Singapore Democrats, 31 Jan 2013In 1991, under former prime minister Goh Chok Tong, the Government published its blueprint for Singapore called The Next Lap in which it stated that a 4-million population was a comfortable figure.
In 2007, former minister for national development Mah Bow Tan changed the figure to to 6.5 million: "A recent review of our long-term land use and transportation plan concluded that we have enough land to cater to a population of 6.5 million." (The post seems to have been removed. Reference: Mah Bow Tan: Why we need 6.5 million people, PAP website, March/April 2007, www.pap.org.sg/articleview.php?folder=PT&id=1758.)
Mr Mah was then contradicted by then Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew who said in February 2008: "I have not quite been sold on the idea that we should have 6.5 million. I think there's an optimum size for the land that we have, to preserve the open spaces and the sense of comfort." He projected, instead, an optimum population size of 5 to 5.5 million for Singapore.
In April 2011 (just before the general elections), Mr Mah walked back his own statement, saying that the 6.5 million number is not a "target" but rather a "planning assumption." Why would the Government be planning to house 6.5 million people if it did not target that number?
A little over a year later in September 2012, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong changed the number: "Today our population is over 5 million. In the future, 6 million or so should not be a problem."
Today, Mr Lee gives us yet another figure: 6.9 million. Full story
