Plan A has failed. Getting Singaporeans to replace themselves has failed miserably. Singapore's fertility rate one of the lowest in the whole world. Why have we failed? Just a few possible scenarios.
1) No one knows why.
2) No one is interested to know why.
3) Some people know why but could not do anything to reverse the trend.
4) Some people know why but did not do anything to reverse the trend.
5) We have moved on to Plan B.
Plan B is failing and Uncle Ng Eng Hen is not happy about it. In a recent interview with the 154th ranked rag, he told the permanent residents of Singapore or anyone interested to take up Singapore PR not to do so if they are not prepared to send their sons to do National Service. I quote:
"The basic message to permanent residents is this: If you want to take up permanent residency for your children, please do so recognizing that they have to do NS as a duty and there will be a course if you don't.
"So, it's better not to take up PR if your children are not going to do NS," [link]
According to the article, 32% of adopted Singaporean sons renounced their PR status prior to serving their NS. That sounds bad, even on national papers. I wonder what are the actual figures. Giving them the benefit of doubt, let's just take 32% as the drop out rate for that was terrible enough. Purchased loyalty did not work and if that wasn't enough to wake the government up, another group drawing less than a million bucks a year should be sleeping on the job in their place. At least they are cheaper.
We are now left with a situation with deserters among those who are supposed to serve and a group of demoralised youth questioning who they are protecting. With very little heart in our soldiers, don't expect lots of heart when it comes to the fight in spite of loading them renewing state-of-the-art weapons. We do not need another round of hardware upgrading, the software is where it badly needs attention here.
With our native population due to shrink by reportedly half a million in 2060, and if the dismal rate of PR deserters continues, our boys turning up for enlistment would be significantly fewer in the future and way below the required numbers adequate to defend the country. I wonder where we will be placing our growth priority by then? Our GDP, total population or local population?
Human beings aren't trees. You cannot import instant tree saplings like what NParks do. We have to nurture them right from the seeds and it takes a lot of time for them to mature. One wrong move and we'll find ourselves lamenting about lost time, dabbling our teary eyes with wads of cash. We are late to sow and it is time to play catch up instead of dabbling with other punky ideas.
It is time to splash the cash, make baby care and food items GST-free, implement family friendly public facilities the way we did it for the disabled, significant family tax benefits, heavy child care and child health subsidies to start off with. The people genuinely needs help in family assistance. The government has failed us too long in this aspect, losing precious time as a result. It is time for the government to listen, not question and focus seriously on the locals.
Don't be too taken in by the 'Hen' talk. I personally know of a few cases where they give up the PR, go to a overseas uni, then re-apply for the PR once they graduate. Guaranteed to succeed. This game has been played by the foreigners gang since the late 90's!
ReplyDeleteThe 68% that serves NS are those that don't/can't go the overseas uni route!
This is one of the reasons I left Singapore. I served my time (2.5 + 13 yrs) for the country. Now I question why we need to risk our lives when all the PRs and sons get a free ride.
ReplyDeleteSo now, my son has a choice: he can serve, or not, just like a PR. Guess which option anyone with an ounce of intelligence will take.
I really envy my work mate's son who can run away from NS simply by giving up his S'pore PR.
ReplyDeleteMy son will not be so lucky, in fact he has no choice just becos he is born and bred as a S'porean son.
I did jokingly tell my mum that why she choose to marry a S'porean man, end up I have to serve NS...
Should have migrated to Aust before serving my ICT.
That's two sons for us, and for National Service here.
ReplyDeleteI'm no longer sure if our younger, a toddler, can go for a better life elsewhere.
For the older one, I cannot assume things have improved here to regard him as an individual, and not a statistic to be assigned, like they did to his father here for decades.
Every day, I speak up our concerns online, in the hope that those who matter will listen, and do something better.
Yet it seems they're talking but not really listening, or following up effectively from what they've heard.
And here we are, still listening, still listening for improvements, even though what we hear can often sicken us.
Government may be beholden to the power elite, but it is also the best chance to make a difference despite all those constraints.
Therefore, to adapt from the original national creed, no one owes us our life, and so we will continue to do what we can to uphold our way of life, one that strives to be true, natural, simple and frugal.
It's also the least we can do to counter the opposite social inertia, of the insincere, contrived, complicating and excessive.
The problem with this govt is that they look for easy solution to TFR problem. They thought mass import FTs could solve the problem but end up with more social problems and in the end still cannot solve the main problem. Those millions spent on FTs could have been better used or spent on promoting local family. They really messed up big time.
ReplyDeleteSo much for Singaporean meritocracy.
DeleteThe best elite experts look just as bad when they screw up.
to add to your posting, as a result of open doors policy, a lot of singaporeans also left too. so we are getting lousy 3rd world people, with a lot of educated young people leaving Singapore with their young families..no job security..no work-life balance, the high COE..brother-in-law (him and wife are graduates) complained about the high COE..
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