CRIMINAL LAW (TEMPORARY PROVISIONS) (AMENDMENT) BILL

3.16 p.m.

The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Ong Pang Boon): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to introduce a Bill intituled "An Ordinance to amend the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Ordinance, 1955."

Bill read the First time.

Second Reading

Mr Speaker: Second Reading, what day?

Mr Ong Pang Boon: Now, Sir, I lay upon the Table a Certificate of Urgency signed by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara in respect of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) (Amendment) Bill, 1960.

Certificate of Urgency handed in.

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

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

Mr Speaker: Please proceed.

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

Sir, this Bill seeks to amend the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Ordinance, 1955, by empowering the Yang di-Pertuan Negara to make an order extending the validity of a detention order made under the Ordinance for a period not exceeding one year at any one time without being restricted. as is at present, for a maximum period of two years in all. This is sought to be achieved by deleting the proviso to sub-section (1) of section 50, which imposes this restriction.

As the House is aware with the conferment of the enlarged powers of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) (Amendment No. 2) Ordinance, 1959, to provide for the alternative of imposing supervision orders some nine months ago, the activities of secret societies have been contained and secret society incidents have been reduced considerably. Nevertheless, the situation requires constant vigilance and no effort can be spared in waging the relentless campaign against them.

As the law now stands, some of those detained under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Ordinance, consisting of general headmen, headmen, assistant headmen and hard-core secret society groups will be due for release in the near future. The making of Supervision Orders against such persons will not suffice to prevent them, upon their release, from exercising their pernicious influence over their followers, and it is anticipated that their release from detention even under police supervision will definitely restore and refresh the ranks of their followers, so that it is likely that there will be an increase in the incidence of their vicious crimes against society.

I am sure Members of the House will agree with me that the danger to society of releasing a fairly large number of high-ranking secret society members suddenly without having undergone any form of rehabilitation is very real indeed. In fact, I might inform Members of the House that some of the leaders of the present kidnapping gangs were convicted prisoners who have been released only recently without undergoing any form of rehabilitation.

The Government in seeking to increase the powers of detention of these criminal elements is fully conscious of the fact that mere detention of criminal gangsters without any attempt to reeducate and rehabilitate them is a negative and wasteful approach to the problem. The Government is of the view that detention should not be purely a preventive measure of keeping hardcore criminals away from society, but also that detention should be a rehabilitative process with the object of converting the criminal detainees into useful members of the society. It is with this end in view that the Government has recently launched a scheme for the re-education and rehabilitation of these criminal detainees at Pulau Senang. Obviously, no one can forecast how long it takes to rehabilitate each individual. Some may respond more quickly than others, while some may take a longer period. If the Pulau Senang rehabilitation scheme is to have its full effect, the period of detention of any criminal must not be restricted to a definite period. For this reason the ad-hoc committee which drew up the Pulau Senang scheme recommended that an amendment should be made in the existing legislation to enable the Minister to make an indeterminate detention order.

However, the Government has no wish to see any criminal detainees remaining one day longer in detention than is necessary. Accordingly, the Government intends in the next few days to appoint a Review and Rehabilitation Committee to begin reviewing the cases of detainees at Pulau Senang, with the view to recommending their early release. At the same time the Government is also making arrangements to offer gainful employment to those reformed criminal detainees, so that when they are released, they can start life anew without having to fall back on their old ways.

In short, with the powers conferred by the amendment, two objectives are sought to be achieved; namely (1) the negative object of preventing the in-crease of violent crimes by keeping hard-core criminal gangsters out of circulation for a longer period of time; and (2) the constructive object of equipping them through work and re-education during the rehabilitative process towards becoming loyal and law-abiding members of the community capable of wanting to earn an honest and productive livelihood and who above all will not consider that resort to violence provides an alternative means of livelihood.

Sir, I beg to move.

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 Ong Pang Boon].

Bill considered in Committee.

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

3.18 p.m.

Clause 1 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 2 -

Question proposed, "That clause 2 stand part of the Bill."

Tun Lim Yew Hock: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister in his speech just now said that the Government proposed to appoint a committee to review the cases of the detainees at Pulau Senang. Does he mean that the Review Committee will only review cases of those who are now detained in Pulau Senang and will not review cases of those who are detained outside Pulau Senang; and if it is so, what is the percentage of detainees that are at present in Pulau Senang?

Mr Ong Pang Boon: Mr Speaker, Sir, the committee will review the cases of all criminal detainees, but those who have been sent to Pulau Senang will receive its first attention. By the middle of this month there will be about 130 criminal detainees in Pulau Senang.

Question put, and agreed to.

Clause 2 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Bill reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.