WHITE PAPER ON MAINTAINING RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE AND HARMONY

1.30 pm

Prof. S. Jayakumar: Mr Speaker, Sir, I have a short statement to make. Members will recall that at our last sitting on 6th October, during the debate on the Minister for Education's statement on teaching of Religious Knowledge in schools, several Members asked me when the Government intended to implement the ground rules on religion and politics which was set out in the Address by the President.

I replied that the Government has decided to introduce legislation to give effect to these ground rules and that I expected the Bill to be ready for introduction at today's sitting of Parliament.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Government has considered the matter further and has decided to publish a White Paper first before tabling the proposed legislation. The White Paper will set out proposals for the legislation to maintain religious tolerance and harmony, including the separation of religion and politics. It will spell out the problems which we face in our multi-racial and multi-religious society, the reasons why we need legislation and it will also outline the main features of the proposed legislation.

I expect the White Paper to be published within the next two weeks. Following its publication, the Government intends to introduce a Bill in this House intituled "Religions (Maintenance of Harmony) Bill". That Bill will be referred to a Select Committee so that the details of its provisions can be carefully scrutinised and views of all interested parties can be received.