SINGAPORE: First-term People’s Action Party (PAP) parliamentarian Jasmin Lau has come under fire for being “out of touch” with the challenges, aspirations and lived realities of ordinary Singaporeans, after she shared her theory about the cause of Singapore’s falling birth rate.
Ms Lau was a civil servant for close to two decades before she resigned just ahead of the 2025 general election. She coasted into Parliament as part of the team Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong led at his Ang Mo Kio Group stronghold.
The 42-year-old, who is currently part of the Government’s Marriage & Parenthood Reset Workgroup, had been discussing Singapore’s low fertility rate of 0.87 per cent during a recent CNA podcast appearance.
During the podcast, Ms Lau was asked what she believed was the “biggest thing” stopping people from having children.
“I have my own theory about this,” she said, “I think a lot of our people have tasted a good and rich life at a younger age, and the thinking is, I don’t want to give that up.”
She added that many young adults view parenthood as requiring sacrifices in lifestyle, including travel, housing choices and other comforts they worked hard to attain. She said:
“…they look at the parents who talk about parenthood like, in such a stressful way, it feels like a loss. Like, for them to think about having children feels like a loss because they cut something out from their life. They have to cut travel or the size of the house they buy, the type of car that they would have. Like, it feels like they have to lose something in order to have a child.
“…it’s already so hard to enjoy what they have now. They have worked so hard to get to where they are. Finally, they can taste a little bit of the sweetness of life. And then to go into a phase of life where you have to give up some of that, I think that’s what’s stopping a lot of adults from thinking about the next step.”
She added, “Now, is there a solution for that? Very hard.”
Noting that countries around the world are struggling with declining fertility rates, she suggested that more people openly sharing positive experiences about parenting and family life could encourage others to reconsider having children.
“I do think that if many more of us just talk about the fulfilment from parenting, the joys of it, it could shift the concepts about it a little bit, so you can tilt someone from 50-50 to all right, let’s give it a shot. You could shift it a bit.”
She said she does not think the TFR can be “rescued to 2.0”.
“But I think, if more of us just shared about what family life could look like and how our own lives have been enriched by our children, and how our children have taught us so much more about life than we could otherwise teach ourselves. Then maybe you have some people who start to consider, why not?” she said.
