PREPARATIONS FOR FUTURE CHANGES IN ELECTORATE TRENDS

8.05 pm

Dr Lily Neo (Kreta Ayer-Tanglin): Sir, at the outset, I would like to clarify that the motion I am moving this evening relates to changes in demographic patterns in this country.

Singapore has been very successful, thus far, in anticipating and cushioning foreseeable problems. This has been the hallmark of the PAP Government. Today, Sir, I would like to share my concerns on the preparations for future changes in electorate trends and the problems that may accompany these changes in Singapore. The implications for our future leaders and the consequences to this country as a whole are immense. Plans should be made, even as of now, or we will be faced with insurmountable problems. Act before it is too late, so that we can have a softer landing when facing the issue in the not too distant future.

Sir, I am talking about the changes in the pattern of the electorate. The number of people above 40 years of age, as of June 1997, was 1,094,900 and this number will increase as the years go by. This group of electorate will be more educated and more influential and they will present certain pressures when it comes to voting for their government. They will probably lobby for special requirements and different subsidies. And, of course, it will be in the interest of the Government that the needs of these citizens are gratified.

It is with this in mind that we have to plan ahead, well into the future, on balancing the whole process of providing for the welfare of one group without jeopardizing the welfare of another and without placing undue burdens upon continued progress of the State. To succeed in this, we need a concerted effort by the various authorities to work hand in hand. We also need all Singaporeans to understand that some sacrifices have to be accommodated for the sake of a successful Singapore for their children and grandchildren.

Sir, I would suggest that we look at the following as ways which either the Government on its own, the Government together with the people or the people by themselves can adopt to help solve this potential dilemma:

Promoting the right mindset

The most important prerequisite for success in this aspect is for all Singaporeans to desire self-reliance and self-sufficiency without burdening their children or the State. Whilst such a mindset will not be easily achieved, it must be encouraged. The Government must make the concept "popular" to our people who may, very likely, construe it as yet another burden imposed on them. Impart the idea effectively with abundant education and explanation. Implement new policies gradually and with meaningful incentives so that the people can accept this mindset without undue hardship. Previously, our forefathers' guarantee of future security and bliss was through having children. Nowadays, the smaller family units and the living styles are minus points for any guarantees of security through children alone. Added to this, the limited resources of our country mean that, in future, we will need every able-bodied citizen to be in the workforce so as to maximize our economic worth. We can expect to hit a dependency ratio of 3 to 1 in time to come.

Saving more for the golden years

There is a need for more personal savings from now. The message should be "save as much as you can now for your comfort in the future". The CPF compulsory savings can only be enough for subsistence levels of living and indeed may not be enough for the old-age, especially when we will see longer life expectancy of people even beyond 80 years of age. For the more affluent middle-aged Singaporeans, there is an even more pressing need to save because they would have become accustomed to more expensive lifestyles. Moderation on their spending will prevent their life earnings from being wiped out for a more graceful lifestyle in old age.

Building up family ties

Promoting family values and improving family ties is of fundamental importance as the building block of our society. With our fast-paced lifestyles, it now looks like we have even more reasons to step up nation-wide efforts in promoting these values in our society. Government policies can be further enhanced to make this necessity a reality. We can never do enough. The virtues of a closely knit family circle, and especially of a three-tier family, loving and caring for each other, should be accentuated within our society through the schools, the grassroots organisations and the whole community in general.

Encouraging self-sufficient lifestyles

In the pipeline, and certainly on the right track, are the studio apartments which will be built for our senior citizens. They, however, are only the hardware for self-sufficient lifestyles. It is important that the software is available alongside. Hence, the various concepts that promote self-help activities and social interactions amongst the dwellers of these studio apartments with the eventual formation of "buddy groups" helping each other, should be encouraged. Only when we have this software in place will the studio apartments package reach the maximal values and success in the future.

Prolonging employability

It is not sufficient just to raise the retirement age. More must be done to help the older folk get back to the workforce. The authorities in Government and the employers should try to provide more opportunities for older workers and create special but meaningful jobs for them. It is also necessary to train those who are willing and allow them to contribute with dignity.

As a medical doctor, I cannot help but to also mention the next two points. They are, of course, related to the healthcare aspects of this issue. I have made mention of them previously and they are:

Maintaining healthy lifestyles

Any population, just by maintaining healthy lifestyles, can reduce severe disabilities by as much as 60%. Therefore, we should adopt a more proactive approach to promote this idea nation-wide. People from all walks of life, and especially those near retirement or at retirement age, should be reached. This latter group whose lives may span another 25 years or so will benefit the most. Preventive care, rather than acute hospital care, is the way to go and it will save us all the money and save us from the agony in the end. It is inevitable that we will also have dependent cases that require much more help. We will need to train more care-providers. We will also need to provide more care-services. Both of these, at the moment, are not sufficient and are certainly not capable of coping with the increasing demands.

Keeping healthcare cost affordable

Medisave and MediShield have limitations. Moreover, they do not cater for those who suffer from chronic illnesses and require substantial expenses without warding in the hospitals. There may be a place to add a further "safety-net" insurance to fill the gap left out by Medisave and MediShield. This insurance is to be used before resorting to Medifund which, otherwise, will be undesirably and excessively drained in the future. The need to be cared for sufficiently in case of catastrophic illnesses, the inevitable escalation of healthcare cost in future, the expected increase in the life-span of most people to 80 years of age or more and hence the inescapable increase in incidence of catastrophic illnesses should be highlighted. This extra insurance scheme must be carefully explained to the Medisave and MediShield subscribers lest it be construed as yet another "pay and pay" burden. There must be an incentive for saving further here. Some form of co-payment between the Government and the subscribers and the respite from having to save more in the Medisave or paying more premium for MediShield may be the way.

Sir, the changes to future trends of the electorate in Singapore, the problems they portend and the implications for all of us are immense. I beg the indulgence of our Ministers and my parliamentary colleagues to look further into this matter.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Community Development (Mr Chan Soo Sen): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, firstly I would like to thank the hon. Member for Kreta Ayer-Tanglin for the reminder for us to prepare for future changes in demographic profile.

I use the word "reminder" because the Government has been successful in the last 40 years in planning ahead, anticipating problems, and in acting early before the problems become serious. We have also been fortunate in having an electorate that is prepared to think long term and accept necessary, though not always, popular measures. Our challenge, in fact, is to ensure that this time-proven way of doing things, which has proven to have served us so well in the last 40 years, can continue.

The Government is aware of the demographic trend outlined by the hon. Member. Because of Government's education programmes, our electorate will become better educated, more creative, and want to participate more actively in matters of state. I would want to say that these are strengths, not weaknesses. If more of our electorate participate more actively in the decision-making process, ownership towards policies will increase, commitment to our country will be enhanced, and our people will be more cohesive. A thriving people sector will channel the energy of our better educated electorate towards nation-building. Together we will build a better Singapore.

In fact, I would also like to submit that a lot of these are already taking place. The Government has, over the last 20 years or so, gradually empowered the local communities to manage their own affairs. With Town Councils, local communities take charge of estate management and upgrading. With Community Development Councils, local communities develop the heart-ware. The Government is actually looking ahead into the 21st century by forming the Singapore 21 Committee to map out strategies for nation-building. The Committee has been involving the people sector extensively to discuss the five dilemmas, and we can guarantee that people sector will be actively engaged because the Chairman of the Committee, RAdm Teo Chee Hean, is the Minister who first coined this term called "people sector". The Committee is working on five sets of now very famous dilemmas. (1) Internationalisation/Regionalisation versus Singapore as Home; (2) Less Stressful Life versus Retaining the Drive; (3) Attracting Talent versus Looking after Singaporeans; (4) The Needs of Senior Citizens versus The Aspirations of the Young; and (5) Consultation and Consensus versus Decisiveness and Quick Action.

The approach of posing the challenges as pairs of dilemmas is precisely to exercise the creativity of our better educated and more articulate electorate to prioritise and trade off, to think of short-term sacrifices for long term good. As the Committee with participation from the people sector puts up recommendations to resolve the five sets of dilemmas, a broad cross section of Singaporeans would have been engaged and have participated in mapping out Singapore's future.

I also agree with the hon. Member that having the right mindset is important. However, mindset comes with experience in life. Speaking with the older Singaporeans in their 50s or older, one would hear the concern that the younger generations do not have strong community spirit because they have not gone through hard times such as the Japanese occupation and our difficult road to nationhood.

However, the current economic difficulties brought about by the regional financial turmoil has provided valuable lessons for all of us, especially for the younger ones. We are reminded about our vulnerability, the importance of electing a good and clean government, the value of social cohesion, the need to prepare for sudden misfortunes even though we feel very comfortable and secure. In Chinese, we call it ju an si wei ( ) and that we cannot take success and prosperity for granted. These reminders will shape our mindset and will help to strengthen us. I believe the memory of this turmoil will be with us for some time. So let us stay united and cohesive to get over this period of difficulty. I believe we will emerge as a more matured country, with a more resilient and confident people.

The hon. Member has also addressed many issues associated with a more aged society, including the need to stay healthy, having affordable health care, and achieving financial self-reliant. My experience talking to the older Singaporeans in the course of my work confirms that there has been awareness of the need to prepare for the golden years, and a clear desire to ensure self-reliance. Older Singaporeans do not want to be burdens to our younger generation.

There is an area that Singapore has made tremendous achievement in, ie, housing. Nearly all our senior citizens do not need to worry about roofs over their heads because of our very successful public housing programme. This is an achievement which is outstanding, and not many developed countries could even equal us.

Prolonging employability is also important, and I do agree. However, one can be employable only if one's knowledge and skills remain relevant and marketable. As jobs and technology change very rapidly, we should inculcate in us a spirit of lifelong learning and regular skills upgrading so that we can all prolong our employability.

The Singapore Sports Council, People's Association, and the Community Development Councils will continue to promote sports and healthy lifestyle. The hon. Member is a medical doctor. I have to agree with her that prevention is better than cure, and a good health should not be taken for granted.

The Ministry of Health will also continue to watch healthcare costs, and ensure that healthcare is affordable. Medisave, Medifund and MediShield will be refined as we go along to ensure that our people are better served. In addition, we also notice that the private sector has developed various medical insurance and savings packages. The NTUC has also set up Eldercare Cooperative to initiate programmes to serve the older persons. I am confident that there will be more schemes for middle-aged persons to prepare for the golden years, since this is very obviously what the market wants.

Other than health and cost of living, there is one area that concerns an older person very much, ie, loneliness. To counter this, the Ministry of Community Development will continue to promote the importance of the family. The Ministry of Education will also continue to inculcate in our young the value of respecting the old and caring for them. Social service organisations will also help families develop skills in caring for the needs of the old and developing expertise in elderly services.

In addition to promoting the importance of the family, we should also rediscover and promote the importance of mutual help amongst neighbours. Grassroots organisations in the senior citizen's HDB apartments will give greater emphasis on promoting mutual help amongst neighbours and working with social service organisations. The Ministry of Community Development, the People's Association as well as the HDB will look into how such organisations will be set up. With the spirit of community self-help, the residents will live better and have a stronger sense of self-confidence.

We are already discussing the challenge of an aging population years before it actually happens. Government, private sector and the community are already active in putting the various schemes in place. This is another proof that we act before problems become serious. I believe we should have a soft landing. An active people sector will help us to be even more alert to impending problems, and increase commitment and ownership to the solutions. I believe that provided we continue to have a strong, good and clean Government, the change in electorate trends as outlined by the hon. Member will be a great asset, not a liability.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved,

That Parliament do now adjourn.

Adjourned accordingly at Twenty-Nine Minutes past Eight o'clock pm to a date to be fixed.