ADMINISTRATION OF OATHS

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: Order, order. Honour able Members will now proceed to take and subscribe the Oath of Allegiance, commencing with the Prime Minister and thereafter in the order as arranged.

11.39 a.m.

Members took and subscribed the Oath of Allegiance, or made Affirmation of Allegiance, in the order below:

Mr Lee Kuan Yew (Tanjong Pagar).

Dr Toh Chin Chye (Rochore).

Dr Goh Keng Swee (Kreta Ayer).

Mr S. Rajaratnam (Kampong Glam).

Mr Ong Pang Boon (Telok Ayer).

Mr Yong Nyuk Lin (Geylang West).

Mr Lim Kim San (Cairnhill).

Mr Jek Yeun Thong (Queenstown).

Inche Othman Bin Wok (Pasir Panjang).

Mr E. W. Barker (Tanglin).

Mr Chua Sian Chin (MacPherson).

Mr Wee Toon Boon (Sepoy Lines).

Inche A. Rahim Ishak (Siglap).

Mr Lee Khoon Choy (Hong Lim).

Tuan Haji Ya'acob Bin Mohamed (Kampong Ubi).

Inche Buang Bin Omar Junid (Whampoa).

Mr Chan Chee Seng (Jalan Besar).

Mr Ho Cheng Choon (Geylang East).

Mr Fong Sip Chee (Stamford).

Mr Sia Kah Hui (Upper Serangoon).

Mr S. Ramaswamy (Potong Pasir).

Mr Chor Yeok Eng (Bukit Timah).

Dr Lee Chiaw Meng (Farrer Park).

Mr Phua Bah Lee (Tampines).

Inche Sha'ari Bin Tadin (Kampong Chai Chee).

Mr Tang See Chim (Choa Chu Kang).

Prof. Wong Lin Ken (Alexandra).

Inche Mohd. Ghazali Bin Ismail (Aljunied).

Inche Abdul Aziz Karim (Kallang).

Mr Ang Nam Piau (Thomson).

Madam Chan Choy Siong (Delta).

Mr Eric Cheong Yuen Chee (Toa Payoh).

Mr Ch'ng Jit Koon (Tiong Bahru).

Mr J. F. Conceicao (Katong).

Mr N. Govindasamy (Telok Blangah).

Mr P. Govindaswamy (Anson).

Mr Ho Kah Leong (Jurong).

Mr Ho See Beng (Bras Basah).

Mr Hwang Soo Jin (Jalan Kayu).

Mr Lee Teck Him (Ulu Pandan).

Mr Lim Cheng Lock (Kampong Kapor).

Mr Lim Guan Hoo (Bukit Merah).

Mr Lim Soo Peng (Havelock).

Mr Low Guan Onn (River Valley).

Mr Low Yong Nguan (Crawford).

Inche Mohd. Ariff Bin Suradi (Kampong Kembangan).

Mr Ng Kah Ting (Punggol).

Mr Ng Yeow Chong (Mountbatten).

Mr Ong Soo Chuan (Nee Soon).

Inche Rahmat Bin Kenap (Geylang Serai).

Mr L. P. Rodrigo (Serangoon Gardens).

Mr Seah Mui Kok (Bukit Ho Swee).

Mr P. Selvadurai (Bukit Panjang).

Mr Sia Khoon Seong (Moulmein).

Mr Sim Boon Woo (Changi).

Mr Tay Boon Too (Paya Lebar).

Mr Teong Eng Siong (Sembawang).

Mr Yeoh Ghim Seng (Joo Chiat).

12.18 p.m.

Mr Speaker: Mr Prime Minister, Members of the Government and Back-benchers, I am deeply conscious of the great honour that lion. Members have done me in re-electing me as Speaker of the House. In thanking all hon. Members, may I say how happy I am that I have gained the confidence of those hon. Members who were also Members of the last Parliament.

Since I was elected Speaker in August 1966, I have endeavoured to discharge my functions in accordance with the traditions of this high office. In enforcing Standing Orders my rulings may, on occasion, have appeared to be harsh. In accepting them as they have, hon. Members appreciate that Standing Orders govern our business. To those Members taking their seats for the first time, I would say the only way not to be overawed by Standing Orders is to be familiar with them. In this regard, I know hon. Members will receive all help from the older Members and from the staff of Parliament. They will always be ready to help you, as indeed I am, for, as Speaker, I am servant of the House. In that spirit, I thank hon. Members again.

12.20 p.m.

The Prime Minister (Mr Lee Kuan Yew): Mr Speaker, Sir, hon. Members join me in extending you our congratulations and our co-operation on your re-election to the Chair. It is nearly two years since you were first elected to the office. Your experience as Speaker must be unique. In two successive Parliaments you sat over a House without an Opposition. First, the Opposition boycotted the House. Next, they boycotted the general elections. But in spite of the extraordinary circumstances, a legislative chamber without the stimulus of provocative criticism, those of us who were in the last Parliament are confident that under your guidance, this House will keep the parliamentary machine in good shape, and also sustain and cultivate the attitudes of tolerance and calculated deference to opposing views.

Those of us who are natural optimists, or not long acquainted with the social science of psephology, may believe that the return of all 58 Members from the P.A.P, reflects the unanimity of views amongst people outside. My colleagues and I, who have gone through more harrowing times, cannot afford to be so naive, or so ingenuous.

In 1963, the pro-Communist groups, under the banner of the Barisan Sosialis collected over 30 per cent of the votes and 13 out of 51 seats. True, their fortunes have declined. This is partly the result of our social and economic policies, partly the result of higher political sophistication amongst the voters. But it is mainly because of their own irrational rigid orthodoxy, their obsequious subservience to directives from outside. They have mechanically chanted ridiculous slogans and asserted incredible untruths - that Malaysia does not exist, that "Malaya" includes Singapore, and that the Republic is a sham.

Even so, had the Communists decided to contest the elections through the Barisan Sosialis, or other front organisations, like the Communist-led trade unions, or the old boys' associations and the cultural groups, I would not have been surprised if they had collected over 15 per cent of the votes, which would have ensured them some six to eight seats in this House. If they persist in orthodoxy, and their orders continue to be as unrelated to the realities of the situation in and around Singapore as they have been in the last five years, and more important, if our economic and social policies make the progress they have made over the last five years, then by 1973 their electoral support may further sink down perhaps to below 10 per cent. But I doubt if I can give as cheerful an estimate in the corresponding decline of their cadre strength. One of the subsidiary reasons why their electoral support has declined is that they have withdrawn their trained and experienced cadres from open front activity to conserve their strength for future deployment.

Sir, of the 58 Members in this House, 26 Members have never known what it is to be in a Parliament with an Opposition. Indeed, 16, having been returned unopposed, have never known the rough and tumble of a contested election. To them, I commend Hansard, the report of proceedings of this House since May 1955, particularly the years 1955, 1956, 1959, 1961 to 1963. In 1955, the Governors stopped presiding over sessions of the Legislative Council. A mainly elected Legislative Assembly of 32 Members of whom 25 were elected was allowed to meet under an independent Speaker. Three Members were from the P.A.P. I am the sole survivor of that first Assembly.

Some of the clerks of Parliament and I have personal knowledge of the boisterous and rumbustious past of this House. There was no dearth or differences of opinions, or independence of views, sometimes sincerely, and often vehemently, held. Hansard records the clash of minds, the exchange of retorts courteous and not so courteous, the conflict of ideas and ideologies, and the face-to-face confrontation of the exponents of different ideologies.

They reveal all the bounce, the abrasiveness and the self-confidence that Singapore had and still has. They made for lively meetings. Debates were often bitter and vicious. The fact that we now have such a homogeneous group in 58 Members does not mean that it will remain so hereafter. Opposition in this Chamber will and must inevitably return. But the Opposition will not be individuals claiming to act as the conscience of the people, or offering themselves as the necessary accoutrements of parliamentary democracy on the spurious argument that, because there is no Opposition, therefore there is no parliamentary democracy. Singapore is not that gullible and credulous.

The Opposition, when it returns, will comprise a group offering an alternative policy, and offering themselves as a credible alternative government to implement the policies they expound. This could come about in one of two ways, one less desirable than the other. First, it could come as a result of severe economic setbacks, the failure to meet and overcome the problems coming upon us in the l970s. Then the Opposition that emerges will be extreme, either orthodox Communist or revisionist, or Trotskyite. Then divisions will be sharp and angry, and the country the worse for it.

Second, the more desirable alternative, economic success and enhanced social stability, and further reduction in electoral support for Communist or extremist policies. With stability and prosperity, the sense of national urgency and unity which binds together a people faced with common danger, will slacken and a more relaxed mood will set in. A new restlessness will bestir the people, a desire for improvement and change, or just change for change's sake, will appeal to a younger generation. The emergence of a party or parties either to the left or right of the P.A.P, must result. But they would be constitutional alternatives, willing to work the system, prepared to compete and attain power within the system, and to surrender it by the same rules through which they came into office.

But for the crucial 1970s, it is as well that in the P.A.P, we hold together in national consensus a wide cross-section of our society, from semi-skilled and skilled workers like the Members for Kampong Kembangan and Geylang Serai, both former employees of the Singapore Telephone Board and leaders of its union, clerical groups represented by the Members for Kallang and Toa Payoh, teachers and principals like the Members for Telok Blangah and Moulmein, university lecturers and professors like the Members for Katong, Joo Chiat and Alexandra, to professional men and business executives like the Members for Bukit Panjang, River Valley and Jalan Kayu. Our task, Mr Speaker, is to help you ensure that the parliamentary machine is well-maintained and tuned to meet the new circumstances that will evolve in the 1970s.

I am confident that hon. Members will debate matters before them frankly and freely. More than half of hon. Members, however, have never taken part in a debate with an Opposition like that we had from 1961 to 1963. Then attack was not only venomous and sharp, but ruthless and unprincipled, and criticism was intended not to point out defects and secure improvements but designed electorally to kill and destroy the other side by fair means or foul. Hon. Members will have to learn and practise, as much outside as inside Parliament, the cut and thrust of debate, the retort and rejoinder, the rebuttal and riposte. I am told that simulated flying in a cockpit is nearly the same thing as actually flying an aircraft, except for the eerie feeling a pilot gets when he finds himself aloft and alone.

For more than four years from 1955 to 1959, I was a Member of this Chamber occupying the seat, if not the title, of Leader of the Opposition. At every crisis, crowds thronged the Gallery to watch the Government being castigated and whipped for its many misdemeanours. I changed places and became Leader of the Government from 1959 onwards. It was our turn to be pulverised. From 1961 to 1963 crowds were drawn like a magnet to this Chamber, some waiting outside to hear, if they could not see, the pack of Barisan wolves come in for the kill of the P.A.P. lamb. I do not believe that these large numbers of pro-Communist sympathisers and supporters have all vanished or been converted just because they left disappointed, as the Barisan wolves were chastised in the encounter.

Finally, Mr Speaker, Sir, whilst this will not be a Parliament with the suspense and excitement of its earlier years, nevertheless, there will be momentous times ahead for all of us, and this House will have enough drama if not anxiety in the crucial years ahead. Hon. Members will speak their minds freely and forcefully. Our future is at stake and we must give the lead in thinking and feeling in the country. If the new Members we now welcome to our fraternity learn and drill themselves, there is no reason why, when actual blood is drawn in a subsequent Parliament, that it should not be from the other side.

Mr Speaker, Sir, may you preside over us to a more secure and triumphant Third Parliament.

Mr Speaker: I thank you, Mr Prime Minister.

I have to report to the House that the President will be in this House at 7 o'clock this evening to address Parliament. The business set down for this morning being concluded, I now suspend the House until 7 p.m.

Sitting accordingly suspended at 12.35 p.m. until 7 p.m. Sitting resumed at 7 p.m.

The President (accompanied by two A.D.C.s) entered the Chamber, accompanied by Mr Speaker, who was preceded by the Serjeant at Arms (without the Mace), the Second Clerk-Assistant, the Clerk-Assistant and the Clerk.

On the Clerk announcing "The President", the President delivered his Opening Speech.

7.04 p.m.