HOLIDAYS BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister of State for Law (Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Sir, this Bill seeks to repeal and re-enact the Holidays Act (Chapter 126) to, firstly, make clear that official executive and judicial acts done and contracts entered into on Sundays or public holidays, are not invalid; and secondly, validate all such past acts or contracts done on Sundays and public holidays. Dies Non

Sir, the present Holidays Act poses some ambiguity in connection with the doing of official acts on Sundays and public holidays. Section 3 of the present Act declares all Sundays and public holidays as dies non, an old Latin expression meaning non-days in law. The present Act is substantially the same as the Holidays Ordinance 1876. The modern application of this antiquated concept is unclear.

Sir, the legal effect of the present Act should be put beyond doubt. The Government must be able to function at all times. Hence, official acts done even on a Sunday or public holiday ought to be valid. Our civil service is committed to greater responsiveness to the needs of the public. This will be frustrated if, in law, no official acts can be validly done on a Sunday or public holiday, even if public departments are prepared to open on these days.

Singapore is constitutionally a secular state. To most Singaporeans today, Sundays and public holidays are days in which they can rest and relax without being compelled to work if they do not want to. They should not be days in which people are prevented by law from working or from entering into legally binding transactions if they want to. Many local businesses, especially those in the tourist and food and beverage industries, require their offices and shops to be open on Sundays and public holidays.

Sir, the Bill therefore repeals the Holidays Act and re-enacts the law governing public holidays but without declaring Sundays and public holidays as dies non. The new law instead makes clear that nothing done on a Sunday or public holiday shall be invalid by reason only that it is done on such a day.

Previous official acts and contracts

To avoid any doubts and provide certainty, a validating provision makes clear that past official acts and contracts done on a Sunday or public holiday are not invalid. Employer-employee arrangements

Sir, the new law will not affect the provisions of the Employment Act relating to shift work and rest days of workers. Employers and employees will still be free to agree to holidays in substitution of any public holiday declared under the new law.

Consequential amendments

Sir, the Bill also makes consequential amendments to a few other written laws (namely, the Bills of Exchange Act, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Parliamentary Elections Act, the Presidential Elections Act, the Subordinate Courts Act and the Supreme Court of Judicature Act) to bring the provisions in line with the new law and remove provisions made redundant by the change. In particular, amendments to the Subordinate Courts Act and the Supreme Court of Judicature Act will establish a uniform legislative scheme allowing the conduct of court and Registry business on Sundays and public holidays when urgent matters have to be dealt with or the Chief Justice or Senior District Judge so directs.

Sir, let me conclude by saying that this Bill will remove an anachronism in our law.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I have only got a question now for the Minister of State. He says there will be an amendment to the Supreme Court of Judicature Act and the Subordinate Courts Act to permit the courts, I take it that they will be open, to transact any business. But what I wish to know from the Minister of State is: will this Bill affect the present provisions as to the filing of documents in court and the time prescribed under these rules? As the Minister of State may probably be aware that, under the rules, where the number of days is below a certain number, then the dies non do not count. May I know whether it is intended to do away with all that now?

Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir): Sir, I have a question first. It would appear that with this Bill, Sunday is no longer a sacred day, ie, just like any other day. What about people who continue their building construction on Sundays in a residential neighbourhood? This can be very disturbing to the people around there. Is there any provision to prevent people from continuing in the construction of their houses in residential areas on Sundays?

Sir, my party recently suggested that an additional day be observed as a public holiday to remind Singaporeans that we are a multi-cultural society. A multi-cultural society means that we are a multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-religious society. Racial harmony is important in Singapore. Yet, we do not have a public holiday to remind Singaporeans of this important aspect in our way of life. We should have such a public holiday. This new public holiday could be called Multi-racial Day or Multi-cultural Day. I think Multi-cultural Day would be a suitable name.

Singapore can afford to have an additional day for a public holiday. At the moment, we have 11 days set aside as statutory public holidays. Should we have one more, the number of public holidays would be 12 a year. This is not too many when compared to the public holidays of other countries. I have looked up the number of public holidays of 18 countries. Australia has the lowest number of public holidays, at eight days a year, and South Korea has the highest, at 20 days a year. The average number of public holidays per year of those 18 countries is 13 days. Should we increase the number of public holidays to 12 a year, we would still have less number of public holidays a year than the average number of public holidays in those 18 countries.

Sir, if this suggestion is taken up, the additional public holiday should be fixed in a month in the latter half of the year, because almost all our present public holidays are bunched up in the first half of the year. There are no public holidays in the months of July, September, or November. We could fix a new public holiday in one of those months.

Sir, I hope the Minister would give this proposal his serious consideration and amend the Bill to include a Multi-cultural Day as a public holiday.

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: Sir, first, let me reply to Mr Jeyaretnam. I have checked this matter with the courts. The Bill will not change the current practice of the courts, which will remain.

The other point is the suggestion by Mr Chiam to have another holiday in Singapore. I think all of us want more holidays. But the point is whether we ought to have more holidays. The specific suggestion he gives is to have a Multi-cultural or Multi-racial Day. But really the point is multi-culturalism and racialism as concepts should be practised every day of the year by all Singaporeans, and not to have a day when we say, "Let us be reminded that we should practise racial tolerance or appreciation of each other's culture."

The other point of course is, in Singapore, over time, even for different festivals, whether it is Lunar New Year or Hari Raya or even Deepavali, Singaporeans of all races now visit one another, greet one another and, in that sense, reinforce the concepts that Mr Chiam, and I think rightly so, says are important. And indeed, if you want to look at one day which would draw all Singaporeans together, that must be National Day which reminds us that we are one people, one nation.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Sir, I have looked through all the holidays and you will notice that most of the holidays are religious-biased, or in terms of National Day, it is specially set aside for patriotism, especially for the country. We do not have any one day which is for the people themselves to be reminded that we are multi-cultural. I think this is important. In Japan, they have got its Cultural Day. The reason why they want to have a Cultural Day is to emphasise that culture is important in the country. I think the Minister, instead of just brushing it off, should give his serious consideration. I hope he will say that.

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: Anyway, Sir, this is not under the Ministry of Law. The number of public holidays is actually determined by the Ministry of Labour. But in any case, I think the last time this matter was brought up, Members also suggested other holidays, such as a Women's Day. So where do you draw the line? If you want non-religious festivals also to be made public holidays, of course besides National Day which is now the one event that straddles all religions and festivities, I think we should be careful. We can practise it. I think that is important. But to have a public holiday to remind us about so many things in Singapore, such as a Save Water Day, I think we should be careful.

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. - [Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee].

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