ADJOURNMENT TO A LATER DAY MOTION

3.10 p.m.

The Deputy Prime Minister (Dr Toh Chin Chye): Mr Speaker, I beg to move,

That at its rising on Tuesday, the 9th April, 1963, this Assembly do stand adjourned to the 7th of June, 1963.

Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister already explained to the House on Friday why this Assembly cannot sit on the 10th and 11th of this week. At some later stage this afternoon I will sound the mood of this House as to whether it is desirable or not to continue today's sitting to midnight.

Question proposed.

Dr Lee Siew Choh: Mr Speaker, Sir, this is another shameful episode of the abuse of power by the Government. We have already had a holiday of eight months ---

The Prime Minister: You have not recovered yet!

Mr Speaker: Order.

Dr Lee Siew Choh: --- since the middle of July and, but for a few-hour affair after the referendum, we have had no occasion whatsoever to debate matters of national importance. And now just when the Government has been forced by pressure of public opinion to reconvene the Legislative Assembly, they now decide again to postpone the sitting for another two months. What does it mean? It means that in one whole year, Sir, we will have hardly a couple of sittings of the Legislative Assembly. Is this the way the P.A.P. wants to practise parliamentary democracy?

The Deputy Prime Minister says that the Prime Minister has already given reasons. Yes, we have heard the reasons, Sir. He said he had to attend certain meetings. But they are no good reasons. If the Prime Minister has to go and conduct meetings with some person or other, does it mean that we in the Legislative Assembly cannot sit? Or does it mean that should the Prime Minister go on a tour somewhere, all government business must stop? Is that the reasoning which the Deputy Prime Minister wants to put forward?

Sir, as I have said, this is already a holiday of eight months and it is time that we in the Legislative Assembly be given an opportunity to discuss matters which have direct concern with each and everyone of us in Singapore, and even in the Federation of Malaya and the Borneo territories. The Prime Minister gave an assurance only two days ago that, if necessary, he would reconvene the Legislative Assembly after the Easter holidays. Why has the Government broken its promise so quickly? If it is so absolutely necessary for the Prime Minister to be present at the debate, why cannot we reconvene immediately he comes back from the Federation? Why are they all so afraid?

Sir, today the newspapers can, to a certain extent, be considered a department of the propaganda bureau of the P.A.P. Everytime some branch or other of the P.A.P. makes any move to have a meeting, news of this straightaway is in the newspapers. If other organisations hand in scripts to the newspapers ready for print, somehow or other they never see the light of day. When the Prime Minister pays a visit to the constituencies, at least two full pages in the Chinese newspapers are devoted to what the Prime Minister said here and what he said there. Beautiful pictures are taken - all staged, in order to give the impression that there are people who want to welcome the Prime Minister. No, Sir. Let the P.A.P. Government give us a decent chance to have our say in this Legislative Assembly. We are having debates after a lapse of eight months on very important issues. We have the Yang di-Pertuan Negara's speech, and normally, Sir, the speech of the Yang di-Pertuan Negara will be debated for five days, six days, one week or 10 days. Yet the Government wants everything to be over in less than two days.

In addition, Sir, there are, as we can see on the Order Paper, very important motions which we have tabled and which the Prime Minister has tried to anticipate. We do not mind that. We will debate them later. But let not the Government try to cut us all short with no chance even to say our bit in the Legislative Assembly. The matter of the arrests, the matter of the treatment of detainees are very important matters, Sir. In fact, they are the concern of not only Singapore, but also the Federation, South-East Asia and the whole world. The very people who backed the Lee Kuan Yew Government are today condemning them for what they have done in Singapore. Of course, the Lee Kuan Yew Government would not like all these exposures to be brought forward. They do not like us to say our bit. They are so afraid of the Barisan Sosialis that they do not want to allow us a chance even to have a say in the Legislative Assembly.

The Prime Minister: All your ghost writers have disappeared!

Dr Lee Siew Choh: In which case, Sir, why should the Prime Minister be scared? Yes, let us have a debate and see what happens.

The Minister for Culture (Mr S. Rajaratnam): What happens to the ghost writers?

Dr Lee Siew Choh: Of course, Sir, this idea of cutting short the debate to two days and then postponing it to June is to deny us the opportunity of saying our bit. As I have already said, Sir, there is already enough restriction of freedom of expression and publication in Singapore. We as a Party have not been banned; neither have our Party organs been banned. But attempts have already been made to ban our organs indirectly through threats and intimidation of the printers. The printers of our publications - the Plebeian, the Barisan and the Raakyat - were intimidated by the Special Branch. They were told that they must not print our publications. They had their licence suspended for 10 days. They have been given back their printing-press licence, but they somehow or other do not print our publications any more. Even today, the composing and setting of the printing has been - the printers have been -

The Prime Minister: That is the trouble. No script.

Dr Lee Siew Choh: - intimidated from even composing and setting our scripts for printing.

Sir, there is hardly any chance for us to have our publications for the people to read and for distribution. The newspapers somehow or other come under great pressure not to print our publications. It looks as if our only venue of free speech left is the Legislative Assembly. For things said in this Assembly, the papers will probably give a certain amount of space. This will allow other people to read what we have said. But surely the Government need not fear this because the newspapers are devoting two-thirds of their space to the P.A.P.; only one-third of the space is reserved for all the Opposition Members put together. So the Government need not fear our speaking our minds in the Legislative Assembly. I would ask the Government not to make a mockery of democracy and guillotine the debate in order to suppress still further whatever freedom of expression there is left in this Assembly.

3.20 p.m.

Mr David Marshall: Mr Speaker, Sir, there is some validity in the suggestion that the session should be permitted to continue for as long as is necessary to complete the work on the matters legitimately on the Order Paper. It was originally suggested by the Government - and it seemed a fair suggestion - that there should be midnight sittings for Friday, Saturday, and Monday to Thursday inclusive. I do not quite know why there has been a change of views because, on the original plan as indicated by the Leader of the House, there was reasonable probability of the completion of the work before the House.

Sir, the Leader of the Barisan asked a rhetorical question, whether the work of the Assembly should stop because the Prime Minister has to attend a conference elsewhere. It is a legitimate question, and probably it is a legitimate answer that in so small a House where the Prime Minister needs to go, perhaps with some other Ministerial colleagues, for a major conference, it is necessary to adjourn the House during the period of that conference. But is it necessary to adjourn it for as long as two months? I can understand, Sir, the need for an adjournment when they are away if, in fact, it is going to be more than one Minister who is going to be away, perhaps with some parliamentary Secretaries involved.

The plea that I would like to make here, to a sense of responsibility to constitutional procedure, is that the Government majority should not be used to foreclose discussions on matters legitimately before the House where there has been no suggestion at all of any abuse of time on the part of the Opposition, any seeking unnecessarily to lengthen the proceedings. So I should like to see some suggestion made whereby we could perhaps reconvene at an earlier date until the business on the Order Paper is completed.

The Prime Minister: Mr Speaker, Sir, I made the position of the Government quite clear when I spoke on Friday afternoon. We were prepared to sit Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday till midnight, an extra four hours everyday or an equivalent of an extra thee full-day sittings. But I think Members of the Opposition must realise, particularly the Members of the Barisan Sosialis, that they are not the whole world and if some other sections of the Opposition do not desire sittings on Saturdays, there is no reason why the Government should force its way through and have a sitting on a Saturday. Hence the Saturday sitting went by the board. We were quite prepared and ready to go on from half-past two to 12 midnight. Today, as the Leader o the House has stated, we are quite prepared to sit till midnight; so also tomorrow.

On Wednesday morning, as the Member for Queenstown knows, the Minister for Finance, I and a few other colleagues plus all the important officials, the State Advocate-General in particular, will have to be in Kuala Lumpur. I do not think there is anything on the Order Paper - I say this with great respect to the Member for Queenstown - which is more important than what we are going to discuss in Kuala Lumpur. If I had thought it otherwise, I would have stayed here and postponed the meeting in Kuala Lumpur. I would share his concern if I were him. I would be deeply grieved to see the Communist united front somewhat inert because all the transistors have been pulled out. The loudspeakers are there; the network of wires is there, but the thing that gives out the sound is missing; and until the underground decides to put in new transistors, the set is inert. I share his breavement but I cannot, in any seriousness, admit his purely formulastic motion of condemnation, of no confidence in the Government, because the People's Action Party has pro-colonial policies. Are we to stay here and listen to old recordings of things said and done with? And worse, Mr Speaker, Sir, I am quite convinced that if we were to sit till midnight today and tomorrow, we would more than likely finish the business, for the very simple reason as was illustrated, I think vividly, just now. Without the transistors, there is very little sound coming out.

I ask the Member for Anson to gather the Opposition together and vote for a midnight sitting. The Government has no overwhelming majority to force its way through. In fact, the Government can be defeated. We can have a general election all on a motion for the adjournment. We are quite prepared for that. There is no bullying possible. We are completely at the mercy of the Opposition and we do just as the Opposition pleases, provided, of course, it is in the interests of the country. I do not think it is in the interests of the country for my colleagues and I to leave uncompleted matters which concern the future of Singapore in Malaysia. However grave the problems of the detainees, their food, their reading material and their recreation may be to the Member for Queenstown, I cannot concede that that is a more important subject for us to concentrate on and to bend our energies to than to the future welfare and well-being of Singapore in Malaysia.

Sir, the decision is in the hands of the Opposition. They can sit tonight till midnight and tomorrow till midnight. We will adjourn till the 7th of June formally. But the moment we have finished these negotiations, and they are intricate negotiations, Sir - in fact, in the middle of this sitting I will have to be excused for a few minutes from this Chamber in order that I can go through certain Defence estimates - defence of Malaysia. We must properly appraise ourselves of our fair contribution. Is there to be a power vacuum in this region? If there is not, who is to take the place of the British forces who will no longer play a part in internal security? Are we to raise four battalions and at what cost? Who is to pay for the four battalions? Who will buy arms for them? All these are matters of great cogency and importance - not of academic importance. Members opposite may talk of revolution in academic terms, but the people who manipulate, the people who are now rendered inert, are not academic revolutionaries. They are capable of mounting the barricades. So we want to be quite sure that there are the right number of men in the right number of places with the right quantity of equipment to meet these people when the time comes. Without wishing to offend the House, I say I do not think we have any serious business on. We reconvene this House for one simple reason - but not because of the pressure of public opinion. The public were relieved that for once there was peace and quiet in Singapore for a good solid seven months while construction and progress forged ahead. People wanted to see the end of all this acrimony, these long-winded futile debates. We reconvened because the Yang di-Pertuan Negara had to go on Haj, and we must have the Assembly in readiness for the moment when the treaty is ready, because that is the moment when we will have to adopt formally all the amending provisions of the Constitution before I can attach my signature to it in London. It is as simple as that. The Yang di-Pertuan Negara's speech is a broad outline of what really can only be another four and a half months of Singapore as we know. After that, it will be Singapore against a wider perspective, a larger horizon, where the sound of small crackers in a confined room will be lost in the infinity of the spaces of Malaysia - and I do not advise firing crackers unnecessarily at wrong people in Malaya. That is the reason why we have reconvened. There is nothing of urgency.

The Member for Anson, who is the first to press for the rights and liberty of men, freedom of speech, never wrote to the Leader of the House asking for an emergency sitting over the arrests. There was no excitement and ---

Mr David Marshall rose ---

Mr Speaker: On a point of elucidation?

Mr David Marshall: Would the Prime Minister permit a point of explanation?

The Prime Minister: Surely.

Mr David Marshall: Because the Member for Anson, it seems unlike the distinguished lawyers on the Government Bench, was conscious that you cannot call an emergency sitting before the Negara convenes the House.

The Prime Minister: I thought so too, Mr Speaker, Sir, over a Press conference, and I thought perhaps at least he could register a point and call for one. The Member for Hong Lim made a bit of noise in the Press about reconvening. He never formally wrote to the Leader of the House for an emergency session. What would he say if there was one? A very difficult moment for him. Would he side with the Barisan and end up like the Barisan in the gutter? Can he distinguish himself so finely apart from the Barisan that when one part of the wheel crashes into the gutter, the other part still goes on to the straight highway of success? These are things only possible for trick cyclists.

So, Mr Speaker, Sir, nobody was really excited. We reconvened this sitting for no special reason than that we must have the Assembly in readiness to adopt the constitutional provisions which are at this moment being drafted and which cannot be finalised until the financial arrangements have been tied up. In between this session, I shall have to sit down with certain military gentlemen who know more about these matters than I do, and find out what would be a fair share of the defence of Singapore in Malaysia. This is very important, because upon that turns the question of whether our annual surpluses, which we have deliberately contrived every year of over $100 million, shall go into Toa Payoh and build 50,000 units; build houses for 50,000 people at Outram Prison, reclaim 20,000 acres of land from Bedok to Nicoll's Highway. Or are we to sink it buying guns, submarines, helicopters, waiting for a war with neighbours with whom we want to be friends? These are important matters.

I am sorry to appear harsh to the Member for Queenstown. I do not think he has anything really worth saying or the papers would have printed it. If he had some startling analysis of the political future of Singapore, surely he would have caught the attention of some newspaper editor or a foreign journalist. In fact, I know several. I know one who asked for an interview with him and he refused to give an interview. He is shy of reporters these days, Mr Speaker. He has found out that charging head-tong like a rugger forward into a brick wall can be a very painful business. I tell him that the best thing he can do in the circumstances is to submit with good grace. Malaysia is coming. There is just four and a half months to go. Let us not have any fuss. As the cop says, "Come along quietly now. Let us have no trouble, please." And that is what we want. 7th of June - formally. We have to meet anyway immediately after National Day. The deadline is the end of June for the signing of the treaty. If it is ready before the 7th of June, we shall meet before that. For tonight and tomorrow night, I leave it to Members of the Opposition. I can assure the Member for Queenstown, having slugged it out blow for blow, word for word, through all these months with his mentors over the radio, on the public platform, that we will offer him now ---

An hon. Member: Television!

The Prime Minister: --- television too if he likes. Then the agony of the moment, Mr Speaker, Sir, if I may just recount this, because I think posterity would be the poorer for it if I did not tell you this. The Member for Anson was there. If only we had both the sound and the vision! I remember one famous occasion. Though that was the time when really the moment for decision was coming. The battle was won, fought or lost - fought and won or lost there. The Member for Queenstown dithered whether he was to appear or not to appear. 3 o'clock came. We were waiting for him at the studio. His mentors were not certain. To be or not to be! Suddenly he appeared - at quarter-past three. And he belched, Mr Speaker, Sir! Oh, the excitement of it! I offered him a carminative. He was so angry that I should think that he, a doctor, did not carry a carminative with him, and said he had it in his pocket. I thought, if people want to go to battle, they must be prepared for all this, and they must know when the bells have already rung. The referee has said the round is over. Malaysia is coming. And I advise Members on the other side - they have refused to take my advice on many a previous occasion, much to their discomfiture. I hope they will not find me too troublesome. But I do offer this advice. There is only four and a half months to go, so please contain themselves. If they believe they are good enough to fight for the heavyweight championship of Malaysia - they could not even win the heavyweight championship of Singapore, but now they want to fight for the heavyweight championship of Malaysia - I say just wait till the time comes.

Mr Speaker: No other Member wishes to speak? The Deputy Prime Minister, in reply.

Dr Toh Chin Chye: Sir, I just want to add a little to what has already been said. The Member for Queenstown obviously has forgotten that the Barisan likes very much mass meetings and street meetings. The Government has not at any time stopped them from holding any meeting. Therefore, he was speaking with his tongue in his cheek when he said that all freedom of expression had been curtailed. The Prime Minister has already repeated the offer of a radio forum, and now a television forum, to the Member for Queenstown. Previously he has absented himself from the radio forum, and I do not believe that he will accept a television forum too.

Sir, I would just like to appeal to the House that it is with sincerity that when we say we could not meet on the 10th and 11th, it is for reasons which are of national importance, and this supersedes the rest of the motions on the Order Paper moved by the Barisan Sosialis.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved,

That at its rising on Tuesday, the 9th April, 1963, this Assembly do stand adjourned to the 7th of June, 1963.

3.42 p.m.