OFFICIAL SECRETS (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

6.20 p.m.

Mr Barker: Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The Bill will have the effect of amending section 5 of the Official Secrets Ordinance (Chapter 84). Section 5 of the Ordinance makes it an offence for any person wrongfully to communicate information set out in the section or to retain such information in the circumstances mentioned therein. The amendment brought about by the Bill make it an offence under this section for any person who, having signed an undertaking not to serve any foreign power or government on his leaving the service of the Government of Singapore, acts in breach of such undertaking. Any such person who has signed an undertaking shall be presumed to be in possession or in control of such information as has been set out in subsection (1) of section 5 of the Ordinance, and to have unlawfully communicated such information to a foreign power, thus contravening the provisions of section 5 of the Ordinance when he acts in breach of the undertaking. It is not only public officers in the Government service who may be required to sign this undertaking; but any person who has acquired any such information or thing as is described in subsection (1) of section 5 of the Official Secrets Ordinance in the course of his work with the Government, or for the Government, may thus be required to give this undertaking. If anyone is in possession of such information or thing and acts in breach of this undertaking not to be employed or to enter into the service of any foreign power or government, he will be presumed to have communicated such information or thing wrongfully and to have acted contrary to section 5 of the Ordinance the moment he breaks the undertaking.

The purpose of this Bill is clear. It is to ensure that information or knowledge obtained in the course of one's employment or service in the Government of Singapore shall not be made use of by the person who has gained such information or thing in the course of his official functions after he has left the Government or its service, Unusual though this provision may appear to be, I am sure the House will agree with me when I say that the necessity for this law to be in our statute books cannot be more emphasised than at this present stage of our development as an independent nation. The Bill does nothing more than provide a further means of ensuring that public security should not be jeopardised by such persons parting with such information or allowing themselves to be made use of by foreign powers or their agencies for purposes that may prove inimical to the interest of our nation.

The Official Secrets Act is an Act designed to ensure that the official secrets of the nation are not parted with for the benefit of any foreign power. One of the ways in which such information may be passed over to a foreign power is through this avenue of disclosure by the State's former employees, especially those who have held sensitive positions of trust. This new provision, it is hoped, will be effective in preventing such information from getting into the hands of any foreign power. It is, however, to be noted that not everyone who has served the Government in positions of trust will thus be affected, but only those whose positions in the Government or in the service of the Government are such as would allow them access to information or who would have acquired information which, in the interest of the security of the nation, must be protected and kept within the State. The undertaking will be in terms as fair as the Government can be expected to agree to, in that the period of the inability to work will be confined to foreign powers or governments or their agencies, and will be varied according to the sort of appointment the person affected last held and will, in all instances, be only for a reasonable period of time after he has left the service of the Government.

Furthermore, in the case where an undertaking is signed and the required permission to work with a foreign government or its agency refused, the Government will on its part offer to the person who is thus prevented from working for the foreign government or its agency alternative employment of a kind that will not be to that person's disadvantage in so far as it relates to remuneration when compared with his last appointment with the Singapore Government.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Barker].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.