Homework Question (A)

Ok, hi Miss Zarinah, this is the homework. As continue from next line onwards.

Firstly, i will be talking about the principle i'm looking into and the policy that has something to do with the principle, afterwards would be why there is this policy and some of the preventive measures that the government has taken as well as some of the steps the government has taken to ensure the success of the plan. And lastly is my thoughts and feelings on this policy and the principle.

I'm looking into the principle of being forward looking, so i have decided to pick this policy as the policy that is related to the principle. It is the baby bonus scheme that the government has started since 2001 and enhanced in 2004. http://www.mcys.gov.sg/MCDSFiles/Press/Articles/34-2005.pdf, this is the link to the details of the policy. Basically it talks about giving incentives to parents who have more children, for example, the first child receives a cash gift of $3000. BUT the second and subsequent children ,up to the fourth, receives more cash gift as well as a co-saving that the government will match dollar for dollar up to a certain amount. The government has also made it easier for parents to register their child for this scheme, the government hopes to ease the burdern of growing a family as well as to encourage married adults to start and grow a large family.

It is imperative that the problem of the declining birth rate must be solved, because if it isn't, it would sap our country of it's vitality and resilience. The government acknowledges it would be difficult to have procreation, but it is necessary, if we do not have sufficient people from the next generation, when we grow old, who will look after us? Who will continue the job opportunities we have opened for them? Therefore it is of utmost importance to have a baby bonus incentive that would encourage parents to have more children.

Although having more children is good, the government also aims to bring up a core group of Singaporean citizens that would continue to build and defend Singapore, so the measures taken by the government includes that as one of it's focus, otherwise it would be pointless to groom a generation that is not loyal to Singapore and instead feed on Singapore's strength and use it to grow other countries. Singapore is already small enough and our only resource is manpower, while it does not mean to say that Singaporeans cannot migrate, i'm trying to say that we have to ensure that a vast majority of citizens continue staying in Singapore and such rootness and sense of belongning begins when the child is young and the parents still wish for the child to grow their next generation in Singapore as well, and so on and so forth.

Another point to take note of is that while more children is good, if we have suddenly a population explosion and have too many people, it would be bad as well as it would mean severe unemployment, and would lead to an increase in overcrowding, crimes and diseases. Therefore the government would have to have extremely good planning in order to have a successful increase in population to reach the optimum population level, that it would have just the right amount of people, not too many and not too little.

Other than enhancing the tax incentives, the government has also sent civil service teams to other countries to survey them, countries like France and the Netherlands have managed to bring their birth rates up, while Italy has not, the Singapore government is interested in knowing why so that it can use the knowledge to bring up it's population. Through the observations of these countries, lessons can be drawn up on how to prevent the plan in bringing the population to be resulting in a failure and how to make this plan a success. Also the government is reviewing how they can rearrange civil service work arrangements without affecting essential public services civil service work arrangements, without affecting essential public services, this is so that families can have more family time together.

In conclusion, i would like to add that the government is doing it's best to support the families in Singapore in growing their own families, and the government has also heard the people's views and why they are not growing their families as much as the government would like them to. The government has heard their replies and has decided on what could be addressed to and what cannot be done, to me, this is a good point for me to take note as it shows the government is doing something to excel in something, and that is our only resource: manpower. The government wants to ensure that we have sufficient manpower to continue working in our workforce and defend this country when this generation pass on. This is also a good example that the government is looking into the future and what problems Singapore could have in that future, and because growing a generation is not a task that can be accomplished within a short time, the government has decided to start now to make lives better for all the citizens. Furthermore, this should encourage us that the government while looking into the future, is still grasping one link at a time and not neglecting the current needs of the people as they still listen and hear our requests, and also they are looking into a future that may change due to current circumstances, so they do not make any definite plans but make plans accordingly and carry them out only if it fits the situation it has been planned for.

Thank you.