SOUTHERN ISLANDS LOCAL COUNCIL BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

11.40 a.m.

The Minister for Local Government, Lands and Housing (Inche Abdul Hamid Bin Haji Jumat): Mr Speaker, Sir, I have His Excellency the Governor's consent to proceed with this Bill. I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Sir, the main purpose of this Bill is to provide for the creation of a statutory board which will be called the Southern Islands Local Council for the local government administration of the group of islands to the south and south-west of the Island of Singapore, described in the First Schedule to the Bill, which are at present administered by the Rural Board. As hon. Members will be aware, the McNeice Committee on Local Government in its Report recommended that, on the reorganisation of the local government system in Singapore, the administration of these islands should be the responsibility of the central govern ment under the Ministry of Local Government, Lands and Housing. This recommendation was accepted by the Government, as is stated in the White Paper on Government Policy, Sessional Paper Cmd. No. 30 of 1956.

This Local Council will have a simple constitution consisting of the District Officer (Islands), as Chairman with a number of elected ketuas and three other persons to be appointed. It is the intention that there will be nine ketuas to be elected in accordance with the division of these islands into nine groups, each group constituting an electoral division, with the population of each more or less evenly distributed among the groups. Provision is made for the election of ketuas by ballot, each electoral division returning one candidate to the Board. The franchise will be extended to all residents in the islands who are of full age and capacity and have been resident there for five years and are able to speak either English, Malay, Tamil or any of the Chinese dialects commonly used and understood by the people on the islands. The three appointed members will be unofficials who will be chosen from prominent residents living in these islands.

The Local Council, as the local authority for the Southern Islands, will be multilingual and its proceedings may be conducted in English, Malay, Tamil or any commonly understood Chinese dialect. It will be given powers to carry out works for the improvement of communications, the promotion of sanitation and cleanliness and the abatement of nuisances.

General powers will also be given to the Council to make by-laws for good local government administration, and it will be noted, Sir, from clause 16 (3) of the Bill that these powers are quite wide.

The Local Council will have further powers to levy rates on properties and collect other taxes and fees, and the deficit between revenue and expenditure will be met by annual contributions from the Government on the same lines as government contributions to the present Rural Board.

The implementation of the Bill will ensure that these islands will receive, through their elected representatives sitting on the Local Council, a more adequate and closer attention in regard to the needs and the provision of amenities, as these islands, by reason of their detachment from the mainland and the poverty in which the islanders are living, present special problems. The creation of this Local Council will meet a long-felt need to better the living conditions of the people living in the Southern Islands.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole Assembly.

Assembly immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. [Inche Abdul Hamid.]

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read the Third time and passed.