Social

Studies Sec 3 Chapter 2 Governance in Singapore

Guiding principles
Leadership is key

Elaboration
! Honest, capable and incorruptible leadership needed to
make right, rather than popular decisions to win
confidence and respect of the people
! The government continuously selects and grooms
potential leaders, not by chance
! Good leadership is important in every segment of society

Anticipate change and !

stay relevant
!

Reward for work and

work for reward

!
!

A stake for everyone,

opportunities for all

!
!
!

Example
Arts scene in Singapore made progress
under the leadership of Mr. Liu Thai Ker,
former chairman of the NAC. Under his
leadership, local talents had more
opportunities to participate in
international collaborations and co-
productions
Decisions need to be forward-looking to overcome
! NEWater: for self-sufficiency in
potential challenges.
water supply in anticipation of
Open to new ideas and willing to take risks
expiration of water agreements
(2011,2061)
! Integrated resorts (2005) to create
employment and capture tousist
market. Helps Singapores economy
to be competitive
Principle of meritocracy, a system that rewards hard
! Edusave Scholarship and Merit
work and talent
Bursary reward the top 10% and
Gives everyone an equal opportunity to achieve their best
25% of students in schools and
and be rewarded for their performance regardless of race,
Institutes of Technical Education
religion and socio-economic background.
! Share surplus from Singapores
good economic growth in Grow and
Share package in 2011 to reward
Singaporeans
Principle of transparency
! People were consulted on the issue
Having a say in decision-making develops a greater sense
of having a casino in 2004
of belonging (inclusive society)
! As a result, government took
Policy decisions are made to serve the needs of the
feedback from people and
nation. These decisions may change to suit the needs of
introduced social safeguards to
the people and nation over time.
minimize problem gambling.

Measures to curb population growth
Measure
Five-year
plans from
1966-1981

Plan
First five-year plan
from 1966-1971
Second five-year
plan from 1971-
1976

Details
! Emphasised the need for smaller families

! Encouraged married couples to stop at two
! Encouraged use of contraception and legalising abortion.
! No paid maternity leave to be given to third and subsequent children
! No priority to be given to large families in allocation of government flats
! No income tax relief to be given for fourth and subsequent children
! Delivery charges in hospitals to be increased with each additional child
! Aimed to maintain replacement rate at 2.1 children to keep population figures in check

Third five-year plan

from 1976-1981

Reasons to promote population growth
Reason
Explanation
Declining birth ! In 1980, fertility rate hit 1.82 children per woman due to success of family planning measures
rate from the
! Other factors such as increasing costs of living and people marrying at a later rate contributed to declining
1980s
birth rate
! During the same period, there were more jobs created in the industry and a larger workforce was needed to
sustain the nations development. Manpower was also needed for national defence
Unattractive to ! With a small population, Singapore would not be able to produce enough talented people to sustain its
MNCs
economic development
! TNCs would find it more expensive and difficult to recruit local Singaporeans compared to huge labour
market in countries like China. Singapore would also be less attractive because of its small consumer market
Ageing
With fewer babies born each year, there would be fewer young people in the population. Number of old people
population
would be proportionately larger. More resources would be used to take care of increasing no. of senior citizens
Defence
Declining birth rate would result in fewer men to recruit for NS. This would weaken Singapores defence

 Social Studies Sec 3 Chapter 2 Governance in Singapore

Measures to promote population growth
Measure
Explanation
Graduate
! Introduced in 1984 to encourage marriage among graduates and
Mothers
for graduates to have more children
Scheme
! It was felt that the education level of parents would have a direct
impact on performance of their children in schools
! Argued that graduate mothers are better able to help their
children succeed well in school and life.
! Higher chance of new generation workforce being more educated
Three or
! Government began to reverse earlier policies against larger
more if you
families
can afford it
! Measures were introduced to relieve financial burden of having
children
! Government allows use of Medisave to pay for delivery charges of
1st 3 children
! It was hoped that changes encouraged couples to decide on
having more children
Other pro-
! Introduced to address concerns of high cost of raising children
family
and lack of suitable childcare arrangements
measures
(i)
Equalised medical benefits (both parents could claim
medical benefits for children)
(ii)
5-day work week for civil service (to allow for better
work-life balance)
(iii)
Grandparent caregiver relief (income tax relief of $3000 if
grandparent is helping couple take care of child)
(iv)
Extended maternity leave (from 8 weeks to 12 weeks)
Attracting
! While Singapore waits for its pro-family measures to show
foreign talent
positive results, government began to attract foreign talent
! Encouraged to boost quality of manpower in Singapore and create
more jobs and increase productivity
! Immigration policy was relaxed in 1989 to attract foreign talent
! Foreign talent enjoyed easier entry into Singapore
! Given subsidized housing and an attractive education package for
children. It was hoped that these foreigners would develop
attachment to Singapore and take up permanent residence or
citizenship

Outcome/Impact
! Sparked off debate and unhappiness
among the people.
! Less-educated were unhappy as they
felt they would be neglected under
policy
! Scrapped in 1985
!
!
!

!
!
!

!
!
!

Number of children born per woman

continued to decrease from 1,46 in
1986 to 1.24 in 2004
Many newly married couples
continued to have only 1 or 2 children
Sizeable number of Singaporeans
either married late and had no
children or chose not to marry
Number of children born per woman
continued to decrease
Many newly married couples
continued to have only 1 or 2 children
Sizeable number of Singaporeans
either married late and had no
children or chose not to marry
Benefits Singapore
Singapore society becomes more
cosmopolitan
Many foreigners and their familiew
add on to the population numbers of
Singapore