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  Today Online 22 Apr 06
A future nightmare?
 Rapid economic growth may use up too much space, strain resources
Letter from Abdul Hamid G Jinnah

OF LATE we have been hearing quite a bit from the politicians because of the forthcoming elections.

We have seen the People's Action Party's (PAP) manifesto which talks, among other things, of being inclusive and developing Singaporeans to their best of their potential.

What has not been addressed is the vision for Singapore 20 years from now, in terms of the quality of life that our grandchildren will have.

My concern is that if we carry on growing between 5 and 8 per cent a year, our quality of life will worsen. We want 17 million tourists a year, integrated resorts, F1 motor races, an air transport hub for the region, and so on.

Firstly, they will need physical space. It may be provided at the expense of the ordinary citizen's living space. Many of us are already living in "pigeon holes in the sky" although upgraded a number of times.

Secondly, such projects require resources. It has already been suggested that we shower less each day as part of our water conservation efforts. It has also been said that we will need a population of 8 million to support this kind of economic growth.

As we are not procreating at a rate we should, we may have to rely on immigrants to make up for the shortfall.

If we achieve the target of 17 million visitors a year and if each of them spends four nights here, this will add another 200,000 people to the total number of human beings at any given point.

What sort of quality of life in Singapore will our grandchildren inherit? A jam-packed Singapore with minimum living space? Will they be happy?

One may say many big cities are already like that, such as Hong Kong and Tokyo. Do we want to use them as our benchmarks? Is there an alternative?

I don't have the answers — perhaps the politicians can provide some of them.
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