REGISTRATION FOR THE ISSUE OF NEW IDENTITY CARDS

Mr S. V. Lingam (Aljunied): Mr Speaker, Sir, the National Registration Act, 1965, comes into operation on the 5th May, 1966. We welcome the issue of new plastic Identity Cards because it will regularise the anomalies. From what the Minister has earlier stated, I understand that the new Identity Cards shall be used not only as an Identity Card, but also serve as a Birth Certificate and Citizenship Certificate. This is really very convenient to the public. But with only about two weeks to go, the public are anxious and worried over many things. They are anticipating many difficulties because not everyone has got all the necessary documents to the requirement of the Act and regulations.

The utmost important but confusing problem is the names of the applicants. Sir, this matter has been raised by many hon. Members in this House. There are Birth Certificates without names. And there are cases where the name in the Birth Certificate differs from that on the present Identity Card. Apart from the wrong names, there are very many persons whose names are wrongly spelt, either in the Birth Certificates or Identity Cards or both.

Mr Speaker, first I take the case of persons having unnamed Birth Certificates, or no Birth Certificates at all. Quite a number of our voters come under this category. When the new plastic Identity Cards are issued, I do not know what the position will be of a person whose name appears in the present Electoral Register but who does not possess any Birth Certificate or Citizenship Certificate, but only a Singapore Identity Card. Such persons have voted in so many elections in the past. Therefore, the fact that they have voted in so many elections in the past as Singapore citizens and are in possession of Singapore Identity Cards issued in the earlier years should be sufficient proof to enable them to obtain the new plastic Identity Card for citizens. Many members of the public are anxious to get the assurance of the Government on this matter.

Next, Mr Speaker, Sir, persons whose names are wrongly spelt in their Birth Certificate or Identity Card or both. I quote a typical example.

Sir, I quote here an Indian name. AMMANI AMMAL when pronounced sounds like EMILY AMMAL or HOW MANY AMMAL. When the informant who goes to register the birth is an illiterate, and the officer who registers is a non-Tamil, AMMANI will sound like EMILY or HOW MANY, and I would not be surprised if he writes the name as EMILY or HOW MANY. So, Sir, numerous examples can be quoted for such cases. And again, a person may have his name wrongly spelt in the documents he has, as in the case quoted by me just now, or a person may wish to have his name spelt in a slightly different way, or he may even wish to have the name abbreviated. You can take my name, for instance. My full name is VISVALINGAM son of SUPPIAH. I spell it V-I-S-V-A-L-I-NG-A-M. But there may be people who like to spell it as VISUVALINGAM with an addition of the letter 'U'. Or I may like to shorten it to S. V. LINGAM. So, Sir, such changes and corrections in spelling should be allowed during this re-registration. And to do this, I think the Minister should issue directives that when an applicant requests for such reasonable changes or corrections in the name, and if the Registration Officer is satisfied that the applicant's name has been wrongly spelt in the documents produced, the Registration Officer shall issue the new plastic Identity Card with the name spelt as desired by the applicant. In case of any doubt, the Registration Officer can always refer the matter to Headquarters.

Sir, the difficulties in wrong names and wrong spellings could be overcome to some extent if the Minister will staff the different Registration Centres, as far as possible, with persons who know the various official languages, i.e. Malay, Chinese, and Tamil. For example, more Chinese-speaking officers to be sent to the Chinatown area, Malay-speaking officers to the Geylang area, Tamil-speaking officers to the Serangoon area, etc. This will be easier to the public and will speed up the re-registration.

Sir, one more point. I know the particulars of the applicant in the card to be issued will be in English. Will the Minister consider writing the names of Malays, Chinese and Tamils in their respective languages also, so that even if a mistake is made in the English spelling, the name written in the other languages will be a guide?

There is a lot of difficulty about adopted children also. It is common in Singapore for Indians or Malays to adopt Chinese children or vice versa. When the parents have legal adoption papers, there is no difficulty. But, Sir, not all the adopted parents are so wise and legal-minded as to foresee the difficulties. So there are many people who do not have any sort of documents to prove their adoption. In such cases, the new Identity Cards should be issued under the adopted names and races.

Mr Speaker, Sir, there should be cross-reference between the new and old Identity Cards. When the new Identity Cards are issued, I do not know whether the number and the date of issue of the old, that is the present Identity Card, will be quoted in the new Identity Card. If provision is not made for the inclusion of the number and date of issue of the old Identity Card in the new Identity Card, there may be difficulties to prove the length of residence. Sir, I do not wish to elaborate on this but hope the Minister will consider this point.

Sir, the applicant has to give the Registration Officer certain particulars regarding himself. And among them are his race and language. In my opinion, these two should have relationship. For example, in my case, my language is Tamil; and naturally it follows my race is also Tamil, rather than Indian which may not be altogether wrong.

Another point, Sir, is the change of address and occupation. When a person changes his address, I think he will be given a separate card showing the new address. What happens when a person changes his occupation? Will he be issued with an additional card, or will it be necessary for him to replace his Identity Card, which would mean he has to pay a fee of $5? Can I have the Minister's clarification on this?

In passing, I would like to speak on reporting the loss of an Identity Card and applying for a replacement. Sir, section 10 (1) of the National Registration Act, 1965, says that a person should report to the nearest Registration Office about the loss and apply for a replacement. It was the practice to report the loss of an Identity Card to the nearest police station. But since 1962, I understand, that is not so. The person has to go all the way from whichever corner he may live to Headquarters to make the report of loss and then again to collect the replacement. This puts the public to a lot of inconvenience. When the Act comes into force, I do not know whether Registration Offices would be set up at various places. If not so, I would request the Minister to consider using the police stations for this purpose, so that the public may not go to Headquarters more than once. What I mean is, when an Identity Card is lost, the holder reports the matter to the nearest police station, and also gives his application for a replacement there. Later when everything is ready, Headquarters informs the applicant and he goes and collects it from Headquarters. Mr Speaker, Sir, this will save a lot of trouble for the public.

Sir, if I understand sections 15 and 16 of the National Registration Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation Supplement No. 25, page 148, section 15 which reads:

'15. Any person who has obtained his identity card or replacement thereof before attaining the age of seventeen years shall re-register within a period not exceeding five years from the date of his first registration.'

And section 16 says:

'16. Any person of the age of seventeen years and above who has obtained his identity card or a replacement thereof shall register within the tenth year from the date of his last preceding registration.'

Sir, a person affected by the two sections will have to register three times. I presume this is re-registration which is an obligation under the Act, and will not be treated as a replacement for the collection of fees, which according to the schedule is $5. Could the Minister kindly give his assurance on this?

Sir, apart from the difficulties faced by the public in this re-registration, the officers of the Registration Centres will also have numerous difficulties. They will be facing all sorts of people. But whatever their difficulties may be, I hope they will be patient in dealing with people, especially the uneducated, and treat them with courtesy. I urge them not to lose their patience when dealing with the public. I am sure thus they will get full co-operation from our people.

Finally, Sir, Singaporeans would be much grateful to the Minister and Government if wider publicity is given over the Radio, Television, and the Press about the procedure of re-registration. They should be informed clearly and in detail as to the documents they should bring, such as Birth Certificates, old Identity Cards, Statutory Declarations, adoption papers, passports, etc. It would be better if the non-English educated persons could have their names and addresses written correctly by their friends on a piece of paper and produce it to the Registration Officers so that the re-registration work could proceed smoothly.

Mr Speaker: If no other Member wishes to speak on this particular subject, I will call on the Minister to reply. Mr Jek.

The Minister for Labour (Mr Jek Yeun Thong): Mr Speaker, Sir, in my speech on the Second Reading of the National Registration Bill on 22nd December, 1965, I explained how the re-registration of the population will be carried out. I also made a statement in this House on 30th December, 1965, on Unnamed Birth Certificates to allay anxiety over a provision in the National Registration Act. In that statement, I announced Government's policy in regard to documentary evidence required to establish Singapore citizenship status.

Since then a lot of publicity has been given in the Press, over the radio and on television on the national registration exercise. Recently a talk has been given by the Commissioner for National Registration over television outlining in detail the procedures for registration, the documents that are required to be produced at the time of registration. Further, meetings have been held with principals of schools to brief them on this exercise. Before the commencement of the re-registration exercise on 5th May, 1966, more publicity will be given. I propose to convene a meeting of all the Citizens' Consultative Committees to call upon their help in the re-registration work.

In my previous speech on this subject I have stated that the new system of re-registration will give each Singapore resident a number which will be used for all purposes in the future. The new citizen identity card, which is pink in colour, apart from its own serial number, will bear the birth register number or the Singapore citizenship certificate number of the holder. Therefore, once a person has been issued with a citizen identity card, he will have no difficulty in establishing his citizenship status in the future.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the hon. Member has raised the question of names being wrongly spelt either in the birth certificates or in the present identity cards. I wish to assure the Member that in the re-registration exercise, this matter will be rectified once and for all. Any mistakes in the spelling of the names will be given sympathetic consideration and if these are genuine errors, they will be rectified in the new identity cards. In the case of an illiterate applicant, it is suggested that his friend should assist him by writing out the correct spelling of his name on a slip of paper which he should bring at the time of re-registration.

The hon. Member has also raised the question of persons who have voted but could not produce documentary evidence to prove that they are Singapore citizens. The House may be aware that the Electoral Roll has been compiled from the records of the existing identity cards. Where the persons' place of birth is shown as Singapore on such records, their names are automatically put on the Electoral Roll when they come of age. As Members are aware, in the initial registration of the population in 1948 for identity cards, no documentary proof whatsoever was required to show their place of birth. In this exercise, however, it is the intention of Government to rectify once and for all mistakes that have been made in the past. The Government is prepared to consider sympathetically those who claim to be born in Singapore but with no documentary proof and have voted during the last few elections. Such cases will be considered on their individual merits.

Mr Speaker, Sir, for the information of the House, a total of over 500 temporary and permanent staff have been recruited for the re-registration exercise. Consideration has been taken of the multi-racial and multi-lingual structure of our population, and the staff have been recruited on that basis. The points raised by the hon. Member that more Chinese-speaking officers should be sent to Chinatown, or Malay-speaking officers to the Geylang area, or Tamil-speaking officers to the Serangoon area have all been taken care of. However, it is not feasible to write the names in Malay or Chinese or Tamil in addition to the names in English on the identity cards. All names will be written in Roman alphabets on the identity cards. In the case of Chinese, their names in Chinese characters will be taken down in their application forms.

Mr Lingam: Sir, on a point of clarification.

Mr Jek Yeun Thong resumed his seat.

Mr Lingam: The Minister has just said that he will consider the writing of Chinese characters in the application forms. I do not know whether it will be too much if I ask him whether he will consider writing the names in romanised Malay and Tamil in the application forms.

Mr Jek Yeun Thong: I have already said that the names will be written in Roman alphabets. So it is not necessary to write the names again in romanised Malay or romanised Tamil because it will be in the same alphabets.

Mr Lingam: I think the Minister did not understand what I said. I understand that the names will be written in English on the identity cards. But as the Minister said, for the Chinese, Chinese characters will appear in the application forms. That is why I asked him whether it would be too much if he would consider putting a Malay name in romanised Malay on the application form, or Tamil on the application form.

Mr Speaker: The hon. Member means written in the Tamil language. Let us get the point quite clear - written in the Tamil language?

Mr Lingam: Written in the Tamil language.

Mr Speaker: Mr Minister, now you know what the hon. Member wants.

Mr Jek Yeun Thong: That will be considered. I think that can be accepted if the hon. Member means to have both the romanised names and Tamil names on the application forms. In the case of Malays, their names will already be in romanised form. So there is no necessity to put down their names again in Jawi on the application forms.

On another point. Where a Chinese is adopted by a non-Chinese family and where no adoption papers have been taken out, consideration will be given to entering the adopted name on the identity card.

For the information of the hon. Member, the new identity card will show the number of the present identity card and the date of its original issue. In addition, the race and dialect group of the applicant will be entered on the identity card, such as Chinese/Hokkien or Chinese/Cantonese or Indian/Tamil, etc.

The occupation of the holder will not be shown on the new identity card, but if he changes his occupation, he need only inform the Commissioner for National Registration either in person or by post. Further, the new plastic laminated identity card provides a pocket for the insertion of a change of address slip. Where a person changes his address, he will report either to the nearest police station, post office or a registration centre to notify his change of address. He will fill a very simple form and will be given at the same time a change of address slip which will be inserted into the pocket provided for in the identity card. There will, therefore, be no necessity for a holder of a plastic laminated identity card to change his card completely when he changes his residence. There will be no charge whatsoever for effecting the change of address.

Consideration will be given in the future to establishing permanent or temporary registration centres to deal with identity card matters, including reports of lost cards. In fact, the new Department of National Registration will have mobile registration teams which will visit certain centres all over the island at fixed regular intervals. Details of this will be announced at a later date.

For the information of the hon. Member, any person who is required to re-register under the provisions of Regulations 15 and 16 of the National Registration Regulations, 1966, will only have to pay a nominal fee of 50 cents in the case of a citizen identity card and one dollar in the case of a non-citizen identity card. Replacements required under Regulations 15 and 16 are treated as re-registration and not as replacements for lost or defaced cards.

I wish to assure this House that the re-registration of the population has been so planned that as little inconvenience as possible is caused to the general public. Over the last one month, the staff have been undergoing vigorous training to carry out this exercise in an efficient and courteous manner. In return, I would ask the public to give their fullest co-operation by bringing along the required documentary proofs of their citizenship as well as by answering questions put to them by the interviewing officers. By helping the Government in this manner, they will be helping themselves. As I have said previously, the new citizen plastic laminated identity card will in the future be a passport to social amenities, such as education, housing, health and employment.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved,

That Parliament do now adjourn.

Adjourned accordingly at Twenty Minutes to Six o'clock p.m.