SINGAPORE: Singaporeans appear to agree with recent government statements on the importance of having more children to offset the low birth rate in the country. According to a government poll on the feedback portal Reach this week, some 88 percent of respondents agreed that having children was vital for Singapore's future. The belief was that if they did not have more children, “original” Singapore citizens would not be enough to maintain the majority in the island country. It comes only days after former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew called on Singapore couples to get married and have more children. With Singapore's birth rate dropping dramatically, to one of the lowest levels in the world, Lee's comments come as a debate over how to maintain the country's population hits the city-state. Speaking at a National Day dinner for Tanjong Pagar GRC and Tiong Bahru residents, he said Singapore “will fold up" if there are no original citizens left to form the majority. Many viewed his comments as “anti-immigration" and even some online users called Lee's statement “racist" against incoming Singaporeans. Lee also said that migrants are needed as a temporary solution. The trend of declining birth rates must also be reversed. “If there are no new citizens, new PRs will settle Singapore's social ethos, social spirit and social norms," he said. According to The Straits Times, Lee said Singaporeans not marrying and not having children has become a “national problem" even though an individual's lifestyle and marital plans are personal decisions. In his speech, Lee also stated some of the current demographic trends in Singapore. The Chinese had the lowest fertility rate in 2011 at 1.08, he argued. “Successive generations of the largest ethnic group in Singapore will halve in size in the next 18 to 20 years if this continues," he argued. Indians had a fertility rate of 1.09 while Malays had a fertility rate of 1.64. All three ethnic groups have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1. Lee also noted that “around 44 percent of Singaporean men and 31 percent of women aged between 30 and 34 are single."
