From The Straits Times Interactive:
Dec 22, 2004
MM: Baby dearth could not have been prevented
At best, it would have been delayed had S'pore held its women back
By Azhar Ghani
THE baby dearth problem hit Singapore more rapidly than elsewhere because the country had moved quickly to remove barriers to women being educated, joining the workforce and having careers open to them, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said on Monday.
But even if women had been held back, it would not have prevented the problem from arising altogether, the Minister Mentor told the Foreign Correspondents' Association (FCA) when asked just how serious the population shortage problem was.
'I used to blame myself for being too hasty that in 1959 we passed the Women's Charter and imposed monogamy and opened up education and jobs, and that caused all this,' he said.
'But I've come to the conclusion it would only have delayed it 10, 20 or 30 years.'
He said the problem was not peculiar to Singapore and has been happening in many parts of the world.
Lifestyles and aspirations of women in other societies, increased travel and interaction with people from other parts of the world also had a part in influencing the decision of women here to put careers ahead of starting a family.
It was a problem that Japan also faces, despite having 'kept their women in place', he noted.
'But the Japanese women have travelled. They are now not wanting to get married and become slaves to their husbands and their in-laws and their children. So their birth rates are as perilous as ours.'
Unlike Japan, which has to work with a population of 130 million and a people who are homogeneous, Singapore is fortunate in that it has a small base of four million people.
'So we can top up. There's China, there's India,' he said, adding that Singapore could offer their citizens 'a better life... for the next 10, 20, maybe slightly more years before their big cities can offer the kind of lifestyle which we offer immediately'.
'We are multiracial. So absorbing new migrants of different races and religions and cultures doesn't worry us. In fact, it makes us more attractive as a cosmopolitan centre and makes us more relevant to the world.'
Mr Lee conceded that it might be hard to encourage women to have children given that they also wanted their careers.
Singapore's birth rate hit an all-time low of 1.26 last year, well below the population replacement rate of 2.1.
This prompted the Government to announce new measures, including a five-day work week, lower maid levies and extended maternity leave, to support parenthood and encourage Singaporeans to have more children.
Mr Lee, during a question-and-answer session after a dinner with members of the FCA, also responded to a question on why Singapore has not sent ground troops to Iraq despite having said that the situation there is an important global issue.
He reminded his audience that Singapore's army is largely made up of enlisted operationally-ready national servicemen.
And unlike in the former East Timor, now Timor Leste, where the Singapore Armed Forces had sent troops consisting of volunteers to undertake peacekeeping tasks, the role in Iraq is one of peace-making.
'My guess is the Defence Minister and probably the Prime Minister would conclude that parents would not be over-anxious to have their children do national service in Iraq. But that does not mean that Iraq is not important,' he said.
When the questioner made the point that South Korea, which also has an army made up of enlisted men, had sent troops into Iraq, Mr Lee said that Seoul was in a different position.
The country has 37,000 American troops stationed there, it has a demilitarised zone (DMZ), and has North Koreans just across the DMZ.
'Seoul could be devastated within hours of any conflict. So that's a sufficiently compelling reason to pay an insurance premium,' he said of South Korea's deployment