For the third consecutive day, PKR lawmaker Sim Tze Sin has raised the alarm on the declining Chinese Malaysian birth rate.
In conjunction with Valentine’s Day, the Bayan Baru MP played the role of Cupid in imploring Chinese Malaysians to get hitched and make babies.
“Today is Valentine’s Day. I believe it’s the best time to talk about marriage,” he said on Facebook, throwing in a “heart eyes emoji” for good measure.
Driven by curiosity, Sim said he decided to further investigate the alarming low birth rates among the Chinese Malaysian population, where In 2022, only about 40,000 Chinese babies were born compared to 423,124 total live births or less than 10 percent of total live births.
“When I looked into DOSM’s (Department of Statistics Malaysia) latest statistics, I found out, Chinese Malaysians do not only have fewer babies, there are fewer marriages too! Double shocks.
“According to DOSM statistics for 2021, the general marriage rate (GMR) among Muslim males is 60.4 while non-Muslim males GMR is 21.9. GMR for Muslim females is 62 while non-Muslims is 23.
“GMR measures total marriage in a year compared to the 1,000 marriage age population. It is a measurement of 1,000 in a population, so we know fewer marriages happened among non-Muslim communities.
“So in summary, in 2021, about 22 marriages happened in 1,000 non-Muslim populations. Whereas about 61 marriages happened in 1,000 Muslim populations,” he added.
Therefore on average, Sim noted, Muslims are getting married 2.7 times more compared to non-Muslims.
“For clarification, DOSM only published Muslim marriages and non-Muslim marriages. I cannot find statistics of Chinese Malaysian marriage statistics. Because the Chinese are the biggest non-Muslim group, I believe Chinese statistics are quite in tandem with non-Muslim statistics.
“So, we can summarise that more and more Chinese or non-Muslims are staying single, or not getting married. This will directly impact the birth rates of Chinese or non-Muslims.
“Fewer marriages, fewer babies,” he added.
Based on these concerning figures, Sim said the Chinese Malaysian community must look into the problem.
“I call out to those singles out there, go out and seek your love and life partners. Please get married in this auspicious Dragon year. It’s a journey worth taking. Remember to have more babies too,” he added.
Yesterday, Sim questioned if Chinese vernacular schools in Malaysia would be able to survive due to the declining birth rate among Chinese Malaysians. - Mkini
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