ANNOUNCEMENTS IN MANDARIN AT SINGAPORE AIRPORT

3.38 p.m.

Mr William Tan (Tiong Bahru): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move,

That this Assembly is of the opinion that Mandarin should also be used in all verbal announcements made by and at the Singapore Airport.

Sir, this motion is the outcome of long and futile negotiations with the expatriate Minister for Communications and Works.

Mr Speaker: Order. The word "expatriate" in this sense is provocative and I ask the hon. Member to withdraw that word.

Mr William Tan: I withdraw that word, Sir. Many of my constituents have complained to me that they were badly handicapped due to the lack of information particularly in Chinese at the Singapore Airport and upon this information, Sir, I have written several letters to the Minister for Communications and Works. With your permission, I would like to read the contents of these letters.

On 28th January, 1957, I wrote to the Minister drawing his attention to the inadequacy of the English language being used in announcing the arrival and departure of planes in the Paya Lebar International Airport. I said:

"The Singapore Airport should, for the con venience of the Asiatic passengers who do not understand the English language, announce the arrival and departure of planes in Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

There are many instances in which passengers missed or went to the wrong plane just because they do not understand English. As the Malayan Airways and other Airlines are mostly patronised by the Asians, and it is possible that a good number of them may not know English, the introduction of multilingualism in the announcement of their flight schedules is more URGENT.

Since the Government is advocating multi lingualism in the Legislative Assembly for the convenience of its Members, I fail to understand why such facilities should not be extended to the Commercial Air Transports which play such an important part in the life of the people of Singapore.

May I, therefore, request the favour of your early attention to this matter."

And on 8th February, 1957, Sir, the Minister wrote:

"Dear Mr Tan,

You wrote on 28th January asking if multilingual facilities could be introduced at the Paya Lebar Airport, and in yesterday's Straits Times the subject was also mentioned.

I am afraid that I cannot subscribe to the view that there have been many instances in which passengers missed or went to the wrong plane just because they were not conversant in English. I am, of course, aware of the fact that in many international airports announcements are made both in English, which has been accepted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation as the lingua franca of the air, and in the national language of that country. In so far as Paya Lebar is primarily an international airport, English would always be required, but in view of an increase expected in the local traffic between Singapore and the Federation of Malaya, not to mention Sarawak and North Borneo, I have asked the Airport to experiment with Malay announcements and to report to me after an adequate period."

I was very annoyed when he said that, Sir. And on 11th February, 1957, I replied:

"I have to acknowledge with many thanks the receipt of your letter M.C. & W. 41/57 dated 8th February, 1957, in connection with my request that multilingualism should be adopted by the airport authorities in announcing the arrival and departure of planes in the Paya Lebar International Airport.

I believe it is not so important whether you will subscribe to the view that there have been many instances in which passengers missed or went to the wrong plane just because they were not conversant in English; but the facts reported by me in my letter are supported by witnesse and, moreover, since such "instances" are never reported to the airport Authorities, it is very probable that you are ignorant of such state of affairs. Besides, the inconveniences experienced by the non-English speaking passengers in the airport can never be appreciated by those in power who normally cannot understand or are not concerned with the real needs of the Asians in this country.

I am at a loss to understand why only Malay announcements are to be experimented when the majority of the passengers using planes between Singapore and the Federation of Malaya, Sarawak, North Borneo, Indonesia and other countries is Chinese."

And the Minister replied to me on 10th April as follows :-

"Sir, In your letter to me of 28th January, 1957, you said, "that there are many instances in which passengers missed or went to the wrong plane just because they do not know English", and in your letter of 11th February, you added that these instances are supported by witnesses.

As you know, we are experimentally making announcements in Malay as well as English; and I am also considering reports on the points raised in your letters. It would greatly help me if you can give me details of the instances referred to above; or, if you yourself have not got details, if you can give me the names and addresses of the witnesses from whom I can get the facts. What I need to know is:

(a) the date of each instance referred to;

(b) the country to which the passenger intended travelling;

(c) the airline on which he was supposed to travel;

(d) the passenger's name and address;

(e) the languages and dialects spoken by the passenger."

Sir, how can the Minister expect me to check the names and addresses of the passengers and the dialects spoken by them? Why not ask about their ages and the number of wives they have too? Frankly, Sir, what I am fighting for is a matter of principle, having at heart the progress and prosperity of Singapore. Singapore has an international airport. I have been to Hongkong and the authorities over there think it is necessary to introduce the Cantonese dialect as well as English to announce the arrival and departure of planes because the majority of the people there speak Cantonese. We say that we want to attract tourists and trade and yet we do not have the same facilities here. I can assure the House, Sir, that most of the Indonesian passengers who come to Singapore and bring trade and wealth to this country speak Mandarin. I am not asking the Minister to introduce only the Mandarin language. I am asking him to introduce something which this Assembly has already passed, that is, multilingualism, and I cannot understand why the Minister should take such a negative attitude. Is he so shortsighted not to see that this is an international airport and that we want progress in this country?

Sir, I can quote a few instances. For example, take the case of a Chinese lady passenger who does not speak English but only the Chinese language. Whilst she is having coffee in the lounge or in the bar of the airport, suddenly an announcement comes over the air regarding the arrival or the departure of a plane. You will see that this same passenger will rush to the reception desk or will approach the other passengers and ask them what the announcement was about. That clearly shows that she does not understand English.

I can also quote another instance. There were hundreds of supporters from the various political parties in Singapore who were waiting for the delegates to arrive back from London after the constitutional talks but the plane was delayed. The airport manager instructed somebody there to make an announcement in English to say that the plane had been delayed and asked the people to go back home, but nobody went back because they could not understand English. Subsequently, an announcement was made in Malay but it still did not make any difference. The crowd was still there. Eventually, in desperation, I think a reporter of the Sin Chew Jit Poh was approached and he got up to a microphone to speak to the people in Mandarin. Thereafter, the crowd just dispersed like the April mist in the July sun. All of them went back home. That clearly shows, Sir, that most of the people who go to the airport do not understand English. I am quite sure that the majority of the people in Singapore today, Sir - about 50 per cent - understand Mandarin. The Government say that they have already experimented with the Malay language and I can see that the reason why that has not been successful is that not many of the passengers who use the airport are Malays - I am quite sure that the percentage is very small. I am not arguing about the facts. I am arguing about the principle of introducing multilingualism in the airport because it is an international airport.

Sir, I beg to move.

Mr R. Jumabhoy (Telok Ayer): Mr Speaker, Sir, I second the motion standing on the Order Paper.

I think it is very easy to satisfy the general public, Sir, being of various nationalities and speaking different dialects if announcements are made in the four main languages of this City especially at arrivals and departures of aeroplanes to and from different countries. For example, English, Malay and Mandarin will suffice for planes to and from Indonesia or for Malayan Airways; English only and possibly a second language, Malay, for planes to and from Europe; Tamil can be added for planes to and from India. This can very easily be done in order to help the travelling public in understanding announcements of arrivals and departures of planes to or from the various countries. I do not think that it would cost the authorities very much to provide these facilities.

3.47 p.m.

The Minister for Communications and Works (Mr Francis Thomas): I would like to assure you, Sir, and the hon. Members of the House through you, that the principle of multilingualism at the airport and in civil aviation generally is one which is fully accepted.

The Member for Tiong Bahru (Mr William Tan) has described his long and so far unsuccessful struggle to get Mandarin included in the airport languages but of course the thing goes far further back than that - before he had even been elected to the Assembly. The question of what languages to use at the new Paya Lebar Airport has been discussed and consideration given to it and to all the factors involved long before it was opened, because that is part of the professional work of civil aviation officers, that they should make sure that their airport is as efficient as they can possibly make it and for that reason they consider the movement of passengers and how they are going to get to and fro without getting lost or held up. Naturally, the announcements which are made at the airport are part of the matters which are considered and I would give the House every assurance that if there appeared to be any real need for the introduction of additional languages which would lead to increased efficiency, then they should certainly be put in, but it is a matter to be judged on the question of efficiency.

The hon. Member read at length from his letters to me and from my replies. He remarked also that his constituents had complained. Now he told me categorically that there were many instances of people who missed their planes because they did not understand the announcements and he said that he had witnesses prepared to come forward and tell me all about it. I wrote to him back in April last year saying, "Please tell me who your witnesses are. This is the sort of information I want. I want to know who it was, when he was travelling, and so on, so that I can check up." Thirteen months have passed and he has produced no witnesses at all, nor has he produced any actual case at all except for the imaginary lady drinking coffee in the lounge and rushing to the information desk because she did not understand an announcement. He is not able to tell me what lady it was and on what occasion. It is just "take a case and there it is". The only other concrete instance he produced was of a crowd seeing off the constitutional talks delegation in 1957. There was a delay by the aircraft, and the crowd not understanding announcements in the ordinary way, special arrangements were made at my request for an announcement to be made in Mandarin and through the co-operation of a newspaperman, the announcement was made. That is very appropriate and proper, and it surely does not argue that because on one occasion there was a particular crowd which needed a special announcement, we should retain permanent staff able to make other announcemets which are not necessary. Well, although his researches have not produced any single case of anybody who can be identified and who has required announcements in Mandarin, we have gone into this as thoroughly as possible, since I wrote to him last year. If I remember, for an Answer to a Question in the year 1956/57, we found one person who had missed his plane through not understanding the announcements. That person was a German. In the year 1957/58, one other person also went astray through not understanding the languages used at the airport. That person was a Turk. There was one other person who missed her plane at the time of the Malayan Airways strike. She was a young lady and I believe she went to the bank. In any case, she did not hear the announcement and as the Malayan Airways was short-staffed and overworked, they did not manage to get to the information desk for a special announcement calling for her and the result was that she, in fact, did not catch her plane. It was not a matter of the language; it was a matter of her not hearing the original announcement and not getting a subsequent special call for herself by name. Those are the only three cases that I have been able to unearth, and that is why I was so anxious that the hon. Member should produce his cases which he is so confident occurred; but until he does, I am afraid I must rank him with all the other sort of speeches that are made in this Assembly in which furious accusations are made but no evidence whatever is brought forward in substantiation. I need not instance the sort of cases that have occurred, but I personally do require to be convinced before I am prepared to assume that a person is talking sense.

Now, there are various practical problems about - simply a matter of efficiency, Mr Speaker, Sir - how we are going to run our airport to the maximum convenience of the persons who want to travel through it. It is correct that the international language for civil aviation is English. French and Spanish are also used and in many airports the language of the country is added if there is a large flow of people who do not use the English language. In Hongkong, as the hon. Member pointed out, it is English and Cantonese. In Jakarta, it is English and Javanese-Indonesian. I beg your pardon; I think it is the Javanese variant of Indonesian. In Bangkok, it is English and Thai. In Kuala Lumpur, it is English, full-stop. In Singapore, we have experimented with Malay announcements. I gave Malay priority because it is, or will, I hope be, the national language for Singapore as it is for the Federation, and it seemed to me proper that we should give it first consideration. As far as could be observed, nobody wanted Malay announcements in respect of Malayan Airways flights and recently, after a year's experiment, we took them off again and again nobody noticed or commented about it. Not a ripple was noticed by anybody concerned. The fact of the matter is that people at present are moving conveniently and satisfactorily in the airport, and this is a matter of the expert opinion of people dealing with airport matters. The people most deeply concerned are perhaps the airline operators.

The hon. Member was under the impression that if a person missed his or her plane, the Ministry would not hear about it. I can assure you that if any passenger is inconvenienced at the airport through defects in the airport organisation, we shall most certainly hear about it because the airline operators will come to us and say, "What is this? Our airline missed a passenger because you have done something inefficient." The airline operators are intensely competitive, extremely efficient, and extremely conscious of the need for speedy handling and convenience of passengers, and to suppose that they would sit down under an airport which was providing an incompetent service is to underestimate the business ability of the airlines. They would not. If they wished for announcements and if they thought that they would serve any purpose, it would be very important to them to press for announcements in whatever language they thought was necessary. We have, in fact, an informal, unofficial Airline Operators Committee which sits with the airport manager and I have been in contact with all of them. We had re ports a year ago when the hon. Member brought this up. We had reports again in consequence of this motion. All we managed to elicit was that one German and one Turk missed their planes because they did not understand announcements in English. That is all that the airline operators were able to produce in the way of complaint about the announcements.

Now, if we are going to have announcements, we must have them in a way which is going to match up with the traffic of the airport. At peak periods, there are, in fact, eight flight movements such as an arrival or departure in the course of an hour and there may be further ones. If the plane comes in delayed or early on its schedule, that would add to the number. There may be other unscheduled movements as well. If we multiply the number of flight movements by the time taken for a fully multilingual airport, you would have a continuous series of announcements flowing out one after an other so that the unhappy passenger would never be able to wait and say, "Well, I wonder whether I can have a cup of coffee." He has to sit with his ears open all the time to catch a hasty announcement of his flight number. There will be a pandemonium of noise and experience shows that, in fact, that sort of continuous announcement defeats itself because nobody listens to it.

A comparison between multilingual facilities in this Assembly and multilingual facilities in the airport is really out of the world. In this Assembly, hon. Members will have to put on their earphones and listen to whichever wave-band - or whatever you call it - they want to, and they will sit down comfortably in their seats; whereas in the airport the passengers have to walk about to see that their luggage is checked and get their tickets from the office, and so on. They cannot have earphones on their heads, as these must be connected to listen to the announcements. This is not possible in a moving body of people in a large space engaged in other things besides listening to announcements.

Now, I do not want to make a great deal of this. The hon. Member spoke with some feeling about this matter but I would like to suggest to this House, Mr Speaker, Sir, that this is not a matter for feeling or for emotion. It is simply a matter for objectively considering what is going to conduce to efficient movement at the airport. If this House were to take it on itself to decide business matters without taking expert advice, then it could do great harm. I have tried to give this some basis of expert advice and I have pointed out that the airline operators - and this, of course, includes airlines like the Union of Burma, the Garuda, the Thai, Air India, in addition to the Hongkong line, the Australian line and all the other lines - have their means of discussing with the airport manager matters of the running of the airport in the Airline Operators Committee. They also can come and see me if they want to, and there is no question that if they felt any improvement is needed they would have put it up, but, in fact, what they have done was to ask that Malay should be removed because they felt that it hindered the smooth handling of passengers.

People at the airport have not observed the rush to which the hon. Member referred; the mad rush of fighting passengers running to the information bureau when an announcement was made to say, "Was that for me?" It does happen, of course, with people in a conversation who suddenly wake up and say, "I wonder if that is for me!", and they go across and ask, "Was that flight so and so you were announcing?", but to describe it as a sort of general state of affairs is not, in fact, the case in my own observation. Persons experienced in travelling on world flights, say to Zurich, where, I believe, they use French and German in addition to English and possibly Romansh, say that the effect of a number of announcements one after another in different languages is that by the end of it, you do not hear anything at all.

The Member for Telok Ayer (Mr R. Jumabhoy) in seconding the motion referred to the question of cost and, of course, if we are going to have flight announcements made through the whole 24 hours a day in whatever languages are necessary and to have standby staff because even though no scheduled flight is coming in, nevertheless, there may be an unscheduled flight or some special late arrival or early departure, it would mean recruiting additional staff in quite a big way and extra work in training because the staff changes very frequently. The girls that do the announcements are nubile and tend to get married and very often give up their career life. It would undoubtedly add to the expense. I have not attempted to estimate how much because I hope we shall not be involved in it.

The only other point I should like to make is that although the hon. Member withdrew it, he referred to me as an expatriate. I am, in fact, a Singapore citizen and would like to have it on record-

Mr Speaker: Order. I thought I had made it clear that that word had been overruled in this context.

Mr Francis Thomas: I do not think I need press any further on this matter, Mr Speaker. Sir. The basis on which I would wish this matter to be approached is not one of emotion or of a sense of frustration on the part of the hon. Member because he had a bright idea as he thought and it had not been accepted, but simply as a matter of seeing what is going to be useful to our airport which is of very great importance to us. About a quarter of a million passengers pass through the airport every year and it is important that their convenience and smooth handling should be as efficiently looked after as possible.

I said in my opening remarks and I repeat it again that I fully accept that the announcements must be such as will, in fact, serve the efficiency of the airport and the convenience of the passengers. There is no evidence at all and the hon. Member has produced none in every year since I wrote to him to show that, in fact, anybody is suffering inconvenience from lack of announcements in Mandarin. Although the hon. Member has produced no evidence, I have made the most diligent search myself in contact with the airline operators, officials and others who would be in the best position to know and they have also produced no evidence of anybody being inconvenienced. There is no doubt at all that to introduce additional languages is inconvenient and can be expensive. It could be done if it was necessary; one inconvenience must be accepted if it removes a greater inconvenience. There is no evidence at all, however, that it is necessary now and until it is shown to be necessary, we must not introduce unnecessary languages which do not help efficiency but reduce it.

4.06 p.m.

Mr Lee Choon Eng: Mr Speaker, Sir, when this motion came into my hands, I had in mind to introduce an amendment to leave out "Mandarin" and insert "multilingualism" and when I appealed to the mover of the motion, it appears that, for the time being, Mandarin is just enough. That is why I am not moving any amendment today and I am prepared to support the motion as it stands until such time as the Government will, I hope, introduce the other two languages if it finds that the use of Mandarin announcements at the airport is satisfactory.

According to the Minister, Sir, it appears to me that the announcements made at the airport are for the benefit of the passengers only. He never thinks about the friends and relatives who go to the airport either to meet or to send off passengers. What he is only worried about is the efficient running of the airport as well as the convenience of the passengers. There are many cases where friends and relatives of incoming passengers go to the airport. If a plane is delayed, an announcement is made on the microphone and unless friends and relatives are aware of that announcement, they will stay on at the airport for hours for nothing which is just a waste of time for them but if they are aware of the announcement that a plane is delayed, then they can go home and, come back at the right time when the plane comes in.

Again, Sir, according to the Minister, it is the concern of the airport authorities to see that the airport is run efficiently. He may be correct, but times, have progressed, Sir. The days are gone when very few Chinese-speaking people travel by plane. The days are gone when only the English-speaking people travel by air.

Mr Francis Thomas: Turks and Germans.

Mr Lee Choon Eng: Only one Turk and one German as quoted by you.

Even people from China who used to dread hearing an aeroplane in the old days do travel by air now. So why then, Sir, this show of favour for the English-speaking people only? There are many non-English speaking people who travel by air and are we not to provide facilities for the convenience of these people at all - just only for the benefit of the English-speaking people, and not for the benefit of others?

Sir, multilingualism has come to stay, as I have always said so. So why not introduce multilingualism in the airport as well? Why only in the Assembly and in the City Council? It should be introduced everywhere if it is for the benefit of the citizens, and not only at a privileged place like this Assembly. The airport happens to be not a privileged place.

Sir, the reason why the Minister said that so far he has got no evidence of any people who have missed a plane or gone to a wrong plane is because most of the passengers who travel by air bring along their friends who speak English. It is very rare to see a passenger going to the airport alone. You can always see that he is surrounded by either his friends or relatives who can understand and speak English and this being the case, he can rely on them to interpret the announcements. That is the reason why the Minister has got no evidence so far of anybody who has missed his plane or gone to the wrong plane. He has quoted so far a Turk and a German. It is rather unfortunate that the Turk or the German did not have relatives in Singapore. They were foreigners and they came in as foreign ers. So as such, they could not bring along - I see Ministers laughing on the opposite side; it is a fact, and it is no laughing matter at all - any friends to guide or bring them to the airport and to interpret the announcements to them. I do not think it is right that just because the Minister lacks the evidence he is not prepared to introduce other languages at the airport for announcements. I think it is very wrong.

Sir, the Member for Tiong Bahru (Mr William Tan) or the mover of the motion says that because there is a common language, Cantonese, spoken in Hongkong, the airport authorities of that country put over Cantonese announcements and the Minister himself admitted that in Indonesia, you have Indonesian and English and in Thailand you have Thai and English. But, we have many languages spoken here. Our country is quite different from other countries where it is a case of only one language. It is Thai in Thailand, Indonesian in Indonesia, and so on. Singapore is a place where you have different nationalities and the welfare of all these people has got to be looked after. Let us not always think of the privileged class - the English-speaking class. Nowadays, it is not only the English-speaking who can be elected. Everybody, even a trishaw-rider who does not speak English, can be elected. The airport is more or less a Government concern and it is not a domestic or commercial concern and in the interest of everybody, I think the Government should help everybody to understand the announcements.

I support the motion temporarily as it stands until such time as the Government, I hope, will introduce more languages.

4.13 p.m.

Mr G. A. P. Sutherland (Nominated): Mr Speaker, Sir, I cannot believe for a moment that the Hon. the Minister for Communications and Works would present other than an entirely objective picture as far as this is concerned. I am quite sure he does not suffer from any racial prejudice.

There are just two things I would like to say. One is that I am going to oppose this motion because I do not think it was very well presented. In one case, the Member for Tiong Bahru (Mr William Tan) talked about Indonesia, the trade with Indonesia and the number of Chinese coming from Indonesia. I myself spent five years in Indonesia and I would guarantee that every Chinese in Indonesia can speak Malay or its Indonesian variant.

The second is this, that he says about 50 per cent of the people here speak Mandarin. Well, there is a sort of snobbism about Mandarin these days and it may be that, as 50 per cent of the population of Singapore are under 21, the younger people do indeed speak Mandarin. Certainly, they are all making a valiant effort to learn the international Chinese, as it is called but I would very gravely doubt if 50 per cent of the adult Chinese population of Singapore can speak Mandarin. I should have thought that there was a far better case for having Hokkien or Cantonese.

4.15 p.m.

Mr Soh Ghee Soon (Cairnhill): Mr Speaker, Sir, in spite of the opposition to this motion, I must say that I am not convinced at all by the arguments put forward by the Hon. the Minister for Communications and Works that Mandarin should not be used at the international Paya Lebar airport.

He mentioned, Sir, that long before the Member for Tiong Bahru (Mr William Tan) was elected to this Assembly, the matter of appropriate languages was considered but at that time, Sir, nobody thought of having any other language except English. Now, we have advocated the introduction of multilingualism in the Assembly. The Minister for Communications and Works said that he had already introduced announcements in Malay and that they were not much of a success. I am not in the least surprised at that because there are not many Malays in Singapore as compared with the Chinese. If Malay announcements were to be introduced in the Federation, they would be welcome and popular and I think would be well received. Here, Sir, apart from the Malay population which is small, many of them do not travel by air. The majority of the people who travel by air are the Chinese. Even compared with the Europeans, the Chinese are the majority of people who travel by air today and for those who speak the different Chinese dialects, Mandarin can be used as the common language medium. I think, Sir, that Mandarin announcements will be very useful and helpful to the people here as well as to the people of South-East Asia because even in South-East Asia, there are a lot of Chinese. If the Minister for Communications and Works had already experimented with announcements in Malay and failed, I do not see why he should not try them in Mandarin. I am quite sure he will find out that they will be very useful and helpful to the travelling Chinese population of Singapore. It is the Government's duty to do so.

Mr Lim Choon Mong (Serangoon): Mr Speaker, Sir, I have heard a very unconvincing speech from the Minister for Communications and Works this af ternoon. I think it is the most unconvincing of all the speeches so far delivered. I can understand his difficulty. He said that the Airport went into the question of the possibility of languages as thoroughly as possible before and after the new Airport came into being and that he also gave this matter a great deal of consideration; but I know that it is very difficult to consider the problems in the Airport when most of the time one is away from it, sitting in one's office and depending on other people's information. He has quoted that there had been only a few people who missed their planes - Germans, Turks, or whatever they are. I suppose this is the usual B.O.A.C. line.

Mr Francis Thomas: K.L.M. and Q.A.N.T.A.S.

Mr Lim Choon Mong: But whatever it is, he should always realise that Paya Lebar Airport is both an international and an internal airport. It serves the routes of the world. It also serves our domestic requirements. It also serves South-East Asia. There are three distinct types of services rendered by the Paya Lebar Airport. As for the international air lines, English is a must. As for the South-East Asian air lines, probably we require English and another language that can easily be understood by South-East Asians. For our internal airline, I think it is a must; we must have announcements in languages that are known to the people who use them.

I have been told so many times this afternoon that the Airport is going to be run efficiently and for the convenience of the passengers. If we move amongst the passengers, knowing their languages and knowing how they feel and knowing how anxious they are, we will then realise that they have always been asking their friends. "What is that announcement about? When is my plane leaving?" Their friends invariably have to come to their rescue to tell them, "Oh, this does not concern you. This is for the plane that is going elsewhere." Well, Sir, the Minister countered and said, "No, we cannot have multilingualism here. You know it is so very difficult. Our air traffic is so heavy and if we have multilingualism and make announcements one after another, the whole effect is lost; you cannot hear a thing and with our volume of traffic, you will have a never-ending string of announcements." I am certain that Singapore is not as busy as any of the European air ports, and if those European air ports can use at least two languages - English and their own language - I do not see why Singapore can not do the same thing.

Furthermore, has the Minister considered that to overcome the difficulties, instead of having announcers, we can have the announcements flashed on a screen in words in Chinese so that everybody can read them in whatever dialects they want to? For planes going to Hongkong, you can just put the time down on a board and hang it up. That might be tried out. It would save having to make the announcements and you will probably have a quieter airport.

We have been told that the airlines must be very efficient, as competition amongst them is very keen. I am certain that there is no competition so far as the internal airlines go. You either travel by Malayan Airways or you go by any means other than by air, and whether a passenger is going with you on this plane or the next plane, you can be sure that he will be in a Malayan Airways plane for internal travel. And there you are! Where there is a monopoly and where the people who run it feel that they have done a good job, patting themselves on the back, we see no improvement, because the Minister will always tell us that he has had expert advice. We have had a lot of expert advice coming to this Assembly; some accept it because they happen to think in the same way as the Ministers do, but many spurn it because they happen to think contrariwise. So after all, what is the use of expert advice? If you are going to listen to expert advice, probably you will still have the Governor presiding over a nominated Legislative Council run by a nominated Executive. That would be the best way - the best advice from the best experts. But it is quite fortunate sometimes to have politicians who shout their heads off! That is why I see so many important people sitting right in front of me; otherwise they would not be as important as they are.

Mr J. M. Jumabhoy: What about yourself?

Mr Lim Choon Mong: Yes, no thanks due to the experts, but to the voice of the people of Singapore! if we in this Assembly have accepted multilingualism - and mind you, it is the Government's platform - let us make a reality of it. Let us make it manifest, not only in this Assembly so that we can express ourselves, but also put it on trial at the Airport. We need not have earphones supplied to passengers so that they can listen in to any special channels, but I think there will be very little inconvenience if we try and adopt methods that can fit into our programme.

4.26 p.m.

Mr Braga: Mr Speaker, Sir, like the Minister for Communications and Works, 1 would like to reiterate that Government would certainly consider introducing multilingualism if it was convinced that such was necessary.

The key word in all the speeches from the Members of the opposite side is "multilingualism". There must be a confusion of thought, for the mover of this motion has only directed himself to one particular language, namely Mandarin, to be used in the airport. Listening to him, I wondered in what language the would-be passengers bought their tickets from the various airlines - whether it be Q.A.N.T.A.S., K.L.M., Pan-American or B.O.A.C. - and how they understood the instructions on the tickets that they had to be at the airport half an hour before departure time. I have been to several airports - Madrid, Portugal, London, and others. The announcements are made in English and in the particular language of the country, and even if one listens to the particular language of the country, one can always understand that a plane is going to Rome or to London, and so forth; and anyone who listens at our airport to whatever language is used can always know that a plane is going to Bangkok. If this motion had been confined to Malayan Airways - our internal lines, as the Member for Serangoon suggested - I could understand it and would advocate that we add not only Mandarin but Malay in particular, as I would certainly say that 90 per cent of those going to the Federation speak Malay. If indeed any languages were to be adopted, I would personally think that English and Malay should be the ones, because as the hon. Mr Sutherland said that in the several years he spent in Indonesia he found that all the Chinese who travel by air from Indonesia to Singapore and vice versa speak the language of the country.

I would like to repeat that Government would be only too happy to introduce multilingualism if they felt that it was a necessary thing to do at the moment but I think we are all satisfied that at this stage just to adopt Mandarin is not necessary.

4.29 p.m.

Mr William Tan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I am not concerned with the fact that a Turk and a German missed their planes. As I have already explained when I moved the motion, the principle I am fighting for is the progress of the country and surely it is the duty of the Minister in charge to offer facilities to all and sundry, particularly to those passengers who cannot understand English. They may understand Malay, Mandarin or Tamil and if you want to introduce multilingualism in the Airport, by all means do so. In my first letter to the Minister, I said that the announcements should be made in Mandarin, Malay as well as in Tamil. That is multilingualism.

Sir, about the letter the Minister wrote to me dated 10th April, 1957, asking me to produce proof in the way of witnesses' names and addresses, may I inform the Minister that I am one of the elected representatives of the people of Singapore and that it is not my duty - particularly when I do not have the facilities and so on - to submit the names and addresses of the witnesses, the airlines on which they travelled, the countries to which they intended to go, the dates in each instance, and the languages and dialects spoken by them?

Furthermore, Sir, the Minister said that on the occasion when the last delegation came back from London, the plane was delayed and that when a newspaper reporter announced in Mandarin to that effect, the crowd dispersed. That is proof enough that most of the people who go to the Airport - passengers or visitors - understand Mandarin perfectly well.

In regard to the hon. Mr Sutherland, I now understand why the Member for Tanjong Pagar - I regret to note he is not here - always calls him the "Member for Tanglin Club", and I will not waste any time to reply to his remarks.

If we were to introduce multilingualism in the Airport, it would save the passengers and visitors alike the trouble of having to go to the receptionist's desk to enquire what the announcer has said. It would help them very much to understand the language used by the announcer.

Regarding the cost, Sir, is it not possible for airline companies to make their own announcements? This would save us the cost.

I have to thank my friends the Member for Queenstown and the Member for Serangoon for having replied to some of the points raised by the Minister for Communications and Works, so I will not take up the time of this House further.

Question put.

The House divided: Ayes, 9; Noes, 14; Abstention, 1. Ayes Noes Ede, John. Abdul Hamid bin Goh Chew Chua. Haji Jumat. Goh Tong Liang. Braga, A. J. Jumabhoy, R. Chew Swee Kee Lee Choon Eng. David, E. B. Lim Choon Mong. Hart, T. M. Seah Peng Chuan. Jumabhoy, J. M. Soh Chee Soon. Lim, R. C. H. Tan, William. Mak Pak Shee. Mohd. Sidik bin Haji Abstention Abdul Hamid. Wong Foo Nam. Nair, M. P. D. Shanks, E. P. Sutherland, G. A. P. Tan Theng Chiang. Thomas, Francis. Absent Ahmad bin Ibrahim. Lazarous, A. R. Lee Kuan Yew. Lim Cher Kheng. Lim Ching Siong. Lim Koon Teck. Lim Yew Hock. Tan Siak Kew.

Motion accordingly negatived.