Aug 29, 2006
Review current policies on babies before bringing in more
foreigners
Much as I agree with the our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's
National Day Rally speech, in which he called for the
liberalisation of our immigration policy to make up for the
shortfalls in our population growth, I feel we have not thoroughly
exhausted our internal solutions.
If by 2065, according to the population experts, the native
born Singaporeans make up only 1.5 million out of 6.5 million
people, the government needs to redouble its efforts to
examine every nook and corner to find ways to increase the
proportion of the local born instead of relying so hugely on
foreign imports.
Such a policy is akin to our current efforts to strengthen and grow
our own SMEs and not rely so heavily on MNCs.
I feel that the following areas need to be looked at further:
In the decade from 1990 to 2000, there were 169,727 legal abortions
in Singapore. This represented 32.1% of total live births of
528,153 during the same period.
Given such a high attrition rate, should we not review our current
overly liberal policy of sanctioning legal abortions?
In times past when abortions and contraceptives were not easily
available, unwanted babies were given to orphanages and brought up
to become useful citizens. Is it possible for the state to assume
this function? Should not more be done to encourage unwed teenage
mothers to keep the babies? Provide counselling to them instead of
taking the short cut of abortion and a resumption of the same
dysfunctional lifestyle followed by more abortions.
If 10% of the abortions is carried out for women under 20, and if
we manage to save 5% through counselling and material incentives,
there will be a net addition of about 1,000 live births in
Singapore each year. We should make every potential Singaporean
count.
During a recent birthday dinner with my wife's single friends, some
of them questioned why the Social Development Unit excludes singles
who are over 35 years from its activities.
Even though some of them are in their forties, every effort should
be taken by SDU to cast its net wider to help them. It was not easy
to get the SDU accepted during the initial years and since it now
enjoys widespread popularity, it should open its doors wider.
Patrick Low Soh Chye
aiyo...native born singaporeans will be left with only 1.5 million
in 2065
