ADMINISTRATION OF OATH

Mr Speaker, standing at the Table, took and subscribed the Oath of Allegiance.

Mr Speaker went to the Chair and sat down.

Then the Mace (which before lay below the Table) was placed upon the Table.

Mr Speaker: I would like most sincerely to say that I am deeply conscious of the great honour which this Assembly has conferred upon me by calling me to this Chair.

From today I take the Chair of this Assembly no longer as a Speaker nominated and appointed by a Governor, nor as a Speaker, as it were, "written into the Constitution", but as an elected Speaker - a Speaker elected by Honourable Members, who are here, in this Chamber, by the will of the people of Singapore and whose every act in this Chamber may well be translated as a reflex of public opinion.

It is therefore with added pleasure that I enter into a new phase of my life in the public service, and that pleasure is a source of great satisfaction because, in this Assembly as in the past, there are undoubted opportunities for warm friendships, for understanding, for tolerance and for good humour. Those are some of the essentials without which no Parliament can ever hope to flourish.

Honourable Members will, as time goes on (if they have not already done so), come to experience that sense of love, reverence and pride for this Assembly which the dignity of Parliamentary establishments and the orderly practice of Parliamentary democracy will inevitably breed.

This is an Assembly which has grown in stature during the past few years. There is much that has yet to be done and accomplished.

There is, for example, the question of the independence of the Assembly Staff which has not as yet been achieved, but on which the Honourable the Prime Minister touched during the course of the past session and on which, I am sure, he, other Honourable Members and I myself would wish to say a few words during the coming session.

Then there is the pressing problem of the speedier production of our Official Reports - our Hansards. It is, to my mind, a matter of urgent necessity that recognition be given to the importance of the question of speedy production of our Hansards, not only in relation to the convenience of Members but also in relation to prestige. Other legislatures, large and small, have been able to produce their Hansards overnight. The problem facing this Assembly is one of ways and means of increasing the number on our reporting staff and the facilities now available in the Printing Office.

Another matter is the perfection of our system of simultaneous interpretation in this Chamber. Simultaneous interpretation is an art which is so new to Singapore and which is of such difficulty and complexity that one must expect "teething troubles", and these "teething troubles", I fear, are still present; but they will disappear in the course of time.

Those are some of the problems which confront this Assembly, and with goodwill, forbearance and assistance from Honourable Members, I am confident that those problems will be solved and the steady pace of our growth will be maintained. Honourable Members will know that it is as much their duty and responsibility, as it is mine, to guard and nurture the exemplary tradition and reputation which this Assembly has slowly but surely been establishing in South-East Asia.

It is with those thoughts that I sincerely thank Honourable Members for having called me to this Chair and I humbly submit myself to the service of this Assembly.

4.07 p.m.

The Prime Minister (Mr Lee Kuan Yew): Mr Speaker, in accordance with the best of Parliamentary traditions established elsewhere, I have been accorded the honour of being the first to congratulate you. But I find that the usual sentiments expressed in other Parliaments on such occasions are, by and large, inappropriate for the situation, which we are in. It is inappropriate, Mr Speaker, Sir, to express regret at our having lost your powers of eloquence, humour and wit by your being elevated to the Chair and, at the same time, to congratulate ourselves on having acquired a wise, just and impartial arbiter of the proceedings of this House.

The task which we have invited you to continue discharging is not the simple one of following traditions and precedents. You have been Speaker of the last Assembly, in which the beginnings of the rules of debate were laid down, and the tone and atmosphere of this Chamber slowly evolved. But, with the introduction of multilingualism, the task to which you have been elected has now some of the complications, which a Chairman of international conferences must face. Can we maintain decorum and an air of intimacy in debate in spite of the fact that the Chairman and many Members of the House will not know what is being said until it is irretrievably recorded in the official tapes? Can such a Chairman develop the intuition and the powers to fathom evil intentions of wicked tongues before these words have been uttered? Can there be a sense of humour and an atmosphere of conviviality as one is being harangued in a language not understood and even through an interpretation not always clearly understandable? The past year has given us some experience of the problems, which we have to resolve if we are to maintain this House as a debating and a thinking Chamber, and not just a forum for declamations and denunciations.

Mr Speaker, Sir, may I congratulate you on having won the unanimous support of all Members of this House by the fair and judicious manner in which you have discharged your duties? And may I, on behalf of the Government Bench, assure you of our continued support in maintaining this House in good humour and good order and in keeping the country in good heart?

4.11 p.m.

Mr A. P. Rajah (Farrer Park): Mr Speaker, Sir, I am very grateful indeed for the opportunity that has been afforded me to speak on behalf of the Singapore People's Alliance in the House. Unfortunately, the leader of my Party is not present here today and it has fallen to me to speak on behalf of the Party.

Mr Speaker, Sir, may I be permitted on such an occasion as this to introduce a personal note into what I have to say. Mr Speaker, Sir, you and I have known each other when we were both members for some time of the City Council, and previous to that of the Board of Commissioners. I believe, Sir, it was in 1955 that you were called upon by the Governor to take on what was then, to my mind, the most difficult task of being the Speaker and setting the tracks of the Legislature on its proper course. When your name was announced, Mr Speaker, Sir, as the future Speaker of the Legislature, I personally was confident that the right choice had been made, because, having been associated with you and having worked with you on the Commission, I knew that you had won the confidence and respect of that body on which you served. To my mind, Mr Speaker, Sir, a necessary prerequisite to an efficient and impartial Speaker is the confidence and respect of the Assembly over which he presides. You had that respect and confidence then, and you won that confidence and respect by hard work, by not talking out of turn, by not talking on irrelevant things, and when you did say things, all the people who listened to you were convinced that you spoke because you had to, because you believed in what you said, and it was necessary that it had to be said. You came here to this Legislature - I was not in it then - and from what I could gather from the past Members of the Legislature, you too won the confidence and respect of that House.

Sir, it is my honour to serve in the second Legislature here. I have now seen you work for the last year and I see that you have again gained the confidence and respect of this House to such an extent that you have been unanimously re-elected. Might I, with respect, Sir, say that, in so far as the Opposition is concerned, we will conduct ourselves in the way that every good and loyal Opposition must?

4.16 p.m.

Dato Abdul Hamid Bin Haji Jumat (Geylang Serai): (In Malay): Mr Speaker, Sir, on behalf of my Party, U.M.N.O., I congratulate you on your being elected as S peaker of this Legislative Assembly.

During the constitutional talks in London, we agreed that the post of Speaker should be held by you, Sir, for a period of one year after the general elections, and that after that period it would be left to the elected people's representatives in this Assembly to elect a Speaker of their own choice. The one-year period ends today and the time has come for us, the people's representatives in this Assembly, to elect a successor. You have just been elected as Speaker of this Assembly by a unanimous vote. This means that we, the people's representatives, highly appreciate your good services and experience as a man of justice who is always sympathetic, as one who, at all times, respects the rules and regulations and does not deviate from the Constitution.

If in the past you were nominated by the colonial government, today you have been elected by the people's elected representatives, and this, in effect, means that you have also been indirectly elected by the people of Singapore.

My U.M.N.O. colleagues and I have complete confidence that you will discharge your tasks and responsibilities in the same manner as you have performed them during the past five years; that is to say, to become the "Chairman" of this Assembly not only in accordance with the Constitution of the island of Singapore, but also that you will be guided by the best traditions of Parliamentary democracy.