Friday 27 February 2015

[Today] Learn from Japan’s woes as S’pore curbs foreign labour

In “Bring back ‘keep clean’ campaign” (Feb 13), the letter writer equated a growing population to declining cleanliness standards here, which is unfortunate at best.

She wrote also that “cleaning staff were stationed” at restrooms in certain Asian cities to keep the facilities clean. It is in exactly that, manpower, that Singapore is at a disadvantage.

It has been noted that Singapore is a clean city because of cleaners, and not yet as a direct consequence of, or inherent within, its national psyche.

No matter how many campaigns as are necessary, one issue that will not be resolved is the manpower crunch, which is already hampering social and national interests at different levels. It is only 15 years before a fifth of the population will be categorised as aged.

But many have seemingly not grasped the relationship between an ageing population, competition and globalisation, as well as the huge impact of such demographics on the socioeconomic and political landscape. Ageing is expensive for any country, money- and manpower-wise.

Japan, in the grips of a low birth rate and an ageing population, has opened up its workforce recently to the highest performers from around the region.

Singapore has a head start, but as policies are being reversed, let us hope that Japan’s woes is a lesson learnt before Singapore, too, loses its hard-earned advantage in this region and its place in the world.

If we are serious about valuing seniors and their contributions to making Singapore what it is today, the realities befalling us must become national priorities before ageing and manpower issues overwhelm us.