EXEMPTED BUSINESS

Column No : 3207

EXEMPTED BUSINESS:

(Motion): Resolved,

That the proceedings on the business set down on the Order Paper for today be exempted at this day’s sitting from the provisions of Standing Order No. 1. – [Mr Wong Kan Seng].

MARTIAL ARTS INSTRUCTION (REPEAL) BILL: Debate resumed.

Dr Teo Ho Pin (Holland-Bukit Panjang): Mdm Deputy Speaker, I wish to declare my interest as the Vice-President of the Singapore National Wushu Federation.

Madam, I rise in support of the Bill. The Martial Arts Instruction Act was implemented in 1974 to provide a system of control of martial arts associations, instructors and trainees who provide or receive instruction in martial arts. Over the years, the Act has served its purpose to ensure that martial arts is practised in an open and transparent environment, taking care of the interests of both the martial arts practitioners and the general public.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has also worked closely with like-minded organisations, such as the Singapore National Wushu Federation, People's Association and Singapore Sports Council, to oversee the developments of martial arts organisations and activities in Singapore. This partnership has indeed ensured that martial arts are practised as a form of self-defence and health exercise instead of being abused for other unlawful purposes.

While I understand that there are existing legislation, such as the Penal Code, Companies or Societies Acts which can control the activities of martial arts organisations and activities, there are concerns that the repeal of the Act will encourage a proliferation of unregistered martial arts groups in Singapore. I hope the Senior Minister of State can give assurance to this House that the repeal will not result in an uncontrollable increase of unregistered martial arts groups engaging in unlawful activities. Can the Minister also update the House on the number of unlawful martial arts associations, instructors or trainees who have been penalised under the Act over the last 29 years?

Madam, there are three areas of concern which I would like to highlight regarding the repeal of the Act.

First, protection of public interest. There is always this possibility that martial arts practitioners may abuse their skills to perform unlawful activities. This is especially so if they have bad records or conduct. This risk is higher if the martial arts practitioner has ill intentions to exploit his or her martial arts skills to abuse or bully the general public. With the repeal of the Act, there is a need to further increase public awareness on the penalty for abusing martial arts skills, and more crime prevention public education programmes must be conducted to safeguard the interest of the general public.

Madam, section 19 of the Martial Arts Instruction Act empowers the Controller of Martial Arts to prohibit persons to be officers of a martial arts association by reasons of a conviction of an offence or otherwise. With the repeal, any person

can now set up a martial arts organisation irrespective of his or her background or records. May I ask the Minister, what measures are taken by the Ministry to ensure that persons with bad records do not set up a martial arts school or association in Singapore. May I also ask the Minister whether persons who are classified as "unfit" in the Act would now be allowed to set up a martial arts association or recruit trainees.

Second, promotion of martial arts. In Singapore, martial arts have been receiving more recognition as a form of sports for healthy lifestyle. Due to the control, triad activities have reduced drastically. As a result, more parents are willing to encourage their children to learn martial arts. Some schools have also set up martial arts groups as part of their co-curricular activities. These are good signs of confidence which parents have shown towards the learning of martial arts.

I understand that the promotion of martial arts does not come under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs. But the confidence which the Martial Arts Instruction Act had given to the community has a direct impact on the development of martial arts in Singapore. Although wushu has not been recognised as a core sports by the Singapore Sports Council, it has good potential to win more medals for Singapore in world-class sports events. The repeal of the Act may cause a setback to the promotion of martial arts in Singapore. I hope the Minister can enlighten the House on measures in place, which can maintain the confidence of parents in sending their children to learn martial arts.

Third, loss of jobs. Madam, the repeal of the Act would result in some job losses. First, there would be no appointments for the Controller and Assistant Controllers of Martial Arts. The present team of administrators for the Act would also be made redundant. Furthermore, as there is no legislative compliance required, existing martial arts associations may cut their administrative staff, resulting in retrenchment. To-date, there are over 300 martial arts associations in Singapore employing many administrative and support staff. The repeal of the Act would affect the jobs of these staff.

If any association, firm or individual can give martial arts instructions, there would be many "SME" martial arts associations, including some "OMO" or one man show martial arts schools. The growth of these small set-ups may affect the student intake of some existing martial arts associations, thus affecting their businesses. In addition, there would be more intense competition among martial arts schools for students and businesses. This may inadvertently cause unhealthy tensions or rivalry among martial arts organisations. Furthermore, the repeal would facilitate the break-up of martial arts groups or instructors into various factions. This could spark off gang fights and public disorder. May I ask the Minister what measures are taken to prevent this from happening.

Madam, I support the Bill.

Mr Ang Mong Seng (Hong Kah): ( In Mandarin ): Mdm Deputy Speaker, I must declare my interest as the Vice-President of the Singapore National Wushu Federation.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, the Martial Arts Instruction Act was enacted in 1974. Over the years, as guided by this Act, the practice of martial arts in Singapore has been well regulated and has indeed flourished. It has now become an item in international sporting events such as the Asian Games and the SEA games. China has also successfully campaigned for martial arts to be included as an item in the Beijing Olympics Games 2008.

Nowadays, many schools in Singapore have included martial arts as a co-curricular activity. More than 3,000 students are learning martial arts in the schools. At grassroots level, martial arts are also being promoted in the community centres. Many courses are being offered, with tai chi quan and nan quan being the most popular. The practice of martial arts is readily becoming a part of our healthy lifestyle.

Recently, we sent a team of wushu practitioners to Beijing for an international Wushu Competition, and they returned with a remarkable haul of one gold, one silver and one bronze medals, competing with world class competitors from all over the world. This is because we have a good system of regulating martial arts in Singapore. We have good coaches and instructors and they produce good results.

Today, we are repealing the Martial Arts Instruction Act. With the repeal of this Act, would there be an authority to regulate the martial arts instructors in Singapore? If the instructors are not organised in a systematic manner, there would be confusion and chaos. I would like to ask the Minister whether there would be some better organisations to take over the task from the CID, so that our martial arts instructors would be regulated so as to produce world class practitioners who can be world-beaters and win more medals for Singapore at international meets.

The Singapore National Wushu Federation can take on this task. I hope the Ministry of Home Affairs would delegate this job of registering the martial arts instructors to the Singapore National Wushu Association. With such a systematic arrangement in place, we would be able to promote martial arts and strive to attain even higher standards in this art. Without a proper system in place, I am afraid that the individual instructors and coaches would start their own schools at random, and it would be very difficult to control them in future.

In this connection, what about the lion-dance and dragon-dance troupes? With the repeal of the Act, will the present lot of lion-dance and dragon-dance instructors be de-registered too?

Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir): Madam, thank you for allowing me to join in this debate.

Madam, I rise in support of the Bill. In my view, there was no necessity to enact the Act in 1974 in the first place. At that time, there was already in place section 55 of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act which allowed the Police to arrest any person suspected of secret society or criminal activities and detained them for up to a period of two years at a stretch without the necessity of bringing them to a court of law. Section 55 was dreaded by those in the underworld. All secret society members and criminal elements really feared that provision of the law. As a result, they all had to lie low and behave themselves and did not cause trouble in public. There were no reports of widespread collection of protection money and gang fights were few and far between. The criminal elements and secret society members were already well-controlled by the 1970s.

Presently, the said section 55, in its amended form, is still in our statute books and can be used against secret society members and criminal elements. These days, shopkeepers and the general citizenry are more educated. They understand how the system works and have confidence in the Police to take care of any secret society members or criminal elements who want to prey on them. I agree with the Minister that bad elements in our society are much under control. We can repeal the Martial Arts Instruction Act readily.

Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee: First of all, I would like to thank all the speakers who have spoken in support of the repealing of the Bill. I am also glad to see that Mr Chiam See Tong attests to the effectiveness of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act and the ability of the Police to curb the situation of secret societies.

But I think Mr Chiam came late just now into the Chamber when I was making my Second Reading speech, where at the beginning I stated the background. The situation in 1970s was vastly different from the situation today. In fact, I do not know whether he did some research, because if he had looked at the speech of the then Home Affairs Minister, Mr Chua Sian Chin in 1973, when he moved the Second Reading of this Bill in Parliament, he, in fact, cited figures to show that secret society elements had penetrated into quite a number of martial arts societies. Just to quote a section of it. He said, "In a recent study on some 115 pluralistic associations in Singapore, it was found that 33 of these have been penetrated by secret society elements and 10 of them have elements with adverse security records." Hence, it was very clear to the Government at that time that not only did we need enforcement measures, of which, of course, the CLTPA was a good instrument - but that is downstream measure, tackling the problem when the horse has bolted - the situation was serious enough to control it upstream by registration and control. The point is that the PAP Government takes a lot of care in deciding whether or not to introduce legislation and, indeed, is also very open and takes a lot of care in deciding whether or not to repeal legislation. That is why after careful consideration, we feel that we can repeal the Martial Arts Instruction Act.

Hence, as Mr Ang has said, in fact, the situation today is vastly different. Martial arts, including wushu , of which both Dr Teo and Mr Ang are the National Wushu Association's Vice-Presidents, have flourished. Many Singaporeans and residents living in Singapore take up martial arts to learn self-defence and improve their physique and health. And, in the process, those of us who have gone to some of these functions, as Guests-of-Honour to officiate at the testing and grading ceremonies or are in touch with the teachers would know, the trainees also imbibe positive values, such as self-control, discipline and respect for authority. I know, for example, in Nee Soon East, I have got many trainees and the teacher is called master. So there are a lot of values imbibed, besides the skills being imparted. But the point really is, statistics also bear out the fact that secret society links to the martial arts scene is no longer a consideration and, hence, the repeal.

But having said this, let me assure Dr Teo and Mr Ang, in particular Dr Teo who made this point, that Police's involvement with martial arts groups will not be reduced to zero. Indeed, any group that wishes to be registered as a society or business to promote martial arts would have its pro tem members or office bearers screened. Hence, this control will continue.