Sunday, August 12, 2012

just say sorry.....


i remember in the 60s, the singapore government actively promoted their "stop at 2" & "2 is enough" policy on TV. this was in reference to limiting the number of children to 2 for each family, one reason being that the small land mass of the island may not be able to support a fast growing population.

fast forward half a century & as a result of that policy, they find themselves short of skilled labour & professionals, resulting in the rapid influx & immigration of foreign workers, much to the angst of the local residents.

in an interview some years back, lee kuan yew, the ex-PM who enforced that policy, confessed that he had made a mistake & in a turn-around, encouraged couples to have 3 children or more, if they could afford it. now, with the low fertility rate threatening to change the demographic profile of singapore, his national day message was headlined as this:

it was a mistake, he admitted, & the government is trying to reverse the trend. at least, he was being honest.

now, can we expect our government to confess its mistakes, take responsibility & then try to correct them?

16 comments:

Yvonne Foong said...

I can't wait for the day our government acknowledges the damages done on neurosurgery patients in this country. Their policies caused us to lack skilled neurosurgeons.

wenn said...

two is enough but more is better..

Anonymous said...

We know for a fact that Malay families procreate at a much faster, younger & cheaper rate than the other majority races.

Yet we never heard any of our PAP leaders praise our Malay brothers & sisters for heeding our leaders's call.

Why is that ?

Robinn T said...

forget it. the government will never learn because up till today, they are still busy covering up their asses.

Anonymous said...

"He added that without the work permit holders to build the roads and homes and dig the tunnels, Singapore would be a very different place.

And without the permanent residents, Singapore's population would be older, smaller, and will lose vitality.

"So our choice is simple. Either accept migrants at the rate at which we can assimilate them and make them conform to our values and have others on temporary work permit holders to help build up Singapore and improve," said Mr Lee.

xMM is not saying sorry. He was just giving an excuse to bring in more migrants and new citizens.

doc said...

Yvonne,

neurosurgery is not at the forefront of medical services here unlike heart surgery because the ex-PM almost died from a heart attack years ago. that's how IJN came into being.

doc said...

Wenn,

the cost of private education is one reason for small families.

Yvonne Foong said...

Hmmm I don't know whether to hope the current PM to experience some brain trauma just so the rakyat can benefit from better neurosurgical care.

doc said...

Anonymous 7.19PM,

that you have to ask them.

but my guess is that, the govt need to maintain a certain demographic composition & praise in that context will certainly disrupt what the govt had in mind.

btw, what do you mean by procreating at a CHEAPER rate? do they pay less for delivery fees, powdered milk & pampers?

doc said...

Tempus,

too busy looting & plundering to apologise!

doc said...

Anonymous 3.51PM,

yes, in the news report, he only explained why things turned out the way they did but did not apologise for the govt policy that precipitated the current labour woes.

but in a previous interview (can't remember where i read it, could be in one of his books) he confessed that the 2-is-enough policy was an error of judgement; he also confessed his bilingual policy went awry because, with some exceptions, all it produced was a whole population who can't master either language.

i considered that, at least, a good reflection of what went wrong & what could be done to rectify. over here, it's all about ketuanan, social contract, May 13 & defending putrajaya at all costs!

doc said...

Yvonne,

no pain, no gain.

kc said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxU89x78ac

Yvonne Foong said...

The average Singaporean speak better English than us though!

doc said...

Yvonne,

that's probably because english is a must-pass subject.

Medie007 said...

too many babies resulting in too rapid a boom in population? LOL