RADIO MALAYA AND ITS FUTURE

4.16 p.m.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew (Tanjong Pagar): Mr Speaker, Sir, by the time I read the Government announcement that there will be a commercial service run, either parallel with, or as part of Radio Malaya after it is separated from the Federation service at the end of this year, there was only time for me to raise this matter on the motion for the adjournment.

First, I would like to express , my regret that an important matter of policy should have been the subject not of explanation first in this Assembly but of a bare Press announcement following a whole series of Press speculations. Even up to now, I do not know what is this scheme to run a commercial radio as part of or parallel with Radios Singapore for 1959. I am therefore not in a position to attack the scheme or to express my support for it. I am therefore put in a position where I have to ask the Government to let us know, first, what its plans are, secondly, why it proposed to change the policy which was against commercial broadcasting, and, thirdly, when it is to be introduced and by whom.

As I will not have the right to reply, I would like to make some general observations on the question of commercial broadcasting. Sir, when the House was afflicted by Ministers who were very keen on publicity and propaganda, and we were informed that the Government was contemplating the running of commercial T.V., there was a sufficient outburst of public indignation to force the matter to go to a special Committee which deliberated upon it; and we were presented with its Report which strongly advised against it. That was in 1955.

Now in 1958, we hear out of the blue that we are going to have a commercial radio station. I would say this. If the purpose of commercial broadcasting is to hand over an apparatus for the dissemination of information and propaganda to commercial enterprise, then let me state my Party's position plainly and simply. We are not against capital doing business in Singapore. In fact, we welcome foreign capital to come and do business here. But we will strenuously object to foreign capital, or even local capital, not doing business, but doing propaganda. If this radio station for commercial broadcasting is to be leased or let or loaned either in toto or from time to time to foreign business concerns, then let me say that the Government should think again before it embarks on this scheme. I am quite sure all Parties in this House, and even outside this House, would be anxious to see that no political propaganda comes out of such a vital instrument of dissemination of information as the radio.

Sir, we understand the problem that Radio Malaya will face when it is split into two. It means, in fact, if not almost double, then nearly double the cost of running Radio Malaya as one. From Press announcements from time to time, we are told that there will be split English programmes and split Malay programmes but that the Indian and Chinese programmes will still be combined.

Now, Sir, it is a matter for regret that we, who are directly concerned with these matters, should have to read this information from the Press. If the Press already knows, then we should have been told, lithe Press cannot be prevented from knowing, then we should have been told and should have the whole picture put before us before the thing is published. I have certain sympathies for Ministers and civil servants who find themselves having to face a leak - either official or good guesswork on the part of the Press - but this question of Radio Malaya has been engaging the attention of the Press for a considerable length of time. When everybody knows that the Federation - again in pursuance of the same policy which has split the University of Malaya - is intending to split Radio Malaya, it is indeed a matter for regret that we still do not know what the position is. I would like the Minister responsible to tell us what the state of Radio Malaya is now, and what it is going to be after 31st December or, according to his Director of Broadcasting, after 4th January, because it seems that programmes cannot be split except beginning on a Sunday. Whatever it is, let us have the facts. Let us know what this commercial radio is and who is going to run it; and let us then at a subsequent date have a full-scale debate on the matter.

4.22 p.m.

Mr Lee Choon Eng (Queenstown): Mr Speaker, Sir, I should thank the Member for Tanjong Pagar for having obtained the right to speak on this issue and thus give me the opportunity to speak on the same subject.

With the split of Radio Malaya, we are going to have Radio Singapore. About two days ago I was told that with the coming into operation of Radio Singapore, the Teochew dialect programmes will no more be broadcast from the station. Whether this can be confirmed or not, I do not know, but there have been such reports in the Press and rumours have been going round. I hope it is not true, but if it is true, then I cannot see any reason why the Teochew dialect should be abolished. The Teochew community in Singapore is a very large community, I am sure that every Teochew licence holder pays as much as any other licence holder. All have to pay $12 a year and a Teochew who has a radio set at home also has to pay $12. Why then should he be deprived of programmes broadcast in Teochew?

The Member for Tanjong Pagar just now touched on the commercial aspect of Radio Singapore. Now if Radio Singapore is going to become a commercial enterprise, definitely it would welcome advertisements. If Radio Singapore is going to welcome advertisement, and it does not broadcast in the Teochew dialect, I am sure it will not be able to broadcast advertisements put up by the Teochew community. If the Minister in charge of this broadcasting station will refer to Rediffusion, the Teochew community contributes most of the income revenue. I was told that the Teochew dialect was introduced some time in 1949. At that time, Teochew listeners were tuning on to Peking for political news, and Radio Malaya then thought that, rather than have the Teochews of Singapore to tune to Peking, it had better introduce Teochew programmes in the station, so that the Teochew community could have entertainment, news and other items which the Station provides.

Sir, those who can read will certainly get their news from the newspapers, but those who cannot read will have to depend solely on the radio. What the Teochew community wants is news and entertainment and it looks as if the Government is trying to deprive the Teochew community of this. Even in the District Councils, we are going to have multilingualism and not confined only to Mandarin. Any dialect will be allowed in the District Council meetings, and I cannot see any reason why broadcasting in the Teochew dialect should be abolished.

I hope the Minister will be able to explain why broadcasting in Teochew is going to be abolished with the coming into existence of Radio Singapore.

4.26 p.m.

Mr R. Jumabhoy: Mr Speaker, Sir, I just want to seek information. I am told that I should not speak because somebody has to reply. Is there any time limit for this?

Mr Speaker: The adjournment was moved at 4.16 p.m. We rise at 4.46 p.m.

Mr R. Jumabhoy: I thank you for giving me this warning.

Sir, I have been speaking on Radio Malaya every year during the Budget sittings. Radio Malaya has been a burden to the taxpayers. I have also pointed out that it is the white man's heaven where he can get maximum salaries and so on, and that it should be conducted in such a way that it should be .able to make both ends meet.

Now, it is very surprising, Sir, that although every year this House has been voicing concern over Radio Malaya, still we do not know what is happening except from the Press. Of course, the Government always want to carry out their policies with the help of their Nominated Members or Ex-officios, and whatever they do they will try to present them as accomplished facts. But the Members on this side of the House, Sir, as the taxpayers' representatives, have a right to voice their concern, or at least to be informed as to what the Government are doing. They could even have been informed this morning, but no statement was forthcoming. It is rather surprising and disgusting.

4.29 p.m.

The Chief Secretary (Mr E. B. David): Mr Speaker, Sir, the subject which the hon. Member for Tanjong Pagar put down for debate on the motion for the adjournment was the future of Radio Malaya, but the matter in which, as I understand it, he is particularly interested is the announcement which was made recently that the Government was planning to operate commercial broadcasting in 1959, and he also asked for further information in respect of speculations which had appeared in the newspapers in regard to the arrangements for broadcasting as from January next year.

Sir, I can outline very briefly what has happened since December last year when an official announcement was made by the Federation Government that they intended to withdraw from the then Pan-Malayan system of broadcasting and to set up their own Broadcasting Department. They wrote an official letter to this Government in the same month - in December 1957 - and they asked our agreement that a Working Party should meet with representatives of both Governments to explore the way in which this split could come. At that time, I think it was thought that there might be some way in which the headquarters of the Pan-Malayan Department of Broadcasting in Singapore could in some way be physically split so that half went to the Federation and half went to Singapore, and that with the nucleus of that headquarters in both places it would be possible for the two department of broadcasting immediately to operate independently.

The examination that was made by the Working Party in February this year made it clear that a scheme of that kind was not, in fact, practicable, more particularly because it would have entailed the transfer of staff and the staff concerned could not be transferred to the Federation without their consent. Moreover, there were a number of technical matters involved in which it would certainly not have been possible to remove the operation and responsibility from Singapore; in particular, as hon. Members will know, the shortwave transmitters which serve the Federation are located in Jurong.

A further formal approach was made by the Federation Government to this Government in May this year as to the ways in which the split could take place. They suggested in that letter that a Negotiating Party should be appointed to devise satisfactory arrangements whereby the services which the Singapore Department of Broadcasting would still have to supply to the Federation Department could be supplied on a mutually agreed basis. They listed in their letter the services which they calculated that they would still require to derive from Singapore after the split between the Departments had officially taken place. Examination was made of the services which they would still require and this Government replied agreeing to the invitation to enter into negotiations on that basis. Those negotiations are still being conducted and have not yet been concluded.

It was suggested, Sir, that the Government had been remiss in not making some further statement in the Assembly on this matter of the splitting up of the Department, but I would remind hon. Members that there was a passage in the Governor's speech in April this year in which it was stated that this split was going to take place and that the Federation hoped that it would take place from the beginning of next year. Moreover, in September this year, when a financial motion came before the House, reference was again made to the split which would take place in January when provision was sought for an appointment of a Director of Broadcasting, Singapore, in place of the previous Pan-Malayan Director in charge of the Joint Department. Until the negotiations currently taking place are completed, I cannot inform the House exactly what the arrangements will be, or what the services will be, which the Singapore Department of Broadcasting will continue to provide for the Federation, but it seems fairly clear that, initially at any rate, both the technical services which are now provided under the Pan Malayan arrangement, that is, for the shortwave transmitters and so on, and the programme content of which a large part of the Federation programmes are supplied from Singapore, that arrangement initially will have to continue. I do not myself envisage that, as on the 1st of January or on the 4th of January, there will be suddenly any very great difference either in the Singapore programmes or in the Federation programmes. It will take the Federation Government some time to build up the necessary resources to operate their own department and to furnish a higher and higher percentage of the programmes for consumption in the Federation, and it will therefore be a gradual and not a sudden process. I think, Sir, that makes it sufficiently clear to the House why, in fact, up to now there has been no further information to give to the House beyond what has already been stated and was stated in the Governor's speech, that this split would be taking place.

Coming now, Sir, to the announcement which was made in regard to commercial broadcasting and that it was the intention of the Singapore Government to plan for this broadcasting to be started in 1959 by the Singapore Department of Broadcasting. That was the purport of the announcement, Sir, and the reasons for this are, broadly - the hon. Member for Tanjong Pagar did, I think, suppose correctly what those reasons were, or anyway the second one - the first one is that broadcasting is, I think it will be conceded, a very popular form of advertising and it has proved a very profitable form of advertising in other countries, particularly in certain other countries in the Commonwealth. I can instance New Zealand and Ceylon, and even in a small place like Fiji, where they are able to operate a commercial broadcasting service at a profit. In a place like Singapore, where there is not only a large urban population with a substantial consumption of consumer goods but where Singapore is also, as it is in so many other matters, geographically very conveniently situated as a centre for a region, it is clearly a place in which there is room for a commercial advertising service and for which I think there is undoubtedly a demand. There will be substantial advertising revenue coming forward if such a service is stated.

The second reason for this, Sir, is the one which the hon. Member mentioned, that up to now the operation of a Pan-Malayan Department of Broadcasting has not cost the Singapore Government very much. With the proposed withdrawal of the Federation from this service, it is going to become more and more expensive for the Singapore Government to maintain the existing standards of programmes on the existing, what I may call the national, service and it is hoped, by means of a commercial service, to offset and to more than offset in the long run the additional expenditure which will fall on the Singapore Government in maintaining its present services. I would reassure the hon. Member for Tanjong Pagar by saying that there is no intention of handing over this commercial broadcasting service to any commercial operator. It is intended that it should be run by the Department of Broadcasting, and so by the Government, and therefore there is no risk of the business or political propaganda about which he expressed certain apprehensions.

The hon. Member for Queenstown, Sir, referred to the number of Chinese dialects on Radio Malaya. He enquired whether there was any intention of withdrawing the present programmes in Teochew. The Government, with the Department of Broadcasting, has been examining this particular subject of the number of dialects in which the Department of Broadcasting (Chinese Programmes) are at present transmitting and they are at present transmitted in seven dialects. That means that, in fact, no really satisfactory programmes can be given in any particular dialect. It is the inten- tion that as from the beginning of next year there should be a reduction in the number of dialects used in the Chinese programmes, and the intention is that they should be reduced to three - Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese, this decision has been taken after consultation with a number of influential bodies in Singapore and it has also been taken in agreement with the Federation Government, but if the hon. Member wishes to make any particular representations on behalf of the Teochew broadcasts, I would certainly be prepared to look at them.

Mr Lee Choon Eng: Thank you.

4.43 p.m.

Mr Lim Cher Kheng: Sir, I am so sorry to hear that the Chief Secretary has confirmed that the Teochew dialect has been thrown out of the broadcasting programmes. Sir, can the Chief Secretary confirm the figure published by the Department of Information Services that the Teochew community is over 200,000 - a figure equal to the Cantonese community? Can the Chief Secretary give an explanation why, if this is the case, he should deny the Teochew community in Singapore their privilege to listen to items from the radio which they want to hear? Is the Chief Secretary ready to admit that Singapore today is suffering from political instability, and that this situation is due to the illiteracy of the population and to their political apathy? So, in view of this, should not the Government fully utilise the broadcasting programmes to educate the illiterates through a mass education programme, thereby killing this political apathy and abolishing illiteracy and thus achieving political stability?

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this Assembly do now adjourn.

Adjourned accordingly at Fifteen minutes to Five o'clock p.m. to 3rd December, 1958.