We want you !

Wahlau eh, I thought last time, it was Singaporean problem, now Malaysia also have this problem.

Chinese urged to have more babies

By JACK WONG

SIBU: The Chinese should make more babies to arrest the community's dwindling birth rate.

State Urban Development and Tourism Minister Datuk Wong Soon Koh said the lower birth rate had resulted in the country's Chinese population plunging from 37% in 1957 to 25% in 2005.

''This will slip further to 24% by 2010 and to 19% by 2030 or a drop of 1% in every five years,'' he said at the United Chinese Association's 30th anniversary dinner here. (meaning by 2049, there will be no Chinese left in M'sia? Sigh, so long time away, I'll be 64 then).

He also voiced concern on the high migration rate of the Chinese to other countries.

To arrest the trend, he urged the community to boost the birth rate and to enrol their children for tertiary education in the country instead of sending them abroad.

''There are good colleges and universities in the country to cater for the local population. There is no need to send our children abroad for further education,'' said Wong.

Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia president Tan Sri Lim Yuk Tong said a committee has been set up to study the decline in the country's Chinese population.

He said the committee was headed by the Federation of Sarawak Chinese Associations, which had raised the matter at the federation's recent delegates’ conference.

Lim urged Chinese organisations to forge greater unity to safeguard and work for the community's interests.