HEAD I - MINISTRY OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, YOUTH AND SPORTS

Sitting resumed at 3.40 pm

[

Mr Speaker in the Chair:

Mr Speaker in the Chair: ]

Debate in Committee of Supply resumed.

[ Mr Speaker in the Chair ]

Head I – Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports

Maintenance of Parents Act and others

Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade): Sir, I beg to move,

That the total sum to be allocated for Head I of the Estimates be reduced by $100.

The landscape keeps changing as business cycles get shorter and shocks from externalities more common. As we transform our economy and workforce to face these challenges, some citizens will not be able to manage these changes. I urge MCYS to look out for these danger signs on their radar screens. And with the opening of the two IRs, the associated social ills are a foregone consequence – let us take a kiasu approach and be over prepared to deal with them.

The principles which our social safety net are based on – that of personal responsibility, family responsibility and the Many-Helping-Hands approach – they are all sound. The goal must always be to reduce social inequality, to strengthen social equity.

Sir, even as I say these words, and mean them from the bottom of my heart, I know that they are mere platitudes. In our ageing society, the demands and stresses on every family keep increasing. We have always strived to build stronger, more resilient families and this is probably the most important investment from both an individual's and a country's perspective. Weak, broken families will eventually lead to more resources and support required from the community, State and VWOs.

It starts with filial piety – a concept and value that we all hold dear and yet something which needs reinforcement, more so now than before.

Many Members here can identify with me as we encounter cases of elderly citizens coming to our Meet-the-People Session (MPS) seeking help or advice because they have been "abandoned" by their children and left largely to fend for themselves.

I remember a Mdm Kan – not her real name – she is 69 years old now; I would have seen her at least six times at my MPS. She had wanted to sell the 3-room flat she co-owned with one of her daughters and to get a rental flat, claiming that her children no more cared for her and she needed the monies for living expenses. I told her the existing policies would preclude her from being able to get a rental flat. I probed deeper into her case. To cut a long story short, after quite a few attempts, I finally managed to meet up with her eldest daughter and, after a few more meetings, eventually managed to get both to come together and work out a solution. This case had a satisfactory ending.

Yes, circumstances are different for each case and the blame is not always with the children themselves. While some elderly parents seek help, they shy away from taking the legal route and file for maintenance under the Maintenance of Parents Act. This behaviour is natural and to be expected.

Sir, the Act was introduced in 1996 to deter unfilial adult children from abdicating their responsibility of maintaining their parents. From January 2002 to December 2008, over 700 maintenance applications were filed by elderly parents against children. In 2009, I understand there was more than a 50% increase in applications received compared to 2008. Sir, I am dismayed by this increase but also somewhat comforted. This increase shows one of two things – if it shows that there are more children who are not caring for their parents, then I am dismayed. If it shows that there are more parents who are willing to bring their children to court to force payments, then I am comforted. I think it is a mixture of the two.

Sir, the effectiveness of the Act and the workflow processes should be strengthened to assist elderly parents while deterring adult children from neglecting their duty to care for their parents. I know the Ministry is currently reviewing the Act, and I have the following suggestions.

I propose enhancing the role of the Commissioner for Maintenance of Parents to assist elderly parents by introducing a pre-filing registration stage. Today, the process begins more formally when parents approach the Tribunal for Maintenance of Parents and file their claims, which many elderly find it too drastic a step as it begins the legal and necessary adversarial court proceedings. By bringing forward the intervention to the pre-filing stage, the Commissioner can better facilitate a settlement between parents and their children without first having to resort to the Tribunal.

I suggest that elderly parents who approach the Tribunal Secretariat be registered. And on registration, the case will be passed to the Commissioner who could help them in the following ways: referral to a Family Service Centre or having an Alternate Dispute Resolution at the Commissioner's Office where the Commissioner would work with the parent and the children to bring about an agreement and representation by the Commissioner on behalf of the elderly in filing the case.

The Commissioner should monitor closely and escalate these cases when required. In short, I am pushing for workflow improvements and simplicity.

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Where cases have reached an agreement facilitated by the Commissioner, I propose that the parties involved seek a Consent Order from the Tribunal. This Order can be enforced at the Family Court in the event of non-compliance. The Commissioner should also have a role in monitoring cases of the Maintenance Orders which have been issued, in particular cases where the children repeatedly default against the Orders.

To facilitate its work at the pre-filing stage, the Commissioner should be empowered to investigate the merits of the case. This includes the power to obtain data on the children and their financial status from other agencies. One key piece of information that is required is the address to contact the children for reconciliation and counselling. MCYS told me that about 14% of elderly parents approaching the Tribunal in 2008 could not provide adequate details of their children, and so they could not proceed to file their cases.

For identities and addresses of the children, the key data source agencies are ICA and HDB. These agencies should be allowed to provide the data to the Commissioner. The ability to trace children would serve as a deterrent to unfilial children.

Data on financial means is also needed to verify the ability to support parents and the most updated data would be the children's CPF contribution information. Yes, we need to put in the necessary safeguards to manage data disclosure and also confidentiality of certain information. For a start, the Commissioner should request for relevant documents from the children first. Where the children are uncooperative, adverse inferences should be drawn by the Commissioner or Tribunal as the case may be.

Over the past year, I understand that the CDCs and HDB have also been tightening their application processes for ComCare assistance and subsidised rental housing. As a principle, I agree that social assistance to the elderly should be rendered only if children do not have the financial means to support them. I propose that the Act be amended to empower the Commissioner to investigate the circumstances and take appropriate action if an elderly parent seeks social assistance from the Government.

The Commissioner should be able to assist the CDCs and HDB in obtaining the addresses of their children. This will help them locate the children for assessment and refer "maintenance" cases to the Commissioner, so that children with adequate financial means do support their parents.

We should push for closer collaboration between the Commissioner and the social assistance agencies to ensure that only truly deserving cases receive state assistance.

I also suggest the following amendments to make the Tribunal processes more efficient: Currently, the President of the Tribunal must be one of the three members to form a quorum. Perhaps, a Deputy President or two can be appointed and hearings can be presided over by either one of them. Next, remove the prescribed forms from Maintenance of Parents Rules, streamline the forms, review and update them. Possibly, remove the fees and the limit on solicitor's costs.

Finally, I also propose that we can review the age limit of 60 years or more – should it be lowered or removed altogether? Something to think about.

Sir, the foregoing speaks to the revision of the Act, which I hope will apply only to extreme cases. But I would like to end my speech with a practical and concrete way to realise filial piety.

Yes, we have already done this with the Act – but this Act is a stick, to force people who would otherwise ignore their parents, to provide a minimum sum for them. Now, can we have a carrot? Can the MCYS help us to set up a "filial piety" savings account with tax incentives? Banks can set up such accounts to encourage children to contribute a certain amount of money on a regular basis. This account in the name of their parents can only be drawn down by parents upon reaching a certain age, say, 62 years. These contributions should receive tax exemption.

The contributions and accounts can also be set up for uncles, aunties and other relatives. One major local bank has already made the first move to recognise the importance of planning for our parents' future as they age. They call it a SmartSenior Account. This is a joint account for children to open with their parents, allowing them to receive their monthly allowance from their children.

Operationally, therefore, there is nothing new in this "filial piety" savings account proposal. The principle I am underlining is an important one.

(1) We should make it easy for people to give funds to their parents.

(2) We should allow a regular and hassle-free transaction.

(3) We should give some Government support towards this effort.

Sir, I hope the Ministry will consider my suggestions, especially those relating to the strengthening of the Maintenance of Parents Act.

Strengthening the household

Mr Wee Siew Kim (Ang Mo Kio): Sir, on many occasions, an elderly person or couple would approach me at my Meet-the-People Session( MPS) to seek assistance. Their children are not supporting them and they are struggling to get by. Some are not even able to contact their children. Most are reluctant to take legal action against their children to claim maintenance. They would rather seek help from the Government or charitable organisations. Then there is this resident who has been out of work for the past three years and her brothers who hold good paying jobs, not only practically leaving all the caring of a mother stricken with diabetes and chronic renal failure to her but also loaded her with all the bills! This disproportionate sharing, while one can argue should be the purview of families themselves to solve, should also be an issue that siblings can bring up to the proposed Tribunal on behalf of their parents.

Mediation and counselling should preferably be the standard course of action for such families but when this fails, I feel strongly that the Ministry should take firm action on behalf of aggrieved parents and victimised siblings.

The Minister shared with us in August last year that for the prior 12 months, 172 applications were filed at the Tribunal for Maintenance of Parents compared to 100 cases each year in the past. It was a significant increase. With this upward trend, do we have a profile of such elderly persons and the main reasons for the increase? How many of these cases were successfully resolved? This in itself would provide insights on whether the current legislation is adequate.

In addition, more resources were to be allocated to the office of the Commissioner for Maintenance of Parents. I hope that the Minister could elaborate on this. Have these allocations demonstrated to be sufficient to deal with the uptrend in view of our rapidly ageing population?

As the Minister is studying the possibility of amending the Act, may I ask how soon this will take place and the areas which would further strengthen the Maintenance of Parents Act.

An area which I feel should be enhanced is the enforcement of payment. I would like to suggest a form of automatic deduction, similar to our CPF deductions. This way, these parents are spared the humiliation of returning to the Tribunal to get their awarded monthly support enforced.

Maintenance of parents and children is a responsibility we all have to bear, a responsibility that is immutable with time, and transcends cultures and civilisations. Today's sandwiched generation should not be an exception. One cannot be absolved of responsibility but should take the necessary steps to shoulder and fulfil one's social responsibility. The Government cannot be a substitute except in exceptional cases.

Sir, the Government has always been reluctant to extend more assistance to single mothers in difficulties. It is justifiably worried that this will encourage more dependency on the State and lead to more pregnancies out of wedlock. However, we must consider the welfare and the future of the children involved. It serves no purpose to make a childhood already deprived of a father in a traditional family even more difficult by withholding financial and other social support assistance. I am not advocating measures to make such families on par with traditional family structures. Rather, we need not penalise such families which are, in most cases, already struggling financially, socially and psychologically.

I urge the Ministry to extend the maternity leave, Baby Bonus Scheme, the cash grant for newborns and tax relief to employ domestic maids to single mothers. We may limit the grant to only the first child and make this point clear to the mother upon her collection of the grant. This can be subject to conditions as well, not unlike the conditions that come along with the HOPE scheme. The case officer can even recommend childcare arrangements and provide job-matching assistance. From the NTUC Going Solo experience, the majority of single mothers are those resulting from widowhood or divorce. Again, these groups obviously need support. Let us not visit the sins of the parents on the child, let us build in support from the children's standpoint and allow them the same space to grow up in.

Positive attitude about marriage and family

Ms Ellen Lee (Sembawang): Sir, I declare my interest as a Family Law practitioner. The Women's Charter was passed in 1961 when polygamy was widely practised by men, and women had very little or no rights at all in the marriage, other than to bear children and, hopefully, a male child so that her son could inherit some property and if he happened to be the favourite son, then perhaps the entire estate would be his.

Singapore has vastly transformed in the last 50 years. In the interim, the Women Charter has been amended several times to keep up with society changes and the last major amendments were made in 1997. However, those amendments did not change certain provisions that are widely viewed to be gender-biased in favour of women, including the name itself which men have accused as blatantly favouring women and women have cried out loud as not protecting women at all.

These days, more Singapore men date or marry women who earn more than them. Increasingly, more men work from home and take care of the children while their wives hold higher-paying, full-time jobs outside the home.

Singaporean women now work in professions that have traditionally been dominated by men, ranging from business to information technology, life sciences and the media. But these gender gains are now being questioned by critics, mostly men, who are crying gender discrimination – not in employment but in the division of family assets and paying maintenance for their children and alimony to their wives upon divorce. The statistics on divorces and annulments show that in 2006, there were 7,061 cases, in 2007, 7,241 and in 2008, 7,220 cases.

The Women's Charter contains the rights and responsibilities of the parties to a marriage. It covers every conceivable aspect of marital law – from registration and dissolution of marriages, division of matrimonial assets to maintenance provisions for the wife and child. It is in relation to division of assets and alimony that is being challenged, largely because when the Charter was passed in September 1961, Singaporean women had not yet increased their sphere of influence in society, at home, in the workplace, and in politics. Now is an appropriate time to change the "Women's Charter" to the "Family Charter" to truly reflect the gender un-biasness of this piece of legislation and the growing role and stature of women in our city-state.

The Charter is said to discriminate against men because sections 69(1) and 113 impose on the husband the obligation to financially support his wife or former wife. There is no corresponding duty on the part of the wife to financially support her husband. This means that the economically-superior wife will still have the right to demand financial support from her husband.

We have in recent years also witnessed more men seeking Personal Protection Orders for themselves and/or their children against their wives. But the men did not feel that they could get any protection because they are seeking protection against women under the Women's Charter and that is already a gender biased legislation.

Many voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have called for a renaming of the Women's Charter to "The Family Charter" since the essence of the Women's Charter is family-oriented as it aims to: (1) reinforce an awareness of the irreplaceable role and position of the family; (2) inspire families to unite in the defence and promotion of their rights; (3) encourage spouses to fulfil their duties as spouses and parents; and (4) commit all spouses to do everything possible to ensure that the rights of the family are protected so that the family institution is strengthened for the good of all mankind, today and in the future.

The Women's Charter should be pro-family instead of skewed in favour of the female gender. It should be viewed as the Family Charter, to take into account changing modern values, and to uphold equity and equality for both sexes. All said and done, a change in name and nomenclature will not suffice. The sole intent of this suggested change is to uphold the sanctity of marriage and the family unit whilst ensuring the rights and liberties of both men and women are entrenched and protected. It is only with the "substance" change and not mere "form" that will give this renamed and revised piece of legislation more "teeth" and "bite".

Divorce rate and families

Mdm Cynthia Phua: Sir, the Government consistently seeks to foster a pro-family environment in Singapore through a broad range of measures that make the idea of marriage and child rearing more endearing and affordable.

Yet the problem of rising divorce rates has not been given sufficient attention from the Government.

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According to the Singapore Department of Statistics, the increase is about 10% over the five years from 2003 to 2008. Why is there an increase? Is this because of a great underlying problem where young couples rush to get married without understanding their responsibilities? Is the Ministry planning an in-depth study, perhaps with relevant non-govenmental organisations (NGOs), and come up with some recommendations to seek a long-term solution to this problem?

We may take references from what other countries are doing to curb their divorce rates. In Korea, where almost one out of two couples files for divorce, the Government is intervening with plans to institutionalise counselling programmes for separating couples. In Jakarta, it is mandatory for couples to attend a pre-marriage course if they wish for their union to be recognised under Indonesian laws.

For cases where a break-up of marriage is inevitable, are we providing enough support for such families, especially for the children and the parent who has the custody? Is there a one-stop body that can help single parents get emotional, social and financial guidance? What support can the Ministry offer to such parents? How long is the wait to get help from Legal Aid?

I sincerely hope that the Minister has good news for divorced women of a quicker and surer process of receiving alimony from their financially-capable ex-spouses, including the publicity of irresponsible ex-spouses, when they shirk their responsibilities and still going for re-marriage, as suggested by the Minister in Parliament before. We must not let these men get away with their responsibilities on the ex-spouses and families.

In conclusion, "love is blind". As a woman, I would like to appeal for all women – take charge of your love life. If a man has shirked his responsibility to his former spouse and children, there is every likelihood for him to do so again.

Parental involvement in a child's life

Ms Joscelin Yeo (Nominated Member): Sir, in my work as a Youth Executive, I have had the opportunity to interact with many youths of varying backgrounds. I have observed the marked difference among youths who have had the opportunity to develop close communication and relationships with their parents versus those who have not.

I find that this is not necessarily the result of a lack of desire among our parents to communicate with their children. It is possible that this can stem from a lack of knowledge in how-to. However, it also occurs after a long day at work, and it is natural for a parent to be tired and finds it challenging to devote the attention required to communicate and relate with his or her child. Young persons' development, especially when they are at the Upper Primary and Secondary School age, requires a great deal of parental involvement.

This period of the youth's life can be a turbulent one due to the large amount of change that they are experiencing on many different levels such as physical, social and emotional. Changes in social settings can be hard on the younger ones especially if they have a tendency to be more introverted. Peer pressure is a very real issue that they battle with at this age, because it involves their identity being challenged.

It is during this time where they start to discover their identity – who they are, what they believe in, what they stand for, what they like or dislike, etc. With this, comes a whole range of emotions that they need to deal with; not including the emotions that they are managing due to their physical and hormonal changes that come with puberty. Sir, it is precisely at this time that children need a parent to guide them, to talk to them, to assure them and to help them.

Under the Work-Life Works! (WOW) Fund, incentives are given to companies to allow greater worklife balance. This is good for parents as it provides them the flexibility to be around for their children as their children develop and mature and when their children need them. However, there seems to be a gap between this incentive fund and the implementation of it.

Can the Minister please explain if he has any plans to get greater buy-in from employers on this and if so, what are the plans? Sir, the role of a parent as a caregiver goes beyond putting food on the table. They play a vital and integral role in shaping, maturing and grooming their child to his utmost potential. Parents hold the responsibility of imparting, teaching and sharing with their children about moral and ethical values, not MOE or any other organisations.

Sir, I embrace fellow Nominated Member, Mrs Mildred Tan's suggestion to have a tripartite council as I believe the other key influences can play a part in imparting to the youths. But ultimately, Sir, parents hold the responsibility and are in the best position to teach and nurture their children. I believe that the Ministry has begun developing the right incentives but I urge the Ministry to do more to get companies to implement the incentives available for the benefit of all our parents who are ultimately the ones who will groom and nature our future generation into all that they can be. To do that, they will need to be available and also present in their child's life. This will also be to our country's long-term benefit.

The Chairman: Mr Seah Kian Peng, please take your two cuts together.

Paternity leave

Mr Seah Kian Peng: Sir, first, let me declare my interest as a Board Member for the Centre for Fathering. This is actually my third year running in raising this issue of legislating paid paternity leave in Singapore. The only difference is I am doing so under MCYS as I would like their stand on this. I am smiling because I am looking at Mr Hawazi Daipi – I have raised it for the last two years and he actually, in his reply, asked me to raise it again this year.

According to the findings of the first large-scale "Fatherhood Perception" survey on 2,220 respondents here, commissioned by MCYS in November 2009, most fathers in career-centric Singapore wish they could spend more time with their children. Major obstacles are work, financial difficulties, and a lack of parenting resources and knowledge.

The findings of the MCYS survey on perceptions on fatherhood are revealing. Yes, we are mindful of the Government's earlier reply, that it has already provided working fathers with paid and unpaid leave options of six days each. However, Indonesia and the Philippines are the few Southeast Asian countries granting paid paternity leave to married workers.

According to a June 2009 paper from the Centre for Economic and Policy Research titled "Parental Leave Policies in 21 Countries – Assessing Generosity and Gender Equality", the policy that divided leave and payments equally between mothers and fathers on a non-transferable "use it or lose it" basis would help to counteract both traditional gender roles and labour-market pressures. Australia will be introducing Paid Paternal Leave Scheme in January next year, subject to their parliamentary approval where they will grant Paid Paternal Leave Scheme of 18 weeks' pay. This scheme is on top of any paid maternity or paternity leave entitlement.

Obviously, the announcement was welcomed by most Australians, although it has taken almost seven years to materialise from the time Australia's first paid maternity leave legislation was tabled. I would like to believe I would not need seven years to work on this. We need to offer solutions that remove splinter distractions, such as workplace factors, from impending family responsibilities. We need to start thinking progressively like Google, who attracts and retains high caliber talent with its differentiated, employee-centric benefits, including four weeks' paternity leave that the Singapore office provides. I think the news appeared just last week.

For the reasons as stated, I hope the Ministry can consider supporting my proposal to have legally mandated paternity leave. In addition, I also propose that as part of our measures to build stronger families and to promote pro-creation, can we extend Government Paid Maternity Leave to economically active women who are currently excluded from such schemes? Taking it a step further, can we allow fathers to share Government Paid Maternity Leave with mothers as a form of paternal leave? Can Government take the lead especially for those in the teaching service where several teachers by virtue of their service terms are currently excluded.

Affordable childcare and human resource constraints

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah): Mr Chairman, I commend the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) efforts to provide more quality childcare centres across Singapore. The target of increasing the number of childcare centres to 200 by the next two to three years is certainly one that I can appreciate, given the emphasis on quality and affordable pre-school education.

I do not foresee any issues with the hardware infrastructure, where I believe MCYS will face challenges with the software. My questions: do we have enough quality teachers and management staff to maintain quality pre-school education and childcare services? Will the childcare centres cannibalise the kindergartens currently operating out there granted that the next kindergartens are governed under the Ministry of Education's (MOE's) purview? Based on feedback, the industry does not seem ready for this growth spurt. Perhaps the Ministry can update us on the efforts to provide sufficient human resources to fulfil this growth in the short term. There are leakages in the number of graduates for Early Childhood Education in the sense that many of these graduates do not go into childhood education. The numbers of teachers coming in through mid-career are limited. With the economy recovering, there will even be fewer. Thus, we see a "merry-go-round" effect of proaching in the industry which will counter the objectives set by MCYS to provide quality and affordable childcare. If there is greater demand for childcare centres today in some estates compared to kindergartens, would the Ministry consider working with MOE to co-fund a hybrid childcare programme?

For a full day programme, MOE can continue to provide funding for the morning session for the existing kindergartens or MCYS can look into funding for the afternoon session for those with added spare capacity. Due to the various legacy schemes, some kindergartens are tied in for five years, before they can consider conversion to a childcare. Therefore, this hybrid proposal can help to maximise our existing infrastructure and teaching talents.

Adoption

Mr Ang Mong Seng (Hong Kah): ( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] The Government provides various incentives schemes for babies to encourage Singaporeans to have more children. The schemes have yet to achieve its target. Last year, our TFR dropped again at 1.23%. One of the key reasons is that young couples who want to have children cannot conceive for various reasons. The only way to have children for these couples is adoption so as to fulfil their desire to raise children.

"The Well Being of Singaporeans", a book by NUS Business School, has pointed out that 70% of Singaporeans would consider adoption to enjoy a family life. I would like to ask the Minister, during the last three years, how many children were adopted and among them how many were born locally and how many were from other countries.

Current adoption procedures are very complicated, resulting in long waiting time. To speed up the process, I suggest we simplify the procedures to cut down the waiting time. We can appoint more agencies to handle adoption cases involving children from China. I would also like the Minister to review and relax adoption polices to facilitate childless couples to adopt children more quickly and easily, and to allow couples with the means to adopt more than one child.

According to a Zaobao article in one United Nations report, there were 96 million Asian females who 'disappeared'. In China and India, 85 million females 'disappeared' due to abortion, infanticide or lack of care.

If there are good adoption agreements and systems between countries, these babies can be saved. This will make a positive impact on countries with a low birth rate. Please consider my suggestions.

*Cols. 3919-3920.

Caring for singles

Mr Calvin Cheng (Nominated Member): Mr Chairman, Sir, I fully support the Government's drive to encourage marriage as well as its pro-family policies. The family is the building block of our society, of our country and with an ageing population and plunging total fertility rates, it is important for us to encourage marriage and childbirth. However, the fact of the matter is the number of single people in Singapore is increasing.

According to the latest figures, there were about 8% more single citizens aged 30 to 34 in 2008 than in 1998. Sir, tragically, I fall into this category and hereby declare my interest. Although much is made out of singles being choosy, it is my sincere belief that nobody would want to be a lonely heart if they can find a soul mate to spend the rest of their lives with. It is not about being choosy but being careful about a lifelong decision. Some of us may never find the person we can spend the rest of our lives with.

I am concerned that most of the Government's policies towards caring for citizens are based around the family unit as defined as the traditional nuclear family – husband, wife, children, parents. For example, singles cannot claim spousal tax reliefs and cannot buy HDB flats directly from HDB. Sir, singles are also citizens and need to be cared for. Whilst we continue to encourage marriage, we also need to be prepared that we may have a population of ageing singles that have no families. We should not allow this demographic to fall into a black-hole where community care is concerned. I hope MCYS can also consider helping needy singles that have no family to rely on, both psychologically and financially.

Can I also perhaps suggest that once a single person is orphaned, he could perhaps be considered to be a family unit with his siblings? It is hard enough to be lonely as we grow older; we hope we are not also treated as a phantom class by the Government – not part of any family nor even a part of a community recognised by the State.

Productivity and innovation

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: Sir, I admit that, unless the many helping hands in our social service sector are untangled and co-ordinated, we will not be able to maximise the impact on the communities we are trying to help. As Bill Gates said of his work to solve the mega social problems in the world, "The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity. To turn caring into action, we need to cut through the complexity to find the solution."

Many Members of Parliament have asked for holistic solutions to help the poor and vulnerable. We work with so many compassionate and willing helping hands such as the Community Development Councils (CDC), Family Services Centres, National Council of Social Service (NCSS), voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs), grassroots leaders, religious help groups, and so forth. Even Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong shared, in February, that his courts had been providing help for dysfunctional families with food vouchers, rice, cooking oil and sugar.

Sir, in the current state of the Many Helping Hands model, we see overlapped services; over-served and under-served residents and repeat "customers" coming back to us for help that is unlikely to get them out of their poverty spirals.

I find this perplexing, unproductive and not strategic.

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I urge the Ministry to take the lead with its key partners and the Many Helping Hands and seriously put in place at different levels, the "System Integrator" role in our social services sector. In the world of IT and defence, a system integrator is a person or company that specialises in rigorously assessing the needs of clients, bringing together, building overall solutions, integrating products and services from different vendors, different helping hands to deliver results for the clients – each hand knowing the role of the other hand with the system integrator tracking overall results. This tight total solution is what the Many Helping Hands need in the social service sector.

There are holes in our social safety net that we need to repair. I seek the Minister’s attention in several areas:

(i) for the chronic poor. Sir, I seek a modified form of public assistance for some in this group who are denied public assistance as they happen to be receiving ongoing CPF payouts from their own CPF account. The quantums are usually about over $200 and are way below that of the PA recipients. Some of them were former low-wage earners who could not deposit enough into their CPF and some are medically boarded out and are withdrawing their CPF balances prematurely. Because the CPF payout rate is low for these people, many of them return to their MPs or the Family Service Centres for replenishments. These people are now referred to as our "permanent ComCare" cases. These permanent ComCare cases need help; and

(ii) for the Disabled. I seek an update from the Minister of the five-year Enabling Masterplan that the Minister should be credited for initiating. I know that NCSS and MCYS have been working very hard over these years and I seek an update. As the plan will be expiring in 2011, when will the next review be? What are the outcomes especially for the early intervention and adulthood services that MCYS is directly overseeing?

There are a couple of gaps that I seek the Minister’s help in plugging:

(i) in early intervention for which means-testing for this fairly costly service was planned to be fully effective this financial year;

(ii) to support adult disability day care centres and homes run by VWOs, especially those handling more severe and at times physically challenging clients. I call for a review of the norm costs and foreign staff ratio there; and

(iii) I urge the Minister to look into the lower-income families with adult-disabled children who cannot afford the entry and recurring fees for the services provided by the Special Needs Trust Company that MCYS has helped set up.

Finally, Sir, I would urge Government not to leave behind the non-profit social service sector in its efforts to boost productivity and innovation. Please increase MCYS' budget and give a generous productivity and innovation fund, so that they can hone the sector with skills, such as for productivity enhancement and innovation skills. If we exclude the sector out of this national movement, we might increase Singapore’s GDP and create a prosperous country, but we will not create a great country.

The Chairman: Dr Teo Ho Pin, take your two cuts together, please.

Self-reliance

Dr Teo Ho Pin (Bukit Panjang): Sir, helping low-income and needy families to achieve self-reliance can be challenging and complex. Very often, needy families face many barriers which prevent them from gaining self-reliance. At North-West Community Development Council (CDC), we analysed the profile of 69 Work Support for Self-Reliance (WSSR) cases which failed to achieve self-reliance after receiving assistance from the CDC.

We found that 60% of these families have household size of five or more members and their breadwinners have GCE "O" level or below qualifications. The key reasons for failing to achieve self-reliance are (1) family members are not willing to work due to employability, childcare or eldercare problems; (2) family members having medical problems or disabilities; and (3) family members and relatives are not supportive.

Sir, the vast majority of needy families which face difficulty in achieving self-reliance have multiple problems. Thus "many helping hands" are needed to help these families. I would urge the Ministry to focus on building the capabilities of our "many helping hands". Capable helping hands will definitely help needy families to attain self-reliance quickly.

To remove some barriers of self-reliance, the Ministry should also build more childcare and eldercare centre to support working family members. These centres should operate with flexible hours so as to encourage more family members to work to support their families.

Sir, I wish to ask the Minister the following questions:

(1) How does the Ministry define self-reliance when helping the needy;

(2) Can the Ministry review the ComCare Schemes so that more can be done to overcome barriers towards self-reliance; and

(3) Will the Ministry provide more resources to build capabilities of help agencies to further enhance their success rate in helping the needy to achieve self-reliance?

Family service centre

Sir, about 40,000 families receive social assistance from the CDCs each year. Twenty-five percent of these cases or 9,500 cases require case management to attain self-reliance. Sir, Family Service Centre (FSC) plays an important role in providing professional social services to help the needy to gain self-reliance. To date, the 36 family service centres in the community have been working closely with many help agencies especially the CDCs to provide social assistance services to the needy. Very often, case management and counselling are required to help needy families to resolve their personal, social and emotional problems.

Sir, I would like to urge the Ministry to further expand the roles of FSC so that it can be a one-stop social service centre for the needy. As such, FSCs can be the contact points for social services in our community similar to the community club. In this way, needy families can approach the FSCs, which will in turn partner with other help agencies to provide an integrated service to better help the needy. Thus, needy families can be properly guided to attain self-reliance as soon as possible.

Sir, I would like to urge the Ministry to provide more resources to build the case management capabilities of FSCs. The funding support to FSCs should also be directly linked to the efforts of the FSCs in helping needy residents achieve self-reliance.

Sir, I wish to ask the Minister the following questions:

(1) Are there plans to expand the roles of FSCs to be a one-stop social service centre for the needy;

(2) What is the long-term plan to ensure that FSC can provide effective centre-based and mobile social services to the needy; and

(3) How does the Ministry measure the effectiveness of FSC?

Many helping hands

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Manpower and Minister for Health (Mr Hawazi Daipi): ( In Malay ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] I rise in agreement with Dr Teo Ho Pin and Ms Denise Phua with regard to the Many Helping Hands approach which I think is a very effective approach. It not only helps those we want to support but also galvanises the compassionate spirit within the community, which will further enhance ties among the various members of our society.

Whether the welfare organisations, which operate within the community, are helping the disabled, the poor or needy families, they need support. Based on my observation, the continuous and consistent support from the Government will help them carry out their duties effectively in helping the people who need help. The Government’s support can come in the form of funds or resources.

In this matter, I would like to focus on the Family Service Centres (FSCs) which are operating at the local community level. So far, there are 36 FSCs around Singapore that provide services to the poor and needy families. One proposal, which I think should be considered, is to ensure the presence of one or two officers in each FSC who can focus on needy families requiring continuous support. They can be called case managers. I am concerned that some of the families that we want to help may drop out from our welfare radar because they no longer approach the FSC or the bodies that are helping them. I feel that with the presence of a case manager who can focus on specific cases – that is, those who need a more comprehensive assistance – the help that we extend to such families will be more meaningful.

For example, a family that needs all kinds of support, in terms of finance, housing and their children’s education, may be given specific assistance for certain areas. We do not wish to see that the assistance being given to the family did not help them comprehensively, because their children dropped out of school. With the presence of a staff member who can monitor certain cases – not all cases, but specific cases which require close attention from the FSC – we may be able to reduce the family’s burden and ensure that we avoid undesirable outcomes, for instance, when the children dropped out of school or became involved in anti-social activities like drug abuse.

I hope that the Ministry will consider this need for case management in order to ensure that those whom we help will receive proper, effective and comprehensive support so that the FSC can perform its duty as best as it can with the support of a case manager.

*Cols. 3921-3922.

Holistic assistance for the needy

Dr Lily Neo (Jalan Besar): Mr Chairman, Sir, may I urge MCYS to act swiftly on a holistic approach to ensure that no one is left behind to struggle just to make ends meet.

Regardless of the economic situation our country is in, a segment of our population continues to be mired in an endless struggle despite having tried their best. These are residents many MPs meet in their Meet-the-People Sessions who are caught in the rut of such chronic poverty-states and no permanent solutions are available to help them get out. We need to shift away from jumping immediately to the comfortable defensive policy-line that we cannot breed a crutch-mentality society each time there is a call to help the lower-income group. So we ought to be mindful that, very often, many of these people are in situations which, if left on their own, are unable to help themselves in any way. I concur with my parliamentary colleague Dr Teo Ho Pin on self-reliance assistance.

We need to find solution that encompasses a holistic approach which has longer term effects aiming to help these low-income families move up the socio-economic ladders.

In these families, the fathers usually require some kind of assistance to improve their lot, in terms of upgrading of their skills or getting better jobs perhaps. The wives need to have jobs to supplement the family's income. Many of such families are held back from working due to unsolvable problems they are facing. These problems range from low education and low-skill, young children and aged parents to care for, as Dr Teo Ho Pin said earlier, low in confidence and esteem, unsure where to apply for assistance and so on. They, therefore, require special attention and help to solve their problems in totality. A holistic way in assisting them to acquire the skills, to find the work and to discharge home duties is the way to go.

We always consider education a guaranteed road out of poverty. But education in Singapore is getting more competitive and complex. The children of the resource-poor families do not enjoy the same access to help in their education. These children enter school disadvantaged and it is never a level-playing field for them at all. The parents are too resource-poor to give their children a leg-up in their education. As I have said earlier, these parents often are in dire need of some assistance themselves. Hence, wittingly or not, education has lost its effect as the great social leveller as in the past. Could MCYS apply a hand-holding approach to assist the children in these families, as Mr Hawazi Daipi said earlier? To ensure that they are not deprived due to the lack of means and they can get on adequately with their education, we need to do something about this or the children of resource-poor families will continue to be stuck in their rut of unequal opportunities.

More community efforts to assist needy

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Mr Chairman, the challenge today is much of the expectations on financial and social assistance rest on the Government and the various schemes they administer, such as ComCare. The danger in the perception is that the MCYS is seen to be the only hand responsible to help the needy in Singapore. On the other hand, the ownership of financially and socially disadvantaged should go beyond just the MCYS and the people sector, but right down to the people. We should do more to inculcate the sense of community ownership over issues concerning the needy and underprivileged in Singapore and garner greater support for the people sector.

4.30 pm

The recent petitions raised by residents in Tampines and Pasir Ris about the development of rental flats in their matured HDB estates do raise the issue of whether we truly have a caring and gracious society. It is sad when we see Singaporeans trying to disassociate themselves from the needy in that manner.

Can the Ministry share how much money was raised by the charities last year and if it tracks how much of it was disbursed to needy Singaporeans? How does this compare to the amount disbursed by ComCare? The common criticism on ComCare is that the aid given is insufficient given Singapore's high cost of living. But, on the other hand, what is the Ministry's assessment of effectiveness of the charities sector to provide additional help above the base as given by the Government? How does the Ministry measure whether its Many-Helping-Hands approach is effective? I think we can do more to involve more young Singaporeans in this effort to inculcate a more gracious and compassionate society that cares for its own. Right now, the expectation is on that one hand to clap and that one hand to clap loudly.

Dysfunctional families

Dr Fatimah Lateef: Mr Chairman, the issue of dysfunctional families in the Malay-Muslim community seems to be an evergreen topic. Despite efforts by multiple Malay-Muslim Organisations (MMOs), VWOs and community groups, the issue appears unending and complex. Many are noted to have dropped out along the way – somehow, somewhere, sometime.

Is this due to lack of coordination and integration by the sectors involved? MENDAKI is currently expanding programmes under the family development network umbrella, using some of the funds to be received under the Mosque Building and MENDAKI Fund (MBMF). These new programmes will specifically target families affected by divorces, remarriages, low-income and other social issues. How will these programmes be coordinated and how will it work with different organisations to cover the existing gaps?

Dysfunctional families and single mothers

Mr Seah Kian Peng: Sir, I would like to ask the Minister if he can give us an update following the enhancement of the HOPE scheme in April 2009 to include divorced women.

Sir, I know that the Government takes a conservative view of families and that there is some fear that being generous to single mothers (whether divorced or unmarried) could be seen as endorsing and encouraging "growth" of the single-mums category. I share the same view. But at the same time, we know that many become single mums are forced by circumstances and not by choice.

Last year, I was most heartened that MCYS agreed to my suggestion to include divorced mothers with two or fewer children in the HOPE scheme. At the same time, I do think that this group can be given more social support.

Many mothers, because of their single status, do not get maternity leave, Baby Bonus, nor child sick leave, much less housing and many other rights others take for granted. Sir, is there some way we can look to assist those with young children to live in rental flats, and to be eligible for sick child leave?

Sir, while there is some acknowledgement that we need to send a signal of what values we stand for through our policies, I think we can add in a higher degree of compassion in this case. Second, can we have more intensive case management of such families?

Sir, I have spoken before about the need to build resilience and to focus on keeping the numbers of marriage breakups down. We need to break the vicious cycle and provide solutions for such families. I think this continues to be important and we have to work hard at helping these families pull themselves out.

But why not use a carrot approach as well as a helping hand one? Why not provide incentives for staying married? Suppose we celebrate each year of success in staying married. Why not give a "marriage bonus" to each couple that stays married for five, 10 and 20 years, with each bonus being a different amount, to be from $1,000 to $5,000? This may not address the issue directly but it does show that we support healthy families and we will allow each family to find its own path.

Manpower development in social enterprises

Miss Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Sir, let me declare my interest as the Founder of Social Innovation Park and co-chair of the Social Enterprise Association.

( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] The purpose of running a social enterprise is not to make big money. People in this sector hold the belief that their talents shall be used to benefit humanity. There are many zealous young people who wish to do good for the society but have not been able to get support from Singapore's overall environment. They start with great confidence but soon they find themselves facing many difficulties which keep them awake at night. How to innovate? How to improve? When they get up the next morning, they realise that they have no money nor the network. Ambition is defeated by reality. They have no choice but to opt out and go back to the old path. Hence we lose another champion of the social enterprises as well as an opportunity for innovation.

Let me ask: if a social entrepreneur can start an enterprise which enables the underprivileged to become more confident, more ambitious and contribute more to the society, as well as reduces the burden of the Government at the same time, should we not give them greater support? I hope the Government, community and our social enterprises can work together to give the people, especially the vulnerable, a better life and hope for the future.

I would like to give an example from the United Kingdom. Let me now speak in English.

*Cols. 3923-3924.

Miss Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol): ( In English ): A developmental approach to nurturing the social economy, via a four-pronged system. This comprises building a Social Enterprise (SE) culture, improving business advisory, tackling barriers to access to finance and enabling SEs to work with Government. The result? The latest estimates by the Office of the Third Sector suggest there are 62,000 social enterprises contributing £24 billion to the UK economy.

In Singapore, we can and must do better. We need a much more systematic and inclusive approach to nurturing SEs, especially in the field of financial fuel and manpower development. Even the social sector itself, a high touched industry could benefit from lifelong learning to improve creativity and productivity.

Unfortunately, currently, most of these schemes to support the social sector are tuned towards only those that are charity registered. In other words, schemes like the very good Vocational Capability Fund (VCF) that subsidises training courses of up to 80% of course fees for its members and staff are not applicable to SEs that are not charity registered.

Sir, as a result, many SEs that seek to be financially sustainable did their sums and had no choice but to seek lower cost of operation by registering themselves to be a charity and get their IPC status.

I have two suggestions. One, can the Minister extend the VCF and all social sector related fundings to SEs, whether they are charity registered or not? And two, whether we could also advise and encourage more SEs and SE Association to work with the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and Skills Development Fund (SDF) to create such institutions for training?

Caring for the handicapped – financial aid

Mr Christopher de Souza: Mr Chairman, Sir, parents and family members have traditionally been the main caregivers to the disabled.

Usually, such home-based care requires a dedicated caregiver, often a lady. Sometimes, the family is able to afford a foreign domestic worker to lighten the burden of caring for the disabled. Other times, less common, the disabled are placed in nursing institutions.

The community and the Government can play a greater role to support such caregivers. Caregiving for the disabled, being a long-term or even lifelong responsibility, can be a challenging and sometimes exhausting task that can impact the caregiver financially, physically and emotionally. The daily tasks can be demanding and draining, and caregivers, with their freedom restricted in order to care for the disabled, could be prone to depression and isolation.

May I request that the Ministry give relief care to caregivers or the families of the disabled, especially disabled children? As a suggestion, the person providing the relief care will take care of the disabled once a week, so that the caregiver can have some time to recharge himself or herself. This service could be co-funded by the Government. Would the Ministry also consider giving monetary allowances to caregivers to compensate them for their effort? Many caregivers have to give up their jobs. This will help alleviate the financial burdens on these families.

I visited homes in my constituency, Ulu Pandan. Very often, if there is a caregiver for a handicapped or disabled child, it is the mother. The mothers, taking care of their mentally challenged and handicapped children, really need an outlet, a form of respite which a day off per week will offer. How can we organise and facilitate respite care for these caregivers? The child’s motivation and well-being is directly linked to the enthusiasm of the caregiver. If we refresh them, and give them a chance to be refreshed, through relief care, this will not only improve the physical and emotional well-being of the caregiver but also the quality of care of the child and, consequently, the child’s progress.

Has MCYS studied other models of government-funded relief care in other countries? If so, could some best practices be adopted in Singapore? If we introduce this, we could then see how we could extend it to care-givers of elderly parents.

Therefore, to sum up, Sir, would the Minister consider assisting in the resourcing for and co-funding of Relief Care for Caregivers of Handicapped children in Singapore and broadening what there is already in place?

Partnership for capability transformation

Mr Chairman, Sir, in this year's Budget Statement, there are many schemes available to help business or SMEs under the Partnership for Capability Transformation. Sir, I may be wrong. However, there are few similar schemes to help people with special needs or disability and on a scale that is significant to lift this sector up and make us truly an inclusive society.

To this end, may I suggest to the Minister that MCYS develops soft infrastructure in line with a social entrepreneurship concept. This will need careful study, perhaps undertaken by a special committee at the national level involving the various community partners and stakeholders. The outcome will be worthwhile and sustainable ventures that will put people with disabilities as contributing members of our society. Their integration as equal members of our community is important and possible.

Sir, this concept of social entrepreneurship never really takes off in Singapore in a manner that is significant and impacting the community or people it intended for. Is there something to do with our lack of resources or level of policy support and expertise? My desired outcome for this sector is take leverage of our various hubs of excellence. The target business enterprise could be a value-added chain sector such as multimedia, creative and digital arts or even software technology. Whatever the enterprise we embark, there are two levels for take-off. Training to equip the people that run the business to make it viable and training the people with disabilities with upgraded skills.

I am reminded of the popular analogy in Social Service parlance – give me a fish and I eat a day; teach me to fish and I eat a lifetime. Finally, echoing the words of the Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, Mr Lim Boon Heng, we must not only do good which is a corporate social responsibility but do well which is the financial bottomline factor.

The Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Dr Vivian Balakrishnan): Mr Chairman, this is the sixth year my Permanent Secretary and I are in the Committee of Supply (COS) representing the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS). In six years, I have heard a lot of suggestions from this House. For this year, I can honestly say I actually agree with most of what I have heard. But by now, my staff are also used to my usual response when I am presented with new ideas and new suggestions, and that is to go back to first principles.

First, what problem are we trying to fix? Second, what are the values that underpin the solution being proposed? And third, what evidence is there to back up the proposal and equally, in the long term, what evidence do we have that the solutions that we have rolled out are effective? This is the general approach to the many issues that surface in MCYS and, perhaps, it would be worthwhile starting again with the first principles.

Today, we have a successful, modern, dynamic society, and a first-world city, that have arisen out of an island with no natural resources, and that resulted from a congregation of people from many different places in the world. Therefore, the first question you should ask is how and why have we succeeded. So, answer that question, and also bear that in mind when we propose solutions for the social safety net. It is the same reason why we should start today with the family.

The family remains the basic building block of Singapore society because it goes far beyond the need to merely reproduce ourselves, although we are not doing that very well either. The family shapes our identity, it transmits our deepest held values and it represents our ultimate investment in the future.

A society with no children would be a hedonistic society with no interest in the future. But even as we reaffirm the importance and the centrality of the family in Singapore, we also acknowledge that the family in Singapore is under pressure.

4.45 pm

Mdm Cynthia Phua was rightly concerned about the increasing divorce rate. After five years, 5.8% – almost 6% of the couples who were married in 2004 were divorced by 2009. I then asked my staff to track the 1987 cohort, because that was when I was married. For the cohort that got married in 1987, after five years, only 3.2% of us were divorced. What this means is that in the last two decades, the likelihood of a marriage failing within the first five years has doubled.

But having said that, I also want to caution and to remind all of us that ultimately a marriage is about a relationship between two people. It is not primarily about the Government. The Government cannot legislate love or commitment, when these crucial elements have been neglected by the two key partners involved. Quite frankly, we all know that there are some circumstances in which divorce may even be the preferred option. I would not judge anyone who has to make such a wrenching decision. Nonetheless, my Ministry would do its best to help families and to help people who want to work on their marriage. We work with the National Family Council (NFC), family service providers, educators and religious groups, to equip couples with skills to help them prepare and weather the challenges encountered in a marriage. We encourage marriage preparation courses, but these should not be run by the civil servants or Government. The NFC's Marriage Central has set up a one-stop resource point at the Jurong Regional Library. This complements their online presence. There are also many other religious groups which also run these one-stop referral and help centres.

Despite our best efforts, we know that some marriages will fail. A divorce is always a disaster. There will always be people who will suffer as a result of the divorce, especially in cases where children are involved. We do have schemes to ensure that divorced families can access financial assistance, employment and childcare. There are also many voluntary organisations that provide support for divorced families and help people adjust to the new realities on the ground because almost always, there are both social and economic penalties on the remaining family members.

What I want to focus on today is the duty of care, which is in line with what several MPs, including Mdm Cynthia Phua, have asked for in terms of doing more to help women claim their alimony payments. I had flagged this issue last year when I asked for feedback from members of the public. My Ministry also worked with the Courts, the NFC, Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (SCWO) as well as people on the ground who sent us many suggestions and recommendations.

First, let me give Members some numbers. In 2009, 3,585 applications were made in Courts for maintenance orders. This represents a 10% increase over the previous year. Ten percent increase in one year. For maintenance orders that were issued in 2005, 21% of them had defaulted within three years. Of these 21% who had defaulted within three years, half of them were actually recurrent defaulters, which means they had defaulted twice or more. The point is, we do have a problem with maintenance.

We intend to adopt a two-pronged approach to strengthen enforcement of maintenance. First, we will make it less onerous for women to seek and enforce maintenance orders. Second, we will introduce new and enhanced measures to deter defaults and secure payments. Let me go through some details.

I am glad that the Courts have announced – in fact, it was the Chief Justice himself who announced two weeks ago – that they will be improving their processes in order to make it easier for complainants. This will reduce the need for complainants to make multiple trips to the Courts in order to enforce maintenance orders. The current system often entails the women having to go to the Courts three, four or even more times in order to secure an Order. Once the person defaults, the process also starts all over again. All of us here would have seen women coming to us and saying they are too tired, too emotionally stressed, and unable to take the time-off to secure their maintenance. Their employers ask them why they keep going to the Courts and coming back empty-handed. We will work on reducing this onerous process. One measure is that we will enable women to lodge their complaints through a video-link, which would mean that they do not have to go to the Courts to begin the process. They can go to a service centre which would have all the proper facilities and the necessary technological link-up.

The Subordinate Courts will also create the HELP (Helping to Empower Litigants-in-Person) Centres. It basically would help complainants navigate the legal process, and explain to them what they need to do and what comes after step 1, step 2 and step 3. MCYS will explore how to further help complainants through appropriate referrals to social assistance services. We have also had preliminary discussions with the SCWO, and I expect them to make an announcement shortly as to how they would step up to the plate and provide more services to women in such circumstances.

Furthermore, we will amend the law such that the Courts will be empowered to order parties to provide information on their financial status when hearing cases. This means that a person cannot hide and say, "I do not have a job" or "I am not employed". We will get access to the needed information.

The Government will also deter defaults by amending the Women's Charter to give the Courts powers to impose further sanctions and penalties. One measure will be to require the defaulter to pose a security, such as a banker's guarantee, to set aside funds against future defaults. If he defaults, the money will still be drawn out of the banker's guarantee, whilst he squabbles in Court as to whether or not the payments are due. Another is to allow the Courts to impose community-based sentences when the legislative framework for this is ready. This will address the situations where the man says, "It is all right. Put me in jail. Then I cannot work and I cannot pay." So, the Courts need to have an additional menu of options in which they can penalise or deter the recalcitrants without necessarily stopping them from working.

The Women's Charter will also be amended to enable complainants to report maintenance debts to credit bureaus. In other words, if a man is in default of his alimony to his ex-wife, this will also affect his credit standing.

To better secure maintenance payments, the Subordinate Courts have also announced that they will be issuing more Attachment of Earnings Orders (AEOs) where maintenance payments will be deducted directly from salaries of the man involved. This will ensure prompt payment. To facilitate the issue of AEOs, MCYS will amend the law to allow complainants to obtain information on the respondents' employment status from the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board.

Finally, the prospective new spouses of defaulters need to be aware of the outstanding financial obligations of the defaulters. We will not stop them from remarrying – that would be going too far. But we will require people who have maintenance debts to declare them, when they register for marriage at the Registry of Marriages (ROM), so at least the next wife knows that the defaulter has a record. But as someone said just now, "love is blind" so I do not think that will stop the marriage. However, it is to create a culture of responsibility and compliance.

Let me at this point also reply to Ms Ellen Lee's suggestions on changing the Women's Charter to a Family Charter. The Women's Charter is a very special piece of legislation. It was passed in 1961 and was, I think, one of the early signature pieces of legislation by the PAP. And if you think about it, it was ahead of its time to, in 1961, insist on monogamy and on women's rights, and create an unlevel playing field to protect women. So will we consider a change in its name? I think the Member is already going for more than just a change in name. We should ask ourselves how much has changed in these 50 years. Obviously, a lot has changed for women in Singapore in these 50 years.

But every Member of Parliament here, including the Opposition MPs, will know there is still a gender gap. Our female labour force participation rate was 55% in 2009, which was significantly lower than that for men at 76%. For the cases who come to see us at the Meet-the-People Session (MPS), they are almost always women. I have hardly ever seen a man come in and say, "I am divorced. My wife is very rich. I wish she would hand over some money to me." That has not been the case. I guess my answer to the Member would be that I do not think we are ready yet to abandon the key principle in the Women's Charter, which is that women still need protection in our society.

Mr Seah Kian Peng and Mr Wee Siew Kim have also made excellent suggestions on making amendments to the Maintenance of Parents Act (MPA). I generally agree with the suggestions that had been put up. The MPA should reflect the centrality of filial piety in our society. I think all Members would agree with me that we need to ensure that adult children discharge their duty to provide for their parents.

Unfortunately, there has been a rising incidence of applications being made to the Tribunal for the Maintenance of Parents (TMP). In 2009, 199 applications were filed. This was higher than the 127 applications the year before, and 109 in 2007. So it is almost a doubling in two years. Also, we have all seen cases in our MPS – cases where elderly parents, having been forsaken by their children, are coming to us asking for rental housing and assistance or going to other charitable organisations. The problem with this is that every unfilial child who does not support his or her parents is, in effect, expecting someone else to pick up the tab, and to fulfil their filial responsibilities.

The HDB and CDCs have tightened their criteria. As we have noticed in the last few months, we would refer needy elderly parents who apply for rental flats – when we find that there is actually a child who is capable of looking after them – to the Commissioner for the Maintenance of Parents. Last year, we introduced some pre-filing processes at the Commissioner's Office so that elderly parents can opt for alternative avenues to resolve their issues. Basically, people do not want to jump into a legislative process – they do not want to go to Court, in the first instance. It will be better if we can work more with social services, with counsellors at Family Service Centres (FSCs) to try to patch relationships, and to gently remind people about their filial responsibilities and avoid going to Court. But this often requires us to give the elderly parents a helping hand. I have instructed that the Commissioner for the Maintenance of Parents will play a more active role in providing a helping hand to vulnerable elderly parents. Where appropriate, we can also apply enforcement measures for the maintenance of children and ex-spouses, to orders for maintenance of elderly parents. I may need to explain this.

The Maintenance of Parents Act can result in a maintenance order to be issued. The enforcement of that maintenance order rides on similar provisions in the Women's Charter. So, in fact, when we tighten the enforcement measures in the Women's Charter, it will also make it easier for parents to make and to enforce claims on their children.

5.00 pm

But do we need to do even more, given the rising numbers? I think the answer is probably "yes". The Maintenance of Parents Act was first tabled in 1994 as a Private Member's Bill by the then Nominated Member of Parliament, Prof. Walter Woon. This time round, I would like to suggest Mr Seah Kian Peng gets together a group of like-minded MPs to table a Private Member's Bill to amend this Act – put down your suggestions, translate them into legislative amendments and put it to this House. The Government will lift the Whip on this, and we can have a full and thorough debate both inside as well as outside this House. And we would like MPs to vote according to their conscience; hopefully, we will then have a revised Maintenance of Parents Act that will reflect the aspirations and needs of our society on this most sensitive issue. So, I hope we will see progress on this in the next few months.

We have also liberalised the CPF Minimum Sum Topping-Up Scheme to encourage children to voluntarily top up their parents' accounts. Tax relief is given for such voluntary top-ups. On Mr Seah's proposal to have another scheme to encourage people to express filial piety by making voluntary donations, I want to say that, in fact, the avenue is already available, and I hope more people will consider doing so.

The Ministry of Finance has also enhanced the parent relief to provide greater tax benefits. This parent relief covers parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. I suppose if some of you are supporting great-great-grandparents, we can negotiate with the Minister for Finance.

Mr Seah has brought up for the third time his plea for paternity leave. Well, I think he would have heard Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng tell us that, in fact, we had just announced a major suite of procreation benefits – I think it was at the 2008 National Day Rally. So we are not ready yet to make another slew of adjustments. Nevertheless, I heard what the Member said and I have sympathy for both his suggestions on paternity leave as well as expanding the criteria for maternity leave, so that more women who currently do not qualify would qualify in the future.

Mr Seah has also enquired about our Public Service – since Public Service is the largest employer – to make sure the Government "walks the talk". Let me assure the House that the Public Service Division policies on maternity benefits, childcare leave, part-time work, tele-commuting and staggered hours are all entirely consonant with our national policies. So, we will lead by example.

We will also take Ms Yeo's comment on encouraging greater work-life balance, and this is something which both MCYS and MOM would continue to work on in the future.

I have spent a lot of time talking about marriages, families and responsibilities. But I have not forgotten Mr Calvin Cheng making his plea for singles. Well, my first offer to him is to use the services of the Social Development Network (SDN). We would be most happy to help him and maybe by next year, we can report progress – that would be useful. But having said that, we do actually take care of all citizens. There are benefits which are given to everyone, regardless of marital status – for example, public healthcare, education, childcare, and training subsidies, and Workfare and tax reliefs. And for singles who fall into hard times, they can also tap on our national assistance schemes. Eligibility for ComCare is not dependent on whether or not you are married. However, having said that, I was also struck the other day by the fact that the overwhelming majority of people on Public Assistance are single elderly people. You can draw your own conclusion from that – that singlehood is a risk – or you can also draw the converse conclusion which is that, even if you are single and you are in trouble, there is still a safety net for you. But that is not a safety net which I hope people will want or need to rely on in the future.

On housing, I should remind the House that we have allowed singles aged 35 and above to purchase HDB resale flats, and orphans can get together with their siblings and buy a flat as long as one of them is over the age of 21. Singles can also qualify for the Singles Grant of up to $11,000. And if the singles are staying with their parents, they can get a higher grant of $20,000. So the point is we have not forgotten singles and we have not forgotten that they are also part of our families.

Mr Wee Siew Kim was concerned about whether or not we were providing adequate support for single mothers. Single mothers and their children are eligible for the universal infant and childcare subsidies, Government subsidies on healthcare and education, social assistance as well as the two days' statutory childcare leave per year under the Employment Act. It is true that they are not eligible for the Baby Bonus and for the extended Government-paid maternity leave. The reason we did not extend this is because the Baby Bonus and the extended Government-paid maternity leave are incentive schemes. These incentives schemes are to encourage married couples to have more children. We are very wary of, unwittingly, encouraging singles to have children. Now, I understand, of course, that every single mother that I have met has told me it was not by choice, it was by circumstances. But I am also always mindful that, whenever I meet a lady in such circumstances, there is also a "missing" man. She did not conceive and deliver a child because of only her decision or mistakes. We need to remind ourselves, therefore, that the State cannot be a surrogate husband or a surrogate father.

Whilst we want to make sure we nurture and protect the children who are caught in such situations, we also have to be mindful not to incentivise wrong behaviour. I would also then remind all men that we are responsible for all our children, even if they are illegitimate. You have heard cases where the man said, "Well, I told the woman to have an abortion, she decided to still have the child, so it is her responsibility." Well, the legal position is that the man is still responsible and, in fact, as we put more teeth into the enforcement of maintenance, such men can and, I believe, hopefully, will be held liable to take responsibility for looking after their children.

I would also like to thank Mr Ang Mong Seng for sharing his views on adoption. Over the last five years, there were 450 babies adopted per year in Singapore. Of this number, about 60% were foreign. In adoption, our primary duty is to ensure that the child's safety and well-being are catered for. Adoption is not a major plank of our marriage and procreation policy. We have to be very careful to assess each couple to make sure that they are capable of bringing up the child securely and well for the long term.

Our current process takes about 19 weeks, which includes the necessary legal as well as social investigations. Nineteen weeks is not inordinately long compared with overseas jurisdictions. I also want to emphasise that we will not take short cuts in this area. I think all Members who have children will appreciate that every child deserves the best chance in life. Members can be rest assured that I lean very heavily and regularly on my officers on this, to make sure that there is no unnecessary red tape which is delaying the process.

Now, let me move on to several new initiatives which we are rolling out to enable children to have a better life in the future. In the 2008 National Day Rally, the Prime Minister announced that the Government will facilitate the establishment of 200 new childcare centres by 2013. We have made good progress in the last two years. Another 59 new childcare centres have been established, which have provided an additional 6,700 places. Today, our enrolment in childcare centres has climbed to a high of 58,400. This represents about 83% of our total capacity. So we still have space and we are still continuing to roll out more centres.

Over the next year, MCYS will establish a Child Development Network (CDN) which will promote quality early childhood care and development in Singapore, focusing specifically on professional development and research. The CDN will reach out to all our 800 childcare centres across the island and 10,000 childcare teachers and professionals in this sector. We will work with industry stakeholders to provide technical assistance, consultancy, professional guidance, career counselling, research and development as well as public education.

MCYS will also establish an Early Years Development Framework by 2011. This will focus specifically on the care of infants and young children below the age of three. They are even more vulnerable and we need to take even extra care of this group. The framework will review the relevant professional training, licensing requirements and quality standards for infant and toddler care. We have also set up an Inter-disciplinary Advisory Committee that will include the Government and industry professionals to drive this initiative.

We will also be going further to upgrade the early childhood profession. We will provide greater funding support for eligible childcare operators to attract and reward better qualified childcare teachers. We will develop a professional development framework for the childcare professionals, so that peer review and cross-fertilisation of ideas can result in higher quality, skills and competencies, and ultimately higher qualifications.

I agree totally with Mr Zaqy that we need to ensure that there is an adequate inflow of qualified teachers. Over the last year, the labour market for early childhood educators has tightened. This is due partly to the fact that we raised the minimum teacher qualifications, and it has also resulted in salaries for kindergarten and childcare teachers rising by about 18% since 2007. I think Members in this House will agree that that is a reasonable increase, which they deserve.

This is a good development, as I believe it will help attract and retain more of the people in this crucial sector. The attrition rate has also fallen from 23% in 2007 to 17% in 2009. Seventeen percent is still quite high; we will keep working on trying to bring that down further. The Member is right that the situation will probably tighten in the next two years as we roll out more childcare centres. We will closely monitor the situation and, if need be, we will moderate the build-up so that there is a match between hardware and software.

To improve the supply of qualified childcare staff, we will work with the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and industry partners to promote the childcare profession and to attract more talent to this profession. My Ministry will also consider ways to attract former staff who may have left in the bad old days - when they did not get paid well enough, and they did not get sufficient respect - to return into this sector.

My Ministry also welcomes the suggestion for kindergartens with extra capacity to run childcare services. I think this is an interesting proposal which MCYS and MOE will study. It will help achieve better utilisation of space as well as the staff, and provide additional opportunities for parents to be able to go to work, knowing that their children are safely cared for. So this is an idea worth pursuing.

We will be amending the Children and Young Persons' Act this year to provide better protection for vulnerable children and young persons. We will license all children's homes and will review all cases of children residing in these homes, particularly those who have been there for a long time. Furthermore, we intend to accede to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. This is basically a Convention which seeks to ensure the safe return of children who were wrongfully removed from their state of habitual residence. Basically, it is about parental kidnapping against Court orders in the state of habitual residence of the child. My Ministry will be working with relevant agencies to finalise operational details, to set up the necessary mechanisms and to enact the new legislation, which we will come to this House for.

5.15 pm

We will also do more for young children with special needs. This is something which Ms Denise Phua campaigns vigorously for every year. And I hope Ms Phua would agree that we have done well over the years. Specifically for EIPIC – the Early Intervention Programme for Infants and Children – we have increased the number of centres from nine to 11 in the last two years. This means that we now have a capacity of 1,600. I think our current enrolment is between 1,200 and 1,300 children.

EIPIC is a means-tested programme. The VWOs have tried their best to keep the fees affordable but, quite frankly, it is an expensive programme. Anyone who has been involved in this would know – the true costs are probably somewhat in excess of $1,000 per child per month. Well, I am pleased to announce that we will have a new subsidy of $300 per citizen child attending EIPIC. This is a brand new subsidy which will then apply across the board to all citizens, and it will make EIPIC far more affordable. But we will continue to have means testing for the sum of money in excess of that, so that we will adhere to the principle that the less well-off deserves more support. Overall, I hope this will allow us to have an EIPIC sector which is viable, which has got high standards, and which is affordable. Because, ultimately, we need to make sure that more parents can afford it. Means-testing cuts off at the 50th percentile, and we need to make sure that even those beyond that will still be able to access these services. So I hope he will agree that this is a significant move. What this means, of course, is that my Ministry's budget will increase, so between us and the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), we will spend about $14 million on EIPIC per year. If the number of students increases, we will have to look at further increases in the level of support.

Nevertheless, I also want to acknowledge that these programmes would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of the voluntary welfare organisations that champion, advocate and push for this, and provide services. So people like Ms Phua and many other leaders out there deserve our support.

I am also pleased to announce that MCYS is working with the Ministry of Manpower and the CPF Board on a new scheme. I almost wanted to call it "Denise Phua's scheme", but the civil servants said "no, we will call it the Special Needs Savings Scheme". This is exactly the proposal which Ms Phua put up when she led a subgroup about three years ago. Normally, what would happen when a parent with a disabled child passes away is that his CPF account will be closed, and a lump sum will go to his nominee. In this new scheme, the CPF Board will amend the disbursement rules so that when the parent passes away, the disabled child can draw a monthly stream of income from the money that is left behind in the account.

This has got two big advantages. One, the remaining amount in the CPF account will continue to earn interest. Two, because it is a constant stream of income, there is less danger of a lump sum being dissipated or misappropriated. And together with a care plan which I hope all parents with disabled children will make before hand, I think this will help reduce some of the anxiety that all parents with disabled children go through when they wonder about what will happen to their children after they pass away. So this new scheme – the Special Needs Savings Scheme – will complement the Special Needs Trust Company. Parents will have more options to save and prepare for the long-term financial security of their children with disability. The operational details will be announced by the Minister for Manpower.

For children with mild disabilities, as Mr Laurence Wee has suggested, my Ministry will facilitate wherever possible getting them into a mainstream school. Beyond the 18 existing childcare centres which run an Integrated Child Care Programme, we are working with the Ministry of Health and the hospitals to build the capabilities for more childcare centres to run special programmes for these children.

I hope the House will agree that we have made significant progress for the disabled and their families over the years. We are now in the fourth year of the Enabling Masterplan and we have achieved key milestones. The norm costs of services and programmes, including adult disability services, were revised just last year, and we have made further adjustments to wage costs this year. Basically that means more money has moved into this sector. I will give Members an example. The day activity centre per capital norm costs were revised over the last four years. It used to be about $740 and it is now $788 for FY 2010. I would like to assure Ms Phua that we will continue to regularly review these norm costs and adjust them accordingly. As to her question about when we are going to review the Enabling Masterplan, since it expires in 2011, I think some time between now and next year, we need to reconvene and decide what the next five-year plan will be. She can rest assured I will send her an invitation.

MCYS will also work with MOE, WDA and NCSS to enhance employment and employability of persons with disabilities, because this is a key strategy – as Mr Laurence Wee has mentioned, if you can teach a man to fish, it is much better than giving a man a single fish. So we will continue to emphasise vocational and pre-vocational training in Special Schools and also provide an additional three years for the students who are work-able. MCYS and NCSS will complement MOE's sterling efforts in this area, and we will also work with employers through the Enabling Employers Network and the Open Door Fund, so that there will be more job prospects for people with disability.

Mr Christoper de Souza has asked for more support for caregivers. Anyone of us who has done home visits would have come across cases like this: a severely disabled person, wheelchair bound or confined to the bed for years, and often there is a totally dedicated caregiver – usually a lady, the wife or a daughter, who has spent years looking after this person. Caregivers do need our support. We cannot replace them because, quite frankly, it is their love and dedication which keeps these people alive.

But as Mr Christopher de Souza has suggested, we do need to make sure there are more opportunities for respite care, to give them some time out – they can recharge, or get additional training, or just rest, so that they can go on with the task of caring for a disabled person which is a very, very heavy burden. We have a Caregiver Training Grant which we make available to families. We also have a foreign domestic worker levy concession of $95 per month for families with disabled members who want to employ a Foreign Domestic Worker. But I think we will continue to study how else we can lighten the burden on such persons.

Let me move on to Dr Teo Ho Pin's points on self-reliance. He has asked us to define self-reliance. I think for most of us, self-reliance basically means enabling a person to work, to provide for his family, to save for his rainy day and to do his best to build a better future. Self-reliance does not mean selfish individualism. It recognises that we all have responsibilities to our families and to the community that sustains us.

This year's Budget has focused on raising Singaporeans' productivity, so that we can hold better jobs and earn higher incomes. We cannot ensure equality of outcomes. And there will be people who, based on their current skills, will not be able to find a high-paying job. In such situations, we have Workfare to supplement their incomes, and the Government will also work to ensure, wherever possible, equality of opportunities for Singaporeans. But in order to take advantage of these opportunities, Singaporeans will still need to be hardworking, forward-looking, and to embrace lifelong learning. You see, the problem for Singapore is that we will never be able to stop being hardworking. That is the reality of Singapore.

Nonetheless, we recognise that there will be some amongst us who will fall on hard times and will need a helping hand. And the first step to self-reliance is earning an income and getting a job. To answer Dr Teo, there are many factors that prevent people from making that first step. Like Dr Teo and Dr Lily Neo, I would agree that it is a complex multi-dimensional problem and it requires intensive hand-holding. It requires someone, and I say someone, because it is not something that a computer can generate, to determine the trigger that releases a person onto the path of self-reliance.

Much has been said about our Many Helping Hands, and there have been suggestions that maybe we have too many Helping Hands. I do not believe that we have too many Helping Hands, but I accept the point that we can improve our coordination of those Helping Hands. For me, the key Hands in the community are the Community Development Councils and the Family Service Centres, and the ComCare Local Networks which have developed in every constituency to ensure coordination and collaboration between these Helping Hands. So let me give an example. All Government-funded schemes flow through the CDCs. So whether a person is eligible for Public Assistance is decided at the CDC. But when someone has a social problem, a personal problem, a family problem, I do not believe that a civil servant, or a CDC employee, is the best Hand to hold the person in such circumstances. That is why we need Family Service Centres and we need social workers. I have more to say about what we are doing to expand the number of Family Service Centres as well as the social workers who work in these places. So the key is continue to work on our Many Helping Hands model, but even as we do so, to never, never lose sight of the fact that we still want people to own their own lives. Owning their own lives also means owning their problems, taking responsibility for them, making the right choices, and living with the consequences of those decisions.

[ Slide* shown to hon. Members. ] The bar chart on the left shows what we actually spent in 2008, a total of $414 million. You will notice that out of the $414 million, $231 million came from donations from the public. This is a very real example of Many Helping Hands, because the amount that my Ministry put in is only about half of that. You will notice obviously that the numbers are increasing over the years. For FY 2010, we expect that MCYS will provide $96 million for ComCare and HOPE programmes, and we will spend another $131 million which we will funnel through the VWOs in order to provide the services on the ground. For the amount that comes from the public, we estimate that it will increase to $240 million. We believe that this is achievable as the economy recovers.

I had some good news which I actually announced in Parliament last month, which is that despite the downturn last year, there was a drop in donations, but that drop was due mainly to a reduction in corporate donations. At the individual level, Singaporeans remain as generous as they always were even in a downturn, and I think Singaporeans should be congratulated for that instinct to be generous and to extend a helping hand to their fellow men. The Ministry of Finance has extended the 250% tax deduction for donations by another year. I hope this will continue to encourage Singaporeans to be generous.

But beyond giving money, people are also giving time. The volunteerism rate had doubled from 9.3% in the year 2000 to 16.9% in 2008. The National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) and the Singapore Cares platform will continue to do their best to encourage more Singaporeans to provide their time, their mentorship, and their expertise for social services.

Dr Teo has also asked me to set out the Masterplan for the FSCs. The FSCs are a critical part of our social safety net. Their operating costs are almost fully funded by MCYS, the Community Chest and the Singapore Totalisator Board.

*Cols. 3913-3914.

5.30 pm

Since 2009, MCYS has provided FSCs with additional funding of up to $430,000 each in order to hire more staff. The additional funding will allow the FSCs to get more clinical supervisors, pay for consultancy services and provide enhanced staff training.

As I promised the House last year, we will have five additional FSCs which will be developed in areas with high demand over the next five years. That means we will have a total of 41 FSCs island-wide. The first new FSC will be sited in Bedok, at Block 41, Chai Chee Street and it will be operated by PPIS, which is the Young Women Muslim Association, which has done very good work and we want to encourage them as they expand their services. They expect to be able to commence operations by June 2010. The second and third new FSCs will be in Telok Blangah and Tampines in financial year 2010 and 2011 respectively.

As for the FSCs' effectiveness, we used to just track the numbers of times that they solved cases. But we know that actually, what is far more important is the adoption of a client-centric and outcome-based approach, which refers to how many clients have actually achieved self-reliance after accessing the services of the FSCs. This is a KPI, but it is also one which I would say is more of an internal guide for the Ministry and NCSS to work with the FSC. This is because it is not meant to be a carrot-and-stick approach. Otherwise, you will end up with all kinds of invidious and sometimes perverse outcomes or incentives.

Qualified and competent social workers are absolutely essential. We are proposing that from 1st April 2010 we will raise the salaries of social workers by providing additional funds to the VWOs who employ them. We hope that there will be a salary increase of between 14% and 16% for our social workers. We will benchmark their pay to the pay of medical social workers. We need to make sure that social workers get the respect and remuneration which they so richly deserve.

We are also studying how we can address the current shortages of social workers from minority groups. We are working with the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) and Mendaki to review the options of providing niche funding and training support to boost the supply of Malay/Muslim social workers.

I would thank Dr Fatimah Lateef and Mr Seah Kian Peng for their concern about dysfunctional families. We all know this is a complex topic because they face multiple problems on multiple dimensions. A whole-of-Government approach, in fact, a whole-of-society approach is needed to deal with this. I chaired the Inter-Ministry Committee on Dysfunctional Families (IMC-DF) two years ago and I am pleased to report that all the recommendations have been or are in the process of being implemented. We have spent $11 million so far and we have set aside $20 million for this financial year.

A key initiative, as the Member has suggested, is Intensive Case Management, which aims to provide a more systemic, holistic and family-centric model to vulnerable families with inter-generational issues. We ran a pilot which we started this year with referrals from multiple touchpoints such as the Singapore Prison Service, the schools, the community and MCYS. These families receive intensive casework support from dedicated social workers with a caseload ratio of 1 social worker to 10 families. This is much less than the usual FSC caseload.

Another key recommendation is to strengthen early identification of children from vulnerable families at key touchpoint agencies. If a child is not doing well at school, or has dropped out of school, or has gotten into trouble with law, or gotten into glue sniffing or other drug addictions, or landed up having to depend on MCYS protection and services – these are early warning signs. Not only are these children at risk, there are also probably siblings at risk. There may also be dysfunctional parents in the equation as well. Again, this calls for greater collaboration between the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Community Devlopment, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Ministry of Health (MOH), Community Development Councils (CDCs) and Family Service Centres (FSCs), so that we have an early warning system and a comprehensive safety net for these children and their families.

Mr Seah has also asked about the Home Ownership Plus Education (HOPE) scheme. HOPE encourages young, low-income families to keep their families small so that they can focus their resources on their children. HOPE was enhanced last year in response to the Member's suggestion and eligible divorced women with two or fewer children were allowed to join HOPE. As at end of last year, 58 divorced women had joined HOPE and 205 mothers were able to find employment and tap on the enhanced education bursaries. So, the Member can claim personal credit for that.

As we discuss the plight of the low-income and needy, let me also reiterate my views on protecting the financially vulnerable in Singapore against casino gambling, even though no question has been asked specifically on the issue. It is useful to remind the House that we agreed to open two Integrated Resorts with two casinos in order to attract tourist dollars. The Government will continue to discourage gambling amongst people resident in Singapore.

The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) has set up the casino exclusion framework. So far, 29,153 people have been excluded. The majority of these are third-party exclusions because they were undischarged bankrupts and persons receiving Public Assistance. We have 426 who applied for self exclusion orders and 37 for family exclusion orders. I want to encourage all who are financially vulnerable, and families or religious organisations who know of people who are financially vulnerable, to avail themselves of the self exclusion orders which are run by the NCPG. I would point out that these orders are available to citizens, permanent residents (PRs) and others who are resident in Singapore.

I would urge all Singaporeans to continue to value their families and look after their loved ones. The Government will continue to provide support mechanisms to strengthen marriages, and enhance early childcare. We will enhance the legislative framework to ensure that people fulfil their basic financial obligations to family members. However, as I said just now, the Government cannot mandate strong family relationships. We cannot mandate unconditional love.

The family must remain our first line of support. The Government and community, through many helping hands, must continue to help and empower people to be self-reliant and to be as resilient as possible. Only then can we avoid entrenching an entitlement mentality, help people break out of a downward spiral of apathy and self-defeat, and give them hope for the future.

Mr Chairman, my Minister of State will continue with further details. Can I also ask your permission for clarifications on MCYS' topics to be held after Ms Joscelin Yeo has spoken on "Greater Synergy to Groom Local Athletes"?

The Chairman: We will do that. Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon.

The Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon): Mr Chairman, I would like to say a few words in Mandarin.

( In Mandarin ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Mr Chairman, let me first of all explain in Mandarin what the Minister had said earlier. I would like to thank my parliamentary colleagues, Dr Lily Neo, Mayor Teo Ho Pin and Ms Denise Phua for their comments on the low-income families and their problems.

Our Ministry's approach to these problems is targeted at both the short term and long term. In the long term, we see a breakthrough in this year's Budget. Through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s of the last century, we have been emphasising life-long learning and productivity. The most fundamental approach is to have a job for everyone to ensure his or her income. We agree with the Members that we should not be overly pessimistic.

In the handouts that we distributed to Members earlier, you will see that in the past three years, among those who went to the Community Development Councils (CDCs) for jobs under the Work Support scheme – more than 74% were successful in getting jobs, and 61% earned higher incomes after undergoing training. These are long-term measures. I hope Dr Lily Neo will work with our CDCs to find ways to help these low-income families, especially the parents, so that they can be better skilled and equipped to be in a better position to find jobs. I note that in the debate on the Budget Statement, Dr Neo had also asked how we could improve childcare services so that mothers can return to the workplace and earn an income to help support the family.

As far as the social safety net is concerned, the Government has not forgotten the people who need assistance, particularly those who are in dire need of assistance to find means to support their families.

There are three levels to our social safety net. The first caters for those who need short-term immediate help, such as those who are retrenched, who have lost their job, have met with an accident or are not well enough to work. These people need immediate help. The CCCs, the CDCs and the grassroots organisations in the various constituencies have a variety of schemes to provide such immediate but short-term help.

The second level is meant for specific groups of people who need time to adjust to new conditions. Schemes such as the ComCare Transitions scheme can provide help for such cases over a transitional period. Over 60% of our financial assistance cases are dealt with within two weeks currently. Before we established ComCare, only about 40% of the cases received help within six weeks, but now 98% of the cases received help within six weeks. In this regard, our Mayors, advisers and many of our family service centres have played a great role. I am very glad to note that more than 600 organisations are involved in our ComCare Local Networks, an increase of 40% from those in 2008. I hope that we can continue to work hard and get more organisations, schools, HDB, hospitals, etc, to come forward to help in this area.

As the Minister pointed out earlier, though these safety nets are effective, we should not, as a society with Asian values, abandon our value that family remains the first line of support. So I hope that we do not give up this good value.

Let me talk about our plan to refine our Public Assistance scheme criteria. Let us look at the chart. Let me first explain the first chart*. As I was saying, there are three levels to the social safety net. The first level is universal, that means everyone in Singapore receives this support from the Government. In 2010, $1.4 billion will be given to Singaporean households in handouts including GST rebate, service and conservancy charges rebates, utilities bill rebates, CPF top-ups, Medisave top-ups and so on.

The second level is meant for those who need targeted help. The emphasis is on children, for example, through financial assistance schemes for children to attend childcare, student-care and kindergartens. As mentioned by Dr Amy Khor, we are giving kindergarten fee assistance to families with household income of up to $1,800 a month. The other area of assistance is under ComCare Self-Reliance. Then, we also have ComCare Enable, and we will refine the criteria for Public Assistance (PA). Please refer to the second chart*. At this point, I must thank Dr Lily Neo who has actively fought for the elderly PA recipients to get better PA allowances. In the years 2007, 2008, 2009 – we have consecutively increased the PA allowance rate from $290 to $330 to $360 respectively for a single person. The assistance for senior citizens has improved. In 2007 only those who had no family support, were permanently unable to work and had no other means of subsistence were given PA assistance. In 2008, we adjusted the PA criteria to allow elderly whose children's household income was below a thousand dollars and who met the other PA criteria to apply for assistance. From July this year, needy Singaporeans whose CPF payouts under the Minimum Sum Scheme or CPF LIFE are less than the prevailing PA allowance rate of $360 for a one-person household can be considered for PA. Further details will be announced in due course.

In 2010, the budget for the Public Assistance scheme will be increased by $4 million to $17.3 million.
As some Members had earlier mentioned, families are facing increasingly complex and chronic issues. The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports is therefore working with other agencies, such as HDB, the Ministry of Health, even the Ministry of Home Affairs, to see how we can adopt a more integrated and holistic approach in tackling these problems.

Mr Chairman, Sir, let me continue in English.

*Cols. 3925-3928; 3915-3916.

5.45 pm

( In English ): We have a working model of a robust and comprehensive social safety net. It is also sufficiently decentralised for the Many Helping Hands to deliver help responsively on the ground.

We constantly review and refine our social safety net where necessary. Ms Denise Phua would be happy to note that we will refine the Public Assistance (PA) scheme criteria to help a group of Singaporeans who are permanently unable to work due to reasons such as disability or old age and have no family support and have no other means of subsistence except for a small monthly payout from their CPF savings. They will be given a cash grant on top of the CPF payout they are receiving. This change will likely cost $4 million more a year, bringing the total PA budget to $17.3 million in FY2010.

We will also provide more support to lower income Singaporeans who need social services. With effect from 1st April 2010, MCYS will enhance our means-testing criteria for funded programmes to align with that of MOH. This covers our residential programmes, such as our Homes for the Aged or Disabled and community-based programmes, such as our Day Care Centres and Home Help Services. These changes will allow more Singaporeans to qualify for means-tested subsidies, and at higher rates. And this will cost us about an additional $1 million in subsidies in FY2010 as a result of this change. In addition, we will also introduce differentiation in our subsidies between Singaporeans and PRs. From 1st April 2010, the difference will be 10 percentage points, and this will be raised to 20 percentage points from January 2012. So more people will enjoy the benefits.

Let me now share my thoughts on the state of the family in Singapore. As my Minister has said, the family remains the basic building block of our society.

And, yet, many are choosing not to start their own families. I think my colleague NMP, Mr Calvin Cheng, talked about singlehood and its difficulties and the Minister had invited him to join the Social Development Network (SDN). Let me give him the website – www.lovebyte.org.sg.[ Laughter .]

The SDN is no longer limited to members, and any resident single can sign up for events by simply logging into this website. Since January last year, SDN has worked with various partners to initiate over 2,000 events reaching out to more than 30,000 singles. The Member had asked what was the resulting number of marriages. Last year, I think the number of marriages went up to about 26,000. I cannot claim that all of them come about as a result of SDN. I think Ms Denise Phua also asked if we have given up encouraging people to get married and have children. Let me assure the House that we have not. To support parenthood, we budgeted $720 million this year to provide Baby Bonuses, childcare subsidies, maternity leave and childcare leave. Today, many MPs also asked for other types of leave. The Minister just said he will look into it.

But as Mr Ong Kian Min pointed out, marriage and parenthood are areas where policies and financial incentives alone are insufficient. The roles of men and women must be re-aligned to achieve a win-win equilibrium. More women are asking "What are the opportunity costs? What about infant care? And what about my job opportunities?", and so on. As Minister Lim Swee Say mentioned on International Women's Day recently, husbands, family members and employers should make women happy by supporting them in forming families, raising children and going back to work. I thank Assoc. Prof. Paulin Straughan for emphasising that the Government must continue to support families in practical and sustainable ways. That is why my Ministry works closely with partners like Marriage Central, the National Family Council and Business for Families Council to build a family-matters culture and ecosystem.

My Minister has also highlighted our commitment to protecting children. The foster parent scheme is one such avenue to care for children without family support. Some members of the House have indicated interest in the foster parent schemes. MCYS will continue to review the scheme, including whether to extend the allowance to foster youth beyond 18 years old because at this moment we only give allowance to the fostering parent to take care of children below 18 years. So some of the fostering parents are very kind, they even help them after the age of 18.

Despite the challenges, I would like to add that families are about individuals being committed to each other, raising the next generation on cherished values, and finding fulfilment in all of these. To me, no other form of social relationship can be so richly rewarding. So do not wait!

Just as families are the primary support for individuals, communities form a wider network of support for needy families and individuals. As Mr Hawazi Daipi and Mr Zaqy Mohamad have mentioned, the Many Helping Hands approach has increased the community's stake in providing help to the less advantaged.

I think I must thank all my CDC Mayors and the CDC councillors, they work very hard on this. All the CDCs, together with various community and private organisations, have rolled out initiatives to uplift the community. These include community-led initiatives such as South West District's Adopt-A-Rental Block initiative, South East District's Learning Family Programme, North East District's Lunch Box Fund, the Central Singapore District's Credit Suisse – Central Singapore Nurture Programme and North West District's Food Aid Programme.

MCYS will continue to support community organisations in developing initiatives to meet local needs. For example, the ComCare Enterprise Fund provides funding support for Social Enterprises (SEs). These enterprises, as Miss Penny Low and Mrs Mildred Tan have mentioned, also play an important role in helping the needy and vulnerable in our midst. I should say that Miss Penny Low has done a lot on this and I hope that she will continue to champion this.

I agree with Miss Low that building the capability in this sector is important. Let me clarify that regardless of their legal or ownership form, SEs can apply for subsidies under the Skills Development Fund (SDF) for their employees to attend SDF-approved courses. SEs that are registered as charities or are members of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) can tap on the VWOs-Charities Capability Fund (VCF) for courses run by the Social Service Training Institute. SEs that do not qualify for VCF but whose employees wish to attend non SDF-approved courses, whether run by Social Service Training Institute or other training providers, can apply to the Workforce Development Agency (WDA). My officers also work very closely with WDA in the hope that they will consider this and WDA will assess applications for funding support on a case-by-case basis.

MCYS supports the social enterprise sector in other ways too. We are funding the newly launched Social Enterprise Association, which is co-chaired by Miss Penny Low and Mr Seah Kian Peng. We are also facilitating the development of the Social Enterprise Development Centre (SEDC) to be launched in the second half of 2010. When set up, the Centre will help establish a system of business support and development to address the capability and infrastructural needs of the sector.

Let me conclude by saying that the Government will continue to support individuals, families and communities to remain strong, resilient and able to help themselves. We will continue to strengthen the Many Helping Hands and support effective agencies in doing their good work. If everyone plays his or her part, we will be able to find happiness, security and fulfilment in our lives.

Self-assuredness for integration

Mr Viswa Sadasivan: The National Integration Council (NIC) was formed last year to seek ways to better integrate, in particular, the permanent residents (PRs) and new citizens with home grown citizens and into Singapore society.

The challenge of integration is exacerbated during times of economic strife – where scarcity deepens social and economic insecurities. Home grown citizens tend to be more sensitive when the chips are down economically, socially and politically.

So even as we put our heads together to find ways to better integrate new immigrants, it is important that we do not lose focus or attention on strengthening the level of comfort, confidence and contentment amongst home grown citizens. We need to be stronger at the core. I have two suggestions.

Sir, firstly, we need to strengthen the material and economic security of home grown Singaporeans. The Government has done a decent job in this area but we cannot let up. There are clearly issues that appear to bother Singaporeans. Affordability of HDB flats – this issue has been brewing for several months now, especially amongst the younger generation. As long as this remains an issue, it will not help Singaporeans accept new immigrants, especially since quite a few see them as the key cause of this problem. Similarly, the issue of competition for jobs – this is a perennial issue, but one that comes into sharper relief when people are losing jobs or are afraid that they would not be able to find jobs. It is by no means an easy issue to address, especially since there are many competing stakeholders in Singapore. Even as we deal with the numbers and logic, it is important that we do not ignore, or worse, push aside the emotions around the issue, which may seem irrational or even indulgent to some.

My second suggestion, Sir, is that we need to strengthen the social security of homegrown Singaporeans – this is not a new area. We have been paying a lot of attention to this for decades now, and especially after 9/11. Our leaders constantly remind us not to take our racial and religious harmony for granted. It is important to continue to assure Singaporeans, especially those who are in the minority, or are disadvantaged, that they do matter. You need this reassurance before you are comfortable accepting newcomers where there might be the further risk or at least perceived risk of you being relegated to a position further down the food chain. Similarly, we need to find ways to deepen the rootedness of Singaporeans. In this regard, I feel we have quite a way to go. We desperately need to find more radical and engaging ways of imbibing this sense of belonging, especially in our young. We can afford to have more closed-door heart-to-heart discussions on thorny, sensitive, even taboo issues.

Sir, in conclusion, we have started planning the infrastructure, water and other material needs of a 6.5 million population down the road. Yes, we must be prepared to adapt and modify in some ways, but who we are as a society and what we stand for at the core must remain sacrosanct. And home grown citizens must feel assured of this before being comfortable playing host. I hope that as MCYS and National Integration Council (NIC) create ways to integrate PRs and new citizens, we do not ignore the need to build the social compact amongst home grown citizens.

The Chairman: Mr Michael Palmer, please take your two cuts together.

6.00 pm

Sports hub

Mr Michael Palmer (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Sir, in response to a question asked in this House in January this year, the Minister said that the Government remains fully committed to the development of the new sports hub. In fact, now with the stabilisation of the global economy, stabilisation of construction cost and the gradual improvement in credit availability, we expect the project to get back on contract in coming months.

That was almost two months ago. And to-date, we have not heard any news as to when and whether the winning consortium will be proceeding with the project. We had many final matches at the National Stadium and, frankly, it is becoming a bit of a joke. Singaporeans will be proud to have a sports hub and we look forward to it.

Therefore, may I please ask the Minister what is the progress of the sports hub. When can we expect the winning consortium to sign the development agreement? When can we expect the ground breaking ceremony? Given the economic recovery, is the project still having financing problems? Is the public-private partnership (PPP) model still the correct model for this project? Has MCYS considered changing the development model so that the project can get off the ground?

Governing National Sports Associations

Sir, the recent and on-going debacle with the Singapore Athletics Association (SAA) highlights the difficulties faced by our National Sports Associations (NSAs). Some of them, particularly those with resources have a large volume of volunteers and full-time staff who can see to the proper running of the association. Some of them do not have the means or personnel to properly administer and promote their sport.

Sadly, whether the large or small, properly run or not, all our NSAs receive public funds. Yes, they have to account for its use, but as recent revelations in the SAA shows, sometimes, the money may be wrongly used and they may not be held accountable for some years. I stand corrected but I do believe that the SAA was asked to account for its expenditure of funds over a few years, not just the last financial year.

What would have happened if no dispute had arisen between the SAA and the Singapore Sports Council (SSC)? Yet, the Government's official position, as stated in this House last week, was that they would not interfere in the running of the NSA. At the same time, however, the SSC has taken upon itself to run its own marathon, coincidentally about the same time and with the previous sponsor of the marathon organised by the SAA.

I do not recall the SSC taking on the organisation of other such sporting events. May I please ask the Minister for clarification on the following:

(1) Given the on-going saga between SSC and SAA, has MCYS considered reviewing the way NSAs are regulated by SSC;

(2) Should the control over financing be the only means by which SSC can control an NSA? Should there be some other controls which can be evoked where a national sport is at risk of becoming extinct because of problems within the NSA?

(3) Does SSC's initiative to run a separate marathon which has yet to be sanctioned by SAA bode well for this sport? What was the rationale for SSC holding its own marathon?

The Chairman: Ms Joscelin Yeo, please take your three cuts together.

Engaging and empowering youth

Ms Joscelin Yeo: Sir, it is my observation that our young people today face a lack of adequate engagement in various platforms in which they can express themselves and who they are. This lack of engagement and causes and which they strongly believe and enjoy, results in frustration and a sense of boredom. By engaging our young people of the various platforms, we are giving them opportunities to express themselves. When we allow them to express themselves, it begins to form a greater understanding of who they are and who they can become. They began to form their identity. Young people, driving at an atmosphere of expression and creativity, and it is through the platforms to do so that they will feel that they are a significant member of our society.

Sir, I would like to request that the Minister report on the nature of the various programmes that the Ministry has undertaken to engage our youth and the successful nurse of these programmes. I suggest that the Ministry explore creating a greater variety of platforms in which our young people are able to freely express their gifts and talents that are inside of them, whether it be in the area of arts, sports, business, multimedia, entrepreneurial opportunities or any other area.

I would also suggest that we allow for these platforms to provide in-depth and hands-on involvement in these various areas for our youth. As our young people are being exposed to and attracted by many things in this early stage of their life, I find that creating opportunities for them to be involved in a greater capacity will create a deeper sense of ownership, giving them the desire to remain involved and engaged in that platform for a longer period of time. And with NSAs established in these different areas, they will have greater opportunity to develop and grow in their area of interest, talent and gifting. As they are engaged and empowered through these platforms, we create an opportunity for them to enjoy a life full of meaning and purpose.

Emphasising sporting culture from young

Sir, I have participated in high level sports for 17 years. I competed in the national team for the first time at the age of 11 and finally retired at 27. Based on my own personal experience and having observed first-hand many athletes, both locally and abroad, I am convinced that sports is not only about leading a healthy lifestyle but there are many intrinsic values that have only been imparted to me through my involvement in sports.

For example, some of these values that shaped who I am today are: (1) Inner strength or resilience. As an athlete, I was pushed beyond my physical limits, time and again. This built up my inner strength within to be able to withstand more than I thought possible. Today, I see myself being able to push to challenges with greater ease than some of my peers.

(2) Discipline. Having to wake up at 4.30 am or 5.00 am on six out of seven days a week has made me to learn very quickly to be disciplined in my time management. This has translated into learning how to be disciplined and to manage my time in other areas of my life even to this day.

(3) Determination. People often talk about successes in the sporting arena but they do not see the failures that happen prior to that. I have learnt to never give up, to learn from my past mistakes, to pick myself up when I fail and to try again. Today, there is inner resolve within me where I refuse to give up and I put 110% into every project or task that is given to me. I have come to a place when mediocrity is not in my nature.

(4) Being a lifelong student, when I competed every race that I won or lost, did not come without reflecting and feedback so that I could try to improve the next time. When I ran into difficulty mastering a certain skill or technique, I would think outside the box, research and find the way to achieve the same results. Today, I find myself applying these same principles in my life when I do not understand certain topics or how to go about a project. I have the problem solved, I do not give up.

Sir, for Singapore to be a sporting nation, to have a sporting culture, sports has to be promoted as more than just a healthy lifestyle. I would like to see the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) evaluate their programmes to allow more time for students to engage in sporting activities during school hours and not as an activity after school hours. In other words, do not extend their day or add another day in their week to include co-curricular activities (CCA) time, but include sports within this time.

Sir, last year, MOE accepted the Primary Education Review and Interpretation (PERI) Committee's recommendations, one of which is to implement a programme for active learning (PAL) for primary school students. In this, I see progress. The PERI Committee believes, and I quote from their report that "co-curricular activities (CCAs) in particular, play a key role in developing pupils character. These programmes and activities shape our children as team players who are kind, concerned about others and who treat others with respect. CCAs help pupils build emotional strength and perseverance in the face of challenges as well as develop optimism, adaptability and resourcefulness. They can also teach pupils more responsibly to evaluate options, identify consequences and make responsible choices anchored in some moral principles."

I would like to seek a clarification from the Minister on the next point but since it is not an MOE cut, I can understand I do not get a response. The point is this. If the values of CCA has been identified as key platforms for a youth's holistic development, why is PAL a module that is incorporated under the curriculum for those in Primary 1 and 2? But then, for Primary 3 to 6 pupils, their involvement has to be done outside of formal curriculum time. Are we not sending mixed signals that this is good to do but not important enough to incorporate into our formal curriculum?

Sir, I would like to suggest this be made compulsory for our schools to really commit to the holistic development of a child throughout their primary education by implementing the recommendations of the PERI Committee from Primary 1 to 6, and to also consider that the same values and consideration that resulted in their recommendations to develop more holistic youth be extended beyond primary school into secondary and tertiary institutions.

To create a sporting culture, I believe that there must be a consistent message set on the value of sports coupled with platforms and opportunities for young people to engage in these areas as part of their curriculum. Through this, we will discover hidden talents, greater sporting talents and breed a generation that carries intrinsic values that participating in sports in parts.

In conclusion of this cut, I would like to urge the Ministry to promote sports as much more than just a healthy lifestyle and to work closely with MOE to make concerted efforts to allow the holistic development of our future generation using sports. I believe that this will result in more discipline, more driven, more determined people, who will be more productive in everything they do because of the lifeskills that they would have honed since young. And should our nation ever face future crises of financial downturns, these young people will be your future thrust of strength who would have had the resolve instilled within them to weather the storm and still find a way to be productive because of the inner strength and lifelong learning that they would already be a part of.

Greater synergy to groom local athletes

Sir, many local athletes from Singapore go to the United States to train and study once they finish their "O" levels because the university system there allows the athletes the flexibility and the scheduling of classes to accommodate their training schedule. Many world record holders in Olympiad medalists and top athletes in the world go to the universities in the United States because the system that is in place there allows athletes to excel in both studies and sports.

Sir, I would like to propose for MCYS and MOE to take greater initiative in working together with local tertiary educational institutions to help talented athletes blossom in the local environment. For example, if an athlete is recognised by the Singapore Sports Council as having attained a certain standard, meaning they are carded athletes, then local tertiary institutions should allow these student athletes to choose or bid for their classes before the rest of their cohort. This provides them the flexibility to schedule their classes around their training schedule so that they are able to continue to excel at both without having to sacrifice one over the other.

I recommend that we look into creating greater synergy between these two Ministries and the tertiary institutions so that we do not lose on stream athletes who are, at this stage of life, prime for success in sport. We need to change our mindsets to believe that it is possible to excel in both at the same time, given a favourable environment in the education system.

Another suggestion that will assist in creating a favourable environment and in the education system would be to allow a student athlete's contribution in the national sporting arena to contribute to their requirements of their involvement in the school or tertiary institution. This would help to reduce the workload required upon the stream athletes and allow them to better balance both their sports and studies.

For example, a stream athlete in the United States is required to take a certain number of modules each semester in order to graduate. And each module is valued at a certain number of credits. The university will often give the student athlete one to two credits per semester for their intense level of involvement in their sport. This number of credits is small. It is not even equal to the number of credits you get for your class. But it does help in the long run in terms of the time required in your university.

Sir, I am glad to see that there have been avenues and platforms created for junior colleges (JCs) and polytechnics to come together and compete on common ground. Sir, may I also suggest that there be even greater inclusion where JCs, polytechnics and other local tertiary institutions come together and compete with one another on a regular basis, much like the existing national competitions at the primary and secondary school levels. The JCs, polytechnics and other local tertiary institutions make up a big base of athletes who would be at the age where they begin to break through and begin to rise to their peak. Such competitions will foster greater sharpening and development among our pool of national athletes.

The Chairman: Ms Yeo, your time is up. Mr Teo Ser Luck.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mr Teo Ser Luck): Sir, let me first thank Ms Joscelin Yeo and Mr Michael Palmer for their passion and for raising questions on youth engagement and developments in sports. From one sportsman to another, of course, Ms Joscelin Yeo is an elite sportswoman. We have seen her win so many medals, and brought glory to Singapore. Many of her questions raised are relevant. With regard to the questions on the school systems, they probably have to be answered by the Ministry of Education (MOE).

I share her sentiments about sports. It inculcates many values in individuals. I credit sports for who I am today.

I remember the very first time I was involved in sports, I very much wanted to represent my school. I tried out many different sports, but I could not get into the school team. Finally, I tried one of the non-mainstream sports at that time – softball. But what happened was that I ended up in the girls' team. [ Laughter. ] It has taught me about resilience, and how one could succeed against adversity. Subsequently, I joined a school that was sports-centric and that spurred me on. I thought, "I could get into a boys' team too. Maybe I would have a chance." And I finally realised my dream by playing football for one of the top schools in Singapore.

6.15 pm

I am happy to let Ms Joscelin Yeo know that in 2007, we set up a Sporting Culture Committee, just focusing on creating sports culture. I chair the committee. One of the reasons why we did that was because Singapore has many sports facilities, but we realised that the software might be lacking. I am glad that, today, we are following up on the Committee's recommendations, and hopefully, they can transform the Singapore sporting culture.

We are working very closely with the Ministry of Education on some of the long-term development programmes to provide more opportunities for youth to play sports. As Members know, in the schools, if you are not good enough to represent the schools, you may not even get the chance to continue playing that sport. There are some schools that do not even have inter-class, inter-house or inter-group competitions. Unless you got into the school team, you might not even get the chance to play sports.

Sir, I am glad that together with MOE, we have set up the Singapore Youth Sports Development Committee in September 2008, chaired by Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Masagos, and myself. This Committee aims to strengthen the youth sports system, improve long-term athlete development and catalyse a Singapore sporting culture – from youth to adulthood.

My Ministry, MOE and the Singapore Totalisator Board jointly committed $15 million to support youth sports development initiatives. Part of this budget goes into preparing our athletes for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG). But it is not just about elite athletes; YOG is also meant to encourage participation in all 26 sports. Hopefully, more young people will actually have the interest in sports and give it a try. They will also have a chance to represent Singapore.

Another part of the budget goes into building up a series of satellite centres for sports. As Members know, MOE has rolled out the Youth Sports Academies and the Junior Sports Academies. We also have the Sports School. What we try to do is to be able to provide the framework, and through the entire process, provide a sports pathway for young persons. An individual today or any young person – a young boy or girl – can learn a sport in school under the Sports Education Programme. For sports not offered by the schools, he or she can go to the satellite centres for sports to learn them. From there, we can identify talents and they can go into the Junior Sports Academies, or the Youth Sports Academies when they grow older. If they decide to pursue a more intensive sports curriculum along with their studies, there is always the Sports School option.

We often see an individual who is really good in sports, going through secondary school, junior college, but dropping off when they enter university due to time constraints. We may consider, and we are undertaking a feasibility study at the moment, to set up a Singapore Sports Institute. And this institute will hopefully allow the elite athletes to continue training, give them a more flexible curriculum in terms of overseas competition and training systems, and coordinate with their study curriculum to help them to continue with their training and hit peak performance.

We hope to do that from a very young age at primary school level all the way to the age of 23, to help them achieve their full potential at the senior level and success at the major games.

Beyond sports, my Ministry, together with the National Youth Council – as far as youth engagement is concerned – offers many platforms for our youth to find meaningful engagement. Youth are engaged through platforms such as forums and dialogues. As Members know, some of you might have come across the Straits Times' YouthInk column, where youth pen their thoughts and share them with a national audience.

And it is not just writing and staying behind a desk to share their thoughts, we also want them to take action. The Youth Expedition Project (YEP) supports youth going on overseas community projects. Today, we allow YEP to be adopted by various youth organisations so that they can decide for themselves what to do with the funding, to support some of the missions. YEP celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year and I am glad to say that last year, more than 3,000 youth participated in the programme.

We also have festivals – like the SHINE Youth Festival held every July – that allow young people to showcase their talents in areas such as dancing, singing and playing musical instruments. The SHINE Youth Festival is open to youth who have the talents but do not belong to any formal groups. In 2009, some 6,000 youth volunteered for various SHINE events and close to 68,000 youth showcased their talents.

If the youth do not want to perform, or if they do not wish to join formal groups for overseas mission, but perhaps they just want to do a small community service project, there is also a grant that we provide, called the Young ChangeMakers. This is for individuals or informal groups who want to do something for the community. This grant provides youth with up to $3,000 in seed funding to support these projects.

We have also built many different facilities for the young people. In August last year, MCYS and the National Parks Board launched the Xtreme SkatePark @ East Coast. This provided our extreme sports enthusiasts exposure to a world-class facility, and helped to promote an adventurous spirit and ruggedness among the practitioners.

And there are several other exciting facilities to come. In June 2010, *SCAPE will be opened in the heart of Orchard. Young Singaporeans can look forward to an exciting venue to showcase their talents and be engaged in areas such as arts, music, dance, performance and new media. We are now exploring a rock climbing facility close to the Xtreme SkatePark on the East Coast. So hopefully, we have more rock climbers. In fact, rock climbing is also a very popular activity among schools and youth. I think, with this rock climbing facility, the sport will pick up. This rock climbing facility will complement other sporting facilities offering sailing, kayaking, inline skating and cycling. So the whole area in East Coast around the Xtreme SkatePark will become a very vibrant and energetic outdoor youth area.

These are the platforms that we have provided for the youth, not just facilities, but also grants and other schemes to help them own a stake if they want; to be able to voice their opinion. We want to be there to support them.

This year is a very busy year for Singapore in the sports scene, with the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games and, of course, the Youth Olympic Games. One of the major events in the Singapore calendar is the marathon. And I know that the marathon has undergone many changes. We used to have the marathon around the heartlands. Those were the days where you would not have that kind of participation level like what we have today. The Standard Chartered Marathon continues to grow and last year, we had more than 50,000 participants. We saw the growth of the participation level. More people picked up running. This year, we feel that the marathon could grow into a marathon that is truly for the runners. The Standard Chartered Bank, as the title sponsor of the event, has indicated the support for this type of marathon and their preference to continue the partnership with the Singapore Sports Council (SSC). And I think this year, we want to enrich the experience of the runners who will join the marathon and aspire to complete the marathon.

Mr Palmer will be pleased to note that we are making progress for the Sports Hub. With the gradual recovery of the financial markets, the preferred bidder for the Sports Hub has been able to launch a funding competition late last year. This funding competition has drawn considerable interests from banks. We are expecting the construction of the Sports Hub to commence by the middle of the year, and to be completed by end 2013 or early 2014.

Mr Palmer also asked if the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model is the right model. We deliberated on various development models during the course of this project and decided that we should continue with the PPP model. Why? Because it harnesses the efficiencies, innovation, energy and financial rigour of private sector enterprise and banks to bring about a vibrant, compelling, viable and fully utilised public facility.

Mr Palmer will also understand that SSC and the National Sports Associations (NSAs) work as partners on sports development. This is where SSC assists the NSAs to achieve their objectives through funding, assistance in capability development, and provision of support in areas such as sports medicine and sports science. The partnership model has worked relatively well. There are 64 NSAs today, but for one or two, it might not look like it worked very well. But I am very sure that the issues can be resolved, and I do not think that there is a need to change this model at this point in time or to introduce legislation to regulate them. We must let the NSAs own their stake. We must let the NSAs manage the sports, grow the sports and promote the sports. That is their mission and they have a bigger stake in that.

The issues raised by Ms Joscelin Yeo and Mr Palmer are important. They are the main reasons why we are putting all our efforts into making the Youth Olympic Games a success. Let me share with Members some of the things we have in store for Singapore and Singaporeans.

These are the mascots – Lyo and Merly. You can buy them at the designated store at Takashimaya Basement 2, Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) office at Kay Siang Road, selected SingPost outlets or purchase them online at shop.vpost.com.sg.

There is a series of activities that we want to promote for the Youth Olympic Games, not just to Singaporeans, but to the world as well. Starting in July, the Youth Olympic Flame will be travelling across the world. Starting from the Ancient Olympia in Greece, the Flame will travel through Berlin, Dakar, Mexico City, Auckland, Seoul, and then finally arriving in Singapore for a local community leg. Singaporeans can be part of this historic journey when the Flame comes to Singapore. And we are going to invite volunteers to join us in this journey to carry the Flame.

The Singapore 2010 YOG is not just an event. It is not just for young people. It is not just for the Organising Committee. It is not just for MCYS. The event is for everyone. It is for Singaporeans. It is important because it will leave a legacy. And one of the legacies which we will be able to see, and we hope that it will last for generations to come, will be the world's first Youth Olympic Park. Singapore is the first host of the Youth Olympic Games. We are going to make history and set benchmarks. The Youth Olympic Park will be located at the Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade. It will commemorate and remind Singaporeans of our hosting of the first ever Youth Olympic Games.

6.30 pm

The Park will feature youth artwork and souvenirs from YOG and serve as an attraction to visitors. Two hundred and five will be dedicated to the 205 National Olympic Committees and they will be planted along the Promenade as a symbol of their strong relationships with Singapore.

And the Waterfront Promenade will also feature Olympic-themed sculptures by local artists. We encourage all our young and young-at-heart to visit and enjoy the Youth Olympic Park for their leisure and family outings.

Part of the legacy of Singapore's hosting of YOG will be captured by our very own Youth Olympic Museum. Other than celebrating our hosting of the first ever YOG, this Museum also serves to cultivate our sports culture. Today, you can see how this Museum will look like at the Youth Olympic Games Learning Centre at Kay Siang Road. If you have not visited the Centre, do let me know and I can make the arrangements. Our plan is to grow the Learning Centre into the Youth Olympic Museum and eventually house it in the Sports Hub.

The YOG is not just a sporting occasion. It is a historical milestone for Singapore. If you remember, when we won the bid, when it was announced on 21st February 2008, that was a moment of relief for me personally, we went through "ups and downs" to win this bid.

I was at the first session to brief all the International Olympic Committee leaders and the different cities on our bid. The other cities have longer traditions, Olympic and sporting history. A representative from one of the cities came and asked me. He was really tall, about 1.9 metres to 2 metres. You can tell that he was an Olympic athlete. I had to look up to talk to him. He said, "You are from Singapore?" I said, "Yes, I am from Singapore. "And you are bidding for the hosting of the Youth Olympic Games?" And I said, "Yes, sure. " And he asked me, "How many Olympic champions do you have in your country?" I said "We have an Olympic silver medallist in weightlifting. That was in – ", at that time we had not won our second silver medal. He said, "Oh good! Was it in the last Olympic Games?" I said, "No, it was in 1960." When he asked if Singapore had organised any multi-sports game, my reply was that we organised the Southeast Asian Games in 1993. But, no problem, we are a nation that is really interested in sports. He said, "Okay. Have you organised any multi-sports games?" I said, "Sure, we had. We had organised the SEA Games", and I had to tell him what SEA Games was about. But when I told him it was in 1993, I will never forget that look on his face when I said that. The representative then asked, "Why are you bidding for the Youth Olympic Games?" My response was I looked at him, I wanted to say something, but I had to think through what exactly to say because I knew what I said would have to make an impact. So I told him, "I believe we can win, and we will win the hosting rights for the Youth Olympic Games." He said, "Well, wish you all the best!" He left, and I left. This episode tells me that, it does not matter if you are big or small. You have to believe in yourself that you will be able to do it, you got to believe that you can do it, and you got to be able to dream big dreams.

In less than six months from now, the YOG dream will have become a reality. Our preparations to host the Singapore 2010 YOG are kicking into a higher gear. We are now no longer in detailed paper planning. We are putting all plans in place. Several YOG competition venues have been put through extensive trials, while other facilities are going through a makeover.

The YOG involves everyone, regardless of whether you are participating in the sports competition, a spectator or a parent. Everybody will be an ambassador. It is the people's event. It is our event. This is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion because the Olympic Games will not come so close anymore. We are still not equipped to host the Summer Olympic Games. The YOG is therefore the Olympic Games where we can make a difference. All of us have to work together to support the Games and let us put up a good show.

Some 20,000 people will be volunteering in the YOG. There are more than 500 people working full time in the Organising Committee, and many more working hard to make this a good show and put Singapore on the world map. As a whole-of-community effort, we need everyone's support. We are also working with the People's Association to spread the excitement.

We do not just work hard for the YOG, we also have to cheer on our athletes. There are many athletes out there and some of them would never have imagined that they could be representing Singapore today. When we first won the bid, one mother wrote to me to say that although her son was obese, she believed that he could make a difference. The son may not have made it to the YOG squads, but at least his parents believed in his talents.

I want to give another example of an athlete who changed her sport and believed in what she could do, to represent Singapore in YOG. Her name is Natasha. She is a 16-year-old wrestler from Assumption English School. She is training very hard now. Natasha was a judo athlete. But the YOG inspired her to try out a new sport, wrestling. She has competed and done well so far. We are looking forward to see her perform during the YOG.

So while there can only be so many medal winners in any competition, I have a lot of confidence in our athletes. I think we will least get one medal. I know our athletes have the courage to dream big dreams. And I know they will do their best.

Our athletes need your support. I urge all Singaporeans to take that step, make that trip to the venues and stadia to support the athletes, and give your loudest cheers to our athletes. We have to do this, not just for Singapore but for our fellow Singaporeans. Like any sportsmen, they got only one shot in the Youth Olympic Games. We only have one shot to deliver a good and respectable Youth Olympic Games.

Let this be an event that all Singaporeans will feel proud of, and let it be remembered for a long time to come. That will make history for Singapore for many generations to remember.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Mr Chairman, let me just respond to Mr Viswa and then we will take clarifications.

Mr Viswa is quite right that Singaporeans need to feel more assured that Singapore remains the best place for Singaporeans to live, to work, to play and ultimately even to die in, and to die for.

So let me reaffirm that Singapore is for Singaporeans. The Government's only and most sacred duty is to look after the long-term interests of citizens first and foremost. The Government will be held accountable to that at elections when only Singaporeans are allowed to vote.

It is worth also reminding ourselves that, in fact, over the past one year – I have lost track of the number of exact announcements, which should make it very obvious to all Singaporeans now – we have ensured that Singaporeans have far more benefits than non-citizens, particularly in housing, education, healthcare, workfare, and family support measures like the Baby Bonus. In fact, over $700 million of my Ministry's budget on marriage and procreation flows exclusively to Singaporeans.

But having said all that – that Singapore is for Singaporeans – we also need to also reaffirm the fact that Singapore must remain open to global talent. We are a small city state with no natural resources. We cannot afford to unplug ourselves from the global economy. In fact, in this day and age of globalisation, it is not even an option. And that means we must continue to attract and retain our fair share of global talent even as we nurture our own Singaporeans and give ourselves a head start. This is how we succeeded in the past and this is how we will have to succeed in the future. If we fall prey to populist or protectionist measures, on both the economic as well as the social front, we will basically damage our own future irrevocably, and the future of Singapore citizens. So, I agree with the Member but I also ask him and others outside this House to reaffirm these two fundamental principles: that we will make sure that Singapore is for Singaporeans, and that Singapore remains open, cohesive and capable of integrating talent and any new members who want to join our team, and able to win, whether it is winning medals at the Olympics, or winning in the race of life.

Let me quickly touch on some of our latest initiatives of the National Integration Council (NIC), which I chair. One key area we have been looking at is the whole process of naturalisation, and how to refine it so that our new Singaporeans will have a better understanding of our norms and values, and also have more opportunities to meaningfully interact with us.

One specific question I want to deal with is this issue of having a citizenship test. I agree with the feedback that a test cannot measure commitment nor can it ensure long-term commitment of new citizens. However, there is merit in having a more structured naturalisation process that will ensure that all new citizens understand the fundamentals of Singapore society and our values. We will do this in two ways under the Singapore Citizenship Journey, which we will make mandatory in future for all new citizens. There will be both an experiential as well as an online component. In the experiential component, we will bring them to Parliament, and other areas which are the repositories of our history and our values. In the online component, instead of a test, we will make it a mandatory process in which we will provide material for new citizens to read and understand. They will then have to answer questions based on that. If they get it wrong, they have to re-do until they get it, so that it sinks into them. So it is not a test but it is a mandatory component and I think this will help us improve our naturalisation process. We will also be working on improving the sense of ceremony and significance of our citizenship ceremonies, which we conduct in all our constituencies.

Let me conclude by saying we need to be confident and secure in who we are and what our values are. We need to be a society in which our core values do not change, even as we adapt to the dynamically changing world around us. We need to remain a family-centric people. We need to focus on building strong intra- and inter-generational ties. We need Singaporeans to remain hardworking, be self-reliant, and take pride in what we can achieve for ourselves and our families. We must commit to continuing to invest in our children and the future. And, as long as we do so, I am confident we will survive and thrive, and turn our hopes and dreams into reality.

I will stop here and ask for some time for clarifications before we go on with the other cuts.

The Chairman: We have a total of 29.5 minutes.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Mr Chairman, I suggest we spend the next, say, 15 minutes on clarifications.

The Chairman: Okay. Mr Seah Kian Peng.

Mr Seah Kian Peng: Mr Chairman, just a few clarifications for the Minister.

First, on filial piety. I would like to ask the Minister what measures the Ministry is doing to promote this important value particularly amongst our young and our young adults.

Second, on my suggestions on Government-paid maternity and paternity leave, I am indeed quite encouraged by the Minister's response. He mentioned that this will be featured when we do the review on the marriage and parenthood measures by Deputy Prime Minister Wong. I assume the review will be quite a few years away. So, could this be taken in isolation if we feel these are important steps which will make a difference? It can eventually still be part of the overall measures to be reviewed by Deputy Prime Minister Wong.

And my third point is this. The Minister suggested, and I would like to accept his suggestion, to consider moving a Private Member's Bill to amend and strengthen the Maintenance of Parents Act. I look forward to Members who have an interest in this to join me in this journey, including those from the public. I would just like to request if the Minister can consider extending the Ministry's resources in terms of legislative and secretarial support for this purpose.

6.45 pm

One clarification for the Senior Parliamentary Secretary. This is with regard to corporate governance in the National Sports Associations (NSAs), a point which Mr Palmer has asked. Referring to the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) case, as what Mr Palmer has rightly pointed out, the lapses were there for quite some time. No doubt SAA has something to answer but I assume, and I would also expect, that the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) also needs to account for the lapses. I would like his response to that.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: On filial piety, I would say that filial piety begins at home. Children watch how we behave to our parents. I doubt they will behave any better to us.

While we can always make pleas to the schools in Civics and Moral Education, I think there is a limit to how much an outsider can affect our deeply held values and relationship with our parents. There is a limit to how much schools can do.

The Government will focus on making sure that we all discharge our responsibilities. On this note, I am very glad the Member is willing to take up the challenge on moving a Private Member's Bill to amend the Maintenance of Parents Act. I assure Mr Seah and all other interested Members that MCYS will provide full support in the drafting of the amendments.

On paternity leave and maternity leave, Mr Seah is basically telling us, "do not wait". I will bring this message to the rest of my colleagues.

Mr Teo Ser Luck: With regard to the question on governance of NSAs, I would say that we have learnt some lessons from these issues.

SSC introduced a Code of Governance and wanted the NSAs to implement it. I agree with the Member that SSC has to step up in its compliance to the Code of Governance as well as to the plans that use public funds disbursed by the SSC. So we will actually step up and build the system of regular audit to make sure that there is compliance by the NSAs that are drawing larger funds from SSC.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: Sir, I am deeply appreciative and want to thank very much the Minister and his teams at MCYS and NCSS for their support in implementing the recommendations of the Enabling Master Plan for the Disabled. Thank you especially for the non-means tested $300 monthly subsidy for every young Singaporean's special needs child. I hope more families will appreciate this significant gesture. For the CPF Special Needs Savings Scheme for the Disabled, may I ask the Minister to maybe engage the families on the ground so that at the execution level, the implementation will be successfully applied.

Sir, since the Finance Minister is also here, I think it is appropriate to ask for his and the Minister's comments on my appeal for a slice of the National Productivity and Innovation Fund for the non-profit social service sector to tackle the many complex social issues that we are facing.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: On the Special Needs Savings Scheme, the Member is absolutely right. Once we announce the details, we will have to go on a public education campaign to inform all the parents as to the schemes available. I want to point out that what we are doing is constructing a couple of different options because no one size will fit all. Depending on the individual circumstances of each family, they will have to opt accordingly – whether to just buy, for instance, an insurance policy or to put money with the Special Needs Trust Company or use the Special Needs Savings Scheme. Every family has different needs. We will also have a one-stop referral point, ie, the CEL, which will sit down, discuss and advise accordingly.

On the question that she posed to the Minister for Finance, I do not think it is fair to ask him to answer it now. Nevertheless, I have heard both the Member as well as Mr Laurence Wee's call to help professionalise and uplift the capabilities of social enterprises and voluntary welfare organisations, so they can do more. We have the VWO Capability Fund. If we need to put in more resources into that, I will be perfectly happy to do so.

Mr Calvin Cheng: Sir, I would like to first thank the Minister and the Minister of State for referring me to the SDN and LoveByte website. I promise to look into it and spread the word to all my single friends. [ Laughter. ] At the risk of adding fuel to fire, I would like to ask for two clarifications.

Firstly, regarding HDB flats – I am not sure whether it is the right Ministry – I am wondering why singles cannot buy directly from HDB, after all HDB is meant to provide housing for all citizens, not only married citizens. In the resale market, as we know, the prices of flats are now very high.

Secondly, in terms of caring for singles, I am very pleased to hear that the financial needs of singles are well looked after. But I am also concerned about the psychological needs of singles, especially as they grow older. As we know from other countries and statistics, single elderly men are especially most prone to suicide. As this group grows older, I hope MCYS can look into programmes that will actually look after the increasing isolated singles. When we grow older, all our friends get married, we are left alone and no one is there to talk to us.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Mr Mah is smiling but I do not think he intends to answer that question. Would the Minister like to answer?

The Minister for National Development (Mr Mah Bow Tan): Do you allow me?

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Sure.

The Chairman: Please go ahead, Mr Mah.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: I am not sure whether Standing Orders allow this but since the Chair has allowed it and my hon. colleague has given me the floor, I will make two clarification points.

The first is really that singles do enjoy certain housing privileges but they enjoy less than families. So it is not correct to say that singles do not enjoy any housing privilege. What they do enjoy is, of course, the grant for the resale flat. Why is it that they cannot buy a new flat? The simple reason is that the subsidy that is embodied in the new flat is really meant for families. So we cannot be giving them a new flat because the subsidy is much more than what the singles should enjoy. I want to tell the Member that if he would like to apply for an HDB resale flat, I will give him half a grant, provided he is above 35 years old which I think he is.

The Chairman: The Standing Orders allow any Minister to reply to any point but for one hour only.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: That is a useful point.

With regard to the psychological needs of the single elderly, the Member is absolutely right. I think lonely old men are perhaps the most vulnerable, and that is why he should get married. But assuming he cannot get married, the second thing I would say is that there are other reasons why he must have friends, particularly old friends, who will still put up with him in his old age.

The third and more serious point is that MCYS and our partners on the ground will certainly look at making sure that everyone who wants and is willing to be engaged and active will stay engaged. It is important, therefore, to have activities and to go out of the home to stay engaged socially. We will also look into opportunities to keep the mind active, which could mean attending courses or even pursuing education. So there are many things which can be done.

On the macro scale, I also need this House to understand that if we say families and children are important, it means necessarily and logically that we have to allocate more resources to invest in families and children. Therefore even while we do our bit to help singles, I need singles to understand that we cannot allocate as much to them as a group as we allocate to families and children. This is a trade-off which we have to make as a society. We make this trade-off because this is the only way to keep ourselves viable, self-replicating and ensure that we have a future. That is the fact of life.

Mr Michael Palmer: Sir, two clarifications. The first is on the Sports Hub. I do not think the Senior Parliamentary Secretary answered the questions on when we can expect the winning consortium to sign the Development Agreement and when we can expect the ground-breaking ceremony. The reason I asked this again is because if we do not have a Development Agreement, then how do we know that it is going to be completed in 2013 or 2014?

The second question is on the marathon. I know it has grown, but I do not think that is credit to the Sports Council. It is credit to the NSA and the people who take part in it. So, again, I ask for the rationale for SSC coming in to take over the marathon.

Mr Teo Ser Luck: Sir, on the Sports Hub: all the different parties are working on the agreements and legal documents now. We will allow the different parties to work on those agreements. I do not have the details to give an update at this point in time. But we have made a commitment to start work in the middle of the year.

As far as the marathon is concerned, I do not think that the SSC is asking or claiming credit for a marathon that has been organised for so many years. But let me just say and state clearly that the SSC has been the one providing the resources to organise the marathons over these years, together with SAA. And SAA, being a NSA body, sanctions the race for the elite runners to participate in the marathon. I think an important fact is that SAA and SSC play different roles and they come together to organise a marathon. This time, when they could not agree on how the marathon should be organised and its future focus, the sponsors have to make the final decision. And we want the StanChart marathon to continue and not to be aborted or cancelled because there are over 50,000 Singaporean runners in the marathon, not just 100 or 100-plus elite runners. So, at least for SSC and the sponsors, we have to make sure we keep the marathon going and we will continue to seek sanction, like we had done in previous years where sanction was sought from SAA for the elite runners to come. Nevertheless, we would want to organise this marathon for all the participants who aspire to finish the marathon.

The Chairman: Miss Penny Low, keep it short if you want an answer.

Miss Penny Low: Mr Chairman, actually I have got three clarifications. The first is pertaining to the Minister's remarks about singles, perhaps, being a higher risk category. I wonder if he has looked more closely at the data to determine if age, widows or even divorces could be a factor, or that singles are usually the ones left looking after their parents and, therefore, falling into the dilemma of whether to work for an income or practise filial piety. It is a difficult balancing act. Perhaps, he could look more deeper into the issue itself and have wider measures to help singles.

Second clarification for the Minister of State. I thank her for her support for –

The Chairman: Miss Low, may I suggest that we let the Minister answer and then take further clarifications at the end of the Head.

Miss Penny Low: Yes, Sir.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: On the suggestion to study further, the answer is yes.

Assistance to Malay/Muslim families

Mdm Halimah Yacob: (In Malay) : [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Sir, last year, many families were affected by the economic downturn which we faced. They lost their jobs or received pay cuts. Even though our economy has recovered, our efforts to help these affected families must still continue.

In this matter, I urge that we take a long-term approach in helping them, not only by handing out financial assistance which is temporary in nature, but by helping them increase their resilience through skills training and their children's education. This is a more meaningful effort as the effect is greater.

I would also like to urge that we take the maximum effort to help our community further understand the proposals made by the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC), as well as this year's Budget, in order to increase our productivity. I am worried that if our community does not understand the implications of the suggestions on their lives, jobs and businesses, we will be left behind and will not be able to seize the available opportunities when our economy changes direction to an economy based on innovation and productivity.

May I have the Minister's response on how we have used our available resources, like the zakat payment, to assist and strengthen Malay/Muslim families. Also, what are our plans to enable our community to further understand the implications of the ESC proposals and this year's Budget?

*Cols. 3929-3930.

7.00 pm

Malay community – dysfunctional families

Dr Ahmad Mohd Magad (Pasir Ris-Punggol): ( In Malay ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] The dysfunctional family issue is an important challenge that still needs the community's attention. Recently, a group of students and young professionals were invited to join the Community Leaders' Forum (CLF) to think of strategies together to overcome this challenge. Can the Minister comment on how can the expertise and skills of our young professionals be utilised and maximised to manage those challenges?

Sir, some years ago, it was announced that a temporary shelter will be built for Muslim women who are victims of abuse. Can the Minister comment on the progress of that particular organisation, that is, the Casa Raudha? When will it begin its operations?

As part of the effort to solve the problem of dysfunctional families, can the Government provide a fund for a campaign to feature individuals and families, who have faced the challenge of social dysfunction but managed to overcome it? I feel that such positive examples can give encouragement to the dysfunctional families, as it shows that a bright future is possible, provided that they take the effort to change their conditions.

On the issue of marriage, can MCYS conduct a study on the effectiveness of the pre-marital courses that are being held currently? Also, can the Ministry provide incentives to companies and Malay/Muslim bodies to organise marriage guidance courses for couples who are in their first three years of marriage?

*Cols. 3931-3932.

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: ( In Malay ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Sir, we have begun to see the positive effects of the programme to overcome the issue of dysfunctional families – for instance, the number of divorces and the problem of teen pregnancies and youth marriages are seeing reductions. But I admit that it is too early to celebrate the success of these social programmes as there are many more that are affected, and the process of guiding these families will take a long time and needs huge resources.

Sir, through my experience in engaging such families, I began to realise that one of the main issues is the ability of these families to adapt to their environment. In this matter, there must be concern towards the issue of whether these high-risk families understand what is required of them. For instance, are they aware of the opportunities available under the new strategy of our country's economy and what they should do? With limited financial resources, do they have the skills to manage their family's finances without being stuck in debt? What is their understanding of family planning, which has a direct relation to the number of children that they can support in their families? What is the role of the community within their family network for such matters – for example, are their parents, relatives and siblings able to provide the correct advice in relation to the duties of married life, family planning and upgrading themselves to increase their income and capabilities? Or are they themselves unaware what should be done?

Sir, what is important is that our community needs a mindset change followed by action, ie, to do what is necessary to take advantage of all available opportunities. I feel that our community must shift from a "don't know" position to a "want to know" position, and then take the necessary steps. I hope that the Community Leader's Forum can continue to create programmes to start this change in mindset.

Sir, before I end, on behalf of my constituency in the northern part of Singapore, may I ask the Minister whether another mosque can be built in Woodlands housing estate, in order to increase the limited mosque space in the northern part of Singapore?

*Cols. 3933-3934.

Strengthening Malay/Muslim families

Assoc. Prof. Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: ( In Malay ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Sir, the action plan to strengthen Malay/Muslim families has been rolled out to help address the issue of dysfunctional family. In addition, the Community Leaders' Forum has also implemented programmes such as "Bijak Belanja" (Smart Spending) to encourage and help individuals and families to spend wisely. Over the years, the Malay/Muslim organisations have also chipped in to help address the dysfunctional family phenomenon.

During the recent Chinese New Year celebrations, I met one of my grassroots leaders who was an owner of an electrical shop in Bedok North. He shared with me an observation about a change in the behaviour of his Malay/Muslim shoppers during the year end and Chinese New Year sale period. He mentioned that his Malay/Muslim customers are more careful in spending or when taking instalment payment plans. He asked me whether this was the "bijak belanja" thing that was mentioned by a few of his customers. Although their "bijak belanja" attitude has reduced his sales among the Malay/Muslim customers, he is not worried, as this would also mean less default in payment from them.

Sir, in relation to the initiatives that have been undertaken, I would like to ask the Minister if he could share any indicators, such as the rates of divorce and remarriage among young couples, as well as any evidence showing the impact of our continuous efforts so far, in addressing this issue of dysfunctional families.

*Cols. 3935-3936.

Muslim marriages

Dr Fatimah Lateef: Sir, persons younger than 18 years of age who wish to get married must first apply for a special marriage licence from MCYS and the Syariah Court. Since the minimum age for Muslim marriages has been increased from 16 to 18 years in 2008, how many applications and approvals have there been for such special marriage licences? Also, how are these applicants counselled and assessed? Can MCYS update us on the number of teenage marriages in the Malay/Muslim community over the last three years?

Joint madrasah system

Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Sir, there is a groundswell of opinion that some of the traditional methods of Islamic education need to be reviewed in order to better equip the students of Islamic studies to meet the demands of a rapidly changing society around them. Traditional mosque and madrasah -based methods of education was grounded largely in the notion of transmitted knowledge, and respect for the Imams and authorities of past. On the other hand, modern education emphasises inquisitive approaches to education, critical thinking and the ability to push forward for new solutions. Pure transmission of knowledge is inadequate to equip the student to face the outside world with competence.

It is clear that religion cannot be taught in isolation without discussing how the modern world is affecting practice and understanding of religion and how religion is influencing its surroundings. This balance needs to be constantly addressed. This is an area that the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) will have to invariably look at to moderate the adverse influences and to help students improve their understanding of historical, cultural, consitutional and local context of Islam in Singapore. Madrasah students, through their curriculum, should not only be exposed to other religions in their course of studies but also be introduced to differences within their own religion. Hopefully, this will be manifested in their curricula for madrasahs to produce asatizahs that are knowledgeable not only in Islam but also that they are able to instil a sense of unity and coherence with the prevailing culture of their larger communities.

On that note, I would like to seek clarification on MUIS' philosophy in the educational reform in addressing the potential negative external influences brought upon by globalisation. Can MCYS share MUIS' strategy and plans for the development of madrasah education, including the Joint Madrasah System (JMS)? Also, will the similar support resource and financial assistance continue to be extended to the madrasahs which are outside of the JMS ambit?

In my humble opinion, the madrasah education must convey to the students the insight that knowledge is not something to be acquired but also to be generated. They are both the recipients and producers of knowledge. The asatizahs must be equipped to gradually uncover themselves the ability to research, initiate and offer solutions to the real issues of an ever changing and challenging global landscape.

Madrasah issues

Dr Ahmad Mohd Magad: ( In Malay ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Mr Chairman, the Joint Madrasah System (JMS) which commenced operations last year, involved three madrasahs, that is, the Al-Irsyad Madrasah, Aljunied Madrasah and Al-Arabiah Madrasah. Under the JMS, these three madrasahs will be placed under a more integrated education system. What is the progress of these three JMS madrasahs so far, and what is the progress of the training of madrasah teachers? Has it achieved any results so far with changes in the quality of education? Also, how many teachers will undergo training this year?

Sir, as these three JMS madrasahs are now given allocations from public funds, that is, the Mosque Building and Mendaki Fund (MBMF), do these madrasahs have plans to increase their involvement in community activities or efforts? I think that this is important as madrasahs should not be exclusive and have to be more dynamic in involving their students and teachers in more community efforts. This will foster closer relations with members of the Malay/Muslim community, who do not have direct links with madrasahs , as well as the non-Muslim community in Singapore.

With regard to madrasah students' performance in the PSLE, the rate of students qualifying for secondary schools has gone down, from 98% two years ago to 93% in 2009. What steps will MUIS take to guide the madrasahs to ensure that this decline does not continue to happen in the coming years?

As for the other three madrasahs that do not join the JMS, I would like to know if MUIS has plans to provide them with incentives to join the JMS. In addition, what is being done to ensure that the needs of students and teachers from these three madrasahs will still be looked after?

*Cols. 3937-3938.

The Chairman: Mr Hawazi Daipi, please take your two cuts together.

Funding for mosque development

Mr Hawazi Daipi: ( In Malay ): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A.] Mr Chairman, for the past 35 years, the Malay/Muslim community can take pride in having built 24 modern mosques in housing estates here by using their own funds. More than $135 million have been collected through monthly salary deductions among Malay/Muslim workers in order to fund the construction of those mosques. Our mosques are well managed through the combined effort of community leaders and volunteers as well as professional staff under MUIS' supervision.

The Administration of Muslim Law Act (AMLA) that was amended in 2008 enables the Mosque Building and Mendaki Fund (MBMF) to be used to repair or restore those mosques. During the debates to amend AMLA, the Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs announced that MUIS was not planning to build new mosques, after the completion of the Al-Mawaddah Mosque in Sengkang and another one in Punggol under the final phase of mosque development plan.

I concur that, after the mosques have been constructed in each housing estate, we must give priority to the improvement of some of our modern mosques that are now showing signs of dilapidation, for the benefit of the community, including the elderly who are increasing in number. However, I hope that the Minister will not close the door to the possibility of building new mosques in estates with a high number of Malay/Muslim residents and Muslim foreign workers, even though there is already a mosque in the area.

For example, in Woodlands New Town, there is the An-Nur Mosque that was officially opened in 1980. This 30-year old mosque will be restored, with part of its costs borne by the MBMF. As one of the Members of Parliament serving the Marsiling district in Sembawang GRC, I know that the local residents appreciate the decision to upgrade the facilities in An-Nur Mosque. However, due to the large number of Malay/Muslims in Woodlands, added with the high number of Muslim foreign workers in the north, the An-Nur Mosque is often congested each Friday and during festivities like Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hari Raya Haji and the Prophet's Birthday celebrations. In fact, the mosque is also very crowded during the weekends. At times, the congregation spills onto the roads. This is not only an eyesore but also unsafe for the congregation and other road users. I do not encourage the congregation to repeat the situation. However at the same time, MUIS must take into account long-term measures to meet this demand by constructing new mosques in some estates, even though these areas like Woodlands and Jurong already have modern mosques.

Touching on the plans to upgrade our modern mosques, may I seek the Minister's elaboration on the implementation detail?

*Cols. 3939-3940.

The Chairman: Mr Hawazi, you cannot carry on with your plan. Order. It is 7.15 pm.

Thereupon Mr Deputy Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House.