PENSIONS (AMENDMENT) BILL

11.14 a.m.

First Reading

The Chief Secretary (Mr E. B. David): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to introduce a Bill intituled "An Ordinance to amend the Pensions Ordinance, 1956."

Bill read the First time.

Second Reading

Mr Speaker: Second Reading, what day?

Mr David: Now, Sir. Mr Speaker, Sir, I lay upon the Table a Certificate of Urgency signed by the Governor in respect of the Pensions (Amendment) Ordinance, 1958.

Certificate of Urgency handed in.

Mr Speaker: The Certificate is in order. Are typed copies of the Bill available to Members?

Mr David: Yes, Sir.

Typed copies of the Bill handed in to the Clerk and distributed to hon. Members.

Mr David: Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time"

This Bill seeks to make two amendments to section 7 of the Pensions Ordinance, 1956, which governs, inter alia, the retirement of public officers from the public service in order to stand for election as a member of any legislative body or any local government authority in Singapore. The present regulations which provide for retirement of public officers to take up a political career were drawn up in 1955. Under these regulations, the public service is divided into two classes of what are known as the restricted and the unrestricted class.

The restricted class, which embodies all officers employed in an administrative or executive capacity, as well as other officers whose duties bring them into contact with the formulation and execution of policy, comprises all officers in Divisions I and II of the public service and a proportion of officers in Division III. These officers are not subject to any restriction on their right of private exercise of the franchise or of their liberty to be members of a political party, but they are otherwise prohibited from engaging in any political activity whatsoever and are required to maintain complete reserve in all political matters or matters of public controversy.

Officers in the unrestricted class, which comprises all officers in Division IV of the public service, as well as daily-rated employees and a limited number of officers in Division III whose duties are essentially of a technical nature, are permitted to stand as candidates for election to the Legislative Assembly or to any local government authority as well as to hold office in political organisations. Any such officer who is nominated as a candidate for election to the Legislative Assembly or a local government authority is granted the leave due to him together with any additional unrecorded leave without pay which may be necessary to cover the period up to Polling Day. If he is elected, such an officer is required to retire from the service with effect from Polling Day. On his ceasing to be a member of the Assembly or a local government authority, as the case may be, he is eligible for re-employment in the public service subject to certain conditions, and he is then permitted to count his service prior to and after the break as continuous for the purposes of the Pensions Ordinance. Under section 7 (3) of that Ordinance, he is eligible, whether or not he is subsequently reemployed in the public service, for the award of a pension on his attaining the age of 50, in the case of a man, and 45, in the case of a woman. If such an officer fails to obtain election, he is immediately re-employed in the public service and he is required to return to duty on the day following that on which the result of the election is declared.

The first amendment in the Bill before the House seeks to remove one minor anomaly in connection with the provision for awarding pensions to such officers. As the law stands, they do not become eligible for the award of a pension until they reach the ages which I have mentioned, i.e., 50 years for a man and 45 years for a woman. This, however, fails to take account of the fact that there are certain categories of officers whose minimum age of retirement under subsection (2) of section 7 of the Pensions Ordinance is lower than these ages. The effect of the amendment is therefore to bring the age of eligibility for the award of a pension in the case of an officer in the unrestricted class who retires to take up political activities into line with the minimum age at which he would be eligible for a pension if he retired in other circumstances.

The second amendment proposed in the Bill now before the House relates to officers in the restricted category. There are a number of officers in this category with considerable lengths of service who joined the public service at a time when the opportunity of a political career did not exist. While it is desired to maintain the strict principle that officers in the administrative and executive grades of the public service, since they constitute the machinery through which the elected government of the day carries out its policies, should properly be debarred from participating in political activities, it is considered reasonable, in connection with the first elections to the Legislative Assembly under the constitution which will confer internal self-government on Singapore, to give an opportunity to officers in this class also, who have a genuine desire to serve their country in the political field, to retire from the public service in order to do so. It is not proposed to perpetuate this concession but to make it a single, once and for all opportunity, and hereafter the principle to which I have referred of debarring the administrative ranks of the civil service from political activities will be strictly maintained. The amendment in this Bill seeks to provide for the award of pensions to such officers even though they have not reached the minimum retiring age. They are required to have completed 15 years' public service or ten years' public service and to have attained the age of 40 years. Such officers will not be eligible for reinstatement in the public service whether they succeed in obtaining election to the Legislative Assembly or not; and the amendment to the Ordinance consequently provides that a pension can be awarded to them without waiting until they have attained the normal minimum age of retirement.

It is also to be noted that a similar concession to public officers was made in the Federation on the occasion of their last general election.

I should finally add that the arrangements made on this occasion and which necessitate these amendments to the Pensions Ordinance have been adopted after negotiations with the Staff Side of the Singapore Civil Service Joint Council.

Sir, I beg to move.

The Assistant Minister for Education (Inche Mohd.Sidik Bin Haji Abdul Hamid): Sir, I beg to second.

Question proposed.

11.25 a.m.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew (Tanjong Pagar): Mr Speaker, Sir, as the Party most likely to benefit from this amendment, we welcome the Bill. It is not a habit which we should encourage in the civil service, but once in the lifetime of the Colony of Singapore, particularly when one period of that life is coming to a close in the next few months, we should give this opportunity to people who have shown from their past activities, qualities of leadership, political courage and moral convictions.

Sir, I am aware that some members of the civil service are unhappy at some very senior officers leaving the service in order to participate in the open political fight. But the choice which this country is facing is either to have honest and able Ministers to lead, or to have honest and able civil servants led by not so honest and not so able Ministers. The position of those who are concerned with the welfare and well-being of this country is one which cannot be avoided. Those who are retiring under this amending Bill could well sit back in the security and the comfort of a well-paid civil service. But because they are fully aware of what is going on with the fortunes of the government and the people, they cannot just be spectators, or, worse, unwilling tools in the destruction of a happy and prosperous community.

Mr Speaker, Sir, it is a matter for regret, of course, that other political Parties are unlikely to be able to take advantage of this Bill. I would back the Government, and I think in this instance it is not the Labour Front Coalition faction of the Government which has decided this particular Bill, but more those who, because they are not concerned with the inter-party day-to-day trends of the country, are therefore able to take a more disinterested and dispassionate view of the ultimate fight in this country, whether the democratic system survives, or whether it goes under because of ineptitude, stupidities and corruption.

I welcome this Bill and I would like to say, for the record of this Assembly, that those who are given this opportunity will do credit to the community which they are seeking to serve.

Mr David rose -

Mr Speaker: In reply, Mr David?

Mr David: Sir, just a very few brief words. I welcome the support for this Bill which has been given by the hon. Member for Tanjong Pagar, but he will perhaps understand if I do not associate myself entirely with some of his remarks. I would also like to emphasise that the decision which has been taken in this case is a collective one by the present Government and no individual Minister is more responsible for it than any other.

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. [Mr David].

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