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At least there is some finality to the population debate.
“Let me be clear. The government has never proposed or targeted for Singapore to increase the population to 10 million,” said DPM Heng Swee Keat.
That was not all. “And if we look at today’s situation, our population is likely to be significantly below 6.9 million by 2030,” he continued in a Facebook post.
The 6.9 million figure was a key controversial point in a White Paper that generated a lot of hand wringing in 2013.
As many of us know, this flew smack into a torrent of anger against Singapore’s immigration policy.
The population issue was reignited when Singapore Democratic Party secretary-general Chee Soon Juan went eyeball to eyeball with People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Vivian Balakrishnan in a GE2020 live TV debate where the former raised the 10 million figure.
Alas, only if the DPM was as crystal clear in his dialogue as he was at a televised debate with NTU students last year.
At that time Heng could have put the matter to rest. Instead, he was not very precise.
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