ADMINISTRATION OF OATH

Mr Speaker, standing at the Table, made Affirmation of Allegiance.

Mr Speaker went to the Chair and sat down. Then the Mace (which before lay below the Table) was placed upon the Table.

Mr Speaker: I beg to thank the House most sincerely for the great honour, the very great honour indeed, it has done me in calling me to this position and to its service. I can only hope and pray that I may prove myself worthy of that honour.

Dr Toh Chin Chye: Mr Speaker, may I, on behalf of this House, congratulate you on your appointment as Speaker to the Legislative Assembly? Mr Speaker, you are well known to the people of Singapore, having served in different capacities in the public service of the community. You were Municipal Commissioner and Councillor from 1947 to 1957 for a period of ten years. So also you were on the Board of Trustees of the S.I.T. for eight years. You were a member of the Raffles College Council and member of the University of Malaya Council from 1955 to 1959.

You, Mr Speaker, have come to this House not as a stranger. We ourselves on this side of the House are familiar with you, for you sat on the opposite side of the House, Probably you were the one Member on the Opposition Benches in those days who assiduously studied his Bills and did his homework. For that, Sir, you have earned our respect. I am sure, Mr Speaker, your familiarity with the Standing Orders and the workings of the Assembly will no doubt qualify you most admirably to discharge the functions of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

Finally, may I say, Mr Speaker, I notice that in your biography, besides playing football, you are also a great cricket and hockey player. Your predecessor was also an expert in the English game of cricket. He did his part well when he was Speaker in this House, and I have no doubt that you too will play cricket so long as you discharge the functions of Speaker. But may I add, Mr Speaker, that being versed in cricket and hockey will also qualify you to be a great golf player, and I am quite sure that some Members in this House do hope that one of these days they will be able to meet you on the links.

Mr Lim Huan Boon (Bukit Merah): Mr Speaker, Sir, on behalf of my colleagues, I wish to express our heartiest congratulations to you on being elected as Speaker to this Assembly. We have confidence that you will no doubt maintain and carry on the traditions laid down in this Chamber by the previous Speakers who had been praised for their fairness, impartiality and sincerity towards this side of the House.

In the practice of parliamentary democracy, Mr Speaker, Sir, it is the Speaker's esteemed duty and responsibility to see that any constructive opinion from the Opposition will not be sup pressed, to see that parliamentary democracy will not be monopolised by those who are in power, and, above all, to see that no Member of this House with different political ideologies should be arbitrarily arrested as long as his political activities do not exceed the framework of the Constitution. Only by so doing, Mr Speaker, Sir, can the dignity of this Chamber be preserved and can it then be said that there is a real practice of democracy in the country. Otherwise, Sir, it will simply make a mockery of the democratic system.

Mr Speaker, Sir, with your ability, your experience, and your justness, I can assure you that the Members in our Party will render our co-operation to you and will naturally abide by your rulings.

Mr Ong Eng Guan (Hong Lim): Mr Speaker, Sir, in a parliamentary system the office of Speaker is fundamental. His tasks are by no means easy, particularly in budding democracies where the drift is towards autocracy, which is a system of government by an absolute ruler. It is unfortunate that many countries in the Afro-Asian world have rejected democracy for autocracy. A few examples are Pakistan, Indonesia, Ghana, and one of the latest to submit an application for membership in this exclusive club is Melawi, There is no possibility, however, of an absolute autocracy in Singapore, because the crucial powers especially of defence and security rest on the Central Government which has no reason yet to abandon the parliamentary creed. But it is obvious that the trend in Singapore is towards autocracy as far as its limited power permits it. So for the moment we are at least in theory following a democratic parliamentary system.

In such a system the Judiciary and the Legislature are expected to provide some measures of check against the tendency to absolutism by the Government. What will happen to the citizens of the land if they cannot challenge the excesses of Government in an independent Judiciary? What will happen to our democracy if the representatives of the people cannot voice their opinions against the repressive laws passed in the Legislature? In order, Sir, for the Judiciary to discharge its role as a pillar in the democratic framework, it must be filled by fearless men, by people who are prepared to throw in their resignation papers so that justice and the rule of law may be upheld. Politicians come and go, but the Judiciary, being a permanent institution, should be like Raffles Lighthouse, no matter what the tide.

In order for the Legislature to be able to voice public opinion - and public opinion is the cornerstone of democracy - it should hold meetings regularly with fixed dates and not convene only when the Government is required to do so under the Constitution because certain acts require the assent of the Legislature. The Speaker, who is the guardian of the Legislature, has therefore an important function to play, more so as ours is not a normal Legislature. The Speaker has no voting rights. He possesses no right to participate in the debates but he acts as the guardian of the Legislature. On vital issues his decisions can be of great consequence. Imagine what will happen if the Speaker decides that he should not grant further leave to the two who disappeared and have not been sworn in as Legislative Assemblymen! There will be two by-elections and the results of these by-elections might affect the Government. Because of his importance, the election of Speaker should, as a flatter of courtesy, be discussed with the Opposi tion. In the selection of Mr A. P. Rajah, the Opposition was not consulted. One should either come out openly for the parliamentary democratic system or one should denigrate the defects of the system and alternatively canvass for guided democracy. We here are neither fish nor fowl. In theory, we are supposed to be working a parliamentary system; in practice we are not. When the situation is thus so delicate and the lines of division between democracy and autocracy are so blurred, the task of the Speaker, Sir, is uneviable. The Speaker's responsibilities are, to my knowledge, twofold. The public sees him only in his manifest duties when he chairs the Assembly debates in open Chamber. Here, Sir, the public gallery is the final judge of the Speaker's ade quacies and his fair-mindedness. But it is in the other and more difficult task which the public is little aware of where the call upon the Speaker's calibre and strength of character is more demanding but which only parliamentarians and historians can appreciate. What deliberations are made behind those velvet curtains could sometimes have more consequence on the survival of the democratic system than what happens in open Chamber. For the system to survive, not only should we have an independent Judiciary but we should also have an effective Legislature including a Speaker who is prepared to uphold the parliamentary system and allow parliamentary practice to guide his decisions, rather than political expediency of the majority Party which selects him for the post.

Mr Rajah has often been regarded by friend and foe alike as the best parliamentarian in the last Assembly. He was never seen to lose his temper; he never got involved in unnecessary interjections, His speeches were never personal; he always spoke relevantly. These are his good qualities. What we in the Opposition expect of him, as Speaker, is not that he will chair the debates impartially on that score I have no doubts. What I wish to expect from him is that he will carry on the fine traditions of Sir George Oehlers in attempting to preserve the independence of the Legislature so that the principles underlying the democratic system will not collapse. I have high hopes that Mr Rajah will not fail us. I therefore congratulate him on his appointment.

2.45 p.m.