Bureaucrats: still no hint of new approach

WHAT could have been the spark to light up the Great Baby Debate turned out to be a damp squib.

Following the parliamentary debate on the Singapore 21 vision, two woman readers wrote to the Straits Times to question government policies which appeared to keep the stork away. Commenting that Edusave was only available to the first, second and third child, Ms Rachel Tan argued that this policy would penalise families who wanted more babies. Ms Sandra Chua added that woman workers were hesitant about giving birth to more children as they were only entitled to maternity leave for the first two surviving children.

The Ministry of Education's reply: Edusave is limited to the first three children of families, in line with the national population policy. Besides, grants are given to schools for enrichment programmes.

The Ministry of Manpower's reply: Paid maternity leave could send the wrong signal to those who cannot afford to have more children. Working mothers with a third child can claim additional tax rebate instead. Such incentives will not add to employers' cost and thus enhance Singapore's competitiveness.

What a pity -- and what a golden opportunity lost.

Instead of engaging the public on the most profound demographic issue of the day, the bureaucrats remained locked in the mindset of chanting the policy mantra. There was no hint of a new approach, let alone a radical rethink.

Where was the breath of fresh S21 air supposed to be wafting through the public sector?

Coming hot on the heels of the unfolding of the S21 vision affirming Strong Families as one of five millennial ideals, it was a ready-made platform for policy-makers to show how they could be more pro-procreation, pro-babies and pro-family.

But unfortunately, they kept the door shut on further debate by giving the impression that policies were cast in stone and by instinctively subordinating family values to economic considerations such as employers' cost and competitiveness.

Don't blame our letter-writers if they mutter: Why bother about S21 in the first place?

Ms Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, the newly appointed senior parliamentary secretary for Community Development, was right on target when she told this newspaper recently that it was not enough for Singaporeans to create wealth, they must create life too.

In fact, it was her remark in the august chamber -- that if Singaporeans did not want foreign talent, they should make more babies -- that moved Ms Tan and Ms Chua to exercise their penmanship. So much for active citizenship.

But seriously, how long can we continue to gloss over our reproductive inability to replace ourselves? Will the 45,000-50,000 babies born each year be enough to sustain Singapore's global economy in the new millennium? Will they form enough of a critical mass of future talent to replenish the leadership core in every sector of national life?

The stark truth is that if we do not make more babies today and tomorrow, Singapore will age even more rapidly and require an ever-growing and never-ending flow of foreigners to make up for the shortfall. Then the number of foreigners coming here each year will far exceed the number of babies born.

The demographic trends are still as troubling as ever: The total fertility rate or the average number of children born to a woman who completes her child-bearing years is now 1.8, still below replacement level. By comparison, the figures were 3.1 and 2.1 in 1970 and 1975 respectively.

It is no mystery that our nationwide fertility failure is brought about by delayed marriages, delayed births, smaller families and a rapidly rising singlehood rate. It looks like we are never going to solve our singles problem as the rate still ranks among the highest in the world. So why not do the next best thing -- encourage more Singaporeans, like our letter-writers, to have more children?

Has the time not come for the government to review policies affecting procreation and family life, and recommend measures as breathtaking as the reforms in our financial sector?

We now await with bated breath to see how the pro-family ideas of S21 will translate into action or whether they will end up as nobody's baby.

What further measures will the government initiate to make the family the core institution? Will bosses take their eyes off their returns on equity to provide child-care centres and give time-off to workers to look after their young?

There has never been a dearth of ideas over the years. Just to cite a few: a "baby bonus" for couples who have babies; 90 days' maternity leave as in advanced countries; paternity leave for married men; no-pay leave for parents of a new-born; and bigger housing subsidy to induce more women to stay at home to look after their children.

It is too late, as Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew once said, to turn back the clock because of equal opportunities and universal education but if some women want to go back to "their primary roles as mothers, creators and protectors of the next generation", why discourage them? Or for that matter, if grandparents, relatives or even the menfolk want to do their fair share of care-giving, why not make conditions congenial for them as well?

As an incentive, for example, why not transfer a portion of the subsidy that the government gives to child-care centres to full-time care-givers in the home?

Wouldn't this be far superior to the increasingly convoluted arrangement of having to parcel out child care to maids, nannies, baby sitters, creches, day-care centres, before and after school programmes and other yet-to-be-hatched, taxpayer-funded facilities?

Let it not be lamented someday that while we expended so much time and effort to woo foreign talent, we -- oops -- forgot to give birth to our own.

Baby-making and care-giving may not figure in our GDP calculations, but what price tag can we place on giving birth to and nurturing our next generation with time-tested civilisational values?

Which world-class achievement can really hold a candle to the pure and pristine joy that comes from the pitter-patter of little feet?

It would be the mother of all ironies if we succeeded in every endeavour but failed to reproduce ourselves and sustain our continuity.