EMERGENCY (PROCLAMATION)

The Chief Secretary (Mr W. A. C. Goode): Mr Speaker, Sir, I move the motion standing in my name,

That this Assembly, in accordance with subsection (3) of section 3 of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, 1948 (No. 17 of 1948), as amended by the Emergency Regulations (Amendment) Ordinance, 1948 (No. 39 of 1948), and the Emergency Regulations (Amendment) Ordinance, 1951 (No. 9 of 1951), adopts the Proclamation made by the Governor in Council on the 16th day of July, 1955 and published as Notification No. S 199 in the Gazette Supplement No. 58 of 22nd July, 1955, as contained in Sessional Paper No. S.L. 23 of 1955, prolonging for a further period of three months commencing the 22nd day of July, 1955, the period specified in the Proclamation of Emergency made on the 21st day of April, 1955, and published as Notification No. S 113 in the Gazette Supplement No. 30 of 21st April, 1955.

The effect of this motion is to ask this House to approve the Proclamation made by the Governor in Council on July the 16th last, which extended for a further period of three months from July the 22nd the period of Emergency and so continue in force for that further three months the Emergency Regulations.

It so happened. Sir, that the last two or three sittings of this House have been preoccupied by other more exciting and probably more important matters than this motion to continue in force the Emergency Regulations. So it is nearly four months this afternoon since my hon. Friend the Chief Minister last moved a similar motion in this Assembly. When he did so last April, he promised that, within the next three months, the Government would exhaustively investigate whether there was any necessity for continuing the state of Emergency and, even if that should be so, whether there was any necessity for continuing the Emergency Regulations as a whole. He undertook that, within three months, the Government would make a clear declaration of policy on this matter.

Now, Sir, much has happened since the day when that promise was made. Almost at the time that it was being made, there were forces at work, inflaming the passions of decent ordinary workers and inciting students to agitation, the result of which was that in May, we had ugly riots and four deaths. The Government then was faced with a very real and pressing Emergency. Far from making progress in our examination of the Emergency Regulations and the need for them, we were obliged to come to this House to get approval to restore to the Commissioner of Police the power to impose a curfew, the power which we had ourselves revoked only three weeks previously. Against that background of a most dangerous threat to the public security of Singapore, our examination of the Emergency Regulations became unreal.

Then in June, we hoped that law and order and the innate decency and good sense of the people of Singapore had prevailed over those evil influences which seek to create disorder and violence here; but again, we found ourselves faced with a serious threat to the well-being of this island in a general strike. Once more, we had to face the grave responsibility of ensuring the public safety - the primary responsibility of any government - the responsibility of seeing that its citizens can go about their lawful occasions without danger to life and property and without risk of mob violence. In speaking in this Assembly towards the end of June, the Chief Minister gave an account of the measures which the Government, under his leadership, felt that it was right to take to safeguard the situation then.

Having thus overcome these two threats to law and order and the whole fabric of our Government here, we were able then to turn to the task of reviewing the Emergency Regulations and the need for them, and as I think hon. Members will be aware from public statements which have already been made, we have reached a firm decision on the policy which we consider it is our duty to follow. Our policy is to embody in new legislation such of the provisions and the powers of the Emergency Regulations as we consider to be needed for the good government of Singapore. We have decided our policy and we have carried out the bulk of the work necessary to put that policy into execution. At the last sitting of this Assembly, we introduced seven Bills, and in those seven Bills will be found the majority of the provisions and powers which, in the view of the Government, are required in the present circumstances here in Singapore. As this legislation is enacted, we shall then allow the present Emergency Regulations to pass out of force. In this way, I very much hope that this will be the last time that I shall have to move in this Assembly this motion asking for an extension of the period of the Emergency Regulations. Much, of course, will depend on the progress that we can make in this Assembly in dealing with the new legislation, which is already before you and with at least one more important Bill, which we shall be introducing. That is the Bill for Social Security Registration which we shall ask this Assembly to enact, and we shall then allow the present provisions in the Emergency Regulations, providing for registration and identity cards, to lapse. If we can get this legislation enacted, then the Emergency Regulations will lapse.

It seems to me probable that this House will wish to give its attention mainly to our new legislation and that this motion today, seeking approval for the extension of the Emergency Regulations while we consider the new legislation, has become, shall I say, of less burning interest than it usually is.

I think perhaps, Sir, the House will wish me to give some brief account of the extent to which, during the period since I last spoke, we have found it necessary to make use of the powers of arrest and detention in the Emergency Regulations - those being the powers which arouse the greatest controversy, and very rightly naturally arouse the greatest repugnance amongst us all. When I last spoke, Sir, I reported that during 1954, we had made 69 Detention Orders and that during the first three months of this year, we had made 17. During the second three months, that is from the middle of April to the middle of July, again. 13 Detention Orders were made and in the next month which has since gone by, a further 4. So the total number of Detention Orders in the four-month period I am now reviewing comes to 17. Of those 17, 4 persons have been convicted in court, and one more is awaiting trial. Three have since been released subject to certain conditions of residence, and one has been released unconditionally, leaving 8 persons who are held now in custody purely on Detention Orders. I hope, Sir, that when those figures are considered in the light of the very serious events which have taken place during the last four months, this Assembly will agree with me when I say that the Government has exercised these powers with restraint and with judgment.

We, on this side of the House, fully share the repugnance that all people feel to having to keep a person in custody without bringing him to trial in an open court under the ordinary procedure of the law, but I do submit, Sir, that as a Government, we have to weigh against that repugnance our bounden duty to safeguard the public peace and the welfare of the state, and on that issue, I am quite clear that the Government has discharged its responsibility with complete integrity. Sir, I beg to move.

The Chief Minister: Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to second the motion and reserve the right to speak.

Question proposed.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, since the Government will insist that I speak for five minutes before I am interrupted, or else keep silent for ever more, I must rise to say my piece on behalf of the People's Action Party.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Chief Secretary has pointed out that what we will quarrel, or may quarrel, about is no longer or will no longer be the Emergency Regulations. As he has pointed out, some Bills or series of Bills have been tabled in this House. Before I proceed may I, on a point of information, ask him when we could expect to receive copies of these Bills?

The Chief Minister rose -

Mr Speaker: I will take that, Mr Chief Minister. These Bills are in the process of being printed, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and as soon as they are ready, they will be sent out to Members.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, could we be given an indication as to when we would be given the first opportunity to study them?

Mr Speaker: I can only inform hon. Members that the proofs have not come back to us, so that all I can say is that it will be done as soon as possible.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Quantitatively, Sir, in point of time, what would "as soon as possible" mean? Qualitatively, I can appreciate the fact that the printers will be rushed as quickly as we can expect them to be rushed as Government servants. It would be of assistance in this debate if we could know when we would be able to discuss the changes that are being proposed.

The Chief Minister: If it please you, Sir, I will answer that question. It is proposed that the Second Reading will take place on the 21st of September. Now, the Bills were tabled last week and, in the normal course, I think it will take about ten days for the Printer to return them to you - they are in your hands and no longer with Government - and for you to distribute them to Members. So, if they are given to us, say, in three days' time, we shall have more than three weeks to study them for the Second Reading.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Well, Sir, I do not propose to lose my right to speak tomorrow, and I do not at the same time wish unnecessarily to filibuster this House. I would say this to the Chief Minister - that if we want to be unkind, which is not always, we could point out the delay that all this amending legislation has taken. In the first sitting of this Assembly, when we had the privilege of the Chief Minister moving an extension of the Emergency

Regulations, he promised us that when he came back again here in three months' time - that is, in July - we would have those amendments. This is August and we still have not got them -

The Chief Minister: You have got them -

Mr Speaker: Order, please. Yes, it is quite obvious, Mr Chief Minister.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Chief Minister is always quite right. But I am sure we are equally quite right because we are quite in the dark as to what he proposes to do until we receive copies of these Bills. Until we receive them, we do not know whether we shall be able to congratulate him and to wish him well -

The Chief Minister: Wait till the 21st of September!

Mr Speaker: Order, please.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: - or perhaps -

Mr Speaker: Order, order. Moment of interruption. Debate to be resumed, what day?

The Chief Minister: Tomorrow, Sir, at 10 a.m.

Remaining items on the Order Paper read and ordered for the next day.