BANISHMENT (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

7.00 p.m.

The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Ong Pang Boon): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The purpose of this Bill is to amend the Banishment Ordinance to take cognisance of the law and to be more in keeping with the spirit and significance of the creation and international status of Singapore citizenship as distinct from other Commonwealth citizenship, and the emergence of Singapore as a fully internal self-governing State.

Under the present law, only aliens are liable to be banished or expelled from Singapore. The existing Banishment Ordinance is not applicable to British subjects and Commonwealth citizens. However, since we have amended our citizenship laws to confine Singapore citizenship only to those who really belong to Singapore and have given it their undivided loyalty and allegiance, it is considered that we should also bring our banishment law into line with this conception of Singapore citizenship.

Singapore citizenship must transcend all other loyalties and citizenships in Singapore, and it is only just and proper that only a Singapore citizen has the right to be here, and that the Government must retain the right to banish or expel from its territory anyone who is a danger to the State, unless he has the right to be in Singapore as a Singapore citizen. Therefore, while the present banishment procedures as laid down in the existing Ordinance have not been amended since these procedural provisions are considered appropriate and satisfactory for conditions in Singapore, the Ordinance is being amended to enable the Government to banish or expel any person, whether British subject or alien, whose subversive or criminal activities make him an undesirable resident and whose continued stay in the State is not conducive to the public good, unless he has the right to be here by virtue of his being a Singapore citizen.

The Government has to be ever vigilant and resolute against any disruptive force undermining the authority and the well-being of the State, and banishment or expulsion is one of the weapons we must have in this fight, where criminals and other undesirable elements opposing the State and its laws are not Singapore citizens. This amendment Bill brings about the new change in the banishment law by deleting the words "alien", "aliens" and "British subject" and substituting therefore the words "a person who is not a citizen of Singapore", "persons not citizens of Singapore" and "citizen of Singapore" respectively, wherever they appear in the Ordinance.

The other amendments introduced in the Bill are mainly drafting amendments, with the exception of the amendment proposed by paragraph (c) of clause 4 of the Bill. This is to correct a mistake in the Ordinance. At the Committee Stage, I shall move a further amendment, of which I have already given notice, to delete the word "nationality" wherever it appears and substitute therefore the word "citizenship".

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]

7.07 p.m.

Clauses 1 to 3 inclusive ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 4 -

Mr Ong Pang Boon: Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move,

In page 2, line 8, after "line", to insert "and in the eighth and ninth lines".

This is purely a drafting amendment.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 4, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clauses 5 and 6 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 7 -

Mr Ong Pang Boon: Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move,

In page 3, line 12, to leave out from "amended" to the end of line 16 and insert -

(a) by deleting the words "British subject" appearing in the fourth and in the penultimate lines of subsection (1) thereof and substituting therefore the words "citizen of Singapore";

(b) by deleting the word "nationality" appearing in the eighth line of subsection (1) thereof and in the marginal note thereto and substituting therefore the word "citizenship";

(c) by deleting the words "British subject" appearing in the second and in the third lines of subsection (3) thereof and substituting therefore the words "citizen of Singapore"; and

(d) by deleting the word "nationality" appearing in the marginal note to subsection (3) thereof and substituting therefore the word "citizenship".'.

The amendment is to rectify a drafting oversight in that the word "nationality" should be substituted by the word "citizenship", and to be consistent with the other amendments introduced by this Bill.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 7, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill,

Clause 8 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Bill reported with amendments; read a Third time and passed.