VI - SCORE dinner speech by Chairman Baey Lian Peck at Cockpit Hotel on 31 March 1979

Summary

First, I would like to thank you for your presence. This will be the only occasion in which SCORE is holding a dinner on its own. We will be joining the Prisons Department when it holds its future annual dinners.

This evening is perhaps a good time to reflect on what objectives SCORE has set out to achieve, what are expected of the staff and what roles private enterprises can play.

SCORE's objectives, as they have often been stressed, are:

(i) To inculcate in inmates exact industrial discipline; and

(ii) To provide work to as many inmates as possible.

We have one aim; that is, to lead and rehabilitate those who have gone astray and try [to] turn them into useful citizens again.

The task of rehabilitation falls no less on the Prisons Department than on the staff of SCORE. Staff of SCORE must therefore share this responsibility in an enduring and positive manner. Working in a rehabilitative environment is more than a job. It is a public service. And we will be doing the public a great service if, through our collective efforts, we are able to inculcate in drug takers and prison inmates (particularly the recidivists), the will and determination to reform themselves.

We have done quite well over the last 2 years but there is no cause for [rejoicing] yet. We still have much more to do in the years ahead. It is the duty of the management to ensure that conditions of service for staff are competitive to Government departments and related industries in the private sector. Every officer must, however, demonstrate his or her commitment to the Corporation. In order that management can build up the infrastructure for a conducive working environment, it is important that there must be more feedback from staff on the ground level. The submission of fortnightly reports on workshops’ performance, though a chore, is necessary so that experience from the workshop could be translated into effective policies.