Jennifer Lee
Singapore
“May I therefore ask the Minister if he will review the tax relief for the CPF top-up for non-working spouses, the conditions of which are currently set, I believe, too late and too low with a view to recommending the removal of the age and prior earnings qualifications? Negative Income Tax”
“Can we take customisation of the system one step further from streaming as we practise it now and look at how we can teach and assess these students, ie, do it all together in a review of that?”
“Secondly, increase opportunities for them to foster understanding and bonding across racial and socio-economic classes through the mixing that is possible in the period of National Service. This concurrently enables them to widen their own network of friends and colleagues into the future.”
“As we have been saying with regard to means testing, we would like to target Government subsidies to those who need it. The $50 to $200 deposited into the Medisave accounts of those over 50s, who need it will, I can assure you, not be enough.”
“They have totally no say in what their spouses do with their own CPF balances and, particularly, after the withdrawal age of 55. I am happy, therefore, that the Minimum Sum will need in future to be topped up before withdrawal is allowed so that at least that amount of money is not unthinkingly spent on pursuit of immediate gratifications…”
“Could I ask the Minister? Obviously, there is so much mismatch - there is a queue, there are vacant flats. Would HDB, in fact, be doing a review? Because the Minister is saying that right now there are certain criteria and because of that, we do not accommodate a lot of people. But it would appear that there is quite a need out there.”
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Every one of 199 lines we hold for Jennifer Lee, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 4.
“I just want to follow up on Mr Inderjit Singh's point because it seems in response to me the Minister has said that there were a lot of benefits after streaming came in. The results became a lot better. In response to Mr Inderjit, he said that there was streaming before in the form of A, B and C classes. So I am not sure what was the streaming before, in whatever form, or was there no streaming before, and therefore all those good results, were they that clearly identifiable to streaming in the way that we have it now. The other point which I want to say is: is there not some other way of helping the slow students apart from this very clear and distinct segregation? RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Mr Inderjit Singh was making the point that students were never segregated in any way by ability. And the point that I was making is that that is not true. That has been going on for quite a long time in the schools as it goes on in practically every school system that I know of. Specifically, on streaming, the time that I was going to school and probably the time Mr Inderjit was going to school, I am not sure how much younger he is, we did not have such a wide variety in streaming. In fact, for many of the students who were unable to cope, they just simply dropped out. In fact, as recently as seven years ago, before we introduced the Normal (Technical) stream in the secondary schools, something like 15% of our students were not going to secondary schools, because they went to Primary 6, did not do well, went to Primary 7 and Primary 8. And some of them went to the old VITB, and some left and went to the workforce.”
“For streaming, on one side is the purported ability to identify children who would otherwise not be able to cope, to help them with the less demanding load. On the other side is the labelling of the children at an early age with all the attendant consequences, to their self-esteem, the loss of opportunities open to other children not so labelled, and the loss to the system of late developers, and the loss of the diversity, which Mr Inderjit Singh has just referred to. The question is truly: is there no other way to help along slower children but to segregate them in this manner? I know the Minister has received many calls in the past to review the policies of ranking and streaming, but I will venture to ask him to do so again. I believe it is time, the balance has tipped, because the pressures are weighing very heavily on the other side. I am sure that many Members of the Frontbench would also agree if only they were not constrained by the solidarity required of their positions. Sir, my plea to the Minister is to please pause, throw out previous pre-conceptions and premises, and review these two policies. Before I end, Sir, I would also like to take the opportunity to invite the press to make their contribution towards easing off on this undue adulation of academic results. We have just missed an opportunity as this year's 'O' and 'A' results have just been released. But from next year, I suggest to them to propose a blackout on coverage of the top students in the PSLE, 'O' and 'A' level examinations. All they are going to disappoint are a few proud parents, but it would be their contribution in the cause of promoting a saner society less preoccupied with the paper chase.”
“The second pressure point remains as real as ever. In the meantime, curriculum review notwithstanding, so long as ranking of schools remains, principals will continue to strive to push their schools up the academic ladder and apply pressure on teachers who will, in turn, continue to push their students. Even the additional refinement of measuring schools with most value added for their students, they still measure this value added in academic performance. No amount of exhortations that it is not necessary to push students to complete 110% of the curriculum by the first quarter of the year, so that the next two quarters can be spent on revision and drills, and no amount of assurances that other achievements also count, will have any effect so long as the Ministry continues to rank schools on their academic results. Principals and teachers will continue to be convinced that their assessment, progress and promotions are tied to the academic results of their pupils and institutions. The pressure will not let up. I am not at all denying or dismissing all the benefits and advantages of ranking and streaming. There were obviously good reasons why they were introduced in the first place. But as in any policies, there are always two sides to the balance. It is a matter of which side of the balance sits heavier. And as time progresses, sometimes the balance shifts. For ranking, on one side is the ability to benchmark and assess the schools, and provide parents with information on how the schools rate. On the other side is the unhealthy competition that this engenders, and the resulting pressures that go right through the system. The question is truly: what would we lose if we were to drop the system of ranking schools?”
“Sir, I am going to start by begging your forbearance, because I am about to bring up two old subjects and, being new in the House, I have the advantage of not having heard the debates before. I will try however not to be too lengthy about it. Sir, the single biggest stresser for Singaporean families is worry over their children's education. The Ministry of Education has, in recent years, introduced many admirable new initiatives. These include measures which address factors that contribute to the pressure on students, such as curriculum review with a view to decrease curriculum load and the review of university admission criteria to de-emphasise reliance on 'O' and 'A' level results. When you talk to senior officers in MOE, they are enthused, convinced and sincere about these good efforts. When we talk to parents and teachers on the ground, however, we might be excused if we were to think that they were living in a different world. The pressure continues unabated. Why this incongruence? Because for all the good intentions and sincere efforts, certain fundamental issues have not been resolved. Parents are anxious for their children on two counts. Firstly, they worry about their children being able to access tertiary education and hence, subsequently, earn a good living. Secondly, they worry about their children being labelled from an early age as slow, stigmatised, socialised differently in the system and written off as no- hopers. As the changes to the admission criteria start making their impact to the system, the first pressure point should ease. However, this takes time to happen. But the anxiety with regard to the early labelling of children will persist so long as we continue with our policy of streaming children as young as at primary four.”
“Parents were given a few months to change their mind and they claim back the baby. Some other cities in developed nations have implemented similar baby deposits. Sir, what is the Minister's view of such a baby deposit? Could the Ministry try out one pilot site with a VWO? The whole idea is to try to save as many babies as possible.”
“Obviously, many Ministries must be engaged in this. It is hard to divide clearly where the responsibility and impact of one Ministry stops and another begins. I understand, of course, that there may be other similar requests for such attention to be given to other issues that cut across Ministries, especially with the fine example of the effectiveness of such an approach following upon the good work done by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Aging Population. In anticipation, I would like to suggest that every one or alternate years, the Prime Minister's Office selects one major issue of concern for which an IMC be set up to drive and coordinate the national effort. And the first one on the list must surely be an IMC on the family. Dr Ho Tat Kin (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Sir, we read in the papers recently that babies were abandoned by parents. Some were left at rubbish bins. One was even found in the toilet bowl. Although the number is still small, there seems to be an increasing trend since 1996. These babies are at great risk and may even die if they are not found in time. May I ask the Minister what is being done to educate young people about the help that they can receive even if they are pregnant? Sir, I also want to know what studies have been done to understand the profile of the parents who abandoned their babies. What percentage of abandoned babies were reunited with their parents? In some cities such as Hamburg in Germany where about 20 babies were abandoned in a year, the authorities have introduced what is known as babies slot, where desperate mothers can deposit unwanted babies. When a baby is placed in the chute located at a daycare centre, it will fall into a warm bed and is then registered at that centre.”
“45 pm We need a much more concerted and comprehensive effort to address this culture and mindset which we have built up over the past couple of decades than it is possible with MCD's current resources available for family life education. We need to involve and engage many more agencies in all sectors, public, private and people, the media and individuals themselves. We should start in our schools to broaden the life skills programme to include making right life choices, gender sensitivity, civil and familial responsibilities and care giving skills. We need to think of all the ways we can reach out to catch the attention of Singaporeans, the young and the not so young as well, as they set the examples for the younger ones to follow, through the community, CDCs and grassroots organisations, VWOs and employers. The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Community Development spoke over the weekend about a family life ambassador initiative which the Ministry is preparing to launch with companies at workplaces. We need this and other such efforts. Hospitals could work with MCD and VWOs to reach young couples who come to these institutions when they have their first and subsequent babies. My own hospital is working on one such initiative. MCD can be the resource centre preparing the informational, training and counselling materials, doing the research on trends and tracking other countries' experiences for us to learn from, and the coordinator and the facilitator. But we need many, many more parties, all sectors and individuals to be engaged in this effort. Dr Vasoo has asked for an Inter-Ministerial Committee to be established to bring together a coordinated effort to sustaining and strengthening the Singapore family. I wholeheartedly support his call.”
“Sir, MCD runs a family life education programme. The Ministry, through its various agencies and working with other Ministries, for example, the Ministry of Health, runs a whole series of talks and organises workshops and seminars and produces a massive array of brochures and publications on marriage, married life and parenting. Unfortunately, the reach of these efforts is very limited. The people who come for the talks and pick up the brochures are the ones already in the right church, sitting in the right pew, nodding their heads in agreement with the sermon. The vast majority of Singaporeans are, in the meantime, carrying on chasing economic success with no time at all to pay any attention to matters which, to them, are of such secondary importance. Life in Singapore is couched in economic terms, that is, gains and profits, productivity, value-added propositions and marketability. We have little time for family relationships and values. Young Singaporeans are delaying marriage and the commonly cited reason is to achieve financial stability first. The importance of marriage as an institution is undermined by the monetary value attached to the first matrimonial home that young couples aspire to own. I know of two young couples who rushed to the ROM to get registered to get into the HDB queue, only to now be filing for separation after finding out that they are not so compatible for a life-time together after all. Parents abdicating their responsibilities to domestic helpers in their efforts to pursue careers so they can afford the trappings of material success. Students are focused totally on academic achievement. Who has time for values? 5.”
“For both child and student care centres, I hope that the Minister will periodically review subsidy levels. As the financial burden of childcare arrangement is not insignificant, even with the Government subsidies, the dollars quickly add up, especially if the family needs to care for more than one child.”
“Standards and quality of care provided, methodology used and curriculum covered and their consistency across the range of centres run by different operators with childcare centres under the supervision of MCD and kindergartens under MOE are a major concern, and there has been an extensive and impassioned media coverage of the subject in recent weeks. I will not delve on the subject here as I know the whole issue of pre-school is currently being reviewed by a committee under Senior Minister of State for Education, Dr Aline Wong, with participation and representation from MCD. I am sure we will get a comprehensive and lively debate on the subject of pre-school education under the MOE cuts. Suffice for me to say that I do hope that many issues brought up in public discussion in recent weeks will be ironed out and we will see a system put into place which will put a stop to the spiral of increasing expectations on our very young children. 5.30 pm One other item, with regard to childcare centres for the Minister's consideration is whether the provision of infant care services for children from 2 to 18 months can be encouraged, through increasing the subsidy for this service to offset the higher cost that comes from the higher staffing ratios that this age group of children require. Currently, very few childcare centres take in children below 18 months and it will be most helpful to those parents who wish to use such a service if more places were available. Moving to student care centres, my main request here is for more school-based centres, as I believe this will be much more convenient for parents who would then not need to worry about transporting the child to and from school and community-based centres.”
“Sir, pleading the cause of the family to the Minister for Community Development is not just like preaching to the converted, but to the bishop himself. Nevertheless, I think it may sometimes be useful for the bishop to be able to say to the other monsignors at the Vatican that the parishioners are clamouring for attention. Dr Vasoo has laid out in great detail the philosophical and conceptual ground work on which we can start this debate. I am going to talk about a few nitty-gritty details. Firstly, I am really very happy to see in the budget the provision for 49 new childcare centres and 25 student care centres. I remember previous briefings that I have had, while serving on various committees, from MCD officers who have spoken of plans to gradually increase child and student care centres. And I would like to commend the Ministry for delivering these commitments. 49 childcare centres equate to about one new childcare centre every week and 25 student care centres, one every fortnight. However, numbers, although important, are not the be-all and end-all of the issue. The recruitment and training of childcare teachers and assistants, both in numbers and in calibre, remain a concern. Last year, MCD developed guidelines for qualifications required of supervisors and teachers in early childhood care and education. But I suspect that we may be in a bit of a bind here as the poor salaries that these jobs command will attract and retain staff of only a certain level of education and calibre. Yet attractive salaries can only be afforded with higher fees and/or higher subsidies. I wonder if the Minister can share with us if there is any review plan being undertaken on this subject.”
“This will lessen the confusion and hazards of the variety of types of traffic moving in different directions. In other words, you have different types of traffic but going in a single direction. With regard particularly to facilities for in-line bladers and skateboarders, may I make a plea specially for more facilities for them. Although I have seen some senior citizens happily blading away, these two pastimes are a wonderful way to put the energies of the group of young people, with what you might call "attitude" to positive use. I met a gentleman a couple of months ago who had trained a group of young bladers for the National Day celebrations last year, and he shared with me the unstinting effort and enthusiasm these youngsters put into months of practice and the pride they took in the enterprise. These are restless young people with excess energy, and the opportunity to occupy them in developing their skills and taking pride in this, and building self-esteem, is certainly worth some investment of physical resources. Currently, there are very few of the parks that have facilities specifically for in-line bladers. I am not sure how park utilisation is measured, but I would like to suggest that measures of usage should not be averaged over the week, unless and until we have staggered work weeks, as currently poor stressed out working Singaporeans, PRs, foreign talent, as well as foreign workers of other categories, are all out there on Sundays, using every available open space that we have. I hope the Minister will take this into consideration.”
“Sir, National Parks has done a wonderful job developing all the little pockets of greenery all over the island that we Singaporeans and residents and our families can escape to in our free time, mainly during the weekends. The really popular parks however are the big ones with facilities that allow people the ability to get some active exercise and participate in a variety of activities. The East Coast Park, for example, with its great long stretch of 20 km of parkway is a wonderful venue for walking, jogging, in-line blading, and bicycling. Well, Sir, I am obviously not the only one who thinks so, because on most weekends, with good weather, you will find the East Coast Park chock-a-block with people, adults and children, in typical Singaporean style generally in total disregard of staying within the appropriate walking or cycling tracks. While it is very well to take a good humoured and easy going approach to this, the truth of the matter is that sometimes it gets dangerous because of the congestion, and particularly with young children who are totally oblivious to the chaos they create swerving unsteadily or stopping suddenly dead in their tracks in the middle of a thoroughfare. Clearer signage and reminders to keep people to the appropriate tracks, simply to minimise accidents, would be good. Provisions for in-line bladers, whose population I have watched grow by quantum leaps over the last couple of years, and who are caught in no-man's land between cyclists and strollers, need to be taken into consideration. A suggestion, if space is not available to create wider and more tracks for different users, is to separate the traffic going in opposite directions, that is, to have dual carriageways, so to speak.”
“Yet, the availability of such centres would be another small but eminently integral piece of the jigsaw of measures that go towards helping working parents cope with the demands of both work and family. Would the Minister therefore consider under National Development's planning requirements to require the setting aside of space for a childcare centre or, better still, in view of our changing demographics, a multi-service centre which would also cater for day-care for the elderly, for office, business and industrial complexes beyond a certain size? In tandem with this requirement, of course, we will need to have the agreement of the authorities to exempt this square footage set aside from the gross floor area in the calculation of the plot ratio.”
“Sir, in surveys done of working parents, two of the benefits listed as most helpful in enabling them to balance work and family responsibilities are, firstly, flexible working arrangements and, secondly, on site or near site childcare centres. In Singapore, the MCD has done much to promote the establishment of childcare centres, both at the workplace and in the community. Apart from the quality of care provided, convenience of location is an important factor. Best for the parents are childcare centres conveniently sited at a location near to home, often a HDB void deck, or a workplace centre. A review of workplace childcare centres reveals however that the majority are in Government agencies or GLCs with large manpower establishments. This is not surprising as it makes little sense for a small company with a small staff to set up a childcare centre of its own. The economies of scale to run such a centre are just not there to make the enterprise viable without huge subsidy, something small companies are generally not in a position to undertake. The numbers of staff benefitting are small. There is no reason why, however, employees of many companies sited within a grouping of buildings in an industrial, business or office complex would not find a childcare centre conveniently located somewhere within the complex most useful. Combined numbers make the running of such an establishment by professional childcare operators a viable proposition. This is not, however, a consideration that will occur to most developers and landlords and if it did, that they might pay any attention to.”
“Firstly, the Productivity and Standards Board has just last month announced its new $50 million Work Redesign Programme to encourage companies to review and revamp the way they work so as to improve productivity. The projects approved for support under the programme should include work redesign to enable and facilitate family friendly flexible working patterns. Secondly, MOM could commission local cost-benefit analyses on family friendly practices to demonstrate to local companies that the experience of US and European companies, of tangible benefits to be had from implementing family friendly practices, holds true also for us. Thirdly, MOM could help in producing informational material such as manuals and training guides for the use and guidance of employers that local companies could use. And fourthly, the PSB should include family friendly practices as a component of the Singapore Quality Class and Singapore Quality Award criteria. This would certainly help to focus attention of companies on doing something about it. And , as a small bonus, the Minister could convince IRAS to throw in double tax deductions to companies for expenditures on providing family friendly benefits. And finally, a separate but related initiative, I believe MOM is looking at how it can facilitate the development of a home management industry at community level. Such a development would provide a most welcome additional source of assistance to working homemakers in juggling their varied responsibilities.”
“Very often, it is not being sensitised, not having an awareness of the implications and also of the way we can address such issues. In doing this, we do not have to re-invent the wheel, but simply take the lead of organisations in other countries, for example, there is an "Employers for Work-Life Balance", an alliance of major companies in the UK, who have come together in exactly this cause. The alliance has an interesting and informative website, and provides information on case studies, and research and publications, including an employer manual on how to begin taking action on work-life issues, and another manual offering specific guidance to small businesses. We usually tend to think that the big boys can afford some of this but it is very hard for the smaller companies to look at family practices. The coming together of these major companies, which include the big banks, the accounting firms and the major retailers in the UK, just to name a few, endorses the business benefits of implementing family friendly practices, and it lends credibility and support to this enterprise. In addition, this alliance works in partnership with a long list of voluntary and community organisations. It is time for us to similarly energise into action in Singapore getting firms together with the human resource institute and see if we cannot just move ourselves at a little bit faster speed. I know we are doing something, but by the time we get there it will be two more generations of young Singaporeans having to struggle with this. I cannot complete without at least asking for something from Government. We would disappoint every Member in the House. Certainly Government can also help in this, over and above its role as an employer, of course.”
“Sir, Singaporeans face stress at work, stress in schools and stress at home. Stress at work arises on two fronts. Firstly, just keeping up with the pace of the new knowledge and new technologies; and secondly, concurrently managing the balance between these demands, and those of the home and family. It is on managing this work-family balance that I would like to speak. Essentially I am talking about promoting family friendly practices in our companies and workplaces. This effort must be a joint effort, not of Government alone, but very much involving the initiative and commitment of employers, and indeed of our human resource professionals as well. While there is a much greater awareness of the importance of helping employees manage this work-family balance in the US and Europe, locally however, very few of our companies have taken more than just rudimentary steps in the direction of being family friendly. Apart from the recognition that employees are more productive if they are able to balance their work and personal lives effectively, there are benefits of being able to retain skilled and experienced staff and these benefits are real and quantifiable. SNEF, together with MCD, MOM, and NTUC has already made a start in promoting family friendly practices among our local firms, in implementing a Family Friendly Award for companies in 1998. But SNEF can take the initiative of another step, by galvanising and recruiting enlightened employers, most obviously the past and future winners of the Award, to come together to share best practice and establish a self-help one-stop shop and support service, for employers to share information on work-family issues.”
“The Member before me, Mr Hawazi Daipi, argued very eloquently for the extension of SRS to spouses. In the previous day, Mr Seng Han Thong has also asked for the same thing. I would like to also add my voice to this. In addition to the contribution that working spouses make to the well being of the family, this particular group is vulnerable because the women are the ones who live longer and will form the largest portion of the elderly population. The Report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Ageing Population had registered we were greatly concerned that many CPF account holders would have inadequate balances on retirement. This particular group which is most vulnerable is in fact also the group that will not have any CPF balances. I support the proposal put forward by Mr Hawazi Daipi and Mr Seng Han Thong. I would in fact like to take one step further to suggest, over and above the favourable tax treatment, a voluntary contribution to the CPF account of their wives. We should consider making it mandatory that in the case where one spouse is not working in a salaried job but is a full time housemaker, a portion of the CPF contribution of the salary of the spouse must be channelled into a CPF account of the homemaker so that the latter is not totally dependent on the goodwill and indeed the prudence of the wage earner to have some funds available to see her through in her old age.”
“Sir, like the two Members before me, I am rising to plead for more funding for the arts. Alluding also to the Prime Minister's National Day Rally speech last August, we were most excited to hear that there was a promise for more funding to be going to the arts and that unfortunately does not seem to have been translated in this year's budget. It sounds good in terms of a 14% increase for the NAC's budget because the base is so small. In absolute terms, as Mr Chew has noted, at $20 million worth of funding for all of the arts programmes that we have under the NAC banner, I do not know how much you can achieve with that. I also noted that when you look at the audience reach, in the workload and in productivity indicators, you will find that the reach in fact seems to be shrinking. For the arts programmes, we have about 277,000 audience reached the year before and it is estimated to drop to 210,000 for FY2000. The arts education programmes and the outreach programmes, both in terms of activities and outreach, seem to remain static. Once we have this comprehensive plan that MITA is putting together to turn Singapore into a renaissance city, and if that plan could be very quickly forthcoming, perhaps we might be more successful in getting more resources for the arts. 2.15 pm Assoc. Prof. Chin Tet Yung (Sembawang): Sir, may I take my two cuts together?”
“Sir, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua has just very much covered the ground that I wish to also expound on. So I shall not take up more of the House's time, but just to add my voice to support her position.”
“Let me just touch on the subject of paternity leave. Let me say upfront that I do not think that a man's decision to have a child is influenced one iota by whether he has a few days of paternity leave or not. However, it is part of the overall culture and environment of whether we truly want to celebrate the fathering of a child. Especially, when on the other side of the equation, how many man-days would the civil service lose by offering such a benefit? And finally, one old request is revived - a five-day work week. Having two days off in the week would make all the difference in the world to a harried couple. It would allow time to get chores done, and it would leave time left over to relax with the family. I am not asking for less hours in the work week, only that the hours worked be arranged in a five-day rotation. It is also possible to do this and still have Government services available six days a week. All it takes is a willingness to be flexible about scheduling. Sir, it will be wonderful if the Prime Minister says yes to these small requests, but I suspect that the answer may more likely to be no. And so, before he actually does, I am going to ask that he does not say no outright, but will agree to consider putting these items, together with others that I will be proposing over the next week and a half, on a list to be put before, and added to by, a central review and coordinating body, an Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Family, to take a holistic approach in a national effort to draw up a comprehensive blueprint to build more, strong and sound Singaporean families.”
“In the not too distant future, I think we may have to consider similar leave for sick elderly members of the family as well, as the population ages. Secondly, while I know that a number of civil servants have used the part-time employment and no-pay leave benefit to take time off to look after young children, it is also a fact that the ease or otherwise of organising this varies from department to department, and is often a function of how supportive individual supervisors are. We all know how responsive civil servants are to major campaigns if they are pushed with enough conviction from the top. So if the message to be supportive of and, in fact, to do their best to facilitate parents who wish to avail themselves of these benefits can be driven as hard as, for example, the PS 21 effort, this would be most helpful. Again, availing these benefits to either parent would send a great message on breaking down the rigidities of stereotyped roles. It does not matter if it is years before many or, in fact, any fathers take up the offer, but the important thing is to start making change to mindsets. 1.15 pm Next, the issue of maternity leave for the third and later children. Our usual position on this issue has been that the generous tax rebates given to mothers for their third, fourth and more children, more than compensate for the loss of maternity leave. But we know that this benefits only women who are in the higher income groups. At the time when these tax incentives were put in place we were very clear that we were specifically targetting this group. But I believe that by now, we are looking to encourage a much broader population of women, couples, to have more children. I really think it is time for us to reconsider this.”
“Sir, today, I have a proposition for the Prime Minister on making babies, speaking on behalf of Singaporean couples, of course. The package I am asking the Prime Minister to consider is just but one small piece of the jigsaw puzzle that we must put together if we are to be serious about encouraging more Singaporeans to start families, to grow bigger families and to keep those families strong and sound. Government is the largest employer in Singapore. If it will take the lead in doing as much as it can to create a working environment that is family friendly, this will go a long way, both in the direct impact on the tens of thousands of civil servants as well as in setting the example for other organisations and companies to follow. The civil service already offers some very good benefits in terms of sick child leave for mothers, part-time employment and no-pay leave for mothers after child birth for child minding, and on-site childcare centres in many of the Ministries. These are wonderful benefits to have, but I would like to suggest some enhancements. Firstly, sick child leave is currently only for children up to six years of age. I believe this must have been chosen in relation to the age that he starts going to school. But the kiddie going to primary school is still not old or independent enough to go to the doctor by himself if he should fall ill. I would therefore suggest raising the cut-off age to, say, 12 years, when the child is of secondary school level and more independent. I do not believe that parents will abuse the privilege. The benefit should also be made available to either parent. I am not asking for more days per child, just that the five days per child per annum may be taken by either one of the parents.”
“The best recent example is, having identified the issue of ageing, we formed the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Ageing Population. And we now have $200 million in the Eldercare Endowment Fund. The Minister for Finance has introduced various tax incentives in the Budget for looking after our older population. If only we would pay the same amount of attention to putting something together for the Singapore family. 2.46 pm”
“Fortunately, we are seeing more younger men helping out in more ways with home responsibilities these days. Just recently, a group of three young men have got together to establish a Centre for Fathering. How can we support and facilitate this trend? Training in parenting for both our young men and women is much needed. Mr Speaker, Sir, as you can see, many Ministries need to be involved if we are to address the subject of strengthening the Singaporean family in a holistic and coordinated manner. Not just the MCD, the obvious Ministry, through its Family Development Division. MCD, by the way, soon to be the MCDS, Ministry of Community Development and Sports, and alas, not even MCDF, Ministry of Community Development and the Family. But also the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Manpower, the Productivity and Standards Board under MTI, Ministry of Finance. Practically, every Ministry has policies and can do things that will impact and that can help support the Singapore family, as we push for all the training and the entrepreneurial talent. In the meantime, the Singaporean and his or her family, that is the mainstay, and that is ultimately what produces all the energies and the engine that drives what we are trying to achieve, I think we sometimes stand in danger of taking that very much for granted, as we are so caught up in undoubtedly all of the other very important things that we need to pay attention to. I think the Singapore family needs and deserves our attention. I will pick up in the debate on the estimates that follow specific issues with the Ministries. But I should like to call upon perhaps a more coordinated approach. When Government feels that something is important, it places priority on it and straightaway the resources move, and you can see this.”
“The Ministry of Education has in recent years announced many admirable initiatives which, if and when fully implemented, should go some way to dealing with the problems and challenges. But there seems right now still a huge gap to bridge between the existing and the desired situations. Mr Chiam has asked for more funds for the Education Ministry to decrease class size and improve the situation. I noted in fact that in this Budget 2,400 positions had been provided for. Not only that, when I look at previous years, I believe there is a huge vacancy rate in the Education Service. My concern is not so much that there is no willingness to put money aside to provide for this, but how on earth are we going to find the bodies, the brains and the hearts and souls to fill up these positions that will help ease the position? That, in fact, is key to the situation. With the ageing population, the care of frail elderly family members will start becoming a factor that needs consideration. Fortunately, in this instance, Government has anticipated the problem and action has already been initiated in this area in the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Ageing Population. Finally, changing the traditional views and practice in the sharing of home responsibilities. More flexibility in the assumption and sharing of different roles and duties will allow couples to better manage the calls on their time and attention, to achieve better outcomes for the family. Two people willing to pitch in according to their strengths and aptitudes without preconceived ideas about rigid divisions of labour are going to be that much more effective and efficient in sharing the responsibilities of bringing up a happy family.”
“At a median Singaporean household income of just around $3,000, for many of the 56% of dual income families in Singapore, continuing to hold down a full-time job is a necessity for both parents. How to cope with the demands of the current working environment, the pressures of increasing productivity, constantly learning new skills, and yet manage to do a decent job of bringing up a child and maintaining the household? We need to look at how to convince companies of the benefits of implementing family friendly practices to help employees with this balance. How can Government support and facilitate the process? By sourcing and providing information of best practices in other countries, by commissioning local studies to demonstrate applicability to our own environment, by providing tax and other financial incentives where applicable, and by setting the example as a major employer in Singapore. These family friendly practices should include measures to facilitate re-entry to work, when the kids are older and more independent, for the parents who had earlier stopped work to attend to family responsibilities full-time. Then, when the kids get to school, life becomes a pressure cooker seething with anxieties and angst. The study done by Stella Quah on the Singapore Family, published in May last year, identified children's education as the single greatest worry for parents. Over and above the simpler issues of the availability of before-and-after-school-care, important to working parents, are the pressures that come from the curriculum load, streaming and examinations that are characteristic of our education system.”
“How many young couples are fortunate enough these days to have the family infrastructure available and willing grandparents on hand to help with child minding? If not, a decision has to be made between engaging a maid, fostering the baby to a child minder, or finding a good child care centre. With the child care centre - the quality of care, the availability of a place in a conveniently located centre, and cost and subsidy, are all issues. This is the one solitary item I found highlighted in the Budget estimates that was specifically for the family - the 49 additional childcare centres and 25 student centres provided for under MCD. Should we be doing more over and above this? The viability of each of the options varies from one young family to another. What is important, therefore, must be the availability of the range of options. With one child, a childcare centre, especially with the available Government subsidy, may be a good option. With two children, it is probably cheaper to get a maid, who then also helps with the housework. If the maid levy was less, or could be put aside towards a gratuity to be paid to the worker at the end of the contract period, would parents be able to afford to attract and hire a better calibre employee, who can then act more as a governess in helping to bring the children up, relieving some of the pressures that are felt in terms of providing a good environment for the child at home? Once the first baby arrives, the parents have then to address how to balance work and home responsibilities with the burden falling very much at the moment on mum. To stop work, work part-time, or continue to work full time.”
“There are limited options for housing for the young couple just getting started in life, apart from getting into the queue for a HDB flat. There are various HDB grants and schemes to assist young couples, and also promote and facilitate extended families living together or in close proximity. These are good. And then there is the Fiance/Fiancee Scheme which requires a $5,000 registration deposit on application, and the production of a marriage certificate three months after taking possession of the flat. Does this push them into marriage too quickly, without enough consideration, resulting in increasing number of divorces in this younger age group subsequently? A review of the impact and implications of the assorted policies may be timely. Then we come to the decision to have children, the first baby. Again, attitudes and values, weighing work and family come into play. Wait for one's career to be better established, to better afford the financial responsibility that comes with bringing up a child? The decision to have baby number three carries with it weighing the tax benefits against the maternity benefits, or rather, the lack thereof. Dr Wang has made the point about increasing tax incentives for the third and fourth child. I myself rather think that one should be looking at the loss of maternity benefits and maternity leave for the third child and above. In fact, I think the group that benefits from the increased tax incentives is much smaller and at this point in time we are ready to look at encouraging a wider portion of the population to consider having the third child and not just the very top cream of the economic crop. Looking after baby.”
“We have a slew of policies in place that impact on the family in various ways, many of them enacted and implemented at various points in our history, for various good reasons and priorities at that time, that altogether now send sometimes conflicting messages to Singaporean women and men as they make their way through life taking decisions on marriage, starting a family, bringing up children and possibly finding time and space for themselves. Just let me walk you very quickly through the factors that come into play at these various points. For a start, even before worrying about helping the family to cope with the pace and pressures of life in the new millennium, persuading young Singaporeans that they want in fact to form a family in the first place. For the young Singaporean deciding to get married - yes, no, or wait? We have brought up a generation of youngsters on the lap of economic well-being, who have very high expectations, and who place economics - work and career - before family and home. And understandably so, when so much more tangible and immediate rewards come with having a successful career than for being a good spouse or a good parent. Expressed appreciation from the boss, promotions, a good salary, and the attendant lifestyle that this affords. Is there some way to moderate these values? What could we be covering in a life skills curriculum in school that might place some emphasis on the importance, joys and responsibilities of family life? How do we engage parents in the process? In a survey commissioned by the SDU in 1998, 62% of young couples felt that it was important to have financial stability before embarking on marriage, and 33% would delay marriage until a matrimonial home is ready, even if they were otherwise ready for marriage.”
“He noted that there are many reasons for the declining fertility rate - urbanisation, education, changing lifestyles, singlehood and late marriages. The stresses and pressures of modern life are intimately intertwined with all of these factors. The Prime Minister was absolutely right when he commented that simply the extension of the family benefits to fathers that I had proposed in that same sitting would not be the solution. There is no magic bullet. It would take a wide ranging review of a multitude of issues to come up with a clear vision of what outcomes we want for the Singapore family, a decision to prioritise the needs of the family, and a clear statement in the fact of conflicting demands of the importance of acting on this decision. Follow through and implementation will take plenty of political will and muscle, and the slaughter of not a few sacred cows. But if we are serious about making this vulnerable little island a good home for all of us in the long term, then we must approach the problem in a comprehensive manner, in the same way as we approached our economic well-being in establishing the Committee on Singapore's Competitiveness (CSC) to map out a comprehensive set of long term economic strategies, and not have individual Ministries take small bites at the subject in an ad hoc manner. And as Government adopted the strategies proposed by the CSC as the blueprint for developing Singapore into an advanced and globally competitive knowledge-based economy, so we need in tandem a blueprint for forming and preserving strong happy families, not just to enjoy the fruits of this material success but, in fact, to ensure that we are able to soldier on effectively.”
“In the face of these new challenges, the demands of the new global, knowledge-based economy, the hectic pace and the pressure that starts from the child in primary school and, in fact, following the recent accounts in the newspaper from preschool, how will our ordinary Singapore family cope? Already, we are beginning to see some fault lines show in the increasing examples we have of young people getting into trouble, not so much in the numbers perhaps, but in the violence of their crimes. I believe all Members of the House have numerous stories from their constituents of the pressures that the latter faced. In the last month alone I have heard of three families who have carted their children off to Australia to escape the pressure. Of these, in two of the families, the mothers accompanied the kids while dad remained in his job in Singapore. What kind of a family life is this? And with regard to the children, will they return to Singapore after their studies are done? What of the far greater number of families who do not have the means of this form of an escape valve? Mr Speaker, Sir, I am not suggesting for a moment that we should, even if we could, stop the world because we want to get off. There is no turning the clock back and wishing for the nice comfortable world that used to be. It is precisely because we cannot turn the clock back, that I believe that it is time for us to review all the policies that we have that impact on the Singapore family, to see if we cannot do better in supporting and strengthening this precious entity. In the House in October last year, the Prime Minister spoke of his concern with regard to two trends: the falling fertility rate, Singaporeans not replacing ourselves, and the increased number of Singaporeans going overseas.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Finance has delivered the good news to us that he is once again in the happy position of announcing a budget surplus this time of $3.2 billion. He did not dwell long on this accomplishment, but he did pause to observe that Singapore had emerged largely unscathed from the regional crisis and attributed this to strong economic fundamentals underpinned by years of consistent and rational policies. While I am fully in agreement with and appreciative of the good leadership that has made possible these policies, I think we have been guilty of forgetting or of taking for granted the other major underpinning of our economic success, namely, the ordinary Singaporean of whom we expect extraordinary effort, extraordinary commitment and extraordinary resilience. The Minister moved on to deal with the challenges that lie ahead for Singapore in competing in the new millennium. He spoke of the increasing intensity of competition that will be inevitable in the face of globalisation and the onslaught of technological advancement. The times are going to get tougher and the pace even more punishing. He spoke of the competitive edge that we have in hardware in our infrastructure, and he identified as a key component of the software aspect of our competitiveness, the quality of our people. He said, as many of our political leaders have often repeated in recent times, that as a small country, every Singaporean matters. But his focus was on everyone to consciously improve their skills and look for new ways to do the job better. I have a concern for the ordinary Singaporean, and the ordinary Singaporean family.”
“Is there some way perhaps the Minister could look at some resources towards helping bridge this interim gap, until such time as MCD and VWOs are able to provide the services that will enable these categories of residents to be taken care of at home. As the various agencies will move at different speeds in undertaking their part of the work that needs to be done in moving towards our desired destination of successful ageing in Singapore, much coordination is required to ensure that, for all our good intentions, we do not in fact exacerbate the problem in the meantime. I trust that the Minister will take the points raised into consideration as he moves to put together the policies, initiatives and legislation to provide for and finance appropriate health and personal care for our growing senior citizenry. Sir, I support the Bill.”
“Services to meet the needs of the frail, ill and disabled elderly are currently provided by a range of agencies under the umbrellas of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Community Development and the National Council of Social Services. As the Health Ministry proceeds to refine its existing criteria for susbsidy of nursing home residents to ensure the appropriate use of facilities and services and to enact and implement regulations to ensure that the ElderCare Fund to be established is drawn upon prudently and appropriately, there will be a shift in the mix of residents that are presently being looked after by the nursing homes. The Ministry has recently announced that it will no longer subsidise new incoming residents who need only varying levels of assistance in their routine activities of daily living - I think these are referred to as Category 1 and 2 patients - as these persons should not be cared for in the nursing home, but rather in their own homes, in the community, or perhaps in the homes for the aged. Unfortunately, at the moment, the homes for the aged, which come under MCD, are not geared up to deliver this care as they are actually meant for the well elderly. And there are insufficient VWOs providing community services and support that would be available to help families and elderly individuals to cope at home. So, as the nursing homes resist taking in the Category 1 and 2 patients because they no longer receive subsidy for them, where will these people go to? In this interim, there will be tremendous pressure on families to cope.”
“But for this lady, she has five more years, 10 more years, maybe even more, house-bound and unable to see. It is the attitude, I think, of after a certain age, it does not matter so much. But our life expectancy is now pretty high and I think we need to put more value on the quality of life for the older Singaporeans. The National Health Survey conducted by the Ministry in 1995 discovered a high occurrence of high blood pressure and diabetes in our population. These medical conditions will increase in incidence with age. High blood pressure that is not managed well will predispose to strokes and diabetes that is not well treated may very well lead to amputations. Poor eyesight and frailty result in falls. All three result in drastically reduced mobility for the older persons. The quantum leap in care needed when an older person suffers loss of mobility and the impact on her or his quality of life is horrendous. Very often, people will scrimp on or ignore what they feel to be small things - good, effective control of low grade chronic illnesses or exercise and rehabilitation to maintain fitness, not paying attention until what could have very easily been managed on an outpatient basis in the community becomes a hospitalisation for a major health event. So while the provisions in the Bill for financing and subsidy of step-down care are most welcome, I urge the Minister to put aside enough resources towards encouraging and facilitating the development of strong programmes in the community for health educational and preventive services, to re-orient our perspective so that what drives the system is how to prevent the strokes, the amputations and the fractures that give rise to the need for the step-down care in the first place.”
“This is good and necessary as it is not only more places for institutional care and nursing homes and in day care centres that are needed, but even more so the provision of home care services, medical and nursing services and simple home-help services in which a large gap currently exists. But step-down care, as its very name indicates, addresses the situation after the damage has been done and seeks the solution from the acute care institution's point of view of how to get the senior citizen who has needed to be hospitalized back in various stages to the community. We have defined in our vision of successful ageing for Singapore that, at the individual level, we aspire to have healthy and active older Singaporeans who lead independent and fulfilling lives. To achieve this, there is a chasm we have yet to bridge in mindsets and attitudes, both in the value that we currently place on the advanced years of an older person's lifetime as well as in the importance of paying attention to the simple daily routines in preventive health care to ensure that our senior citizens continue to stay fit. Sadly, it is not infrequently that I have heard stories of older persons who have not had treatment for correctable conditions simply because the family had not thought that, at their age, the expense would be worth it. Just recently, a colleague who does voluntary work in the community shared an account of an elderly woman who was house-bound because of failing eyesight due to cataracts. The family felt that it would not be justified to dig into the family reserves for the thousand dollars that they took for the operation to correct the problem, and that was because she was 70 years old.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity to speak on the Bill. My comments are directed largely to Part III of the Bill on the ElderCare Scheme. The Bill seeks to establish a Government fund to subvent the recurrent cost of step-down care providers. Firstly, I would like to commend the Ministry of Health for moving so expeditiously on the recommendation of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the Ageing Population to make provisions for the funding of step-down care. The IMC had observed that while the provision and financing of acute health care services for the elderly in Singapore are pretty much adequately taken care of, the step-down care and, primarily, the community-based services still need much strengthening. The Ministry has in fact started to address those areas under its purview. The recent announcements relating to allocation of land for private nursing homes and changes in eligibility for subsidy of new residents in Government-funded VWO-run nursing homes and, now, this Bill to set up the ElderCare Fund, are all directed towards facilitating the provision of step-down care, encouraging appropriate usage and assisting in the financing of these services. This is certainly moving us in the right direction in preparing for our growing population of older Singaporeans. I do have a concern, however, that our attention continues to be much more heavily directed towards the very visible problem related to institutional care and not enough towards the not so visible, but equally, if not, more important, educational, preventive and rehabilitative aspects of the whole picture. The Bill has defined step-down care very broadly to cover both accommodation and day care, and to cover both health and personal care as well as other forms of care arrangements.”
“The officers then gave a warning that a forced entry would be made. This warning was repeated several times in English and Malay. So the circumstances were such that the officers in that situation acted within the law and procedures, and gave the necessary warning. Sir, this assurance to the House ought to be made, so that no one leaves this Chamber today thinking that any Police or CNB officers had acted beyond the law. Mr Low Thia Khiang: May I ask for a clarification, Sir?”
“For example, in this case, section 24(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act provides that any officer of the Bureau may at any time without a warrant enter and search any place or premises in which it reasonably believes that there is to be found any controlled drug. Here, there were circumstances which led CNB officers to believe that such a situation had occurred. CNB would put up a fuller response in the press on the background. But let me assure this House, because this slur has been cast earlier on, that the CNB had indeed acted within the law. On 24th August this year, acting on information received, CNB had arrested a person suspected to be a drug trafficker. He was tested positive for drug consumption. CNB continued with investigations into his activities and monitored the numbers on his pager. As a result of the monitoring, five flats were raided: four of which, in fact, yielded positive results. For the fifth flat, Madam Beevi's flat, there were grounds for making the raid. In fact, a few days after the arrest of the trafficker, the residential telephone number subscribed by Madam Beevi appeared on the pager six times that day. Hence, a team of CNB officers was deployed to check out the address on 1st September. On arrival at her flat, the officers noted that the hall light and the TV set were on. The iron gate was unlocked but the wooden door was locked. The officers then knocked on the door and identified themselves as CNB officers, contrary to what Madam Beevi had stated. The officers also repeatedly knocked on the door and identified themselves, as there was no response from within. Then the officers heard movement within the flat. They were also able to see feet shuffling from the gap between the door and the floor.”
“By extending the sick child leave entitlement of five days per year per child under six years of age to be taken by either parent will truly send out that message loud and clear that fathers also can be care givers in the family. The Minister of State for Home Affairs (Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee): Sir, thank you for allowing me to speak. I thought I should make a short response to one or two points in Mr Jeyaretnam's speech. He brings up certain allegations against the police and CNB. The bottom line is that, in fact, we have had long debates in the past before on the powers of police and law enforcement agencies. Let me assure him, as well as this House, once again that the police and law enforcement agencies have the trust and respect of Singaporeans and would not do anything that will betray that trust. That is why Singapore indeed is one of the safest cities in the world. Sir, the first point is about suspects not being informed about grounds of arrest when a person is arrested by the police. My understanding of police procedure is that when a person is arrested he is informed generally of the reason why he is arrested. Of course, in some situations, for example, when he is struggling, that may not be possible, but he is informed as soon as reasonable thereafter. The other more substantive point is the case that he brings up, ie, the CNB raid on Madam Doulath Beevi's flat. Mr Jeyaretnam says that because there is no search warrant, therefore, CNB officers had violated the law. Sir, the general point must be that the police, CNB and other law enforcement agencies enforce the law. They do not act beyond the law. They do not break the law.”
“I have spoken so far on supporting the Manpower 21 proposal to Transform the Work Environment. There is, however, another piece of transformation that also needs to occur to preserve the strength of our families and to allow its individual members to fully develop their potential, and in so doing contribute to both the economic and non-economic viability of our nation. This transformation is in the mindset and traditional perception of roles in the family, and the traditional view also of care givers in the family. Better sharing of roles and responsibilities between wives and husbands, and mothers and fathers will ultimately help families manage much better. Sir, I will resist the temptation to take a familiar Singaporean approach, to ask for a National Campaign to facilitate this change in mindset. We can achieve the same result by sending out a clear and strong message about sharing roles and responsibilities in families, but we must support this message consistently in policies and in action that are not ambivalent but fully in line with the message. This will take time, as all efforts to change attitudes and behaviour do, and so all the more reason that we must start now. And in this, I would like to call the Civil Service to start the ball rolling, and take the lead in setting the example by giving, in its benefits, acknowledgement to fatherhood. This it can do by simply extending those of its benefits relating to child care, currently only for working mothers, to either parent. I expect that it will be quite a while before we see a deluge of fathers applying for a couple of years off for child rearing, but even now I am sure many fathers are more than prepared to take a sick child to the doctor.”
“Firstly, it can give encouragement in terms of tangible support, as indeed I believe the intention is under Manpower 21, in the sourcing of consultancy in job redesign, and grants to defray the costs incurred. Secondly, Government can commission local cost benefit studies relating to the retention of skilled and experienced staff. Companies need to be convinced to make the effort to engage in job redesign. Down to earth bottom line considerations are far more likely to move them than warm fuzzy arguments about keeping the family whole. Many companies in the US and Europe have studied the situation and have been convinced enough to implement many such family friendly practices. They are surely no less hard-nosed about their bottom lines than our own local corporations. Britain's Midlands Bank, for example, estimated that the cost of losing and replacing an experienced staff member was equivalent to the employee's annual employment costs. However, I can see that some of our local companies may not be convinced that the US and European experience can be directly transposed to our situation. We need therefore local data to convince them. Thirdly, commercial enterprises often cite the unavailability of space and cost as reasons why it is not possible for them to provide workplace childcare centres. Perhaps an equally good, if not better, option will be for Government in its town planning to factor in the requirement to provide for multi-service care centres within each big office and commercial development. These centres can be run by a variety of agencies, to serve the surrounding offices and companies. This will be particularly helpful for smaller companies which do not have the resources to do this themselves.”
“For those who have been out of the workplace for a long while, and become very out of touch, who are afraid their skills may have become obsolete, or just do not have the confidence to go back to work, the investment in putting together a short refresher course, with no strings attached, for such potential returning employees yields enough in terms of the recruitment of good candidates to be well justified. Again a real working example - albeit just a small pilot programme - of a two week refresher course which attracted six participants out of 15 nurses contacted who had stopped work some years prior, of whom five felt confident and competent enough after the course to return to work. This is quite a promising outcome for such a rare commodity as experienced nurses! Finally, of course, there are jobs that will allow teleworking from home, particularly with the possibilities now as Singapore becomes more and more a fully wired island. Now, if we could marry this palette of options with the availability of workplace on-site or near-site multi-service child and elder care centres, we will have a picture that will surely brighten the homes of our families in the future. And in this instance, hopefully as near a future as we can possibly make it. Sir, I fully recognise of course that all of this is far easier said than done, and certainly not all options are possible for all jobs in all companies. Companies will understandably hesitate and need convincing that these are initiatives that will be well worth the effort, and in fact make sense. This is where Government has a role to play, and should take the lead.”
“If I may give a working example, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, from my own workplace, we have nurses, all of whom work 42 hours a week, but in different units, work on a six-day, five-day or four-day rotation. The staff on the four-day rotation work 12-hour shifts but get three days off in a week to attend to other matters. Secondly, if the duties at home are more onerous and the care giver cannot manage a full-time job, making available part-time jobs or job sharing. Certain jobs are very easily structured for part-time staffing or job sharing, and all that may be required may simply be a willingness to consider doing things differently from the past. Other jobs are not so obviously suitable, and this is where some job redesign would be most helpful. Then, for those, usually young mothers who wish to take a period, perhaps a few years, off to see a child through infancy and early childhood, there are examples how this can be facilitated, and the woman helped to phase back into the job and workplace. For example, Lombard North Central, a finance house in the UK, allows parents extended leave of up to five years to care for babies and toddlers, on the condition that they spend at least two weeks a year back in the office, to maintain contacts and update skills, so that the transition back to the job later becomes simpler and smoother. Of course, our Civil Service has set a fine example of allowing no pay leave after childbirth for child care for mothers of up to four years per child, and part-time employment for married women who are not able to work full-time due to child care and family commitments.”
“Of these, almost 37,000 are women in the 20 to 49 years age group. Interestingly, 51% of these women have at least secondary education, in other words, they are what we would classify as skilled workers. How do we help preserve the energy and the well-being of these care givers in the family, at the same time enable their continued contribution to the nation? The Manpower 21 Committee has obviously studied these numbers, and has outlined some proposed solutions in one of its strategies, Transforming the Work Environment. I strongly support the points raised in this strategy, particularly the encouragement of flexible work arrangements and job redesign, and I would like to expand a little on this idea. The Manpower 21 Report indicates that we have a long way to go with regard to flexible work arrangements. The percentage of our workforce in flexible work arrangements stands at less than 1% compared to the US at 28%, the UK at 12% and Japan at 8.7%. Let me paint the spectrum of options it is possible to offer individuals so that they may try to match these with their particular requirements in balancing family and work, and to draw on some actual working examples to demonstrate that these arrangements are in fact eminently do-able. Firstly, when the care giver needs, wants, and can manage to work full-time hours, flexibility in starting and ending times in the work day can facilitate balancing of work and home schedules. In addition, flexibility in how these hours are organised can compress the work week and, for example, enable more days off in the week to attend to family chores and still perhaps have a day left over for a breather.”
“In fact, the study on the Singapore Family, commissioned by MCD, which was recently released, presents a happy picture of families largely in good and healthy condition. But as the President himself has stated, we must start now to prepare to address future needs. And Government has always had a tradition of planning very long term. The study did identify five sources of stress in our families. Of the five, the two main stressors are related to livelihood which includes, amongst other things, financial situation and employment, and role obligations. I want to focus attention today on the care givers in our families, addressing these two main stressors. It is important for us to keep our care givers strong and sound and whole, as only through this can we, in the longer term, keep our families strong and sound and whole. Care givers in families can be both men and women, although at the present time, they are very largely the women in families. In the 1998 Labour Force Survey it is reported that women make up 42% of our 1.9 million work force in Singapore. Of these 806,000 women, 449,000 are married and therefore definitely needing to balance work and home responsibilities. Many of the single women who are working doubtless have also family and home responsibilities to shoulder, but that is another subject for another day. The Survey reports there are 390,400 economically inactive persons aged from 25 to 54 years. Of these, 360,000 of them or 92% are women, and the reasons they give for not working are housework (69%), child care (23%), and elder care, at this point of time, only just a bit below 1%. Of these economically inactive persons in Singapore, 49,000 indicated that they would want to return to work within the next two years.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for the opportunity to speak in this debate. I rise to speak in support of the motion to thank the President for his Speech. I am most encouraged to hear the President identify people as the major focus of Government's policy in the coming years, and of Singapore 21 as a key programme of this Parliament. Singapore 21 identifies the family as one of the five pillars that will enable us to build on what we already have and create a strong and vibrant nation, and a home that we will all dearly love in the next millennium. The President also spoke on the ageing of our population. Notwithstanding all our initiatives and efforts to keep the majority of our senior citizens healthy and active contributors, as our population ages, there will be a growing number of older persons who will need care. The main care givers of these dependent older persons will remain their families. In the recent MCD-IPS Conference on Ageing in Singapore, the invited speaker shared that in the UK, families still remain strongly committed to caring for their older members, but are increasingly struggling under the burden of discharging these responsibilities, with the increase in longevity and the co-existence in families of three or even four generations. He argued that leaving the family to struggle on its own unaided is to take a very short-term view, as not only might a good portion of these families break under the pressure, there might be adverse economic consequences, such as the cost of providing health care to exhausted carers. Sir, our families in Singapore are, fortunately, generally not yet under such pressure at the moment, as our population is currently still much younger than that of the European countries.”