PUBLISHED ONJuly 01, 2020 2:09 PMByKimberly Anne LimThe People's Action Party's (PAP) Vivian Balakrishnan and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan crossed swords in a live political debate today (July 1) on the hot-button issue of Singapore's growing population.
In a heated exchange, Dr Balakrishnan quashed claims that the government was targeting a population of 10 million and accused Dr Chee of "[indulging] in falsehoods".
In the question and answer segment of the debate, Dr Chee asked Dr Balakrishnan if he would "categorically tell Singaporeans right now" that the PAP has no intention of raising Singapore's population to 10 million.
His question referenced SDP's "Four Yes, One No" manifesto for the upcoming election, in which the party said it would "push to stop the PAP from raising our population to 10 million".
Dr Balakrishnan, who is also Foreign Minister, responded: "Just today, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) issued a statement advising people like you not to indulge in falsehoods."
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He went on to emphasise: "Let me state, for the record. We will never have 10 million. We won't even have 6.9 million.
"The government doesn't have a target for the population. What we want is a Singapore core that is demographically stable, able to reproduce ourselves, able to create opportunities and jobs for ourselves and able to stay as a cohesive whole."
Earlier today, the PMO released a statement debunking claims that the government had a 10 million target for the country's population.
"There have been statements circulating on various online platforms, that the Government proposes or plans to increase the population in Singapore to 10 million," the statement read.
"The National Population and Talent Division (NPTD), Strategy Group, Prime Minister's Office, would like to state categorically that these statements are untrue. The Government has not proposed, planned nor targeted for Singapore to increase its population to 10 million."
Taking umbrage at Dr Balakrishnan's rebuttal, Dr Chee stuck to his guns and said he would "cite the interview" in which Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat had purportedly mentioned the figure and referenced a ministerial dialogue at Nanyang Technological University in March 2019.
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At the event, Heng had been asked about Singapore's projected population of 6.9 million. He had responded by saying that Singapore's population density is not excessive and reportedly cited Liu Thai Ker, the former chief planner at the Urban Redevelopment Authority, who said in 2014 that Singapore should plan for a population of 10 million people in order to remain sustainable in the long term.
Meanwhile, official statistics placed our population at 5.7 million in June 2019 and the 2013 Population White Paper projected a population of 6.5 to 6.9 million by 2030.
kimberlylim@asiaone.com