Where’s my baby, a.k.a. grandchild?

IN the not so distant past, many governments were trying to stop their citizens from having too many children for fear of creating an overpopulation bomb.

A prime example was China, which introduced its infamous one-child policy in 1980 to rein in its exploding population.

At that time, there seemed to be good reasons for implementing the draconian policy.

Even though China had successfully cut its population growth by half between 1970 and 1976 with an effective birth control campaign, the country was still haunted by the 1962 devastating famine that killed 30 million people, and grappling with food shortages.

The one-child policy was aimed at slowing down the country’s population growth that stood at about 980 million in 1980 to below 1.2 billion by the end of the 20th century.

The policy ended in 2015, which is just a decade ago.

As for Malaysia, back in the 1980s, our population was a mere 13 million with plenty of room to grow.

I was a cadet reporter with The Star when I wrote an article on the National Family Planning Board.

Its purpose was not to curb the birthrate but to encourage women to space out their pregnancies to safeguard their and their offspring’s health and well-being.Older Malaysians will recall the Mahathir government’s population target of 70 million by 2100.

We are about halfway there with the present count of 33 million, but the “bad” news is that it is unlikely we will hit the 70 million mark on time.

According to the Malaysia Population Research Hub, as the rate of fertility continues to decline, the population will peak at 46.09 million in 2071 before declining to 44.58 million in 2100.

But is it really bad news?

Indeed, governments in countries like South Korea, Japan and even China are frantically rolling out all sorts of incentives and schemes to encourage couples to have more children to combat declining birth rates to prevent a rapidly ageing society that would lead to a shrinking workforce, strained social security services and economic instability.

Despite such fears, there are experts who believe the government should not be obsessed with the numbers because lifestyle trends and attitudes have shifted drastically due to urbanisation and higher living costs associated with education, healthcare and housing.

All these factors deter young couples from having children.

In today’s “me first” culture, being DINK (dual income, no kids) has become increasingly attractive.

There are also many countries with small populations that are highly developed, like the Scandinavian states.

Denmark, Finland and Norway have populations between 5.5 million and six million, Iceland has 390,000 citizens while Sweden has over 10 million, according to Statista.

But hey, these Nordic nations are famously happy and prosperous.

What they have done right, among other things, is to develop a high level of trust between the citizens and their governments that provide efficient services and institutions, have a small gap between the rich and poor (thanks to socioeconomic equality), built a welfare state that provides extensive benefits, and have strong social cohesion.

Of course these positive factors took years to develop, but it is never too late for other countries to start, ours included.

Malaysia has long been spoiled by the easy availability of foreign labour for almost all of its economic sectors.

That has become a major issue, but looking at the rapid innovations in automation and robotics, we can overcome the need for human labour.

During my recent trip to Adelaide, I sat in my daughter’s car as it was being washed, rinsed and dried without any human intervention, including payment.

Compare that to our car wash centres that are all manned by people.

The focus, therefore, should be on gearing up our human capital with quality 21st century skills and capabilities, and investing in useful technology and innovations.

And we need to start now because we officially reached “ageing society” status in 2021 and projected to be a “super-aged” country by 2056.

As The Star reported, Malaysia’s total fertility rate (TFR) fell to the lowest level in five decades, hitting 1.6 in 2022, which is below the replacement level of 2.1 since 2013 (https://tinyurl.com/2tp3sn2m).

“Replacement level” refers to the average number of babies per woman aged 15 to 49 years needed in a lifetime to replace herself and her partner.

Only the Malays have the required TFR of 2.1. TFR for Indians was 1.1 in 2022 while the Chinese has the lowest at 0.8, which is very close to South Korea’s 0.78, the world’s lowest fertility rate.

This trend is expected to continue to decline for all ethnic groups, and it is evident in people marrying later, if at all. I see it in my own family.

As a Malaysian Chinese woman, I did my part by beating the TFR with three children.

When they became young adults, I looked forward to them finding partners, getting married and giving me grandchildren.

Despite my hopes and nagging, it simply hasn’t happened.

Instead of an empty nest syndrome, I am suffering from empty grandmotherhood.

My eldest is 36, the second girl is 34 and my son is 30. None except for the middle child is dating.

They have been together for six years and she is finally telling me they do plan to marry, but they only want one child. Yippee!

So I have started my nagging again. After all, she is already in her mid-30s and her biological clock is ticking.

But I can only nag so much before she rolls her eyes at me and shuts me up by saying she will marry when she is “ready”, meaning when they are financially stable.

That’s because they want to be able to provide a comfortable life for themselves and give the best in everything for their child.

In the meantime, she dotes on her long-time pet, Mambo, the family dog that is 16 years old.

The poodle has developed many age-related health issues like cataracts, deafness and even kidney trouble that require regular treatment.

That’s all pretty expensive stuff.

From the way she pours so much effort, care, love and money for Mambo, I can see she will make a good mum.

I can only wait impatiently for it to happen, maybe this year.

In the meantime, I wish everyone a jolly good 2025. We sure need it!

The views expressed here are the writer’s own.