HAWKERS (Number arrested and amount of fines collected from 3rd June, 1959, to 31st July, 1961, and from 1st August, 1961, to 30th June, 1963)

Mr Tan Cheng Tong asked the Minister for Health and Law how many hawkers were arrested during the periods (a) 3rd June, 1959, to 31st July, 1961, and (b) 1st August, 1961, to 30th June, 1963; and what was the total amount of fines collected from the hawkers during each period.

Mr K. M. Byrne: Mr Speaker, Sir, for the period between 3rd June, 1959 and 31st July, 1961, 493 hawkers were summoned before the police courts for hawking offences and the total of the fines imposed by the courts was $4,140.

Sir, in this period, no sort of positive action was taken to help the hawkers, and conditions became chaotic especially in congested areas and around the markets and street-corners, with the result that market stallholders left their stalls in the markets and shop-keepers left their shops to compete with the hawkers outside the markets and shops and in street-corners. In this situation of a free-for-all which did not serve the interest of the hawkers themselves, the Hawkers Department was too afraid to discharge their normal duties to the hawkers and to the people.

Sir, for the period 1st August 1961, to 30th June, 1963, 3,214 hawkers were summoned before the police courts for hawking offences and the total of the fines imposed by the courts was $33,763.

Sir, in the second period under reference, a new policy for the resiting of hawkers on alternative sites off the main roads and markets was adopted. The new sites they occupy are chosen in close proximity to the places from where they had been removed so as to ensure the least dislocation to their business. Every hawker who is to be removed from a clearance site is registered and is assured of a place in the new site. The places in the new sites are drawn for in a ballot held in public. The sites are properly marked out and laid out with standpipes to facilitate daily cleansing. Bins are also provided at such sites.

Sir, the hawkers were also, in this second period, for the first time, given a proprietary interest in the sites they occupied which they could transfer to others for a consideration when they decided to give up their business or which could be transferred to members of their family when they die. Previously in such circumstances, their sites were declared to be vacant and were given to newcomers on the results of a ballot. Under the new system, all opportunities for graft in the allocation of pitches and hawker sites have been eliminated, as the hawker himself gets the best price for his site and his family gets the site when he dies. Under the present system also, the hawker who actually does the business on a site is licensed and if subletting is discovered, the person actually doing the business gets the licence transferred to him.

The Housing Board has also embarked on a very enlightened policy of building hawker pitches in the Board's estates which are rented to the hawkers on small instalments to cover their cost of construction over a period of three years and which become the property of the hawker at the end of the period. Thereafter, the hawker only pays a nominal rent of $1 per month for the site which is his and which he can transfer to others for a consideration or which passes to his family when he dies.

In addition, in furtherance of the scheme for a fair deal for hawkers, they have been allowed to ply their trade in various parts of the city and in the rural areas at nights and in selected locations once a week where their presence does not cause any traffic obstruction and where they can find a ready market for their goods.

Sir, as a result of the enlightened policy followed in regard to hawkers in the second period, the hawker situation in the town has shown considerable improvement. The Government regrets the need for enforcing the law on hawking but this action has had to be taken in the interests of both the hawkers themselves and the public and has been reduced to the very minimum. Where new hawkers come to sites where hawkers have been resited, action has obviously to be taken against them otherwise there would be no point in proceeding with resiting schemes. Also where hawkers ply their trade at street-corners or on streets which because of the heavy traffic are restricted to hawkers, action has obviously to be taken to keep the streets free for traffic.

So with the new deal that the Government has given to the hawkers, the Government has been able to get their co-operation in keeping the city clean. The hawkers themselves understand that if the law is not enforced in a fair and reasonable manner, a free-for-all situation develops which does not in the long run serve their own interests.

Mr Tan Cheng Tong (Jalan Kayu): (In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to understand why there is a great difference between the fines imposed in one period and those imposed in the other period. In the period between 3rd June, 1959, and 31st July, 1961, the fines were less than those for the period between 1st August, 1961, and 30th June, 1963. The time lapse between the two periods is not very great. Why is there also such a great difference in the number of hawkers arrested during the two respective periods? It may be an indication that after 31st July, 1961, the Government did not look after the interest of the hawkers well.

Mr Byrne: Mr Speaker, Sir, have already answered the question. I have told the House that in the first period there was no attempt made to try to contain the hawker situation. A genuine attempt was made in the second period referred to.

Mr Speaker, Sir, in the second period, I can assure you that the Member for Bras Basah, who is closer to the hawkers than the Member for Jalan Kayu, who is the son of a rich landowner in Singapore, was a member of the Hawkers Committee, and endorsed this policy as being in the interests of the public as well as in the interests of the hawkers themselves.