In a recent dialogue held at the National University of Singapore (NUS) PM Lee spoke with Nikkei Asian Review editor-at-large Takehiko Koyanagi, where he said that Singapore are nicely building new towns and industries to help Singapore move forward, but they still lack the numbers that make up Singaporeans.
While he said that the birth rate among Singaporeans couples need to rise in order for the population to grow a little, he also alluded to the fact that each year, 20,000 Singapore PR became Singapore citizens. While PM Lee focused extensively on the birth rate for Singaporeans, his government does do much to help. The rising cost of living, the fact that both sets of couple in a marriage needs to go out and have careers for themselves just to make a comfortable living, and the difficulty one may face to have careers and children at the same time does not help in trying to increase the number of couples actually having babies.
While PM Lee and his government can remain deluded and say that women nowadays are more educated, and thus, wish to have careers of their own, the fact is that mothers and fathers both have to work just to make sure they can survive in Singapore, what with the high cost of living and all that. Having children? It will just add to financial strain already felt by many Singaporeans.
So is this just an excuse for PM Lee and his government, to say that since Singaporeans cannot replace themselves, then they have no more choice but to keep increasing the number of new citizens and replace ourselves? What has our Singapore become?
