a living example. In fact, the Swiss do not even have a common language, because for each major community, there is their mother tongue as first language in schools. But there is no doubt that the Swiss have over the years evolved their own common identity. In Chinese, I use the term " " (Cun yi qiu tong), that means, "seeking common ground while reserving our differences". Sir, I think we have to face reality. It is just not possible to do away with our ethnic differences overnight, not even decades or generations. We have to take cognizance of these differences - accept them and be tolerant to each other and, at the same time, make efforts to seek common ground. The White Paper on Shared Values did just that. Sir, the debate on what approach we should take in our future cultural development has been going on for quite sometime now. On an issue which is of great importance to us, I think it is only right that all viewpoints should have full airing both inside and outside this House. But there are also undesirable side-effects, one of which is that many who are concerned, such as the organisers of the various cultural months last year, are now left in a state of uncertainty, if not confusion. The question is where should we go from here. Clearly, a consensus need to be forged, and many Singaporeans are looking towards the Ministry for some directions.

Sir, on the question of cultural development, we hear yet again the advocacy of the approach - unity in diversity. I have tried to explain that we should move away from that approach which to me means the path of separate development. While we encourage each community to promote its culture, its language, its religion, yet at the same time we should try to promote understanding, respect and harmony. And I do not think we can achieve this, Sir, by continuing this path of so-called unity in diversity or the path of separate development. If we do so, I fear that we remain separate rather than coming together. I have said earlier, Sir, that maybe it is time to think of the approach which may be modified to what I have called "unity in togetherness". Let's get together - the different cultures performing their separate cultures but together before a multi-racial audience. That is the reason I have opposed very strongly the holding of separate cultural months for each community. Who goes to the Chinese Cultural Month? Mainly Chinese. Who goes to the Indian Cultural Month? Mainly Indians. Who goes to the Malay Cultural Month? Mainly Malays. So I do not know whether that approach would encourage more understanding, more respect. I think it is something that we have to seriously look into. Sir, coming to the amendment, it is also relevant to what I have just said, that is, this approach of separate development. In the Addendum to the President's Speech, it is stated that the Ministry of Information and the Arts, and I quote, "will help the different communities develop their own heritage centres in ways which promote mutual understanding and national unity". Here again, the path of separate development. I would like to ask the Acting Minister three questions in connection with that statement. Firstly, what is the rationale for having different heritage centres - each for the Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians? We have four separate communities. What is the rationale for having one heritage centre for each community? Secondly, how will the four different heritage centres promote mutual understanding and national unity, especially taking the point that I have just made, that the bulk of people who go to the separate heritage centres will be mainly from that community? And my last question, Sir, is: Will the Acting Minister say whether there is any plan to build a national heritage centre in which all the four communities will be represented?

( In Mandarin): Sir, 30 years ago, the four dragons of East Asia were economic nonentities. Today, their products have penetrated the world market. Economic miracles do not happen by chance. In these countries, education is a top priority. Drawing on their cultural heritage and working hard, they have overcome adverse economic conditions and made significant inroads into the global market. But social order and a thriving culture have not been the corollary of economic progress. In South Korea, corruption is rife and strike action, common. In Taiwan, get-rich-quick materialism, chicanery and horsetrading, environmental pollution and social chaos prevail. As 1997 approaches, Hongkongers quail in unease. Those who can, leave whilst the remainder lose themselves in betting and interminable mahjong sessions. Clearly we enjoy more promising circumstances. Yet we should avoid complacency and confront long-term trends boldly. English has been adopted as our working language in our collective quest for survival and an enduring livelihood, since it is the language of science and technology, international trade and diplomacy. Our proficiency in English has attracted considerable foreign investment by MNC to Singapore. This is commendable. At the same time, Western influence is burgeoning. The American media emphasises high consumption and personal enjoyment. In recent years, the concept of the nuclear family has come under siege in the West. Mrs Brown this year is Mrs Smith the next. Divorce rates have hit unprecedented highs. In addition, welfarism has engendered a sense of dependence and eroded the will to work. Young people have taken to drugs and alcohol and live on the dole. Small wonder that productivity has declined and competitiveness diminished. Of course, it cannot be said that Western culture is utterly bankrupt. Their technology, management know-how, democratic spirit and rule of law as well as creativity and an empirical seeking of the truth are all qualities worthy of emulation. In December last year, the Acting Minister referred to Professor Joseph Needham of Cambridge University, author of the series "Science and Civilisation of China". Professor Needham devoted over 60 years of his life to his magnum opus which has since become the definitive work on the subject. The vibrant cultural scene in the West has witnessed new attainments in drama, fine arts, music and literature. Mr Alastair Cooke of the BBC noted that classical concert audiences in USA each year regularly outnumbered spectator attendance at American football games. This testifies to the vigour of the arts in the United States. We are a multi-cultural society and a meeting point for East and West. Therefore, we should acquire the best of both worlds. No less important, of course, is the preservation of our cultural heritage. The debate on whether the various festivals should be held in different months is a minor issue. The main thing is that we should seek strengths in the cultures of both East and West and at the same time preserve our own culture. In order to do so, we must first understand our own cultural heritage. With a thorough understanding of our own culture, we will treasure it and develop it further rather than rejecting or discarding it. Therefore, we should rid ourselves of the prejudice against our mother tongue. We should not think that the mother tongue is difficult to learn. The difficulty of learning a language is no great problem if it is an integral part of our lives. For example, the Malays have no problem learning their language becuase it is something they use every day. In fact, in the Chinese community, there are more families speaking Mandarin and dialects than those speaking other languages. Those who have complained about the study of the mother tongue are the professionals who are few in number but shrill of voice. Perhaps they are like the character in "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll who said "What I say three times is true". We know that the issues of culture and the arts are long term concerns. Consensus has yet to be reached on how best to tackle these issues. The Acting Minister by no means lacks verve and vigour and is au fait with matters both military and cultural. I understand that at university, he read Das Kapital from cover to cover. Not only was he a top Engineering student, he has acquired a profound understanding of history, culture and the arts. Our students would do well to follow his example. Under his leadership, Singapore will strive to attain a richer and more varied cultural life.

Mr Chairman, Sir, thank you for allowing me to join in the debate. During the Gulf War, President Bush asked his aide to call President Ozal Turgut of Turkey. The Turkish leader picked up the phone, he heard President Bush and nodded. He understood what the US leader had in mind because he had seen Mr Bush making his speech over the TV. Information is power. It is also an asset. In the same War, both the USA and the coalition forces and Iraq applied strict censorship on news and information flow through the electronic and print media. This was done to protect the success of their military operations and as propaganda. In this respect, free flow of information became a liability, thus being ruled as undesirable. Cynics may be quick to repeat the cliche that "truth became the first victim of war". But this is the reality in life. This indeed is another lesson that we learn from the Gulf War. Singaporeans were fortunate to have the CNN brought into their living rooms. They were able to follow closely developments in the Gulf War. For businessmen, such direct and rapid flow of information is crucial. It could mean saving million of dollars. But Singaporeans were also able to tune on to RTM, some to TV3, which offered to cover the same Gulf War. They saw different things flashed on their TV screens. The impact was different. This is yet another lesson that we could learn: that trans-national flow of information will bring different impact, even to the most discerning minds. Sir, forgive me for taking such a long time to illustrate my point. Like many Singaporeans, I join them in thanking the Ministry in its effort to allow the CNN telecast into Singapore and its subsequent extension, albeit on a limited number of hours, after the War has ended. We are also thankful to the sponsors. But the question now is: will we be able to continuously benefit from this telecast? And if it is so, for how long and in what form? Will we allow the use of satellite dish publicly and thus allowing other satellite based trans-national broadcasting stations to be received here? Answering such questions means requiring us to re-examine the basic consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of practising an "open air" policy on information flow. Sir, our GPC had deliberated on this issue and in my opinion, there is merit in bringing in such broadcasts and the TVRO even into Singapore. But there must be a sufficient check and balance system so that such flow of information could be regulated, thus fulfilling our unique domestic conditions. Setting up a cable TV to be run either by the SBC or, better still, by a competitor could be one of the ways and allowing the use of TVRO is another. Individuals or institutions wishing to use such services could then pay for their need. In this way, Singaporeans are able to benefit from greater access to information flow and, at the same time, have the control mechanism should the need arise. In this respect, I would like to ask the Minister whether he would care to elaborate on his Ministry's short and long-term policies on information flow.

Mr Chairman, Sir, information flow is a vast issue. In the few minutes I have, I would like to confine myself to problems of perception and some possible responses. In this House a few days ago, on the issue of local wages, Mr Goh Chee Wee took the median point. Rebutting, the Finance Minister gave the mean. Later, Mr Goh argued that the raw data was skewed. The Labour Minister analyzed sub-sets. Three clear-minded people saw the same basic information in quite different ways. In an information age, problems of perception become more acute and I shall highlight three factors: (1) sources of information become numerous and diverse; (2) information flow volume and velocity greatly increase; and (3) technology to capture information is decentralised. The effects of these can be deduced. For example, as Encik Yatiman alluded to earlier, innocuous words from a different social context may raise a storm elsewhere. Instant images evoke volatile emotions because the intellect has less time to operate. Fax and computer modems allow individuals to become parallel importers of information. This is the dilemma MITA must face. If we shut our doors, how will we become a developed society, tapping the information resources of a modern world? If we throw them open, how can we, to paraphrase one source, prevent the distortion of our political process, the corruption of our young, and the havoc on our education and public character? For example, can our communitarian shared values survive the onslaught of a libertarian information policy? In responding to this dilemma, we have to balance the need to preserve our national security and prosperity with the need to give our citizens more choices and more intellectual space. I believe the key is the progressive training of our people to safely cross the busy roads of liberty. Towards this, may I offer, in conclusion, three suggestions: (1) Government should increasingly adopt a hands-off policy in censorship in the various media and entrust responsible and respected citizens with this task, intervening only when absolutely necessary; (2) remove the inhibitions of our own experts in the various fields to participate in the media and encourage them to help analyze and interpret the plethora and rapidity of confusing events and trends for our locals; and (3) review commercial monopoly in our newspaper industry whatever its advantages, and see, for example, if the time is now right to promote a second serious indigenous English Language newspaper. For this last suggestion, to forestall a misperception, I must clarify immediately that I do not intend to join Mr Davinder Singh's quarrel with the New Paper.

Mr Chairman, Sir, I would like to thank Members for their encouraging words, their advocacy of the Ministry's position and for some very thoughtful criticisms. Let me first address Mr Heng Chiang Meng's points. He talked about our overall approach and philosophy towards the subvention of the arts. He said it should not be seen as a luxury. It should be seen as an integral part of our total social and economic development. I fully agree with him. But I think he has misinterpreted the Prime Minister's speech at the re-opening of the National Museum. The Prime Minister's concern was that it is possible to waste money on the arts. It is possible to spend too much money on things which are beyond the ken and understanding of our own people. I think it is a necessary caveat because it is very easy to recommend more money to be spent especially when it is someone else's money. But coming back, in the long term, for arts to be placed on a sustainable basis, it must somehow strengthen our society, promote social cohesion, uplift the morale of the people and be woven into the economic fabric. I read recently an article in the Economist about the importance of design in this decade and in the next century in the manufacture of products and in the provision of services. The main point made in the article was that it should no longer be a specialist function to be farmed out to someone else. For companies to do well in this next phase of global competition, the CEO himself must internalise these design considerations. An interesting example was given about the design of an electric shaver. On the side were ribs and someone thought that the ribs were there purely for aesthetic reasons. But they were not, because they help in the grip. Also they found out that by having those ribs, you will be able to use a lower quality plastic which saved the manufacturer a lot of money. Here, because the manufacturers and the marketeers thought together, they were able to combine the fit, form and function into the product and make it better. 2.30 pm So whether you are Singapore Airline or a Japanese restaurant or in any of the service industries, it is very important that all the way down from the CEO, creative elements, design, art are built into the system. I remember having a conversation once with the CEO of Fuji Sankei, the largest Japanese TV company, Mr Shikanai. He said that the way he operated is like the way MITA operates. They combine information and culture together. Because he felt that for industry of the future, for competition in the future, the more the two gets entwined together, the more competitive you become. So he says it is not hardware, it is not software, in the end it is heartware. You are appealing not just to function, you are appealing also to people's sensitivities. And I think this is the overall approach we should take towards the arts in Singapore, combining it into our economy, into our social life, so that it strengthens us in the long term, so that expenditure on the arts is no longer seen as consumption but as investment. I welcome the many proposals to finance the arts on a stable basis, so that it is not subject to the vicissitudes of the annual budgeting cycle. There are proposals to use cess, there are proposals for other modes of subvention. We should consider all of them and finally decide how best to put the arts on such a proper financial footing. But in the end, we should not just leave it to Government to subvent. Because if it is only Government financing, I think that will destroy the market. That will destroy artistic development in Singapore, because the Government will then adopt a dirigiste top-down approach, which means I know better than you, bureaucrats decide and there will be tremendous frustration on the ground. What we need is a kind of partnership between Government, corporations and individuals. Government should facilitate, Government should nudge, Government should apply a light touch, but never, never a heavy hand in the field of the arts. In the provision of infrastructure, Government will play a very decisive role. As you know, we are now embarking on a project to build a Performing Arts Centre on the shores of Marina Bay. That is a big ticket item which will cost us hundreds of millions of dollars. We also have a plan to build up the entire Museum precinct and to increase our Museum floor space ten-fold within 10-15 years. These are enormous projects which are difficult for the private sector, corporations and individuals' to subvent. So those the Government will undertake as part of its investment in the people of Singapore. As regards support of theatres, particular shows, I think here there should be equal partnership. Government can help by providing IPC status, by tax subventions, by tax deductibility, by initial contributions to endowments and so on. But there should be an equal participation by individuals and by corporations. I think that is the surest way and the best way to ensure a healthy development of the arts in Singapore. On the point of censorship, I mentioned earlier in the debate on the Presidential Address that we will be introducing a film classification system. I can now tell the House that we will implement it as from 1st July. It is a simple system of classification. Basically, we will have a general category which is the kind of films that we now have. Over and above that, we have a restricted category which should be much like restricted categories in other countries in the world. But there will be no X-films. I think however we relax, we must maintain certain minimum standards against pornography, against excessive violence and against themes which inflame racial and religious hatred in Singapore. As to how exactly to establish these benchmarks, I have asked Prof. Tommy Koh and he has agreed to chair a committee to advise the Government on how we should reorganise ourselves and how we should establish standards for ourselves. In this exercise, he will engage the participation of many Singaporeans, some in the committee, some through public representations, so that as many of us as possible are involved in this process of deciding what our own moral standards should be. Mr Heng Chiang Meng also asked whether we will classify video tapes. This is a difficult business. In some countries they do it. In some countries they do not. I will leave that to Prof. Koh's committee to recommend. And he will also recommend on how we should review the censorship procedures and criteria for books, publications, performances, magazines and so on. Mr Goh Choon Kang talked about the confusion on the ground as to the approach MITA would take towards cultural development. Let me assure him that we will adopt the approach of unity in diversity. Let there be no doubts about it. And here I would like to disagree somewhat with Dr Lau Teik Soon as to his approach, because I think our ancestral roots are very important to us, and very important for the strength and future development of our nation. I like the emblem of the Singapore Heritage Society which is a big bushy tree but with equally big and deeply penetrating roots, the metaphor being that the more you want the tree to flourish and to grow, the deeper its roots must be. And we are drawn from ancestral cultures which go back thousands of years. So these are very deep roots. Yes, we are growing Singaporean roots and our national institutions are all founded on the idea of a single Singaporean nation. But these are short and shallow roots, no more than 25 years, and they will be subject to stresses and strains. So I would be very wary about too quickly saying that those old roots are not good and we can cut them off. I say we leave them where they are, we water them, we nurture them. If some bits die and wither, let them die and wither. But the main branch roots, I say we preserve them for what they are. Because although intangible, they provide an unquenchable source of strength to a people. Let me give an example in the case of Chinese civilisation. When the Chinese fought the Japanese in the 30s, and there was ruin and despair all around, the rickshaw puller, the hawker, the pedlar, even the beggar, despite all that went on around him, never doubted the superiority of his culture and his civilisation. Mind you, this is all myth, because nothing around them could justify such optimism. But it was there deep inside them and it kept them going despite the privations and the difficulties. And in the end, it was that spirit which galvanised the nation together and which in the end enabled China to get rid of Japan. So in times of stress, in times of difficulty, these deep roots, which appear sometimes to be hard and gnarled, are very important. Therefore, I say MITA's approach should be not at all to strangle these roots or to cut them off, but to nurture them. And particularly the community itself, since they want to nurture these roots, I say we should encourage them. It is for this reason that I encourage the establishment of heritage centres. This will complement what the National Museum will do to strengthen Singaporean history and the Singaporean identity. In this way, we have a proper balance between the centre and the periphery, from the grassroots' interest to preserve ethnic heritage and so on and at the centre, building up national institutions, so that with each passing year the Singaporean roots get longer and longer. And maybe after decades, after generations, then those roots may be able - I am not sure - to supplant our ancestral roots. How long that will take, we do not know. But let us take it decade by decade and let us not weaken our society unnecessarily. Of course, what Dr Lau recommended with respect to having more multi-cultural events, catering to more multi-cultural audiences, that we should do. And that in fact we do all the time, particularly when the event is ceremonial and symbolic in nature. I think it is very important that we not only should be fair but we should be seen to be fair. Then everyone feels better about himself. But you cannot have too many ceremonies in life. It gets very tiresome. Sometimes you attend a show or you go to a restaurant to enjoy yourself. And you insist that it is all mixed and that everyone has his quota. It subtracts from the sense of being natural, from the enjoyment of the event. So I would propose that we take a more relaxed approach and say, "Okay, where it is important, where it concerns the whole nation, where it is symbolic and ceremonial, let us make a show of being together. But where it is private, where it is community-based, let there be diversity." And it is not just all Chinese coming together and all Indians coming together and all Malays coming together. Among the Chinese, the clans and so on, they may or may not wish to get together. The Teochews I know are very keen on having a cultural centre with respect to their new Ngee Ann City. The clan associations are also keen on having something collective. They should decide what they want, because in the end they should only preserve and sustain what they feel comfortable with. Among the Indians too, it is a very complicated business because far less than the Chinese, there is much less of a historical basis for a common sense of being Indian. There is a strong sense of being Tamil or being Malayalee or being Punjabi, but there is no strong sense of being Indian. Here again, it is for the Indian community to decide and not for MITA or for any Government agency to try to impose its views upon the others. In the end, Sir, I think in Singapore we have a high political ideal which is that we do not insist on any Singaporean having to choose between his ancestry and being Singaporean. You can be Jew, Parsi, Arab, whatever, but you can be that and be Singaporean at the same time. And here in Singapore, unlike in many other countries, you are allowed to maintain your own shrine, your own cultural temple, your synagogues, your clan associations, your SAP schools, your mosque centres, whatever, it does not matter. But here in Singapore you can have your own and still be Singaporean, of course, with the proviso that whatever you nurture should not tear us apart, but should bring us together. I think that really is at the heart of Dr Lau Teik Soon's concern, that while we nurture our ancestral roots, in the end they should all be supporting one common tree which is Singapore, and not be tearing us apart. So I think that is the caveat, that is the concern which we should not dismiss lightly but should always bear in mind even as we make sure that we promote unity in diversity. Mr Lau Ping Sum gave a very interesting exposition of the relationship between East and West and how East and West should learn from each other. I am in complete agreement with him that there must be no excessive stereotyping of each other's strengths and weaknesses, that every culture, every civilization, has its strong and its weak points. It is an approach which we should take in culture and in the arts. Personally, I am confident that in the end we will remain Asian, that in the end the Asian spirit will prevail and triumph, that whatever Westernization we see is superficial and will blow away. Of course, in the process, we absorb what is good in the West. But others, maybe like those in the Chinese newspapers, feel much more anxiety. Maybe they are right. But whatever the tactics involved, our strategic perspective must be one of an objective assessment that throughout human history East and West have been learning from each other. Can I here correct him that I have never read Das Kapital from front to back? I did try to go through it as an undergraduate. I think I read more than the first page which was what Harold Wilson claimed that he only did. But I certainly could not muster the energy to finish it. Let me take the point about mother tongue which was raised by Mr Lau Ping Sum. I fully agree with him that we should support and promote the use of the mother tongue, because it is an important part of our culture and heritage. It is the sap which runs through the root that we are trying to preserve. You take away the sap, that root will die. Yes, by all means, promote the mother tongue. Do it in a way which enables people to learn it more easily. I do not think it is true that it is not difficult. I think it is difficult, particularly for adults, to learn CL2, or EL2 for that matter. And we should not downplay the difficulty because if we downplay the difficulty, we ignore the difficulty, we will make things more difficult for people. What we can do is to make it livelier and not be too tense, too mono-dimensional in the way we teach the mother tongue. Make use of music, make use of the karaoke, make use of art forms, make use of comic books, to make learning a language more fun, more interesting, so that our promotion of it will be more effective, and not less effective. This, in fact, is the approach that we will take for the Speak Mandarin campaign this year, to make it livelier, in order to promote it more vigorously and more enthusiastically. But here, with respect to the Speak Mandarin campaign, I think we have to increasingly reckon with the fact that an important target now is no longer the older generation, but the EL1 Chinese Singaporeans. They are the ones at whom our campaign should increasingly be targeted, because they are the ones who are at risk of losing the use of their mother tongue. If you look at the Primary 1 entrance statistics, increasingly, children come not from dialect-speaking homes, but from Mandarin-speaking homes. But the proportion of students coming from English-speaking homes is rising very rapidly. So I would say that, yes, in the past our preoccupation was with less dialect, more Mandarin. I would say that in the future we should, in addition to that, also worry about how we can encourage EL1 Singaporeans to retain the use of the mother tongue. With respect to that, I have discussed this with Mr Ho Kah Leong, my Senior Parliamentary Secretary, and he will include EL1 Members in his Speak Mandarin Campaign Committee so that we know whom we are marketing the campaign to. MITA is not only promoting the Chinese language. We are promoting all languages, all mother tongues. We support Bulan Bahasa and we intend to increase the support of Bulan Bahasa this year. But, of course, for the Malays, the issue is not really the use of Malay as a mother tongue, because Malay is being used as a mother tongue among Malays in Singapore, but how to use it in the standardised way, or what is called Bahasa Baku. In the case of Tamil, here I think we need more discussion with the Indian community, because if we promote Tamil in Singapore it will divide the Indian community. So we have to think through this very carefully and decide in the end whether we should be promoting the use of Tamil. And if so, we may have to promote the use of Punjabi, Malayalam, Telugu and so on. But I would not want to rush this. I would say that when the Indian community in Singapore is ready, MITA will be ready to support them. But, of course, finances being limited, we will have to give more support to the official languages than to the non-official languages. In the years ahead, it would be better if we engage more the enthusiasm of the communities involved by requiring them also to provide some part of the resources needed to conduct such campaigns. Mr Yatiman and Prof. Choo talked about the information age and the new imperatives which technology is forcing upon all of us. We cannot avoid this field of battle. It has come upon us, regulations are being eroded by technology, we have to adjust and adapt in order that our position can be held. So even though we have been reviewing the policy on TVRO for some time, because of the Gulf War we have to move quickly. So we issued temporary TVRO licences to members of the financial community. MITA will now regularise the position and allow all institutions to apply for TVRO, and if they are supported by MAS or EDB, MITA will give them annual licences at a cost of $1,000 as from 1st May. In this way, we regularise the position. Ministries and statutory boards recommended by their Ministries will also be allowed. In this way, we make sure that the information needs of the business community and of Government are fully met. For hotels and households, it is a more complicated matter because it involves values, it involves entertainment. And I do not think we should be too quick to say, "Let's open up to everything and be prepared to accept anything." Imagine, if one day, someone were to put a porno channel up there and all Singaporeans are able to receive it, is that good for us or is that not good for us? I know that one day it may not be possible to regulate, but for as long as it is possible to regulate, I would say let us have some control in place. But for these controls to be workable, we must ensure that we widen the choices for Singaporeans. So we are now embarking on a scheme to increase the number of channels available to Singaporeans. Many of them would be pay-channels so that we can meet the needs of specific segments of our community. Within a year, I would expect that we would be able to put up two or three UHF channels and later on we can move into microwave and into cable. So, in this way, for residence and for hotels, eventually we will provide them a range of channels more than they will ever need. But let us have some control in place and not too quickly, too peremptorily, open TVRO to all and sundry. I do not think that is wise, nor right now is it necessary. On Prof. Choo's point that we should have a second newspaper and take a more hands-off approach, I elaborated on this at some length during the debate on the Presidential Address that what we are involved in is the creation of an establishment that has an instinctive consciousness of what the core interests of Singapore are. If there is someone interested to start a second establishment newspaper in Singapore, I welcome it.

Mr Heng is not here to withdraw his amendment.

Question on the amendment put, and negatived.

Order. We will take the suspension now. Thereupon Mr Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House.

Order. I suspend the sitting and will take the Chair again at 3.15 pm. Sitting accordingly suspended at 2.53 pm until 3.15 pm. Sitting resumed at 3.15 pm

Debate in Committee of Supply resumed.

Head R (cont.) -

Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head R be reduced by $10 in respect of Code RA 1500 of the Main Estimates. Sir, since I have two subjects, could I take them together?

Yes.

Thank you. Sir, we are entering a new era, an era of rapid change. With it comes the need for rapid decision-making process on issues, some of which could be a matter of life and death to us. In this respect, Sir, there are two types of decision-making processes. First, one that is based on narrow knowledge but tipped with sheer power and authority. This is less desirable because not only it is less palatable but it also leaves many questions - some unanswered - in the minds of those affected by the decision. Second, one that takes into account views of the others. This style of decision-making process is more desirable and it is more in line with our new leadership style. For this reason, we encourage members of public and other opinion-makers to give their views and feedback from various channels available. Sir, in our effort to create the right environment for participatory democracy, views which we so earnestly solicited from the public are very much welcomed. Any view, be it in the form of perception or facts, is of great value to us. It helps in enhancing the quality of our decision-making work. However, views which are based on facts, obtained from a knowledgeable and well-informed person, tempered with wisdom, are of greatest value to us. Such views are often well-founded, well-balanced, rational and well-considered. Sir, in trying to achieve this desirable end, we are a bit handicapped by the lack of information, or rather great difficulty in obtaining them. During the debate on the Elected President, I was told of an incident in which our local press tried to obtain information on the number of companies with paid-up capital of more than $100 million from the Registrar of Companies and Businesses. Not only a long time was required to gather such information, the charge was $300. Sir, for Singaporeans to mature as a society, there should be more and readily available information. In this connection, I would like to ask the Ministry the following questions: (1) In view of rising need for public participation in our decision-making process, whether the Ministry would create an environment of greater openness among various Government Ministries in their information-sharing exercise. (2) Whether the existing arrangement of having Public Relations Officers is sufficient to meet the rising expectations and requirements. (3) How many Ministries are equipped with such PROs and whether such officers are senior enough in ranking to enable them to make quick and correct decision in releasing information? (4) If cost is involved for information to be made available, would the Ministry consider encouraging other Ministries to reduce, or better still, if possible, waive such cost? On the subject of Singapore's image abroad, Sir, I think we are quite familiar with the term "Ugly Americans" and in recent years, as the contacts with the Japanese increased, the term "Ugly Japanese" has also entered our list of mindset. As we ourselves become more developed and more successful in the field of economy and trade, there may exist similar perception among those whom we have contacts with. Sir, just like the Americans and the Japanese, much as we feel that the label "Ugly Singaporean" is not only grossly unjustified, unfair and extremely damaging, it is a development which requires our full attention. Sir, success breeds envy, superiority breeds contempt. Our success had made us one of the most misunderstood people in the world. We can only ignore them at our own peril. Sir, we have to strive to make our neighbours and the world understand the uniqueness of our society, our dreams and fear, our success and constraints. As our image abroad is often formed and coloured by foreign media and by the manner our citizens behave while abroad as tourists, students or business people, efforts to improve our image must cover these two areas. Sir, I am not about to suggest that we mount another campaign to educate our citizens on the do's and don'ts while they are abroad. For any social education to be effective and meaningful, we need a subtle, slow but continuous process. What I have in mind, Sir, is a piece of an extremely valuable tool for our PR. It is no other than the excellently crafted book "The Next Lap" produced by the Ministry. In it contained our heart and soul, our dreams and hopes, our fears and fragility, our vision, our successes and our limitations. Is the Ministry planning to use this book as one of our marketing tools to improve our image abroad? I certainly hope so. I believe that there are other similar publications which we can use to better our image abroad. In this respect, Sir, I would like to join my colleagues in this House to welcome the setting up of the Singapore International Foundation. This is yet another quantum leap in our endeavour to take a higher profile internationally and to improve our image. As the media, business groupings, officials of other countries and our citizens or former citizens living abroad are considered as important opinion-makers, they would, I hope, be included in our attempt to make others understand ourselves better. Over and above these, I would like to ask the Minister what else can the Government do to change or improve our image aborad.

Sir, I cannot agree more with Encik Yatiman Yusof when he said that information is essential in decision-making. In fact, MITA is working closely with other Ministries to ensure that greater openness is achieved in their information-sharing exercise. Sir, meetings of PROs from all Ministries are held on a regular basis to discuss work problems and to recommend solutions. As far as possible, MITA assists them in the area of public communication and facilitation from time to time. Training courses are arranged for PROs to help them meet the rising expectations of the society. Sir, the Member also asked how many Ministries are equipped with PROs and whether they are senior enough to make quick decisions. Let me inform the Member and the House that all Ministries are equipped with PROs. Some of the larger Ministries have even more than one PRO. By and large, these PROs are authorised to release information within their portfolios and they have direct access to the Permanent Secretary and senior officers. In the event that a quick and correct decision is needed, they may immediately consult their superior and give quick and correct responses. MITA will work with Ministries to develop this capability. Sir, I agree with the Member, wherever possible, Ministries should provide information which is readily available to the public without charge. However, some information sought by the public may require processing or laborious search through records. In such cases, an administrative fee may be levied. The example quoted by the Member falls under this category. MITA would, however, encourage other Ministries to reduce, if not waive, such fees. Sir, my Minister will now respond to Encik Yatiman Yusof regarding Singapore's image abroad.

Sir, Mr Yatiman's call to us to be concerned about our image abroad is very timely. I think in the next lap of our national development, we have to internationalise, which means more Singaporeans will have to work overseas, which means that there will be even more contacts with foreigners, both in Singapore and outside Singapore. Image is not just a matter of packaging. It is in the end what we are, because we cannot pretend to be what we are not. And even if we succeed for a while, after a while we will be found out. So the question of Singapore's image abroad is really a question about what we are, in essence, as Singaporeans. This is not just a problem for MFA, or MTI, or MITA, or any particular Government agency. I think it is a problem for all Singaporeans that we do not adopt double standards when we treat others, we respect them for what they are, and that we become, in effect, good citizens of the world. And in this regard, we have done a few things recently which I think had stood us well in the international community, like our contribution to the UN, like in Namibia, and our modest medical team to Riyadh. There will be many such occasions in the future for us to show that we are upright and full citizens of the world and that we undertake our share of responsibilities. This is very important because our entire strategy is founded on Singapore being a hub city, on Singapore being of use to other people. So if we are ugly, then surely others will not want to make use of us. We have to be charming, and the more charming we are, the better the facilities we provide, the more conveniences we offer to them and the stronger will our economic development be. So this is a matter of some importance. And the Singapore International Foundation would be established to help us achieve that. 3.30 pm I am happy to tell the House that Prof. Chan Heng Chee has agreed to be the Executive Director of the Foundation. The job of the Foundation will be to link up Singaporeans worldwide. Singaporeans who are now organising themselves in clubs and in associations, we will wire them together, keep them in touch with each other and with their home country and supply them with everything from "The Next Lap" to belachan or whatever. After a while, an instinct will develop that we are all part of a family and that we look after each other. This can be a very important asset. Of course, to do this, we must also ensure that we look after the education of children who live overseas. It is for this reason that we recently established a Singapore school in Hong Kong. But I would say that even in the other cities where there may not be that critical mass of Singaporeans we may have to look after some of the other educational needs, particularly in the learning of the mother tongue. This is something that we have to explore as we go along, solve problems as they crop up. "The Next Lap" has done quite well so far. Sales have been very brisk. We are now into our third run. 40,000 in the first run, 27,000 in the second, 25,000 in the third, and we may have to go on to a fourth, maybe 100,000 copies altogether, many of which will be distributed overseas, through Government agencies, through our missions, and by our businessmen. I think many of us have on our own sent the book to our own friends overseas. This is just one effort and we need many such efforts to answer the question on what else Government could do. In the end, it is not what Government could do but what all of us can do as Singaporeans because when we travel each and every one of us is an ambassador.

Sir, before I withdraw my amendment I would like to draw the attention of the House of this image of ugly Singaporeans when they are in Johor. We are quite well known for our tendency for queue-jumping while driving along the Causeway, littering and spitting. The more conscious we treat ourselves as what we are while we are abroad, the better it is for us. With that remark, I wish to thank the Minister and the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for their answers and I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

( In Mandarin): Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head R be reduced by $10 in respect of Code RB 1500 of the Main Estimates. Sir, the Speak Mandarin Campaign has entered its 12th year. This campaign has attained significant success. According to statistics in 1980, among Primary 1 students from Chinese families, 65% of them spoke dialects in the family and only 26% of them spoke Mandarin in the family. In 1987, 70% spoke Mandarin and only 7% of them spoke dialects in the family. However, during this period, there was a great increase in the number of people speaking English in the family, from 9% in 1980 to 23% in 1989. In this respect, as the Acting Minister has said, we have also to promote the mother tongue among the EL1 students of Singapore. Sir, for the Speak Mandarin Campaign to attain its success today, I think credit must be given to our senior citizens for making their contributions and sacrifice. At the same time, the departments concerned had also worked very hard. Unfortunately, in last year's campaign a certain slogan in English caused quite a storm in a tea cup. I believe some people may have some strong feelings towards this slogan. However, a number of them have responded with some rather specious arguments, particularly when they alleged that the Campaign was aimed at promoting Chinese as a working language at the place of work or that the Speak Mandarin Campaign would undermine our racial harmony. This argument is certainly fabricated and distorted. Most regrettably, even our SAP schools and Channel 8 of SBC were dragged in unnecessarily. I believe this storm has left some dark clouds hanging over last year's Speak Mandarin Campaign and some people are worried that the Speak Mandarin Campaign may be hindered because of this, and that the officers concerned may be demoralized. I hope that the Minister can give us an assurance that the efforts in this campaign will not be relaxed and I also like to take this opportunity to urge the Speak Mandarin Campaign Committee to work harder and strive for better progress, and do not be discouraged by this little setback last year. I also hope that Channel 8 of SBC would produce more exciting and interesting Chinese programmes because Channel 8 of SBC has played a very important role in our Speak Mandarin Campaign, especially the SBC News in Chinese - a programme I watch every night. It helps me to improve my Mandarin.

Mr Chairman, Sir, let me assure Mr Goh that there will be no let-up in Government's support for the Speak Mandarin Campaign. This is a campaign which we will need for many more years to come. It is part of Government's overall policy to support and promote the use of the mother tongue. Indeed we will support it even more enthusiastically in the future.

( In Mandarin): Sir, I thank the Minister for the assurance and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

( In Mandarin): Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head R be reduced by $10 in respect of Code RC 1500 of the Main Estimates. What I am going to talk about now concerns the honouring or recognition of our local renowned artistes. Mr Chairman, Sir, in Japan, every year in spring, they have a very grand ceremony in which some unknown artistes who excel in their traditional arts would be honoured. The mass media in Japan would describe them as their "Living National Treasure", or Ningen Kokuho in Japanese. In other words, they are the living treasure, not the dead treasure. Living treasure of the nation. The conferment of this title is the greatest honour to these artistes who have been involved in the traditional arts in Japan. To them, it is a reward for their life-time contribution in the promotion of their traditional arts. Normally, when they are conferred this title, they would be in their 60s, 70s or 80s. Nowadays, in Singapore we place much emphasis on the preservation of our national monuments and our historical documents and cultural relics but I think we should also value our "living national treasures" because we do have these "living treasures" among us. To us, the preservation of national monuments and the recognition of these national living treasures are equally important. Recently, on 26th February, the Acting Minister, BG George Yeo, officiated at the opening ceremony of Pan Shou's 80th Birthday Poetry and Art Exhibition at the National Museum Art Gallery, and he described Mr Pan Shou as a "National Treasure". I think the achievements by Mr Pan Shou in calligraphy and poetry certainly entitle him to be conferred such a title. We frequently say that in the process of nation building, we need to have some heroes to inspire and motivate our people. Sir, I believe in the area of arts and culture, we also need to have such heroes among us to inspire and motivate our people so that they would be involved in spiritual construction. In fact, in Singapore, we do have some artistes who have outstanding achievements who are worthy of being regarded as our "National Treasure". I know that we do have these Cultural Medallion Awards every year, but I feel that is not enough. I suggest that our Ministry of Information and the Arts formally adopt the description used by our Acting Minister to honour some of our outstanding artistes who are internationally renowned. Of course, if we want to confer this title on them, then we must give them that prestigious status and perhaps to consider giving them certain concessionary treatment. Perhaps, we should have a special committee to study this point, but at least we should reserve a place in our National Museum where the outstanding works of these "National Treasures" may be permanently displayed. I hope that the Acting Minister can accept my suggestion.

( In Mandarin): Mr Chairman, I am very glad to be given this opportunity to speak on arts under the Ministry of Information and the Arts. Not too long ago, I was rather disappointed that we would not have the Ministry of Culture again in Singapore but I am very glad that the Government has given arts and culture the status and emphasis they deserve, and the previously abolished Ministry of Culture is now resurrected. The resur- rection of this Ministry has injected a strong stimulant to our arts and cultural circle. While we are continuously talking about how to promote culture in Singapore, I think we should give credit when it is due and praise the Government for its recent move to accommodate our cultural organisations in venues for their activities and to give tax concessions to people and organisations which donate towards the promotion of cultural activities. These are some of the improvements in recent years. When my Parliamentary colleagues discussed with some people outside this House on our cultural developments, some people wondered whether we should let each race promote its own traditional culture or go for a melting-pot for all the cultures of the various races. I feel that when we are talking on this subject, it is very idealistic. When we are talking about this culture, are we going to participate or to look into the type of cultural activities that we have in Singapore? Then we would be in a better position to understand our cultural scene. 3.45 pm Apparently, over the past 100 years, because the Western society has been in the leading position in economics, in trade and in various developments, so their culture has been exerting great influence on the others. For example, in Japan, over the last 100 years, they have been learning the piano, ballet and western orchestra classical music, and they manufactured a lot of Western instruments. They make their people learn the Western music and at times perform better than the Westerners. Recently, a professor from Japan told me that their symphony orchestra and music students are just as good as those in the West. But now, they are pursuing their roots. There are more students now learning the ancient Japanese instruments. This is a very natural development. When we are talking about preserving our own culture, our own traditions, are we looking into what we are learning now? Most of our students are learning Western instruments. There is nothing wrong with it. I do appreciate Western music and the symphony orchestra. But the more important thing is that we must absorb the essence of the Western music. We send our children to learn the piano and to learn ballet. How many of us learn the Chinese instruments? As the Acting Minister said just now, when our root is still not deep, we must not eradicate our original root. We must let the original root continue to grow. So while we are absorbing the essence of the Western culture, many of our cultural organisations and community centres are working very hard to preserve our own roots. As I can see, the standard of their performance is not very high, but we must do something in this direction. Is MITA considering setting aside some money to help these cultural groups to promote their own roots, so that our next generation would not become rootless? The other point that I like to raise is about preserving our culture. On most grand occasions, groups from China, Japan, the United States or from the European countries always put up performances of very high standard. But when we introduce our local groups, a very natural response from our audience is "Oh, it is our own group. No wonder they are so shabbily dressed." We are not looking down at our own people. In fact, some of our groups are performing in a very professional manner. But with our population of only 2.6 million, it is difficult for us to find a large number of people who are good and willing to participate in cultural activities. Despite that, we do have some people who are interested in cultural activities. We have more than 70 cultural organisations in Singapore. We should be able to identify some of them who are more serious, who are not profit orientated, to help them perform more professionally and with good standard. The Government practises dollar-for-dollar subsidy for a number of fund-raising projects. Are we going to give our cultural organisations such a dollar- for-dollar support or subsidy as well? We can see that many of our cultural organisations spend so much time raising funds to support their activities that they do not have the time to concentrate and improve on their performance. In the past, the Advisory Council on the Arts has made a number of suggestions to improve the promotion of the arts in Singapore. Has MITA accepted any of these suggestions or has it made any response to them?

( In Mandarin): Sir, I am very glad to hear from the Acting Minister for Information and the Arts that he was going to support the promotion and preservation of our traditional culture and also to support our Speak Mandarin campaign. I hope that his Ministry would also place more attention to the preservation and promotion of our traditional arts. Presently, the promotion of traditional arts is only carried out by our amateur cultural groups. The support and encouragement they receive so far has been rather limited. I feel that in encouraging and supporting the arts and culture, the Government should come out with a comprehensive development programme. When we notice that our Singapore Symphony Orchestra with the support of the Government has been well received in the musical scene both locally and overseas, it is very encouraging indeed. But at the same time, I feel that we should also help to encourage and promote some traditional oriental arts, so that our cultural image will be more balanced, and that we could strike a balance between the oriental and Western arts and culture in Singapore. If we can form a Chinese orchestra of the same standard as our SSO and give them the opportunity to perform overseas, and if we could help to train some talents in traditional oriental dances, it would be a great encouragement to them. Particularly in a modern society like Singapore, we should not feel that the promotion of traditional arts is a matter of the past. We must educate and help our people to have a better appreciation of our traditional arts. There are some traditional arts and cultural performance which are very helpful in the promotion of our shared values. I hope that the Government will give more support to these traditional arts and the organisations which are active in the promotion of traditional arts. First, we must give financial aid to existing traditional art organisations, so that they could further promote their arts and do not have to end up in dissolution. Secondly, we should also offer bursary and scholarship awards to those who are interested in the oriental arts and music, so that they could be trained in the same way as the SSO members are being trained. This would be a great help. We could send these people overseas to learn either the Chinese traditional arts, Malay arts or the Indian classical mucic, so that they could come back and train our people. It would not only raise the standard, but would also be a great boost to our cultural scene.

( In Mandarin): Sir, first of all, let me thank the three Members for their contributions and support in the promotion of arts and culture. The Member for Braddell Heights has talked about bestowing the honour of national treasures to our well-known artists in Singapore. I think this is something that we would all agree. Our Acting Minister has described Mr Pan Shou as our "National Treasure". Yes, indeed Mr Pan has attained great achievements in calligraphy as well as in poetry writing. He is also well known internationally. I agree whole-heartedly with the Member for Braddell Heights that Mr Pan indeed deserves that honour. There are also many local artists whose achievements are just as great as that of Mr Pan. Just as the Member for Braddell Heights has said, we have been awarding Cultural Medallions to some of our local artists. Some of our local artists are decorated at the National Day awards but there are yet many other people who have been making a lot of contributions to the promotion of culture and arts but have not been given the honour and recognition they deserve. I agree with Mr Goh Choon Kang that we should have some cultural heroes to inspire and motivate our younger generation, so that they would attain greater heights in the arts and culture. I can assure the Member that the Ministry of Information and the Arts will give serious consideration to his suggestion. Meanwhile, MITA will liaise with and consult the other ministries to place some of our well-known artists on the guest list for important functions. Sir, the Member for Yuhua talked about cultural development. I fully agree with what she said. Cultural development has to take a natural course. We cannot force our way. She also mentioned that many of our audiences feel that our local artistes are not good enough. She hopes that our Ministry would allot more funds to help our local cultural organisations so that they could achieve better standard in performance. Sir, in recent years, although we did not have a Ministry of Culture, that did not mean that the Government was not concerned with our cultural and art development. When the Arts Division was under the Ministry of Community Development, arts and culture were being promoted actively by the Government. We have been giving financial aids to some cultural organisations. Over the years, we have given them substantial support in various forms. For example, we have the Home for the Arts so that the cultural organisations will have a place to rehearse and to perform. Initially, the support was nominal, but if these organisations had applied to us for financial subsidy, we would give them some form of support. Of course, we hope that in future the quantum of such financial support can be increased. The Member also asked whether the Ministry has responded to the suggestions by the Advisory Council on the Arts. I can say that the Government has in fact accepted most of the suggestions raised by the Advisory Council. As mentioned by my Acting Minister just now, we would like, for example, to have the National Arts Council established for which legislation will be introduced soon to put this into effect. Subsequently, we will be building a very large Singapore Arts Centre in Marina. Also, we want to create a Museum Precinct so that we could have more exhibition space and art galleries. These were all mentioned by my Acting Minister just now. I can assure Members that we would set aside more funds to support these cultural bodies so that they would be able to attain greater heights in performance. 4.00 pm

Mr Ho, we are running out of time. You can give your reply to Mr Peh now.

Yes, I am replying now.

All right.

( In Mandarin): The Member for Jalan Besar GRC, Mr Peh Chin Hua, said that while we are promoting western music we should also promote oriental traditional arts. I fully agree with him. While we are promoting the arts, we must strike a balance between western and oriental arts. Singapore is geographically located between the western and the eastern worlds. It is a focal point. We must absorb the essence from both the western and the oriental arts. This is the direction that we want to pursue. Sir, before the establishment of the Ministry of Information and the Arts, the promotion of arts was the responsibility of the Ministry of Community Development. In fact, every other year we have a Festival of Arts. During the Festival, about 40% of the performances we featured were traditional oriental arts. Of the annual grant that we give to cultural organisations, more than half were for the promotion of traditional arts. We have also set aside money for the Home for the Arts so that we could support our amateur cultural bodies. I can assure Members that under the Ministry of Information and the Arts, we would work very hard to promote those traditional oriental arts. Under our plan, all the cultural organisations would be able to find a place where they could organise their rehearsals and performances. The Substation is one good example. As for scholarships for students who would like to pursue oriental arts overseas, in fact, we have been treating students of the western arts and those of the oriental arts equally. Our Cultural Foundation has been awarding study and training grants to some of our young people to Europe to study western music. In the past 5 years we have also given 30 such grants to students to go to Indonesia, China and India to learn provincial operas, arts and dances.

Mr Ho, we are running out of time.

Just one more minute.

Okay, one more minute.

( In Mandarin): In the past 5 years the PSC has also given 13 scholarships to students to study the arts at the Taiwan Normal University. As for the Chinese Orchestra, at the moment we have quite a number of amateur Chinese Orchestras which are of good standard. For example, Keat Hong Community Centre Chinese Orchestra and the Dunman High School Chinese Orchestra are of very high standards. They have performed overseas and have earned much acclaim. Sir, if there is anyone preparing to organise a professional Chinese Orchestra, we would give them the same support as we give the SSO.

Sir, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Amendment No. (5), Mr Shanmugam. I am afraid you do not have much time.

Sir, I beg to move, That the sum to be allocated for Head R be reduced by $10 in respect of Code RG 3100 of the Main Estimates. Sir, I wish to raise two points relating to the Tamil programmes telecast by the SBC. The first relates to the slotting of the Tamil News at 6.25 pm. Three years ago, my colleague, Mr Chandra Das, raised this point. He suggested that the Tamil News be shifted from 6.25 pm to 7.00 pm. The then Minister in Charge, Dr Yeo, replied that he would ask SBC to bear that in mind when the SBC next reviewed its telecast times. The Minister then gave us a reply in a very polite way. He said that "There are several limitations in trying to balance the needs of the different communities and at the same time ensure adequate revenue for SBC." Put in plain English, what he said was, Tamil programmes, even Tamil News, do not bring adequate revenue to put in prime time. Sir, in the three years that have passed, Tamil News is still slotted at 6.25 pm. This is an extremely odd time. An important portion of those who watch the News are students and Tamil teachers. Those who are in the afternoon session will be unable to watch the News. I realise that a balance has to be struck between advertising revenue and showing programmes which cater to a minority. However, if the News is at 7.00 pm, it will still be the only Tamil programme at prime time. To emphasise revenue over even a programme like the News seems to me to strike the wrong balance. I do not think it is asking too much to consider shifting the News and I trust that something could be done about this matter. On the second point, Sir, there is a growing feeling that the quality of Tamil programmes and the values portrayed by the regular programmes could be significantly improved. In this respect, I would invite the Minister whether there is a coordinator for the Tamil section as there is for the other three sections. Since we emphasise the transmission of cultural values, I would invite the Minister to perhaps watch a couple of regular programmes, dubbed in English of course, over a period of perhaps three to four weeks. After that, he may well ask for a change of portfolio.

Mr Shanmugam, would you like to give some time to the other two Members?

Yes, Sir, I am winding up. Essentially, if the Minister undertakes that task, he might realise why a growing number of people who watch Tamil programmes feel that, even given the broad parameters of what are acceptable, the quality is falling below those parameters.

Sir, I will be very brief. I will touch on something which other Members have not touched on so far, Sir. I refer to "a balanced radio and television service to inform, educate and entertain the public." That is on page 490 of the Budget document. I think many people will say that such things have not been done, and have never been done, for a long, long time. All you have got to do is listen to the news over radio, the news reports and news telecast. Apart from some non-political events and sports, it is all about what this Minister says, what that Minister says, what this or that MP says, all in connection with this function or that function, and even in purely PAP party-functions. Sometimes you may see a PAP MP presenting a cheque or certificate to this organisation or that, or this or that PAP MP flagging off a walkathon or things like that. In other words, it is all PAP propaganda. It is no wonder that many people have dubbed Singapore Radio and TV as PAP Radio and PAP TV. For those who wish to listen to real news, they would rather tune in to BBC. Sir, Opposition parties too have their activities. The SDP has its functions, the Workers' Party has its occasional rallies and its members go along to sell Party organs in the markets and other public places. But the SBC has never given these activities of the Opposition parties any mention whatsoever. Apart from its news presentation, SBC has other current affairs programmes in English, like "Friday Background", "Feedback" "Contact-Y", "Points of Views" and whatnot, and in Mandarin, they have "Forum 30", and of course we have "Today in Parliament" both in English and in Mandarin. But Opposition parties or their representatives rarely feature in these programmes. Therefore, there is no balanced radio and TV presentation at all in Singapore. I believe a balanced radio and TV programme should not feature one-sided reporting or political propaganda from only the ruling party. The news presentation should be more objective and impartial. They should emulate what the BBC is doing. I hope, after hearing what the Acting Minister has said this afternoon, he would give a very favourable reply.

BG Yeo. We have only three minutes left.

Sir, concerning Mr Shanmugam's comments about SBC, let me say that in the future it may be possible to have more prime time available when more channels are established in Singapore. I mentioned earlier that we are thinking of having two to three UHF channels within a year, beyond that there could be the microwave distribution and cable, in which case it will then be far easier to bring Tamil programmes on to prime time. Then the issue of balance will not involve such a sharp trade-off between revenue and numbers. On the problem of maintaining the quality of Tamil programmes, I think here we must be realistic. The SBC faces the same problems which Tamil civic organisations face. The community is small, the cultural output is low. Therefore, it is not easy for SBC to be unaffected by these social conditions. Nevertheless, we try very hard. We have recruited more people, we have increased air time, we have given it more management attention and we are importing better programmes from India. Can I move quickly now to Dr Lee Siew-Choh's point about SBC's coverage of Opposition MPs? I do not expect Dr Lee or Mr Chiam ever to be satisfied. For that matter, PAP MPs are also not satisfied, Ministers are also not satisfied. Sir, it is in the nature of public broadcasting, you have to be interesting, everyone competes for air time, for the sound bite, and not everyone can be completely happy. But if Dr Lee Siew-Choh is willing and is prepared to feature in our current affairs programme, I will be very happy to encourage SBC to include him.

I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. The sum of $82,962,800 for Head R ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates. The sum of $65,873,500 for Head R ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.

I shall now deal with the remaining heads of expenditure in respect of which no amendment stands on the Order Paper Supplement. In respect of the Main Estimates, they are Heads C, D, E, F, G, H and T. I propose to take those heads of expenditure en bloc. Question, "That the sums stated for those heads of expenditure which appear in the last column of the Schedule of Estimated Expenditure under the Main Estimates on page 47 of Paper Cmd. 6 of 1991 stand part of the Main Estimates," put and agreed to.

In respect of the Development Estimates, they are Heads C, E, F, H and T. Question, "That the sums stated for those heads of expenditure which appear in the last column of the Schedule of Estimated Expenditure under the Development Estimates on page 48 of Paper Cmd. 6 of 1991 stand part of the Development Estimates," put and agreed to. Question, "That the sum of $8,056,521,360 shall be supplied to the Government under the heads of expenditure for the public services shown in the Main Estimates for the financial year 1st April, 1991 to 31st March, 1992, contained in Paper Cmd. 6 of 1991," put and agreed to. Question, "That the sum of $6,478,003,100 shall be supplied to the Government under the heads of expenditure for the public services shown in the Development Estimates for the financial year 1st April, 1991 to 31st March, 1992, contained in Paper Cmd. 6 of 1991," put and agreed to. Resolutions to be reported. Thereupon Mr Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to report that the Committee of Supply have come to certain resolutions. First Resolution reported - "That the sum of $8,056,521,360 shall be supplied to the Government under the heads of expenditure for the public services shown in the Main Estimates for the financial year 1st April, 1991 to 31st March, 1992, contained in Paper Cmd. 6 of 1991." Second Resolution reported - "That the sum of $6,478,003,100 shall be supplied to the Government under the heads of expenditure for the public services shown in the Development Estimates for the financial year 1st April, 1991 to 31st March, 1992, contained in Paper Cmd. 6 of 1991."

Sir, I beg to move, "That Parliament doth agree with the Committee on the said resolutions."

Question put, and agreed to. Resolutions accordingly agreed to.

Order for Second and Third Readings read.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time." In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution of Singapore, heads of expenditure to be met from the Consolidated Fund other than statutory expenditure have to be included in a Bill to be known as the Supply Bill. The purpose of the Supply Bill before Members is therefore to give legislative approval to the appropriations from the Consolidated Fund to meet expenditure in the financial year 1st April, 1991 to 31st March, 1992. The heads of expenditure and the sums that may be incurred in respect of each head are shown in the schedule to the Bill. These have been approved by the House in the Main Estimates of Expenditure for the financial year 1st April, 1991 to 31st March, 1992, and appear on page 47 of Command Paper No. 6 of 1991. The Supply Bill, when approved, will empower me to issue warrants, authorizing expenditure up to the amount for each head as shown in the Bill to be paid out from the Consolidated Fund. Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time.

Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Third time."

Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Third time and passed.

Order for Second and Third Readings read.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time." The purpose of this Bill is to make provision in accordance with Clause 2 of Article 145 and Clause 2 of Article 147 of the Constitution of Singapore for additional expenditure in excess of the provision authorised by the Supply Act, 1990. The additional sum has been scheduled as a Supplementary Main Estimate which has been considered and approved by the House as Command Paper No. 4 of 1991. Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time.

Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Third time."

Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Third time and passed.

Mr Speaker, Sir, as there are six more Bills before the House, I propose that we adjourn now and sit again tomorrow.

Resolved, "That Parliament do now adjourn." - [Mr Wong Kan Seng]. Adjourned accordingly at Twenty- Two Minutes past Four o'clock pm.

asked the Minister for Education if he will state, for each of the years 1988 to 1990, the number if students in Pre-U centres and their percentage of passes in the 'A' level examinations.

The number and percentage of students in Pre-U centres who passed the Singapore Cambridge GCE 'A' level examinations (passed 2 'A' level and 'AO' level subjects including GP) are as follows: ______________________________________________________________ YEAR NO. SAT NO. & % PASSED ______________________________________________________________ 1988 1974 932 (47.2%) ______________________________________________________________ 1989 1776 685 (38.6%) ______________________________________________________________ 1990 1618 581 (35.9%) ______________________________________________________________