PERMITS UNDER THE PRINTING PRESSES ORDINANCE FOR STUDENT PUBLICATIONS IN NANYANG UNIVERSITY ON THE OCCASION OF UNIVERSITY WEEK

Mr Chan Sun Wing (Upper Serangoon): (In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, I received a letter on 14th March, 1962, from Nanyang University students addressed to all Members in this House. This letter requested that all those people's representatives with a sense of responsibility should question the Government on the reasons for refusing to issue a permit for a series of academic publications to the students' organisations under the Printing Presses Ordinance. It also referred to the smear made in the statement by the Minister for Home Affairs on the students' union. I have therefore risen to say something on this.

Mr Speaker, Sir, some people may ridicule me by saying that when I was Parliamentary Secretary I spoke for the Government, but that when I am now no more with the Government I speak for those who are dissatisfied with the Government, and that therefore I am an opportunist. Well, I do not wish to argue against this kind of criticism which may be levelled against me. The question whether I am an opportunist or not can best be decided by facts as time goes on.

Let me now come back to the main issue. Mr Speaker, Sir, from what I read in the Press of the open letter from the Nanyang University Students' Union and of the statements by the union and the Minister for Home Affairs, I got the feeling that it was the union which was reasonable. Every year the union takes the opportunity of the University Convocation in March to hold a University Week, recreational and cultural concerts, exhibitions and academic forums, and to publish books on academic topics. This practice has become a very good tradition of the students in Nanyang University. The University Students' Union has decided to issue books on Natural Science, Social Science, Arts, Political Studies and other topics concerning Malayan History and Geography during University Week. It is doing this in order to promote studies within the University itself and to show to the people outside - especially those in society - what the University students have achieved in the field of academic studies.

At the end of last year, it sent an application to the Minister for Home Affairs for a permit under the Printing Presses Ordinance for a series of publications, but the Government insisted that the application should come from the Vice-Chancellor of the University. The Minister for Home Affairs wrote a letter officially on 19th February to the Students' Union stating that the Government had refused its application for a permit. No explanation was given in the letter of the Minister for Home Affairs as to why it was insisted that the application should come from the Vice-Chancellor instead of from the Students' Union. The Students' Union was set up as a legal organisation under the Nanyang University Ordinance. It has statutory status and the capacity to act independently. In this connection, the Vice-Chancellor of the Nanyang University has informed the Students' Union that he would not be responsible for the publications. In fact, the legal adviser to the union, Mr David Marshall, wrote to the Minister for Home Affairs requesting the Government to respect the legal position of the union and not to delay the issue of a permit. But the Minister for Home Affairs still refused to issue a permit to the Students' Union and no explanation was given for the refusal.

University Week is just around the corner and the students are very anxious about the whole thing. On 22nd February, they issued a Press statement making a report of what had taken place. They also sent representatives to see the Minister for Home Affairs. Unfortunately, he did not grant them an interview. On 2nd March, the Ministry of' Home Affairs issued a Press statement alleging that the Students' Union was unreasonable in its attitude, that it was the intention of the union to produce propaganda material against the Government, and that therefore it could be seen from all this that the so-called academic publications were in fact publications with political ends in view.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Nanyang University Students' Union has experienced many difficulties in this matter, and it has been wronged. So those who are interested in the university education of Singapore should not take an indifferent view of this matter. The students do not understand why they cannot get a permit under the Printing Presses Ordinance for their publications. They also do not understand why in 1960 the union was successful in its application for a similar permit for its publications, but that this year's application was not approved and that it has instead invited a smearing attack from the Government. They do not understand why there is this difference in these two years. Can we say that it is a bad intention on the part of time students to publish books in order to show how much they have achieved in their studies? Does it mean that the getting of economic and financial support and winning the sympathy of members of the public should be interpreted by the Minister for Home Affairs as non-academic political ends? Does it also mean that before Nanyang University can see eye to eye with the Gwee Ah Leng Report, the Government does not wish to see the students of the University making individual improvements?

University education is a very important factor in giving an impetus to social progress. University undergraduates should have freedom in their studies, including studies on political problems. The Government should allow University students to express all forms of political views and philosophies. The Ministry of Education, together with the Ministry of Culture, can influence the students of tile University through arguments but time Government should not make use of an order from the Ministry of Culture to suppress the views of the students. They should not try to curtail the freedom of speech of the students.

Mr Speaker, Sir, we are no longer living in a medieval age when those who went against traditional thinking were oppressed. We must give encouragement to young people to develop new thinking and accept the challenge of new thoughts. It is only by doing this that we are able to make social progress. I hope that the Minister for Home Affairs will correct his present attitude in dealing with this question and rectify his mistake accordingly. I appeal to the Minister concerned to approve immediately the application of the Nanyang University Students Union for a permit. We also hope that he will in a just manner try to get the support of the Nanyang University students.

00.17 a.m.

Mr Ong Pang Boon: (In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, just now the Member for Upper Serangoon said that the Government's act in refusing the application for a permit by the Students Union was to curtail the academic freedom of publication of the students. If this allegation can stand, then why should the Government want the Vice-Chancellor to send in the application? This means that the Government had no intention to refuse the application of the Students Union to issue its publications. What we wanted was to get the Vice-Chancellor to be responsible for these publications, because we were of the opinion that if the Vice-Chancellor was responsible for the application for the publications, then everything should be all right.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Government will definitely not interfere with genuine academic freedom and the freedom to publish, unless some people want to make use of academic freedom and the opportunity to publish books for political ends. We have records of the activities of the applicant and the members of the editorial board. From these records we have reason to believe that they may carry out anti-national and anti-people propaganda in their publications. Now, if they say that there is no academic freedom of publication in Nanyang University, then we will tell them that since its inception there have altogether been 16 societies of the students registered under the Societies Ordinance. Because of the shortage of time, I would not like to list all the societies' names, but just want to mention a few. They are the Political Science Society, the Dramatic Research Society, the Chinese Language and Literature Research Society, the History and Geography Society, and so on. I only mention a few to save time. If they say that there is no academic freedom, how is it that there have been 31 different types of publications by the Nanyang student bodies permitted under the Printing Presses Ordinance? Because of shortage of time, I would not like to mention all the 31 publications. I will mention only a few. They are the University Tribune, the University Youth, the Suloh Nantah and Political Science. The registration of these 16 student societies has been allowed, and the 31 publications by these 16 societies have been approved by the Government also. All the University academic forums and debates conducted by the students have not been interfered with in any form. From the 31 publications, we can see many articles and the Government has not interfered with them at all. This goes to show that there is academic freedom of publication in the University. As a matter of fact, there are many publications by the University students, such as the University Tribune, which contain articles outside the scope of the so-called academic studies.

For example, the 26th issue of the University Tribune, in celebration of Women's Day, has published with superficial changes an article by a person known as Yu Tze Niu with the title of "The Women's Movement in Singapore and Malaya in Retrospect and Prospect". This article has been written on the lines of Communist arguments based on a similar article by Lie Kiu, a member of M.C.P. Because of the shortage of time, I would just like to quote a short paragraph from this article to compare with Lie Kiu's to show its true nature. The paragraph reads as follows:

'The women's movement in Malaya started roughly after 1925. At that time Malaya was in the midst of a world economic crisis because the capitalists were trying all out to exploit the colonies: and being in a colonial Malay a, women had to suffer from the exploitation by the colonialists. So there was a common objective to combat and struggle against the exploitation and suppression of the imperialists in our country for women's emancipation and national emancipation.'

There was a paragraph in Lie Kiu's article in commemoration of Women's Day. This was contained in Vol. I of The New Women's Monthly' published on 8th March, 1946, in which it was stated that: Tile Overseas Chinese Women's Movement in Malaya started after 1925. At that time Malaya was in the grip of a world economic crisis and all the time the imperialists were trying to take advantage of the colonies, particularly of women, ...' and so on, and the rest also about the same. So we can see that these two articles were quite similar. The only difference is that in the Communist magazine the words "Overseas Chinese" were mentioned, but in the Nanyang University Tribune they have thought fit to leave out this term because it is already out of place at the present time. From this also we can see clearly that the M.C.P. is a Party which owes its allegiance to a foreign country.

Apart from this, there are many other articles of a Communist nature. In fact, these articles are a reprint with a changed appearance of some Communist articles. For example, in March 1961 there was an article published in the Political Science entitled "The New Spirit of Seeking Concord while Maintaining Differences", written by an underground worker of the M.C.P. named Lim Hock Khoon. Does it not mean that there is academic freedom and freedom of academic publications? What they are trying to get is Communist academic freedom. Mr Speaker, Sir, we are under no obligation to protect this kind of academic freedom. As a matter of fact, the behaviour of the Nanyang University Students Union is an insult and an affront to the true sense of academic freedom. They call it academic pursuit, when in fact it is not so. They are just making use of time terms "academic freedom" through students' publications to carry out Communist propaganda work. They themselves are short of inspiration and so they have to copy from banned Communist magazines and articles. The fact is undeniable, though they may say it is a smear.

The Member for Upper Serangoon has brought up this question. We are aware of his intention. He has brought it up in order to raise his personal prestige, because when he was in the P.A.P. he was quite arrogant, and because of his behaviour he lost the confidence of many people. This is a common fact among the students in Nanyang University. If he should refer to a criticism written then by Ign Hsentan then he will know about all these things. He himself was a member of an underground Communist organisation before. So he would like to see propaganda work for Communism carried cut under the pretext of academic freedom in order to restore his personal prestige. Perhaps he will say that I am saying this just to smear him. Now, perhaps he says this is a smear, how is it that when this House was debating the question of Malaysia, the Minister for National Development openly accused him of being an open front worker of the Communists, and at that time he dared not deny it'? Because he knew if he did he would be confronted with many irrefutable facts.

Mr Chan Sun Wing: Point of order.

Mr Speaker: Is it a point of order'?

Mr Chan Sun Wing: Yes, because the Minister has made a personal attack against me.

Mr Speaker: That is not a point of order at all. It is only a waste of time.

Mr Ong Pang Boon: (In Mandarin): So, Mr Speaker, Sir, to put everything in a nutshell, the Working Committee of the Nanyang University Students Union, in applying for a permit to the Ministry of Home Affairs, mentioned that these journals will contain articles concerning the political events in Malaya between 1945 and 1960 and the educational economic and political problems of the three territories in North Borneo. Because the applicant himself and other members on the editorial board have carried out certain activities in the past, we can well expect what these publications will be up to, and it is because of this that we made a request that the Vice-Chancellor should be responsible for the journals because we believed that if the Vice-Chancellor was prepared to shoulder the responsibility, then perhaps these journals would not be made use of for political ends and propaganda.

The Question having been pro posed at Twelve o'clock midnight on 20th March, 1962, and the debate having continued for half an hour, Mr Speaker adjourned the Assembly without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.

Adjourned accordingly at half-past Twelve o'clock a.m.