CITIZENS' AND NON-CITIZENS' IDENTITY CARDS (Statistics)

Mr P. Selvadurai asked the Minister for Labour if he will give the numbers of persons issued with citizens' and non-citizens' identity cards and a breakdown in numbers and percentages according to ethnic and language groups as at a latest convenient date.

Mr Jek Yeun Thong: Mr Speaker. Sir, the total number of registrants under the National Registration Act, 1965, was 1,251,666 as at 1st of March, 1967, of whom 1,101,418 were issued with pink citizens' identity cards and 150,348 were issued with blue non-citizens' identity cards. The breakdown of the 1,101,418 citizens in broad racial groups is as follows: - Malays 84,554 (comprise 7.7 per cent) Chinese 893,553 (comprise 81.1 per cent) Indians and Pakistanis 66,407 (comprise 6.0 per cent) Others 56,904 (comprise 5.2 per cent)

It is not possible to give precise details in respect of any group as the information on the various languages spoken by Indians, Pakistanis and others is not readily available. However, the above figures will also indicate the broad language groups.