People

An exit of the elderly
More Singaporeans are retiring in cheaper countries - China, India, Thailand and Malaysia as social gap widens. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Oct 26, 2000

On a bed facing mine in a Singapore General Hospital B2 ward, lay a man who was rather quick-tempered whenever his wife visited him. He was admitted after a heart attack.

He recognised me as a newspaper columnist and we struck up a conversation. He told me that he was a hawker, who planned to sell his stall, collect his small insurance, which was nearing maturity, and emigrate to Xiamen, China with his wife.

"Although the money I have saved is not much, it's enough to allow me to buy a small shophouse, open a noodle shop and live upstairs - Singapore style," he said, adding "China is not too high tech, so it fits me."

He had three grown-up children. "Are they going with you?" I asked. "No, no. How can they go?" said the fiftyish man in Hokkien. "The two working sons would look after his daughter, then in junior college. "They won't be able to earn as much as they can in Singapore," he replied. "They're old enough to look after themselves."

I noticed that during the three days he was in hospital, none of his children came to visit him and deduced that family relations were not very good. Judging by the curd, sometimes rude, way he treated his wife, I wasn't surprised if that was the case.

Why was he going to China, when tens of thousands of Chinese were coming here to earn a living, I asked. He merely replied: "Tang Jiak kang kor" which means "It is hard to earn a living in Singapore".

Besides, he added. "Everything is expensive. In China things are cheaper."

This was my introduction to a new phenomenon. Singapore is worried about a rising exodus of educated youths abroad, seduced by opportunities in a new global economy, but few are talking about older, lower-skilled people who are slowly facing the squeeze.

Despite HDB and relatively cheap HDB hawker centre food, Singapore - relatively speaking - is one of Asia's most expensive places to retired in.

Cashing in on their HDB flats, cars or other assets, a new type of Singaporean emigrants, many of them older, less-educated, are sprouting "a second pair of wings" to settle down in neighbouring countries - but with a difference.

Unlike the younger, better-educated, they are finding it hard to cope with the rapid move towards higher technology or to fit into this high-cost modern world despite a host of free training opportunities and other help dish out by the government.

They are leaving - not for Australia, Canada, the US - but for poorer neighbouring countries like China, Malaysia, Thailand and India, where their relatively stronger Singapore dollars can stretch a long way.

These emigrants are mostly small-time businessmen, hawkers, taxi-drivers and lower-scale replaced low-income workers unable to find new jobs.

They are leaving because they are reluctant to go for retraining. "We're too old to learn," one said. Some in their 40s. Others have reached 55 years old, so their relocation abroad is financed by their CPF savings.

Because of their advancing age, they are unlikely to return.

This trend is also evident in Japan. A recent report says a growing number of Japanese - aged 30 and older - are joining the ranks of those starting a new life abroad - despite their difficulty speaking foreign languages or English.)

I have no statistics so the numbers are probably still very small but they can be expected to grow over the coming years as the new economy takes root. It may result in a change of the profile of emigrating Singaporeans.

Is it worrying? Economically no, considering the numbers are small and they are not very active but the harm lies in the social contribution the elderly make to families and the state. Since these senior citizens have already served their country and retiring, there's no stigma of disloyalty associated with Yuppies when they emigrate.

It ironic, like a U-turn in life. Many of our forefathers had come from these countries 50, 60, 70 years ago - China, India, Indonesia and the then Malaya. If it results in a trend, it is like history going into reversal. Many are now going back to their ancestral homes.

They can enjoy a cheaper cost of living and return occasionally to see their children and grandchildren. This is also made possible because of the rapid progress in Singapore, which has pushed Singapore from Third to First World status in 35 years.

A lower middle-class Singaporean who cash in his assets will be classified a rich man in some of the cities or villages they go to, enabling them to buy fair size houses and land.

One grassroots leader said he had also heard about the growing numbers and attributed it to what he called "the vulnerable factor" - in other words, poor skills in a new era.

But in less than four months, I was to meet two similar cases.One was a driver, in his 40s, whose taxi was taking me to the airport. "This is the last week I am driving in Singapore, " announced the ethnic Malay as we struck up a conversation.

In a fortnight's time, he, his wife and two children, one nine and the other, six were moving to a small house they had bought on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. What was he going to do in Malaysia?

"I'm starting a small business there, renting out tables and chairs and covered tents for kampong weddings and village functions," he said. Not forgetting political ceremahs, he added with a laugh. "You know in Malaysia, politics is active business".

He would apply for Malaysian citizenship, but my wife and children will retain their Singaporean passports, " he said, "Just in case things don't work out." He said he had to change citizenship otherwise he could not enjoy bumiputra rights.

The third was an elderly man (I did not ask what he did for a living) who said he was going to settle down in Pattaya, Thailand. "My brother and his family are there. He will help me settle down there. You can live like a king for ten (Sing) dollars a day," he said.

He wanted to set up a movie video rental shop there. "I went there for a holiday and did not find any such shop there," he said. Singapore was too expensive for people who didn't have a "big" salary.

Two years ago, one of Singapore's pavement street vendors, who sold everything from candies to condoms, from nail-clippers to newspapers near my Serangoon Garden Estate home announced to me one day that he was going back to India.

These small-time pavement shopkeepers, mostly Indians, are disappearing rapidly, their numbers decimated by progress. He had been selling there for 18 years.

He was an Indian Muslim and there was a charity box collecting money for one or two funds. I asked him why he was leaving. The coffee shop wanted the space back for expansion. Did he have to go back to India? "Yes, what could I do here, I can't even speak English", he replied.

One or two of his friends, in similar straits, had left earlier. In India, they had bought a small plot of land or property on their Singapore savings for rental. Most others, however, who had families had remained because their children were educated and able to cope with the new economy.

The illiterate ones went into other business - selling roti prata or kachang putehs at cinemas but were finding the going tough.

On the plus side, few other societies pay as much attention to the welfare or worry as much about an ageing problem as Singapore. Those over 55 get discounts for cinemas, public transport and other places of public leisure.

About a third of Singapore's work force of 1.8 million either lack the education or skill to be considered employable in the new economy. For the Malays, the figure is even higher- 60 per cent. Those who can't hack it out are liable to go to Malaysia, once the economy there recovers.

With the bad, also come the good stories.

A couple of years ago when I was hospitalised for a bout of pneumonia, I shared a ward with an elderly gentleman in his 70s, who needed to have a tooth extracted. But because he had cardiac problems, it had to be done in the presence of heart specialists.

During visiting hours, he was surrounded by a large crowd of family members. I later learned that the man, a Teochew, had toiled as a coolie at Boat Quay and brought up seven children, five of them through tertiary education, including two doctors. I had heard of these great pioneers; at last I had met one.

He was receiving VIP treatment from the ward's doctors because they were in the same class with his son. Instead of him being brought down for an X-Ray, the machine was brought to him accompanied by a coterie of doctors and nurses.

I suspect it partly reflected admiration of the younger set for the coolie who had achieved so much.

Seah Chiang Nee