SOCIETIES (AMENDMENT) BILL (As Reported from Select Committee)

Order for Third Reading read.

3.40 p.m.

Mr Ong Pang Boon: Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Third time."

Sir, the Report of the Select Committee on the Societies (Amendment) Bill has been published and is in the hands of Members of the Assembly. It will be observed that considerable interest was evinced in the Bill and quite a number of oral and written representations were made on the Bill by individuals, parties and associations with various shades of opinion. The Report shows that in the final reprint of the Bill, as amended by the Select Committee, the Government has not acted in a dictatorial manner or shown itself to be indifferent to the views expressed and suggestions made by Members of the Opposition and public bodies and associations. On the contrary, the Government has given very careful consideration to the views submitted and objections raised and, as can be seen in the Report, has accepted and incorporated in the final Bill a number of the points raised.

I will cite some of the principal changes which are worthy of note and which are indicative of the Government's considerate attitude in the deliberations of this Bill. The Government had already stated that there was no ulterior motive in requiring political associations to register. But in order to allay any fear still further, the Government has agreed, in clause 5 of the Bill, that the Registrar shall not have the power to call for the minutes of any meeting of a political association or ask for a list of members of political associations. In order to remove all doubt, clause 4 now makes it clear that previously excluded societies, like a Lodge of Freemasons or political associations, would also be given a year's time, like exempted societies, to register under the Ordinance.

Clause 7 now gives a person the right to appeal to the Minister against the refusal of the Registrar to consent to the change of place of business of a society. This followed representations made that the Registrar may unreasonably withhold his permission.

In clause 8, the words "place of meeting" have been deleted, in view of representations made of the difficulty in notifying the Registrar every time a place of meeting is to be changed.

In view of various representations made in respect of clause 11 in the original Bill, this clause has been negatived and substituted by a new clause 14 which meets some of the points raised in these representations. The former clause 11 gave rise to misunderstanding of the Government's intentions, which has now been dispelled by the new clause. Under clause 14 only ex-office bearers of dissolved societies are made guilty of an offence under the Ordinance it they become office-bearers of another society without the written permission of the Minister within three years of the date of the previously dissolved society.

Finally, clauses 15 and 16 introduce Government's amendments to sections 18 and 19 of the Ordinance to provide for additional effective control and supervision of shady societies by the Registrar, or suspected by him of indulging in moral abuses, by enabling him to authorise the Police to investigate and report on them.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill read a Third time and passed.