PAP's 6.9 million population plan must be opposed.
Their plan cannot be supported.
Confusion over population target continues
Thursday
31 January 2013
Singapore Democrats
In
October last year, this website published an article about
the lack of clarity of the Government over the target population
size of Singapore. The announcement this week that PAP intends to
raise this to 6.9 million has only added to the
confusion.
In 1991, under former prime minister Goh Chok Tong, the Government
published its blueprint for Singapore
called The
Next Lap in
which it stated that a 4-million population was a comfortable
figure.
In 2007, former minister for national development Mah Bow Tan
changed the figure to to 6.5
million: "A recent review of our long-term land use and
transportation plan concluded that we have enough land to cater to
a population of 6.5 million." (The post seems to have been removed.
Reference: Mah Bow Tan: Why we need 6.5 million people, PAP
website, March/April 2007, www.pap.org.sg/articleview.php?folder=PT&id=1758.)
Mr Mah was then contradicted by then Minister
Mentor Lee Kuan Yew who said in February 2008: "I have not
quite been sold on the idea that we should have 6.5 million. I
think there's an optimum size for the land that we have, to
preserve the open spaces and the sense of comfort." He projected,
instead, an optimum population size of 5 to
5.5 million for Singapore.
In April 2011 (just before the general
elections), Mr
Mah walked back his own statement, saying that the 6.5 million
number is not a "target" but rather a "planning assumption." Why
would the Government be planning to house 6.5 million people if it
did not target that number?
A little over a year later in September
2012, Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong changed
the number: "Today our population is over 5 million. In the future,
6 million or so should not be a problem."
Today, Mr Lee gives us yet another figure: 6.9
million.
The Government's former chief statistician, Dr
Paul Cheung,
states a different figure: 8
million.
4 million, 5 million, 5.5 million, 6.5 million.
6.9 million, 8 million - who comes up with such numbers and how are
they arrived
at?
The constant changing of the target does not inspire confidence, at
best, and, at worst, demonstrates total confusion within the
cabinet. PM Lee
even admitted that his administration lacked the foresight in
population planning.
In 2008, former foreign minister George Yeo had given us a glimpse
into how unprepared the PAP was when he said that the Government
needed to come up with a "masterplan" to give "some idea of how
many foreigners we can accommodate in a sustainable, organic way.”
The statement came after Mr
Mah announced in 2007 that his ministry had done a review and found
that we could house 6.5 million people.
This confusion doesn't bode well for our future. Has the PAP
thought through how such a huge population increase will affect the
infrastructure? How will the influx of massive numbers of
foreigners affect the social cohesion and overall livability of
this island? With half of our population made up of
non-Singaporeans, how will our national security be impacted?
These questions must be answered before we commit to a 6.9 million
population and, in the process, do this nation harm, perhaps
irreparably.
Read also: 6.5
million, Part I (published
on 6 Sept 2010)
http://yoursdp.org/news/2013-01-31-5540
The PAP has quite a poor record on population planning, nothing
good will come out of this garbage 6.9 mil plan. The plan must be
resolutely rejected and firmly opposed.
