School life has been hectic and busy as usual but well as national day arrive, it gives us a break that everyone had been longing for. Besides national day parade celebration and the fireworks, another well-anticipated highlight of it will definitely be the national day rally that our very own Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong. In my opinion, the main topic of the rally is not on how Director Jack Neo had criticize the government in increasing the ERP, neither it is the not-so-funny jokes cracked PM Lee but the issue of increasing baby bonus and also encouraging local women to get married at an earlier age and produce more babies to solve Singapore problem of having aging population as he had
lunged right in to the controversial issue of encouraging Singaporeans to have more babies once again when he spoke at his National Day Rally this year.
This is the second time in four years that he has tackled the issue, the first being his inaugural Rally in 2004.
He announced a raft of measures that will cost the Government $700 million a year, bringing to $1.6 billion the total amount that it spends a year on promoting marriage and parenthood.
The measures include: more maternity leave for mothers, more tax incentives for having children, more subsidies for childcare, more leave for parents to care for a young child, and even subsidies for assisted reproduction techniques.
While Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng - who is in charge of population issues - will provide more details on the bulk of these measures at a press conference today, PM Lee in his Rally on Sunday night provided a few of his own. I am very sure that Singapore locals are aware of this issue as The New Paper already had an article reagreding this issue. I remembered very clearly that it had interveiwed two very successful women in terms of financial ability and also social status. However, when it comes to love life and relationship, the only answer we see is how many years the relationship last but marriage is never being mentioned.
The two Government matchmaking outfits, the Social Development Unit and the Social Development Service, will be merged so as to increase synergies.
This new outfit will also do accreditation of private sector dating agencies to ensure that they are reputable.
At the family level, parents (whether father or mother) can now take paid leave of up to six days - up from two - to care for children under seven years old.
They can also take unpaid leave of up to a week to care for infants under two years old.
The Baby Bonus cash incentives for parents will be extended beyond the fifth child.
In his Rally speech, Mr Lee sketched the philosophy behind the changes. He had arrived at his conclusions after numerous discussion with focus groups and dating agencies, he said.
The systematic approach focused on four areas: getting people married; helping those married to have and bring up children; helping parents maintain a work-life balance; and finally, helping married couples to conceive.
A frequent theme undergirding many of his points was the need for gender roles to be more equalised. Couples, for instance, should share responsibilities for taking care of children, including changing baby nappies.
The Prime Minister proudly recalled how he had changed diapers for his children after he got married, and that he had done so without pricking any babies. 'If I can do it, that means anybody can do it,' he said, beaming. I do salute the PM for spending so much effort for trying to encourage singapre women to get married however i don't think it is a wise decision to give bonus and encourage them to get married as looking at all the interviews, their main reason for not getting married is that they are always more capable then their sinagapore suitors. And if it is really true, the measures that PM Lee had taken had really been wasted.
After all these had been mentioned, i think that it is time that is time that i stop commenting on the governments policy as i do not ahve the courage and wisdom that local Director Jack Neo possess but i do hope that PM Lee will be successful in mangaing singapore to greater heights.
And so to end this, i shall remind everyone about
Mr Lee's plea to Singaporeans on Sunday night, "Please put emphasis on marriage, on family: Make these your priorities, have a full and happy life."
