Blueprint march 2016 by The Workers' Party

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March 2016

Dear Friends, The February and March sittings of Parliament saw Workers’ Party MPs and NCMPs asking many parliamentary questions and debating several Bills. Assoc Prof Daniel Goh (my teammate in East Coast GRC during GE 2015!) was also sworn in as NCMP. WP now has nine representatives in the 13th Parliament of Singapore. In this month’s Blueprint, we highlight some of our MPs’ key parliamentary interventions. Our NCMPs, Dennis Tan, Leon Perera and Daniel Goh, questioned ministers on investigation procedures of minors following the tragic suspected suicide of teenager Benjamin Lim after a police interrogation. Dennis also asked for details of the punishments meted out to the army officers who were found negligent during a training exercise in which Pte Dominique Lee died. Our MPs also participated in debates on a raft of Bills tabled in the House. They recorded their objection to the extraordinary powers conferred on NEA volunteers in the NEA (Amendment) Bill. Leon Perera moved his first adjournment motion to make detailed proposals on developing Singapore’s leadership in urban farming and solar power. This is my first month as the editor of Blueprint. I am well aware that parliamentary debates can sometimes be rather verbose, which is why we try

our best to condense them as much as possible, while retaining the substance of what was said. I trust that readers will see that our MPs have spoken up on many issues that matter to Singaporeans. Do feel free to forward this to your friends, and also invite them to subscribe at www.wp.sg/blueprint to receive future editions. As always, we are eager to hear your feedback and suggestions. You can email me at gerald.giam@wp.sg. Happy reading! Warmest regards,

Gerald Giam March 2016 Editor, Blueprint

In the wake of the suspected suicide of 14-year old Benjamin Lim following his questioning by the police, Non-constituency MPs Dennis Tan, Leon Perera, and Daniel Goh raised questions on MOE and SPF procedures in handling police investigations and interviews of minors. Mr Tan asked for a timeframe to be set for the completion of the review of these police procedures. He further proposed that either parents or school staff be present at the police station during the police interviews of minors; Assoc Prof Goh pointed out that young persons in these circumstances are especially vulnerable to suicide risk and asked whether school counsellors are trained to do psychological assessments for such risks when students are interviewed by the police; and Mr Perera suggested providing counselling to students or a hotline to turn to while they are under investigation.

Dennis Tan sought details of punishments meted out to the SAF officers found negligent in the exercise leading to Pte Dominique Lee’s death, and asked if the Government would amend Section 14 of the Government Proceedings Act (GPA) to remove the absolute waiver from liability for all claims attributable to service, for example, in cases where an officer fails to follow training safety regulations. Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Defence, did not reveal the punishments meted out, but argued that the delays in the two officers’ promotions caused them to incur a loss in salary. He stated that he was not prepared to make amendments to the GPA. Responding to concerns that petrol prices did not seem to be falling in tandem with oil prices, Low Thia Khiang, MP for Aljunied, questioned whether petrol companies may be profiteering at the expense of consumers. Koh Poh Koon, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, argued that there is no profiteering since petrol companies are not profiting in excess of a “reasonable margin” compared to similar companies, and there is “no evidence” of collusion. Aljunied MP Sylvia Lim asked for cost of NDP 2016. Ng Eng Hen said NDP 2016 will cost $39.4 million; NDP 2015 costed $40.5 million and past NDPs at the Marina Bay Floating Platform costed between $15.7-$17.9 million. Leon Perera asked how the Government intends to address the shortage of doctors and nurses in Singapore. Chee Hong Tat, MOS for Health, said MOH has been expanding capacity, and claimed that the government has “always” planned ahead of demand not just in healthcare, but in “all areas”. Dennis Tan asked for breakdown of new citizens by previous nationality. K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs, declined to provide a detailed breakdown, saying that there may be implications and sensitivities for specific groups of people or in the countries of origin. Leon Perera asked how many Singapore start-ups funded by the government that had managed to successfully exit via IPOs, mergers or acquisitions. S Iswaran, Minister for Trade and Industry, said that to date the number was just 9 out of 562 start-ups. Faisal Manap asked about relevance of district mayors and what their annual income is. Chan Chun Sing, Minister in the PMO, said district mayors strengthen social infrastructure in the community, and the norm for the annual salary of a mayor is $660,000. Png Eng Huat asked about funding given to schools, broken down by primary, secondary and independent schools. Ng Chee Meng, Acting Minister for Education, said it “would not be meaningful” to make comparisons among schools based on amount of funding given to each school. The per capita funding for primary,

secondary, independent schools and specialised school students in 2015 were $9,700, $13,400, $14,700 and $25,900 respectively. Png Eng Huat asked how many international students failed to serve their grant obligation after graduation, and the amount of tuition grants that had been given to this group of students. Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister for Education, said that more than 8 in 10 fulfilled their grant obligations, and the defaulters amount to $30 million of grants per year. Chen Show Mao asked about the take-up rate for schemes encouraging SMEs to hire fresh graduates and interns. S Iswaran, Minister for Trade and Industry replied that the SME Talent Programme (STP) matched over 700 internships in 2015, benefitting 192 enterprises – an increase from 116 enterprises in 2014. Following the report that senior officials from MOH and SGH had been “disciplined” for their role in the hepatitis C outbreak that was linked to 8 deaths, Leon Perera filed a parliamentary question asking for the names of the officials and specific penalties meted out in each case. He wrote on his Facebook that “Singaporeans deserve to know who was held to account and in what way.”

DEVELOP LEADERSHIP IN URBAN FARMING & SOLAR POWER: LEON PERERA Leon Perera moved his first adjournment motion on growing new industries in Singapore that promise long-term economic and non-economic benefits. Drawing on Singapore’s progress towards self-sufficiency in water supply over the last two decades, Mr Perera highlighted food and energy as two additional areas where we can similarly turn our limitations into opportunities. He proposed that the government devote more resources to develop the underground indoor vertical farming sector, and install solar panels on every HDB building roof and look into solar panel deployment on water bodies.

WP OBJECTS TO EXTRAORDINARY POWERS CONFERRED ON NEA VOLUNTEERS WP objected to the clause in the National Environmental Agency (NEA) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill that allows the NEA to appoint volunteers to be auxiliary officers, and confer on them the power to exercise the same powers as NEA officers. Pritam Singh, Png Eng Huat, and Daniel Goh questioned the necessity for such an amendment, and emphasised that such a move will not only erode neighbourliness, but promote antagonism and reduce community ownership of environmental and public health issues. Mr Singh stressed that powers of search, seizure and arrest should be reserved for officers whose careers depend on adherence to disciplinary norms, and that such volunteers would promote a toxic environment in the community. Mr Png Eng Huat and Assoc Prof Goh said that volunteers should not be allowed to take matters into their own hands in disputes as this goes against what community living is about. They cautioned that the Bill is a slippery slope to a divisive community and sought to find out if there was indeed such a pronounced shortage in manpower to necessitate arming volunteers with enforcement powers. All three MPs strongly urged the minister to do more by way of community education and promoting responsible, neighbourly behaviour instead of relying heavily on enforcement and threats of summonses.

WOMEN’S CHARTER BILL FALLS SHORT: DANIEL GOH Delivering his maiden speech in Parliament, Daniel Goh said that the proposed changes in the Bill do not go far enough in plugging existing gaps, and fell short of the visionary spirit in which the original Charter was enacted. He made recommendations on four areas related to parental responsibility and better protection of children. First, he proposed ways to improve the Mandatory Parenting Programme, with children actively involved in the process. Second, he proposed a more robust system to enforce maintenance orders, including setting up a central agency with strong enforcement powers to recover maintenance on behalf of the families and to provide support to divorcee families dependent on maintenance. Third, to allow this central

agency to take a proactive approach in helping single, unwed parents to claim child maintenance from the child’s biological father. And fourth, to expand the range of persons empowered to apply for Personal Protection Orders on behalf of victims. He proposed that doctors should also be empowered to report cases to the police and draw up medical reports without request. Assoc Prof Goh also called for all young persons – including males – to be given protection from sexual exploitation and for the harmonisation of the Women’s Charter with the Prevention of Human Trafﬁcking Act and the Penal Code.

LOWER COSTS & REINSTATE SAFEGUARDS UNDER MENTAL CAPACITY ACT: SYLVIA LIM, DENNIS TAN Sylvia Lim and Dennis Tan raised concerns about the costs involved in making applications for Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs). Ms Lim estimated that the legal costs for such applications are about $6,000 to $7,000 even in clear-cut cases. She reminded the Law Ministry of its commitment in March 2015 to work to simplify the application process and bring down the fees, and asked for an update on the Ministry’s review. Mr Tan suggested that the Ministry set a fee scale for the Court to use as a benchmark in determining remuneration for donees or deputies, to ensure that the legal fees remain affordable to the average Singaporean. For deserving cases, Mr Tan proposed that such fees be waived altogether. Mr Tan also asked the Minister for more details of the criteria and qualiﬁcations for professional donees or deputies, and said that these should be clearly stated in the Act or in the subsidiary legislation. Ms Lim also urged the government to reinstate safeguards to ensure that LPAs granted under controversial circumstances can be ﬂagged out early before donees are empowered to take charge of the properties of the donors.

SAFEGUARD INFORMATION SHARED WITH FOREIGN LAW ENFORCEMENT: SYLVIA LIM Sylvia Lim supported the Registration of Criminals (Amendment) Bill, which aims to enhance cooperation between countries to tackle transnational crime, but raised her concerns about provisions that relate to providing information to foreign law enforcement agencies. She noted that the Bill stipulates detailed conditions that should be adhered to before information can be released to a foreign law enforcement agency, but questioned how the government would determine if foreign agencies were able to fulfil those conditions in practice. Ms Lim pointed out that this would be an especially difficult task given that the definition of “foreign law agency” in the Bill covers nearly all the countries in the world.

BETTER INCLUSIVITY & MONITORING OF THE HOME PROTECTION SCHEME: PRITAM SINGH, DENNIS TAN Pritam Singh and Dennis Tan spoke on the CPF (Amendment) Bill that aims to

enhance the insurance coverage of CPF members under the Home Protection Scheme (HPS) by expanding the definition of incapacity to include members with terminal illness and total permanent disability who may still be working or able to do some form of work. Mr Singh made three suggestions to strengthen the HPS by making the scheme more inclusive and plugging existing gaps. First, he proposed that the government extend the HPS to cover Singaporeans with pre-existing illnesses as has been done with MediShield Life. This was a call echoed by Mr Tan who suggested that members with pre-existing illness should at least be considered for inclusion in the HPS on a case-by-case basis. Second, Mr Singh pointed out that while CPF members can opt out of the HPS by taking up a similar mortgage-reducing insurance, HDB does not monitor these members to ensure that they do not opt out of their mortgage-reducing insurance as well. He proposed that HDB plug this gap by requiring homeowners to sign up to the HPS in the event that their mortgagereducing insurance lapses. Finally, Mr Singh urged HDB to send early reminders to policyholders to top up their Ordinary Accounts, and to constantly inform homeowners of the benefits of the HPS every few years. Mr Tan noted that the proposed amendments would allow a CPF member insured under the HPS to make a claim for terminal illness and total permanent disability even though the member is still able to work. While this is a positive move, Mr Tan queried the highly specific and restrictive criteria under which a member may make a claim for terminal illness or total permanent disability.

MORE CLARIFICATION NEEDED ON BANKING BILL: LEON PERERA Leon Perera supported provisions in the Bill that would allow the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to proactively regulate the banking sector, but suggested that the MAS provide clearer guidelines to banks on the criteria that it will use to determine what constitutes a transaction or exposure that could be potentially terminated by the MAS. He also sought clariﬁcations about provisions in the Bill that may lengthen the turnaround time for decisions, limit business ﬂexibility and raise the cost of doing business.

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