KUALA LUMPUR – Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin is continuing his call for more Malaysian Chinese to get married and have children, this time by examining the effects of Western individualism on birthrates.
In the latest of several Facebook posts on the declining numbers of Malaysian Chinese since the Lunar New Year festival last weekend, Sim said individualism was affecting Chinese communities by making people “less family-oriented”.
He advocated a return to the Confucian values, which teach that a great nation begins with the self and then with the family before the state can be impacted, he said.
“A good family is one of the important elements in Chinese society to achieve peace and prosperity for the country.
“But Malaysia is an open society, this traditional teaching has been challenged by individualism, originated from Western countries and now sweeping through Eastern countries. Chinese Malaysians are increasingly influenced by individualism and (are) less family-oriented,” the PKR lawmaker said.
“I believe individualism (is a) philosophy that is influencing our society that causes marriage and childbirths to drop dramatically.
Sim noted that all developed countries in East Asia such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore also experienced similar trends, but Malaysian Chinese are “the most affected”.
He also acknowledged that marriage and raising children were personal choices and that economic and cost of living concerns influence these choices.
However, he urged the young to find balance in life and a “middle path”.
“My advice is: If you already have a boyfriend or girlfriend and inclined to get married, please do plan for marriage. If you are already married and plan to have children, please have more children.
On February 13, Sim took to social media and said the decreasing numbers of Chinese Malaysians may affect the survival of Chinese vernacular schools. He also had other posts in the following days encouraging the Chinese community to get married and have children.
The lawmaker cited Statistics Department findings that showed the birth of 40,000 Chinese babies in 2022 compared to the total of 423,124 live births for that year.
“That’s less than 10% of total live births,” Sim said.
In 2021, the general marriage rate for non-Muslim males was 21.9, compared to 60.4 for Muslim males in 2021, and 62 for Muslim females compared to 23 for non-Muslim females.
Malaysia has a population of 34.3 million. – February 16, 2024