PROMISSORY OATHS (AMENDMENT) BILL

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

2.31 p.m.

The Minister for Labour and Law (Mr K. M. Byrne): Mr Speaker, I beg to introduce a Bill intituled "An Ordinance to amend the Promissory Oaths Ordinance (Chapter 58 of the Revised Edition)."

Bill read the First time.

Second Reading

Mr Speaker: Second Reading, what day?

Mr Byrne: Now, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker: May I have the Certificate?

Mr Byrne: Mr Speaker, I lay upon the Table a Certificate of Urgency signed by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara in respect of this Bill.

Certificate of Urgency handed in.

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

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

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

Mr Speaker, hon. Members, who know the Promissory Oaths Ordinance, that is Cap. 58 of the Revised Edition, would have seen in that Ordinance the form of the Minister's oath. The Minister's oath in that Ordinance is subscribed before the Governor or the Deputy Governor or the Officer Administering the Government of the Colony of Singapore, and no doubt hon. Members will agree that the form of that oath needs to be corrected in the light of the constitutional changes that have been made.

The new form of oaths is set out in the Singapore (Constitution) Order in Council in the First Schedule to that Order in Council. It is the purpose of the Bill now before the House to substitute this new form of oaths, which is shown in the First Schedule of the Singapore (Constitution) Order in Council, for that form of oaths which is prescribed under the existing Ordinance; the Bill sets out to do that.

The Bill also provides that the promissory oaths shall be taken by Parliamentary Secretaries. Now if you will look at the form of oaths that is shown in the First Schedule to the (Constitution) Order in Council, you will see quite clearly that oaths can only be taken by a Minister or an Assistant Minister. In view of that fact, we have also had to provide in the Bill before the House that these oaths in their present form can also be taken by Parliamentary Secretaries, Sir.

I would refer Members to the text of the Bill itself, particularly to clause 3 of the Bill, where it is stated that "The Prime Minister and every other Minister and every Parliamentary Secretary shall before entering on the duties of his office take the Oath of Allegiance and the appropriate oath for the due execution of his office: ". Then follows the proviso that "a Parliamentary Secretary who has been appointed and has entered on the duties of his office before the 15th day of July, 1959, shall take the Oath of Allegiance and the appropriate oath for the due execution of his office as soon as may be after that date." It was quite impossible for the Parliamentary Secretaries to take the oath that is shown in the Schedule to the Order in Council until the Bill has been introduced to provide for that, and the Bill so provides for that contingency.

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 Byrne].

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