Onepaper. Two protest rallies. Number of attendees – varies dependingon what you read. Organisers claim that the first rally held onFebruary 16, drew close to 4,000 people, while news report had putthe number close to 2,000. The second rally,  which coincided withthe May Day, was attended by more than 5,000 people, claimed theorganisers. News agencies reduce that figure to just around 3,000.People had gathered to protest against the 6.9 million projectedpopulation of Singapore in 2030 - or “worst case scenario” asNational Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan later clarified –indicated in the Population White Paper put forward by the NationalPopulation and Talent Division (NPTD).

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Singapore is counted among the fastest-ageing countries in the world. This “silver tsunami” is being compounded by the drastically falling birth rates here. The total fertility rate (TFR) was only 1.2 in 2011 as against the replacement level needed TFR of 2.1. Even 2012 - the Year of the Dragon, which is considered the most auspicious of Chinese zodiac for having babies, saw only 33,205 new babies born to Singapore citizens, improving the TFR only marginally to 1.29. In fact, the city-state has witnessed low birth rates consistently for over three decades now. Starting at 6.56 in 1957, TFR declined to 4.62 in 1965, 3.07 in 1970, 1.82 in 1980, and 1.60 in 2000. 1976 was the year when TFR fell below the replacement level for the first time.

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2012 marked the seventieth anniversary of beginning of Second World War in South-east Asia and the fall of Singapore to Japanese in February, 1942. Few months back, the issue came to light again when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on a visit to Tokyo spoke of his experience of mass grave sites of Sook Ching massacre being uncovered in 1962.

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They do everything. From funeral pre-planning to will writing and grief counselling, from supplies to professional embalming and make-up, from food and floral arrangements to post-funeral matters such as insurance and property. They even take care of sea burials and international repatriations.

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In May this year, the incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has governed Malaysia since 1957, was re-elected for the thirteenth time in a row. The record 85 percent voter turnout gave BN 133 out of 222 parliamentary seats, with the remaining going to Anwar Ibrahim led Pakatan Rakyat (PR), a three-party opposition coalition. But more importantly, BN secured only 47 percent of the popular vote, which is its worst-ever electoral performance. Analysts have thus argued that if another election victory is an endorsement of government’s strong performance under the Economic Transformation Programme, BN's shrinking voter base is a timely reminder for PM Najib to pay heed to PR's election rallying-cry of “ubah” or “change” in BN's policies of Malay racism.

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It all started when Workers’ Party’s member of parliament Sylvia Lim, while participating in the debate on President's Address on October 17, 2011, called on the Singapore government to elaborate on the “indicators it intends to put in place to measure whether Singaporeans as a whole are achieving happiness and well-being”. She argued that earlier that year, on Bhutan's initiation and co-sponsorship by 66 countries, UN General Assembly adopted a resolution - Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development. 

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Consider this: In 2005, a prominent and among the largest selling newspapers in a country published 12 controversial editorial cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad that led to violent protests all over the world. Three years later, a country suffers the biggest banking collapse - relative to the size of an economy -  in modern world's economic history. In May this year, the capital city of a country witnessed racial riots in which more than 20 cars were torched in one night, school classrooms were burned down, and far-right extremists were seen chasing immigrants around a suburb. 

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